The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has ruled that a law firm that was admittedly aware of an ERISA subrogation interest and disbursed settlement funds from a third-party claim to its client could not be held personally liable for failure to pay the funds to an…
The Connecticut Supreme Court has ruled that a landlord may be held liable for injuries caused by vicious dogs owned by its tenant. In Giacalone v. Housing Authority of the Town of Wallingford, No. SC 18669 (Conn. Sept. 18, 2102), plaintiff tenant sued defendant landlord for injuries sustained after plaintiff…
The Spring 2012 edition of FDCC Quarterly has an article titled "Best Practice for Defense of Corporate Depositions." The article is written by a Senior General Attorney for BNSF Railway Company, Mr. Thomas R. Jayne. Those of us who are usually take depositions of corporate representatives will find the thought…
The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that functional magnetic resonance imaging cannot be used in a criminal case to prove that the defendant’s denials of wrongdoing were true. Defendant wanted to introduce evidence of the fMRI to prove that he was telling the truth in his criminal trial…
Almost four years ago Tennessee adopted a requirement lawyers filing medical malpractice (now called health care liability) lawsuits must file a "certificate of good faith." Under the current version of the statute the certificate must be filed with the complaint. The Tennessee pre-suit notice statute can be found at T.C.A.…
Almost four years ago Tennessee adopted a requirement that health care provides were entitled to receive advance notice of the filing of Tennessee medical malpractice (now call "health care liability) lawsuits. Under the current version of the statute, notice must be given in the manner proscribed by statute before the…
The Lexis website that contains the Tennessee Code that is available through the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts is not updated with 2012 legislative changes. This despite the fact that many of those changes went into effect July 1, 2012, or even earlier. It appears that Westlaw has updated…
As regular readers know, the Tennessee Bar Association has published a regular column in the Tennessee Bar Journal called "Day on Torts" for many years. I enjoy writing for these articles and am thankful for the many calls, letters and emails I have received over the years from my fellow…
I am fortunate to receive many calls on many types of cases, some of which fall outside of my normal practice area. i decided I would seek out a lawyer to whom I could associate on a particular type of case – this lawyer enjoyed a good reputation on cases…
The Federal Evidence Review Blog has been kind enough to let us know that the federal Judicial Conference Committee on Court Administration and Case Management ("CACM") has issued new proposed jury instructions on the use of social media by jurors. "The overwhelming majority of judges take steps to warn jurors not to…