Evan Schaeffer at The Trial Practice Tips Weblog tracked down an article titled "Preparing A Witness for a Successful Deposition" written by Matt Keenan, a defense lawyer with Shook, Hardy and Bacon in Kansas City. An excerpt: In my 20-some years of working with company witnesses as part of the discovery process, I’ve…
Yesterday I mentioned that James Publishing Company’s website includes excerpts of certain of its books. I thought that the excerpt I referred to yesterday was so valuable that it was worth another post, so here is an excerpt from Section 439 of "How to Prepare for, Take and Use a Deposition" by Daniel…
James Publishing Company’s website includes excerpts of certain of its books. Here is an excerpt from Section 433 of "How to Prepare for, Take and Use a Deposition" by Daniel P. Dain. §433 Using a Checklist for Witness Preparation Some lawyers prefer to go through an extensive checklist of points for discussion…
David Mills, lawyer and cartoonist, held a contest to determine the best caption for this cartoon. The winning caption appears below. I submitted several entries, including "“Yes, I made $4M last year testifying for Ford, but that does not influence my professional judgment," and "demonstrative evidence is essential when…
Here are the 28 medical events that the National Quality Forum says should never occur: Surgical Events Surgery performed on the wrong body part Surgery performed on the wrong patient Wrong surgical procedure on a patient Retention of a foreign object in a patient after surgery or other procedure Intraoperative…
I brought a couple posts from the Lean and Mean Litigation Blog to your attention back in December. These posts discussed the need of formulating a discovery plan before taking depositions. Here is a related article titled "Mastering the Blind Cross-Examination" written by Mark A. Nuebauer. This article questions the…
It is 1:45 AM. I just returned to the Carolina Inn after spending a little time on Franklin Street in downtown Chapel Hill, NC. My daughter and I had the pleasure of being in the Dean Dome and watching the Tar Heels win their 5th National Championship. It was a great…
Here is a tip that will improve the quality of your law practice and your life: look at the law first. Oh, things a different in the run of the mill auto case or other cases that you routinely handle. And it is different if you have recently handled a case that…
A mentally retarded 13-year old girl has been permitted to purse a claim against a sperm bank that sold her mother sperm 14 years ago. She has claimed that the sperm had a genetic defect that caused her mental retardation. The case is Donovan v. Idant Laboratories. Read more about…
IME. Independent Medical Exam. And just how independent is the so-called IME? The New York Times has looked behind the curtain in New York, and it doesn’t like what it saw. Here is an excerpt: "’If you did a truly pure report,” [the IME doctor] said later in an interview, “you’d be out…