The male plaintiff said that he slipped, fell, and sustained various injuries on the sidewalk outside of his apartment early one morning. He and his wife brought suit. Defendant found a medical record (from a provider not listed in answers to interrogatories by the plaintiffs) that indicated that plaintiff was…
Lay and Skilling have been found guilty of multiple crimes that contributed to the fall of Enron and the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars of shareholder value. How much time should these men spend in prison? I know little about the federal sentencing guidelines. But I think back…
I love to ride a jet ski. In fact, I have had a Yahama Waverunner since 1999 and my beautiful wife just bought me the Mac- Daddy Seadoo (which will go 80 MPH and will rock your world). So it was with more than my usual “I-love-torts-so-I-will-read-dang-near-court-opinion-on-the-subject” attitude that I…
Don’t count on it. Read this new opinion from the Tennessee Supreme Court which affirmed a grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendant when the plaintiff submitted an affidavit in opposition to the motion after the date required by a previous order of the trial judge. The core…
This is a brief in response to a defendant’s motion in limine to exclude the expert witness testimony of an economist. The economist was disclosed in a wrongful death case arising out of the drowning of a three-year-old boy. The economist is expected to testify about the present value of…
The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the failure of a plaintiff to get leave to amend a complaint before adding a nonparty as a defendant to not permit the newly-added party to raise the statute of limitations as a bar. Key to the holding was the fact that…
Last week Tennessee’s health care industry tried to hijack the Governor’s Cover Tennessee bill in an effort to obtain caps on their liability. The effort failed, thanks to the efforts of the entire Democratic Caucus in the Senate, Chairpman Person (R-Memphis), Senator Williams, and others. The industry worked to amend…
The property and causalty insurance cycle, understood by everyone except some (but not all) Republican lawmakers, continues to turn. Insurance company profits are swelling and insurance price increases have come to a virtual halt. Last year premiums rose an average of one-half of one percent and net income increased 12%,…
OK, so it is a compromise and settlement of a divorce case. The fact remains that the law of compromise and settlement in Tennessee has been in disarray and the Tennessee Supreme Court has taken a step in the right direction to get it fixed. In Barnes v. Barnes, No.…
The SCOTUS has decided the Sereboff v. Mid Atlantic Medical Services, Inc. case – the long awaited case that was to tell us about an ERISA plan’s right to seek reimbursement of medical payments from a tort recovery. The Court held that the payments were recoverable. The case was decided…