The good folks at the Winning Trial Advocacy Tips blog have assembled some more great information of interest to trial lawyers. This post is titled "Free Software for Trial Lawyers‘ and features a dozen free or almost free programs of interest to lawyers who try personal injury and wrongful death…
What do you do when a party to a lawsuit intentionally refuses to follow the rules? One judge in Washington State knew what to do: the judge struck the defendant’s answer, entered judgment for $8,000,000, and awarded attorneys’ fees. Last week the Washington Supreme Court had upheld the award. The…
The American Academy of Pediatrics has issued a Policy Statement titled "Guidelines for Expert Testimony in Medical Malpractice Litigation. After reviewing the role of the expert witness in medical malpractice litigation, the Guidelines begin the "recommendations" section of the paper with this statement: The AAP recognizes that physicians have…
The Winning Trial Advocacy Tips blog has a great post titled "Sources for Closing Argument Stories." The post identifies nine different sources for stories that can be used in closing arguments. Here is brief excerpt: 1. Aesop’s Fables. Aesop’s Fables contains dozens of valuable themes for use in your next trial.…
Here is the most up-to-date data on medical malpractice case filings in Tennessee. Regular readers know that effective October 1, 2008 the General Assembly imposed significant restrictions on patients who want to file a medical malpractice suits. The new law, which was modified again effective July 1, 2009, requires pre-suit…
Gary Gwilliam from California has written a very interesting article called "Old Warriers" for Plaintiff Magazine. Read the article here.
There are two reasons there is not a substantive post today. First, I am speaking for three hours at our Justice Programs seminar today and am quite busy. Second, my wife Joy and I went to see Bruce Springsteen in concert last night in Nashville and I did not get…
HeathGrades studies Medicare patient care in our nation’s hospitals based on 15 indicators of patient safety. Here are some highlights from the 2009 report representing data from 2005 -2007: · There were 913,215 total patient safety events among 864,765 Medicare beneficiarieswhich represents 2.3 percent of the nearly 38 million Medicare hospitalizations. · These…
Rule 104 of the Tennessee Rules of Evidence permits the trial judge significant leeway in what may be considered in determining what evidence can be admitted at trial. It provides as follows: Rule 104. Preliminary questions. —(a) Questions of Admissibility Generally. —Preliminary questions concerning the qualification of a person to…
The United States Department of Transportation has adopted the Motorcoach Safety Action Plan following an analysis of safety data. DOT has identified seven priority action items that will have the greatest impact on reducing motorcoach crashes, fatalities and injuries. The items include the following: Rulemaking concerning electronic on-board recording devices…