The Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance has released the 2008 Medical Malpractice Claims Report. The report reveals data from medical malpractice cases settled and tried in Tennessee in calendar year 2007.
The numbers:
Total judgments for plaintiffs
The Florida Supeme Court has relied on the Restatement (Second) of Torts to impose a duty on the manufacturer of anthrax "to avoid a an unauthorized intercepton and dissemination of the materials."
The lawsuit arose out of the mailing of stolen anthrax some seven years ago that resulted in the death of a man in Florida when he came into contact with the substance at his place of work.
The case is United States v. Stevens, No. SC07-1074 (Fl. Oct. 30, 2008). Read it here.
Rule 37 of the TRCP makes exclusion of evidence the default sanction for failure to supplement. The trial judge can impose a lesser or greater sanction.
In a recent case in Arkansas the Court of Appeals reversed a jury verdict in favor of the plaintiff when the plaintiff failed to supplement answers to interrogatories concerning his medical treatment with a particular doctor.
In Moorehead v. Battles, the court said this:
Brandon Bass and I are pleased to announce that the inaugural edition of Tennessee Trial Law Report – Tort Law Edition has been printed and mailed to Tennessee lawyers who we know practice tort law.
Brandon and I resigned from our position as editors of the Tennessee Tort Law Letter and launched this new publication in an effort to better serve the needs of lawyers in the state that do tort work. It is our view that tort lawyers need to stay current on the law of torts – but we also need to stay current on the law of evidence, civil procedure and trial. So, Tennessee Trial Law Report summarizes opinions in all four fields, whether those opinions are primarily tort opinions or instead are domestic, commercial or criminal law opinions that have morsels of information tort lawyers need to know.
For example, one of our lead opinions this month is not a tort case at all but rather a Court of Criminal Appeals opinion by Presiding Judge Joe Tipton on expert testimony. Another of our summaries addresses a non-tort Tennessee Supreme Court case on a important evidence issue.
The Tennessee Bar Association has been kind enough to republish my "What it Takes to be a Great Trial Lawyer" series as the cover story in the November edition of the Tennessee Bar Journal.
Click here to read the article.
The Fall travel schedule begins again.
Many of you know that five years ago former Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Penny White, former Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Joe Riley and I establsihed a seminar company called "Justice Programs." We offer a 15 hour CLE program each Fall that permits attendees to meet all mandatory CLE obligations for the entire year and, more importantly, gives civil trial practioners the opportunity to gain valuable information for their practice. Tomorrow we make our first stop in the year in Chattanooga.
Here is the outline for our course in 2008:
One repeated argument for restricting the right to trial by jury is that we need to have a state where businesses will want to settle, thereby creating more jobs and strengthening our economy.
Well, to the extent that is a relevant factor in the tort deform effort it is should be off the table in Tennessee. Why? The Tennessean reports that "Site Selection, an Atlanta-based magazine that annually ranks states’ attractiveness to investors, placed Tennessee behind only North Carolina. Tennessee moved up four notches from last year’s rankings."
Read the article here.
There is alot of public outcry about the profits of Exxon Mobil for the 3rd quarter of fiscal year 2008. The company reported profits of $14.83 Billion for the three months ended September 30, a 58% increase.
Exxon Mobil had revenue of $137.74 Billion during the 3rd quarter of 2008. So, the company had a profit of 10.76% of total revenue.
So why is Exxon Mobil talking about getting into a new line of business?
A Handbook for Tennessee Tort Lawyers 2009 is scheduled to arrive in Brentwood on November 3 and will start being shipped to purchasers on November 4.
The 2009 of the book follows the same format as the 2008 version. It has been expanded to include 8 new chapters and 28 new sections on tort law subjects for a total of 262 sections. Each section includes the key language of the leading case on that subject and, as appropriate, citations to other important cases on the subject. Also included is a reference to all opinions released in the last year on tort law organized by chapter and section.
The book also includes the full text of all of the new statutes of interest to Tennessee tort lawyers.
The Tennessee Supreme Court released its decision in Hannan v. Alltel Publishing Company and has affirmed Judge Susano’s reversal of summary judgment in favor of the defendant.
The court, by a 4-1 margin, re-affirmed its decisions in Byrd, McCarley and Blair and held
a moving party who seeks to shift the burden of production to the nonmoving party who bears the burden of proof at trial must either: (1) affirmatively negate an essential element of the nonmoving party’s claim; or (2) show that the nonmoving party cannot prove an essential element of the claim at trial.
