OK – the Pats got hit with a fine – $250,000 for the team and $500,000 for the coach – for cheating in professional football. They also face a loss of a draft pick or picks, depending on how they finish this season. It’s not enough. I want to know…
Day on Torts
Tough Jury Climate
The jury found that the defendant was negligent and that the negligence caused an herniated disk. The disk problem was surgically repaired. The plaintiff used a walker for nine months and now uses a cane. Amount of damages for pain and suffering? Zero. Motion for new trial? Denied. The California…
Story from the LA Times
The LA Times makes an extraordinary effort here to tell the story of the death of a woman in a local hospital – and how it could have been prevented.
Playing by the Rules
You may not like the rules. You may think the rules are unfairly applied. But here is a case that makes it clear that (a) the failure to follow the rules can have significant consequences and (b) if you make a mistake it is important not to make matters worse.…
FTCA Discretionary Function Exception
It is not just the Tennessee Governmental Tort Liability Act that has a discretionary function exception – the Federal Tort Claims Act has one, too. This case – Navarette v. United States – discusses the exception and applies it to a case filed after a person fell off of a cliff at a…
Troup v. Fischer Steel Decided
The Tennessee Supreme Court decided the Troup case on Friday. Troup is a case involving a third-party tort action arising from an on-the-job injury suffered by the employee of a sub-contractor on a construction site. The Western Section of the Court of Appeals held that it was reversible error not to instruct…
Learned Intermediary Doctrine
Ordinarily, product manufacturers have a duty to make and sell products that are reasonably safe and not defective. If that is not reasonably possible, then the manufacturer has a duty to warn about defects or danger. The learned intermediary doctrine says that drug manufacturers owe no duty to warn consumers about…
Medical Diagnosis/Code – Acronym Look Up
This post is taken from an email sent out by Janabeth Fleming Taylor at Attorney Medical Services: ICD-9 codes (Think of it as "Diagnosis" Code) http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/icd9.htm The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) is the classification used to code and classify mortality data from death certificates. The International Classification of Diseases,…
Changes to Rules
A friend emailed me today to ask if the deadline for filing a transcipt on appeal had changed. It has. Effective July 1, TRAP 24 and 25 now require that a transcipt be filed within 60 days. The old rule gave court reporters 90 days to prepare the transcript. That…
$1000 Per Hour
They have broken the $1000 per hour barrier in New York. Of course, Gary Brewer and Steve Terry were charging that four years ago in Bulls Gap.