The United States Supreme Court has approved changes to several rules of the Federal Rules of Evidence. The changes become effective December 1, 2006 unless Congress votes to overturn them. Here is the language of the rule changes from the US Courts website: Evidence Rule 404 (Character Evidence Not Admissible…
The Nebraska Supreme Court has ruled that plaintiffs could not argue that a surgeon should have disclosed his displinary history unless there was proof that the standard of care required disclosure. The Court held that plaintiffs “never established that the standard of care required such disclosures. Rather, they ask us…
The USSC has ruled that a state may not enforce its Medicaid lien out of money paid to the plaintiff for losses other than medical expenses. The case is Arkansas Department of Health and Human Services v. Ahlborn, No. 04-1506 (decided May 1, 2006). Arkansas had a statute that permitted…
Senator Frist and his friends are back with another bill to restrict the rights of medical malpractice victims. Here is the bill, known as S.B. 22. Expect a vote on cloture today or tomorrow. The legislation includes caps on noneconomic damages, uniform statutes of limitations (except in states that have…
2:17 P.M. Monday: Here is the link to the CSPAN site where you can watch the debate: Debate
The Senate has just had the cloture vote on S.B. 22. The result was 48 – 42 to continue debate. Sixty votes were required to cut off debate. The fillibuster stands; debate continues. They are now voting on S.B. 23. UPDATE AT 5:21: The result on SB 23 was 49…
I was in court last Monday morning and a lawyer sitting next to me asked for some help on a comparative fault issue. I told him the answer and that the case law in support of the answer could be found in Chapter 5 of Tennessee Law of Comparative Fault,…
The Court of Appeals of Maryland has held that an Ohio lawyer who contracted over the telephone and by mail to perform legal services in Ohio for a Maryland resident could not be sued for professional negligence in Maryland. Here is the summary of opinion as prepared by the Court:…
The Kentucky Supreme Court has just released an opinion that discusses the elements of the tort of negligent supervision of a minor. This is the law in Kentucky: “A parent is under a duty to exercise reasonable care so to control his minor child as to prevent it from intentionally…
A great new study that could provide for support for determining the value of the life of a homemaker. A news article says this about the study: “A full-time stay-at-home mother would earn $134,121 a year if paid for all her work, an amount similar to a top U.S. ad…