Day on Torts

My friend David Allen has sent word that the black box seminar mentioned in yesterday’s post has been postponed. He’s right. I will let you know when it is re-scheduled. Thanks David. You da’ man.

The Texas Supreme Court has held that it is not error for a judge to permit a lawyer who regularly represents defendants in medical negligence cases to sit on a medical neligence jury. The lawyer/juror candidly admitted that he would tend to relate to the defense lawyers in the case…

The ABA is hosting an interesting teleseminar on June 1, 2005. The seminar will address issues concerning automotive event data recorders. These devices are constantly capturing data in modern vehicles; the failure to understand what these devices can do to help or harm your cases could be devastating.

Public Citizen has great information about roof crush and rollover incidents on its website. The site informs about the dangers of rollovers and the automobile industry’s knowledge of those dangers. The site has a study of 54 rollovers and concludes that “the majority of roof damage occurs on the side…

I was out of town for ten days on what I believe was a well-deserved vacation. I got back in town Saturday night. Sunday morning my wife and I got on our motorcycles and had a beautiful ride through rural Middle Tennessee. The honeysuckles are in bloom; the smell is…

Guidant Corporation, a medical device manufacturer, did not tell doctors or patients for three years that a unit implanted in an estimated 24,000 people that is designed to shock a faltering heart contains a flaw that has caused a small number of those units to short-circuit and malfunction. Defibrillators are…

Those of us who have lived through a couple of the so-called medical malpractice insurance crises knew it was just a matter of time before the market softened. The time has come. The industry has declared that the insurance crisis is over. Read this fascinating article. Of course, the facts…

Wrongful death cases are a unique breed, and the damages recoverable in a wrongful death case deserve special attention. Through the Tennessee Supreme Court’s holding in Jordan v. Baptist Three Rivers Hospital, 984 S.W.2d 593 (Tenn. 1999), the jury is allowed to consider the human losses suffered by the victim’s…

Investor Ron Perlman won big in his case against Morgan Stanley. Compensatory damages were $604.3 million. Punitive damages – limited under Florida law to three times the compensatory award – were pegged by the jury at $850 million. Regular readers will recall the the trial judge eliminated liability as an…

In some cases, a personal injury plaintiff will have medical records that merit extra protection against needless disclosure. A prime example: psychological counseling records. This simple agreed protective order can allow the defendants to discover the plaintiff’s mental health records, consult with experts in evaluating the records, and use the…