The Tennessee General Assembly has passed a new dog bite liability statute, known as the "“Dianna Acklen Act of 2007”. Section 44-8-413. (a) (1) The owner of a dog has a duty to keep that dog under reasonable control at all times, and to keep that dog from running at…
The Tennessee Court of Appeals has released two opinions on the issue of apparent agency in a hospital setting. One case concerns an emergency room doctor, the other a radiologist. The law? Both decisions contain these paragraphs: "Apparent agency is essentially agency by estoppel. White v. Methodist Hosp., 844 S.W.2d…
Need to go to back to school on the neck and back? Check out Spine University. Click on the Spine Wizard, select the area of the spine that you are interested in, and read a detailed description of the various procedures that can be used to treat pain in that…
Robert Bork, the man who gave us the verb "borked," has sued The Yale Club in a trip-and-fall case. Read the NYT article about the case here. Here is a copy of the complaint. Note that Judge Bork seeks punitive damages. I guess that it possible that conduct in a premises case like…
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…