Winning Trial Advocacy Tips has a great post on the subject of whether you should ever call a witness a liar. An excerpt: Because we’re lawyers, we don’t have any problems believing that someone will take the stand and lie to us. But jurors don’t think like that. Maybe they’re…
Yesterday I discussed a portion of the opinion S.C. Johnson and Son, Inc. v. Morris, Appeal No. 2008AP1647 (Wis. Ct. App. Div. II Dec. 2, 2009) concerning the assertion of the Fifth Amendment in civil litigation. I wanted to bring to your attention a footnote (Footnote 1) that addressed the failure…
Defendant asserted his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination throughout the discovery phase of a civil trial. During the fourth week of trial he attempted to waive the privilege and give substantive testimony. The Wisconsin Court of Appeals upheld the decision of the trial judge to prohibit the the witness from…
A law professor at Stanford, Lora Freeman Engstrom, has written an article published in Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics called "Run-of-the-Mill Justice." Her bio reveals that her research interest is high-volume personal injury law practices that heavily advertise and mass-produce the resolution of claims and is supported by a grant…
NHTSA has released a report concerning fatal crashes by young drivers. The report shows that Youths 15 to 20 years old represented 9 percent of the U.S. population in 2007 and 6 percent of the licensed drivers; however, 19 percent of the fatalities in the United States in 2007 were…
Dianne McLeod says a debt collector killed her husband Stanley. According to CNN, Ms. McLeod alleges that " her mortgage company, Green Tree Servicing, for the wrongful death of her husband. McLeod said she thinks he would be alive if not for the stress caused by Green Tree’s debt collectors.…
From the American Association for Justice: State tort reforms have provided a boon to insurance companies, leading to record profits while physician and patient premiums continue to skyrocket. An analysis of data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) and company annual statements shows malpractice insurer profits are…
According to NHTSA’s National Center for Statistics and Analysis there were 1035 people killed on Tennessee roads in 2008. Of those fatalities, 327 of them involved at least one driver who had a blood alcohol level of 0.8 or greater. This is an alcohol-related death rate of .47 people per 100…
Maine requires that a medical screening panel hear a medical malpractice case before it can be heard by a jury. Tennessee had screening panels in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when they were abandoned because all agreed that they were ridiculous. Now, Senator Snowe wants to require that states…
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed the dismissal of a case against Wal-Mart for selling bullets to a person without requiring her to present an identification card as required by Illinois law. Candice Johnson later used the bullets to commit suicide. Her husband filed suit, alleging that his…