A juror faints during a lawyer’s opening statement. Lawyer happens to be discussing how a traffic accident left Gary Pettet with rotting flesh and bone after 12 surgeries. Ultimately, the damaged leg was amputated. Defense counsel blamed the heat in the courtroom. I know the Plaintiff’s lawyer, and I guarantee there was…
Evan Shaeffer wrote a book called Deposition Practice Tips. Certain excerpts from the book appear here. I want to focus on Section 1.111, which Evan titled "Can You Wing It At A Deposition?" Here, in bold print, is his work: Can you wing it at a deposition? Undoubtedly,…
I serve on the Standards Committee of the National Board of Trial Advocacy, a division of the National Board of Legal Specialty Certification. Our members have a duty to report legal malpractice claims that have been filed against them, so from time to time I see claims filed by liability…
Gregory Joseph’sComplex Litigation Blog brought my attention to this important decision. Quagliarello v. Dewees, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 78870 (E.D. Pa. July 20, 2011) is a § 1983 action against a police officer but addresses a situation that plaintiff’s lawyers address everyday when a potential client shows up with a bunch…
The recent decision of the Tennessee Court of Appeals in Joshua Cooper, et al. v. Logistics Insight Corp., et al., No. CV (Tenn Ct. App. May 16, 2011) potentially upsets the apple cart for workers’ compensation liens on third-party tort recoveries. The prevailing view for a decade has been that the…
Here is a fascinating article about a handwriting expert from Houston that assists lawyers in jury selection. The expert is Alice Weiser, author of Judge the Jury: Experience the Power of Reading People. An excerpt: "Weiser said that people who make little circle dots above the letter "i" are individual and unique,…
Health care providers and their insurance companies have managed to persuade all too many Americans that holding providers responsible for malpractice is a bad thing. They also claim that the number medical malpractice claims and payments are increasing. I simply cannot respond to the first contention. The idea of holding…
Facebook – a leading source for informal discovery in personal injury and wrongful death litigation. Now, the ABA Journal reports that a $10+million verdict is threatened because of a Facebook issue. The defendant in the case has alleged that plaintiff’s counsel instructed a plaintiff to delete information from a Facebook…
The Tennessee Supreme Court has ruled that Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544 (2007), and Ashcroft v.Iqbal, ___ U.S. ___, 129 S. Ct. 1937 (2009) do not apply to cases filed in Tennessee state courts. The extremely well-written opinion marshals the arguments against the application of the federal standard…
Are you more likely to get hurt in the hospital in July? This article from the New York Times says "yes," if you are in a teaching hospital. The Times article references to a paper published earlier this month in Annals of Internal Medicine,. The paper examines previous studies of the…