The General Assembly has ratified changes to the Tennessee Rules of Evidence, Civil Procedure, and Appellate Procedure. Here is the Order setting forth the rules changes for the TRE, TRCP, and TRAP. The most significant change for tort law practitioners is the change to TRCP 59.07. This language will be…
The Paces, through their lawyer, hired Dr. Swerdlow to testify in a wrongful death case they filed on behalf of their daughter. Allegedly, Dr. Swerdlow changed his testimony on the eve of trial and caused the court to dismiss their case. The Paces sued their former expert, alleging that he…
The Willingness and Ability To Delegate. It is not impossible to be a great trial lawyer on your own, with no help from anyone. But I don’t know one. At a minimum a great trial lawyer needs an extremely competent secretary, one who can think for the lawyer and keep that plates…
A story that is of no surprise to anyone who knows anything about human beings … except a decreasing number of doctors and hospitals.
This article by Judge Richard Posner (7th Circuit Court of Appeals) does a fine job discussing appellate briefs and oral arguments. A sample: "The second biggest mistake that appellate advocates make—after exaggerating how much the judges know about or are willing to devote time to learning about a given appeal—is…
An Appreciation for the Discretion Vested in the Trial Judge Trial judges are human. Each of them have certain strengths and weaknesses. Some may not have been at the top of their class in law school but know how to preside over the trial of a lawsuit. Others are very bright but…
Here is an interesting post from Torts Prof Blog: "After all the time and money spent, aren’t the results of medical malpractice litigation extremely accurate? Although perhaps better than earlier studies indicated, malpractice results are imprecise. The Harvard School of Public Health study, in assessing how often medical error occurred…
An Understanding of the Human Condition and What It Takes to Motivate Jurors to Action You can’t try jury cases if you don’t understand how people think. I am not talking about how the way other members of the club think. Nor am I talking about the thought processes or values of the people you see…
The Tennessee Supreme Court issued its first two tort law opinions of the year yesterday, both dealing with the same subject: the potential liability of a hospital for the acts of a non-employed,, hospital-based physician. The Court said that "to hold a hospital vicariously liable for the negligent or wrongful acts…
The Speaker of the House signed a bill yesterday that makes it more difficult for patients to bring medical malpractice actions. The Senate Speaker signed the legislation last week and therefore the bill is on its way to the Governor. The legislation requires that a patient give at least 60…