The Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure have been amended to permit pleadings, motions, discovrey and briefs to be served via email. Here is the new rule: Here is the text of Rule 5.02(2): (a) Service upon any attorney may also be made by sending him or her the document in…
This article from Newsweek reveals some interesting information on medical errors. An excerpt: Undoing a culture is hard, especially one steeped in hierarchy and intimidation, where doctors tend to reign supreme and nurses, pharmacists, and technicians fall into the ranks below. “What underlies it is arrogance,” says Pronovost, an anesthesiologist…
Bill Leader reminded me the other day that you can access detailed information about Tennessee hospitals from the Tennessee Department of Health Website. Here is the site. There is a 40 + page PDF of information on each hospital. Here is a list of the types of data for each…
Bill Haslam is the Republican nominee for Governor of Tennessee. I have never met the gentleman, but my friends who have say he is friendly and bright. Mr. Haslam’s latest television commercial calls for Tennesseans to address problems in health care, asking for more personal responsibility and tort reform…
Justice William C. Koch referenced an article by Joseph H. King, Jr. about per diem arguments in his concurring opinion in Elliott v. Cobb, W2009-00961-SC-S09-CV (Sept. 23, 2010). Elliott recognized that lawyers in medical malpractice cases tried in Tennessee have a right to argue the monetary value of the case but cannot…
More and more of the communications between lawyers are conducted by email. For the most part, I approve of the change and, indeed, I proposed and served as the principle author of the new rule of civil procedure that allows for the service of papers in state court via email.…
Winning Trial Advocacy Tips has an excellent post on how to improve the reading of depositions at trial. An excerpt: 4. Tab the appropriate pages. Just like on the radio, you want to prevent the courtroom from filling with “dead air.” When your witness is flipping through pages of the transcript,…
Trial Lawyer Tips has this great post on the need to be aware of what is happening in the courtroom and changing your game plan as the need arises.
The first law review article on the topic of "Wrongful death of children in foster care" has recently been published in the University of La Verne Law Review, 31(1), 25-44. The article is co-authored by Daniel Pollack, Professor, School of Social Work, Yeshiva University, and a frequent expert witness in child welfare and foster care cases,…
The Internet Cases blog alerted me to this case. Apparently, plaintiffs counsel in a medical malpractice case began using his laptop to "Google" potential jurors to learn background information about them. The Court questioned this effort as follows: THE COURT: Are you Googling these [potential jurors]? [PLAINTIFFS COUNSEL]: Your…