The "Dead By Mistake" website, hosted by the San Francisco Chronicle, contains chilling stories of deficiencies in our health care system that result in injury and death. This alone brings the point home: more people die each month from preventable medical errors than died in the terrorist attacks of 9/11.…
LIke you, I get a lot of emails every day. All too often, I permit emails to control my work schedule – a big mistake. Here is a nice article that gives suggestions for managing the mass of emails that enter our lives every day. The writer, Stever Robbins, accurately points…
I admire people who have the foresight and courage to pick a practice area and learn it, inside out. I greatly admire those who share the knowledge they have to help other lawyers and the public. Here is a fine example: Dog Bite Law by Kenneth Phillips. He limits his cases…
Those of us who do medical malpractice work are familiar with Occam’s Razor, the common understanding of which (as stated on Wikipedia) is that "of several acceptable explanations for a phenomenon, the simplest is preferable, provided that it takes all circumstances into account." Those of us who do medical malpractice…
This is the sixth in a series of posts concerning changes in Tennessee statutory law that I believe to be of interest to tort lawyers. For more changes click on the Legislation 2009 category of this blog. Public Chapter 201 prohibits, subject to certain exceptions, the reading or sending of text…
"All objections, except those as to the form of the question, are reserved." This sentence, or one substantially similar to it, may be found at the beginning of every deposition. But what are objections to the form of the question? Evan Shaeffer at The Trial Practice Tips Weblog shared a…
This is the fifth in a series of posts about changes in Tennessee statutory law of interest to tort lawyers. For other changes click on the Legislation 2009 category. Tennessee has a "Ski Area Safety and Liability Act" codified at TCA Section 68-114-101 et seq. Public Chapter 85 changes the…
This is the fourth in a series of posts that addresses new laws of interest to Tennessee tort lawyers. For other changes go to the Legislation 2009 category of this blog. Those of us who keep an eye on the Tennessee General Assembly know that there is an ongoing battle…
Many lawyers think that the law concerning depositions is set out only in the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure and the case law interpreting those rules. That is not correct. Public Chapter 55 creates a new subsection to TCA Section 24-9-101, which allows court to award attorney fees and expenses…
On July 20 I warned you about new federal regulations known as the "Red Flag" rules, which require businesses, including lawyers and law firms, to take pro-active measures to detect and prevent identity theft. The rules were scheduled to go into effect on August 1. The FTC, the agency charged with the…