Day on Torts

August 31, 2009

September 2009 Tennessee Trial Law Report is in the Mail

The September 2009 edition of the Tennessee Trial Law Report is in the mail.

The lazy days of summer are upon us – this edition includes a summary of just 10 different cases addressing various aspects of the law of torts, civil procedure, evidence and trial as decided by Tennessee appellate courts between July 15 and August 15, 2009. (This is about 1/2 of the normal volume of decisions released in a given month.) The newsletter totals 34 pages, including 16 pages containing the full-text (in addition to our summary) of the most important opinions issued last month.

The newsletter also includes (a) my continuing series on The Law of Trial (this month’s article is “Opening Statements and Closing Arguments;” and (b) a summary of the status of 12 cases of interest to tort lawyers that are pending before the Supreme Court of Tennessee.

August 31, 2009

“New” Chrysler Steps Up to the Plate

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

New Chrysler (Chrysler Group LLC) has announced that it will be accepting product liability claims on vehicles manufactured by its predecessor, now known as Old Carco, but only for accidents occurring after June 10, 2009. Chrysler yielded to pressure from consumer groups that aggressively lobbied for a law requiring warning stickers on used Chrysler vehicles, an effort which would have reduced the value of the vehicles.

From the New Chrysler Press Release:

"We know a lot more about the viability of our business today than when we purchased Old Carco’s assets in its bankruptcy proceedings several months ago," said John Bozzella, Senior Vice President, External Affairs & Public Policy, Chrysler Group LLC. "While Chrysler Group still faces challenges, we are confident that the future viability of the company will not be threatened if we accept these claims."

August 30, 2009

New Tennessee Legislation of Interest to Tort Lawyers – Post 18

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

Post 18 of this series brings to your attention a change in the law concerning the licensing of lawyers and pro hac vice admission of lawyers to practice in Tennessee. The language of T.C.A. Sec. 23-1-108 has been deleted and replaced with the following language:

No person shall practice law in this state without first receiving a license
issued by the Tennessee supreme court and complying with the provisions of
Rule 6 of the Rules of the Tennessee supreme court concerning admission to the
practice of law, except that nothing in this statute precludes the pro hac vice
admission of persons licensed in other jurisdictions in accordance with
Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 19.

Here is a the text of Public Chapter 485. Here is the text of Rule 19 of the T.S.C.R.

August 29, 2009

New Tennessee Legislation of Interest to Tort Lawyers – Post 17

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

Post 17 of this series also addresses the subject of court reporting. This bill establishes: (1) licensure requirements for court reporters; (2) the Tennessee Board of Court Reporting; and (3) the Tennessee board of Court Reporting Fund. This bill prohibits any person from practicing court reporting or holding the person out as a court reporter unless the person is a licensed court reporter, except as otherwise provided by law.

The licensure requirements go into effect July 1, 2010.

Click at the link to see a complete copy of Public Acts,2009 Public Chapter 450.

August 28, 2009

New Tennessee Legislation of Interest to Tort Lawyers – Post 16

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

Post 16 of this series addresses a change in the law applicable to taking of depositions. The bill summary set forth below describes the original bill as amended. The new law

prohibit[s] the taking of a deposition before a person who is:

(1) A party to the action or an attorney for one of the parties;
(2) A relative, including a spouse, of one of the parties or of an attorney for one of the parties;
(3) An employee of one of the parties or of an attorney for one of the parties;
(4) Someone who has, or has had during the past two years, a sexual relationship with one of the parties or with an attorney for one of the parties; or
(5) Someone with a financial interest in the action or its outcome.

August 27, 2009

New Tennessee Legislation of Interest to Tort Lawyers – Post 15

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

Post 15 addresses the changes to Tennessee law concerning the proper way to give notice to potential defendants in medical malpractice cases and the changes in the law concerning the certificate of good faith.

I have addressed this legislation in several other posts (here is a post with a complete summary) and need not repeat what I have published in the past. For those of you who are involved in medical negligence litigation I suggest you read my article on this legislation in the July 2009 edition of the Tennessee Bar Journal.

The predecessor to this law came into effect last October and has resulted in a significant decrease in the number of medical malpractice case filings. As I wrote in June, the number of filings for the first eight months after the original law law passed are down 60% over a year earlier.

August 27, 2009

New Judicial Selection Commission Members

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

The new members of the Tennessee Judicial Selection Commission have been announced.

Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey appointed the following people:

Miles Burdine, President and CEO of the Kingsport Area Chamber of Commerce
Christopher Campbell, a Memphis attorney
Christopher Clem, a Chattanooga attorney
William Jenkins, Jr., a Dyersburg attorney
Teresa Lee, Senior VP and CLO for Eastman Chemical in Kingsport
Thomas Lawless, a Nashville lawyer
Jack Lowery, a Lebanon lawyer
William Young, GC of BCBS in Chattanooga

Speaker Williams appointed the following people:

David Bautista, an attorney and ETSU professor
Mary Helen Beard, a lawyer with Fed Ex in Memphis
Ana Escobar, a Nashville attorney
Russell Johnson, DA in Loudon County
Ed Martindale, a Jackson attorney
Scott Sims, a Nashville attorney
Denise Stapleton, a Morristown attorney
Barry Ward, a Memphis attorney

The speakers jointly appointed Verna Anne Wyatt of Nashville, the ED of the group You Have the Power, a crime victims advocacy group.

August 26, 2009

Additional Email Tips

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

On August 11, 2009 I directed you to an article written by Steven Robbins on writing better emails. Here is a great article written by Jim Calloway on managing your in-box. Jim writes the "Law Practice Tips Blog," a great place to learn about law practice management and technology.

An excerpt:

if an e-mail is being retained because it is really a task, save it as a task! Drag it from the inbox to Tasks on the lower left hand corner of display in Outlook 2007. A new Task appears with the subject line and contents of the e-mail. Then do three quick things: edit the subject line to whatever it is you need to do, give it today’s date and determine what the due date should be. It there is a hard due date, add it here. It you need to start on it several days in advance, then give that date as the due date and chance the task(subject) line to ‘do X by Y date.’

August 26, 2009

AAJ Issues Report About Unsafe Trucks on U.S. Roads

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

The American Association for Justice has issued a report called "Warning! Safety Violation Ahead." The report reveals that "a new analysis of government data reveals that more than 28,000 motor carrier companies, representing more than 200,000 trucks, are currently operating in violation of federal safety laws." The safety violations include "defective brakes, bad tires, loads that dangerously exceeded weight limits and drivers with little or no training or drug and alcohol dependencies." The accompanying press release indicates that

AAJ obtained data on the safety performance of U.S. trucking companies through the Motor Carrier Management Information System (MCMIS), which is maintained by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA). Over a million lines of data were analyzed in an effort to pinpoint just how many unsafe trucks might be on the road.

Tennessee had 107 fatalies involving large trucks in 2007. The country as a whole had 4808 fatalities and 142,949 non-fatal crashes involving large trucks. You can access the national database by clicking here. You can reach the Tennessee database by clicking here. Trucking companies are listed by city.

August 25, 2009

Failure to Inform Patients of Abnormal Test Results

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

An article in Archives of Internal Medicine (2009;169(12):1123-1129) reveals that about 1 in 14 abnormal outpatient test results are either not reported to the patient or the report to the patient is not documented. The article summarizes a study consisting "of a retrospective medical record review of 5434 randomly selected patients aged 50 to 69 years in 19 community-based and 4 academic medical center primary care practices."

Read an abstract of the article here.