Day on Torts

March 9, 2009

Defense Firm To Be Penalized for Fraudulent Removals?

A defense firm has been threatened with severe sanctions for allegedly engaging in a pattern of fraudulently removing cases from state court to federal court in Louisiana. Sanctions on the table? Not only a financial penalty but also also barring members of the firm from practicing in federal court.

Here is a copy of the federal judge’s memorandum opinion in the case. The opinion certainly makes it appear that the judge has done his homework and is, shall I say, extremely irritated.

This article explains the lengths to which the firm is going to avoid sanctions.

March 7, 2009

Practice Guidelines: Obstetric Anesthesia

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

Here is the most recent version of the practice guidelines for obstetric anesthesia as prepared by a task force of the American Society of Anesthesiologists.

March 6, 2009

Great Legal Research Tip

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

Evan Shaeffer linked me to a great post in the (new) legal writing blog and I quickly determined that I needed to pass it on to you.

Raymond Ward from the Big Easy writes about writing. His post, "Owning your downloaded legal authorities," has some great ideas, including the recommendation that cases from electronic research sites be downloaded in a word-processing format. After you have done so, Raymond has several helpful tips, including "[i]nstead of writing in the margins of a hard copy, use Word or WordPerfect to insert comments. That way, your comments will be saved on your electronic copy."

March 5, 2009

Legal Malpractice Avoidance Checklist

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

I know I did a post on this subject a couple of weeks ago, linking to a site that had some techniques to help lawyers avoid malpractice claims. But here is another site with yet another handy list of fourteen ways to avoid a claim.

A sample taken directly from the site:

11. REJECTING CERTAIN CLIENTS AND CASES

March 5, 2009

Do You Believe in Magic (Tricks During Closing Argument)?

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

A motion in limine to prevent your adversary from performing magic tricks in closing argument?

Read all about it here from the Litigation and Trial Blog.

March 4, 2009

SCOTUS Issues Opinion in Wyeth v. Levine

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

The U.S. Supreme Court has issued the opinion in Wyeth v. Levine, the product liability case against the manufacturer of Phenergan. Wyeth appealed from an adverse jury verdict saying that Levine’s failure-to–warn claims were pre-empted by federal law because Phenergan’s label was approved by the FDA.

The USSC held that federal law did not pre-empt Levine’s claim that Phenergan’s label did not contain an adequate warning about the IV-push method of administration.

Read the opinion here

March 3, 2009

Courtoons

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

Lawyer and cartoonist David Mills shares his craft on Courtoons. An example:

Gunner Courtoon png

I confess to extreme jealously of lawyers who have talent is any aspect of the world of art or music.

March 2, 2009

Legal Malpractice Lawsuits On the Upswing?

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

This post from the New York Attorney Malpractice Blog includes the full text of an article from New York Lawyer titled "Legal Malpractice Cases May Surge as the Economy Tanks."

The article says that " [a] recent American Bar Association (ABA) study that looked at legal malpractice claims filed between 2004 and 2007 found that the total number of claims increased by more than 36% compared to the previous three-year period." CNA expects a increase in claims this year that are related to the downfall in the economy.

March 1, 2009

March 2009 Edition of the Tennessee Trial Law Report

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

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

This edition includes a summary of 20 different cases addressing various aspects of the law of torts, civil procedure, evidence and trial as decided by Tennessee appellate courts between January 15 and February 15, 2009. The newsletter totals 47 pages, including 22 pages containing the full-text (in addition to our summary) of the three most important cases of the last month. We add the full-text of selected decisions because we think that they are significant enough that lawyers who seek to stay on top of tort law will want to read them in full.

The newsletter also includes (a) Part 3 of my three-part article of the law of motions In limine; and (b) a summary of the status of 22 cases of interest to tort lawyers that are pending before the Supreme Court of the United States and the Supreme Court of Tennessee.

February 28, 2009

Animation of Crash of Flight 1549

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

Here is an animation of the crash of US Airways 1549 landing in the Hudson River prepared by Scene Systems. The simulation includes the audio from the pilot and air traffic control.

Scene Systems creates animations for litigation of all types.