Penny White, Joe Riley and I are on the road again this Fall as part of our annual Justice Programs seminar. You wouldn’t be reading this blog if you didn’t have an interest in Tennessee tort law, and I will be doing my annual summary of changes in the…
The Garretson Firm Resolution Group has issued this report on the status of reporting personal injury and wrongful death claims and the need for the utilization of medical set asides. The bottom line: starting October 1, 2010 insurers will be required to gather certain information about claimants asserting personal injury…
Tennessee has pattern jury instructions for civil and criminal cases, but our federal judicial circuit only has pattern instructions for criminal cases. Here is a list of the federal circuits that have pattern jury instructions in civil and criminal cases, as well as a link to those instructions. The Tennessee…
Rule 5 of the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure was amended to permit papers to be served on attorneys of parties via electronic mail. Here the language added to Rule 5 to accomplish that result: (2)(a) Service upon any attorney may also be made by sending him or her…
Have you subscribed to the Tennessee Trial Law Report – Tort Law Edition? Each month Brandon Bass and I summarize the recent Tennessee appellate decisions in the field of tort,civil procedure, evidence and trial law and publish those summaries in the TTLR. Importantly, we do not just regurgitate…
ABC News reports that Dr. Frank Ryan, the surgeon who performed extensive plastic surgery early this year on Heidi Montag, was sending a Twitter message about his dog before his fatal car crash Monday in Los Angeles. The dog, who was in the car at the time of the crash, survived…
New Jersey has a well-developed body of case law on the issue of spoliation of evidence. Tartaglia v. UBS PaineWebber, Inc., 961 A.2d 1167 (N.J. 2008) sets forth the history of the development of the law in the state. On August 3, 2010 the Supreme Court of New Jersey issued yet…
All lawyers know that judges don’t like discovery disputes, and some lawyers take advantage of that by violating the rules at depositions. United States Magistrate Peggy A. Leen entered this Order when confronted with lawyers who ignored the rules. An excerpt: The exchanges related in excruciating, repetitive detail in the…
There are more and more tort cases arising after criminal acts, and one might forget that the State of Tennessee has subrogation rights to monies received in the later tort action. T.C.A. Section 29-13-113 grants the state a subrogation right in proceeds recovered by the victim in a later torts…
If you have a potential claim for professional misconduct against a therapist for sexually abusing or inappropriately touching a patient, don’t forget that Tennessee has a special act for such torts. The act is known as the "Therapist Sexual Misconduct Victims Compensation Act." It is codified at T.C.A. Section 29-26-201…