Day on Torts

January 18, 2010

Distraction.Gov – A Website About Distracted Driving

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has set up a website called "Distraction.Gov."

The website reveals some interesting statistics:

In 2008, there were a total of 34,017 fatal crashes in which 37,261 individuals were killed.
In 2008, 5,870 people were killed in crashes involving driver distraction (16% of total fatalities).
The proportion of drivers reportedly distracted at the time of the fatal crashes has increased from 8 percent in 2004 to 11 percent in 2008.
The under-20 age group had the highest proportion of distracted drivers involved in fatal crashes (16%). The age group with the next greatest proportion of distracted drivers was the 20- to-29-year-old age group (12%).
Motorcyclists and drivers of light trucks had the greatest percentage of total drivers reported as distracted at the time of the fatal crashes (12%).
An estimated 21 percent of 1,630,000 injury crashes were reported to have involved distracted driving.
Nationwide, those drivers observed visibly manipulating hand-held electronic devices increased from 0.7 percent to 1.0 percent.
Some 1.7 percent of drivers 16 to 24 years old were observed visibly manipulating hand-held electronic devices, up from 1.0 percent the previous year.
More drivers in Western States were observed manipulating hand-held electronic devices (2.1%) than in the other regions of the country (from 0.4% in the Northeast to 0.8% in the Midwest).
The use of hand-held devices increased the most in the West, from 0.6 percent in 2007 to 2.1 percent in 2008.
The observed use rate of hand-held electronic devices was higher among females (1.2%) than among males (0.8%).

The site also contains a list of states which ban driving while using cell phones or while texting.

January 18, 2010

Proposed Consumer Product Safety Commission Database Concerns Product Liability Defense Lawyers

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Thompson Hine is a 99-year old law firm with offices in eight different cities. Its products liability lawyers work do work in the aerospace, automotive, chemical, electrical, mechanical, medical device and pharmaceutical areas.

And they are concerned about the implications of Section 212 of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, which requires the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to implement a publicly accessible, searchable database of consumer product incident reports.

The firm reports that:

January 15, 2010

A Wise Word From a Wise Lawyer: “Always Draft Angry Briefs. Never File Them.”

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

If you do not regularly read Max Kennerly’s Litigation and Trial blog you are not taking advantage of a wonderful opportunity to learn. I have never met Max, but his blog is well-written, thoughtful, and informative.

Need to be convinced? Read his post titled "Always Draft Angry Briefs. Never File Them."

An excerpt:

January 15, 2010

Doctors and Hospitals Seek Special Treatment for Emergency Room Malpractice

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Legislation has been introduced that would require a patient suing an emergency room doctor, on-call specialist, or hospital providing emergency room services to prove that the negligence of the provider rose to level of gross negligence.

Given the declining number of medical malpractice cases and the fact that there are only 6 or 7 verdicts for patients in any given year, one must wonder about the need for such legislation. It springs from arrogance, greed, or both.

That being said, I support the legislation, with one little amendment that says this:

January 14, 2010

List of Themes For Use at Trial

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

The Civil Litigation Blog has shared a list of themes that can be used in personal injury trials. While there is nothing particularly original on the list, I do not recall ever seeing such a list of potential themes in one place.

January 13, 2010

Organizing for Trial

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Once again we turn to Paul Luvera for guidance on some aspect of trial practice. Paul is an extraordinary lawyer who is kind enough to share his knowledge with us on a regular basis via his Plaintiff Trial Lawyer Tips blog.

This time, Paul shares his method of organizing for trial in non-complex cases.

An excerpt:

January 13, 2010

1,600,000 Crashes From Cell Phone Use and Texting While Driving

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

The National Safety Counsel announced yesterday that it estimates at least 28% of all traffic crashes – or at least 1.6 million crashes each year – are caused by drivers using cell phones and texting.

From the organization’s press release:

The estimate of 25% of all crashes — or 1.4 million crashes — caused by cell phone use was derived from NHTSA data showing 11% of drivers at any one time are using cell phones and from peer-reviewed research reporting cell phone use increases crash risk by four times. The estimate of an additional minimum 3% of crashes — or 200,000 crashes — caused by texting was derived by NHTSA data showing 1% of drivers at any one time are manipulating their device in ways that include texting and from research reporting texting increases crash risk by 8 times. Using the highest risk for texting reported by research of 23 times results in a maximum of 1 million crashes due to texting; still less than the 1.4 million crashes caused by other cell phone use.

January 12, 2010

Lawyer Advertisement From Texas

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Check out this commercial.

I don’t think this type of advertising would impact the lawyer’s credibility before the average Texas jury. Do you?

January 11, 2010

Thinking About the Unexpected When Preparing for Trial

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

I am an optimist. Nevertheless, I attempt to have a "Plan B" in the event things go wrong.

For example, consider a case that Rebecca Blair and I tried a few years ago. We needed a computer in the courtroom. But because both of us have been around long enough to know that things can go wrong, we brought a back-up computer with the same information loaded on it that we had loaded on Computer 1.

Computer 1 died. No problem. Plug in Computer 2. It worked for a day or so. Then it died. A third computer was brought from the office with relatively little downtime (we had the info we needed on a CD) and it survived until the end of trial.

January 9, 2010

Day on Torts: A Handbook for Tennessee Tort Lawyers

by The Law Offices of John Day, P.C.

Work is underway on the third edition of Day on Torts: A Handbook for Tennessee Tort Lawyers. Laura Bishop and I have already identified over 30 new sections that need to be added to the book, as well as citations to well over 200 new cases.

If you have come across a topic that you believe should be included in the next edition please send me an email at jday@dayblair.com and we will find the leading case and add it to the book.

It is our hope to have the new book available in April of 2010. Hundreds of lawyers across Tennessee are using the earlier editions of the book and we believe that the new edition will be even more valuable to our fellow lawyers.