The Arkansas Supreme Court has ruled that a jury may consider a defendant’s three convictions for drunk driving in deciding the punitive damages issue in a personal injury case arising out of yet another drunk driving episode. The opinion has great language about why the evidence of the prior convictions…
This article from the Washington Post tells a fascinating tale about a lawyer for Best Buy who altered documents and then produced them to the plaintiffs in a class action case.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Association recently released a Large Truck Crash Causation Study in response to a federal law that required the organization "to determine the causes of, and contributing factors to, crashes involving commercial motor vehicles." From the Executive Summary: "A nationally representative sample of large truck fatal and…
Man sues claiming that an energy drink gave him an erection that would not subside. The drink is called "Boost Plus." For a list of dealers near you, please call 1-800-4StickUp.
Can a motorcycle dealer be held liable for selling a motorcycle to a person who did not have a motorcycle license? Not in Mississippi. The Mississippi Supreme Court recently considered a case where a dealer sold a motorcycle to an 18-year who it knew was not a licensed operator. A…
The California Supreme Court has ruled that a court may issue an order prohibiting a defendant in a defamation case from repeating statements about the plaintiff that were deemed defamatory at trial. The concern about such a ruling is that an injunction is a "prior restraint" and would be a…
A professional liability insurer has posted this information on fetal monitoring for doctors. The opening paragraph: "Initially, the fetal monitor was developed for the intrapartum period to better evaluate the status of the fetus during labor. Earlier identification of pending acidosis and hypoxia would alert the obstetric team, leading to…
Never tell a judge that she is "a few fries short of a Happy Meal."
The Tennessee Supreme Court has a reversed its previous position and determined that it will permit juries to hear evidence from qualified experts on the reliability of eyewitness identification. The Court had ruled that such testimony was not admissible in 2000. Now, in State v. Copeland, the Court has reached…
Good news for all concerned. SVMIC, the doctor-owned professional liability insurer, has announced a rate reduction. You probably won’t read about falling medical liability insurance rates in the newspaper, but you can tell your friends and neighbors that rates are dropping even though the Legislature has not placed caps on…