The Tennessee Supreme Court has just ruled that liability insurance policy limits are not discoverable in typical personal injury and wrongful death cases in Tennessee. Unlike the vast majority of states, our TRCP 26 does not mandate disclosure of limits. The Court ruled that insurance policy information " is not subject to…
The February 2009 edition of the Tennessee Trial Law Report is at the printer and will be mailed to subscribers in the next day or two. This edition includes a summary of 24 different cases addressing various aspects of the law of torts, civil procedure, evidence and trial as decided by Tennessee appellate…
The goal of lawyers who represent plaintiffs in personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits is to help the client. But sometimes the receipt of proceeds from a lawsuit can actually cost your client money. How can that be? If your client is receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and the settlement…
The Tennessee Supreme Court has issued another opinion about expert testimony, this one concerning the ability of a family practice doctor to testify about a criminal defendant’s ability to form the required mental state to commit a crime. The Court ruled that the expert was qualified to give such an…
The Tennessee Supreme Court has adopted several changes to the rules of civil procedure, evidence and appellate procedure. By orders dated earlier this month, the Court adopted the recommendations of the Rules Commission about the changes that were necessary. The changes now go to the General Assembly for its review,…
In 1997, five years after the adoption of comparative fault in Tennessee, Donald Capparella and I wrote a book called Tennessee Law of Comparative Fault.. Five years later our friend John Wood joined us for the second edition of the book, and West Publishing Company took over the printing and…
The Tennessee Supreme Court has just released an opinion reversing the ruling of a trial judge who excluded the testimony of a sleep expert in a criminal case. The defendant alleged that he did not have the criminal intent to commit sexual acts with his stepdaughter because he was asleep…
I know that I have had several posts in the past few months that referenced the work of Paul Luvera, a highly-regarded plaintiff’s lawyer from Seattle. Here is another one – this time on the subject of settlement forms. Why do I cite his work? Quite frankly, I will cite…
Jack Weisberg kept up with George W. Bush’s verbal slip-ups during the past 8 years. It was a full-time job. This article contain’s Weisberg’s list of the top 25 Bushisms. A sample: because of the rising cost of malpractice insurance, "[t]oo many OB/GYNs aren’t able to practice their love with women…
Please don’t rush to New York and file a lawsuit over yesterday’s crash. There is no reason to inject a lawsuit into the middle of the celebration over the wonderful outcome from what could have been a horrific tragedy. So, don’t embarrass plaintiff’s lawyers or the legal system by an immediate…