The Tennessee Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on May 11, 2011 in Holder v. Westgate Resorts, Ltd., E2009-01312-SC-R11-C (Tenn. Ct. App. 2010). Here is the summary of the opinion prepared by the Court of Appeals: Plaintiff sustained personal injuries resulting from a fall on defendant’s premises and brought this action…
On a weekly, if not daily, basis, plaintiff’s personal injury lawyers have to deal with subrogation interests. Many of those subrogation claims involve the law of ERISA. This opinion out of the Illinois Court of Appeals addresses the issue of disputes over the amount of money to be re-paid…
Thomas Redmon gave the plaintiff herpes. He knew that he had the disease for over 25 years before he had sexual relations with the plaintiff. He knew that there was some risk in transmitting the disease even if he was lesion-free. He did not tell plaintiff that he had the…
Lawyer A is hired to bring a personal injury case on behalf of an injured person. With the consent of the injured person, Lawyer A associates Lawyer B. The contract between A and B includes a fee split arrangement. Injured person consents to fee split and the contract.…
A plaintiff in a slip and fall case in New York was permitted to testify as an expert on pigeon droppings. The plaintiff in Stewart v. New York City Tr. Auth. 2011 NY Slip Op 01593 (NY 1st App. Div. Mar. 3, 2011) slipped and fell on pigeon poop at…
is an article by Larry Beinhart explaining how and why Corporate America seeks to limit access to our courts by pushing so-called "tort reform" legislation. Here A sample: Big business hates lawsuits. They hate being made accountable. They hate having to pay. So what can they do about it? They…
The California Supreme Court has ruled that a truck driver may be held liable for parking his vehicle along a freeway to have a snack where regulations permitted only emergency parking. The entire opinion has a fascinating discussion of the law of duty, but the following gives you a flavor…
What happens when a personal injury plaintiff files a bankruptcy petition? What happens if that plaintiff fails to disclose in the bankruptcy petition that he has a personal injury claim that has not yet been filed? How does a bankruptcy court discharge affect the plaintiff’s rights to later file…
A recent opinion from the Alabama Supreme Court reminds us that many things – even obscure things – can cause a reversal of jury verdict. In Ford Motor Co. v. Duckett, No. 1090833, (Ala. 2/11/2011) a unanimous Alabama Supreme Court reversed a multi-million dollar verdict in favor of a…
Yesterday I shared data on auto negligence cases from Shannon Ragland’s Tennessee Jury Verdict Reporter Year in Review 2010. You can order your own copy of the publication here. Here is some other data of interest: There were 33 medical malpractice jury trials in the covered one-year period. The patient…