Professor Anthony Sebok from the Brooklyn Law School has written an interesting paper on punitive damages. Here is his abstract of the article: In this article I argue that the current problem with punitive damages in the United States is not, as is popularly believed, that they are out of…
Here is a great opinion out of California that does a nice job of handling the “causation” issue in a case against a security guard company that is alleged to have failed to provide proper protection to a c-store employee. The case is Mukthar v. Latin American Security Company, B183968…
Yesterday I posted changes to the Federal Rules of Evidence. Below, in the language of US Courts, are the changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Absent action by Congress, the changes are effective December 1, 2006. Civil Rule 9 (Pleading Special Matters) (conforming amendment pertaining to Supplemental Rule…
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,…