The Tennessee Supreme Court has adopted several changes to the rules of civil procedure, evidence and appellate procedure. By orders dated earlier this month, the Court adopted the recommendations of the Rules Commission about the changes that were necessary. The changes now go to the General Assembly for its review,…
I am at a meeting of the Members Consultative Group of the Restatement of the Law Third Torts: Liability for Physical and Emotional Harm sponsored by the American Law Institute. The meeting is being held in Austin, Texas at the University of Texas Law School. We are discussing "Duty of…
In the second Vioxx case, the New Jersey jury ruled Merck not liable. Read about it at Forbes.
Jurors have apparently reached a verdict in the second Vioxx case. It is expected to be announced in the next few minutes. (From ABC News).
An Arkansas class action case against a nursing home company is getting ugly even in discovery. The trial judge threatened to imprison the defendant company’s officers for refusing to comply with court ordered discovery. Then, the trial judge required them to post a $20 million bond for their failure to…
The Florida voters passed a constitutional amendment to limit attorneys’ fees in med mal cases to 30% of the first $250K in damages and 10% in any recovery about $250K. So, a $1M verdict would entitle the patient’s attorney to a total fee of $130K. A $2M verdict would result…
Elizabeth Shin, a student at MIT, committed suicide. Her parents sued MIT and others. A trial judge has dismissed the case against MIT but allowed it to procede against two psychiatrists and two administrators who are not mental health professionals. This article in the Boston Globe has a nice discussion…
Paul Minor, a friend and plaintiff’s lawyer from Mississippi, was indicted on a bunch of charges, including bribery. Oliver Diaz, Jr., a member of the Mississippi Supreme Court whom I got to know during some trips to Mississippi, was also indicted. The trial has been going on for weeks. Last…
Over at our Tennessee Business Litigation blog, read about an Arkansas state judge’s decision to order sanctions against a nursing home chain in a class action suit. The sanctions arise from failure to produce emails and other electronic documents, and include $25,000 in attorney’s fees and possible jail time.
The tort reform movement, lacking in facts but fueled by greed and ignorance, will not die. It cannot, because there are too many lobbyists and tort reform special interest groups that need for it to be kept alive. The so-called reformers receive hundreds of millions of dollars per year to…