Personal Injury Law

The Ref is a Jerk! Can I Sue?

Posted on February 03, 2010
My daughter was hurt in a soccer game because the ref refused to reign in a reckless player on the opposing team.  Can I sue?  My son is devastated because he was improperly called out on strikes by a blind umpire.  Can I sue? Setting aside the merits of these complaints, or the wisdom of pursing such a claim, Tennessee law gives a relatively high level of immunity to sports officials...

Legislators Propose Caps on Damages Recoverable in Medical Malpractice Cases

Posted on February 02, 2010
A bill has been introduced in the Tennessee General Assembly to cap "non-economic" damages in medical malpractice lawsuits to $1,000,000, regardless of the degree of harm suffered by the patient. Non-economic damages are defined as " damages for physical and emotional pain and suffering, inconvenience, discomfort, physical impairment, mental anguish, disfigurement, loss of enjoyment of life, loss of society and companionship, loss of consortium, injury to reputation, punitive damages, and all other nonpecuniary losses of any kind or nature...

Tennessee Medical Malpractice Claims Report - 2008

Posted on February 01, 2010
The Tennessee Medical Malpractice Claims Report for 2009 (which reports data for 2008) contains lots of information of interest to lawyers who represent Tennesseans in medical malpractice claims. Last week I wrote about the number of claims closed in 2008 and the amount paid on these claims...

Tennessee Adult Protection Act

Posted on January 29, 2010
 The Tennessee Adult Protection Act, T. C. A. Sec. 71-6-101 et seq, creates civil action for compensatory  and, as appropriate, punitive damages when "adults" covered by the act are victims of abuse or neglect, sexual abuse or exploitation and  for theft of  money or property whether by fraud, deceit, coercion or otherwise...

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Truck Drivers - No More Texting

Posted on January 27, 2010
Truck drivers who text while on the road are now violating federal law.  On  January 26, 2010, the federal  Transportation Department  said  it is prohibiting truck and bus drivers from sending text messages on hand-held devices while operating commercial vehicles...

2009 Medical Malpractice Claims Report Released

Posted on January 26, 2010
The Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance has released the 2009 Medical Malpractice Claims Report.  Despite its title, the Report reveals data for calendar year 2008. This is the fifth report issued by the Department and contains more different types of data than released in previous years because of a change in the reporting law...

Tennessee Injury Claims Against Foster Parents

Posted on January 22, 2010
As a Tennessee injury lawyer I receive calls from time to time from parents of children who have been injured by a foster parent.  Indeed, several years ago our firm represented a parent of a pregnant teenager who was killed as a result of careless driving by her foster parent...

Tip Concerning Trying Cases Away From Home

Posted on January 20, 2010
Trial Lawyer Tips has a great post about steps to take to before picking a jury in another city, county, or state. An excerpt: To get familiar with my out of town trial venues, I used to order the local paper several months before trial and read it each day or week...

Proposed Consumer Product Safety Commission Database Concerns Product Liability Defense Lawyers

Posted on January 18, 2010
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...

Distraction.Gov - A Website About Distracted Driving

Posted on January 18, 2010
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...

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

Posted on January 15, 2010
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...

Doctors and Hospitals Seek Special Treatment for Emergency Room Malpractice

Posted on January 15, 2010
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...

List of Themes For Use at Trial

Posted on January 14, 2010
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.

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

Posted on January 13, 2010
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...

Organizing for Trial

Posted on January 13, 2010
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...

Lawyer Advertisement From Texas

Posted on January 12, 2010
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?

Thinking About the Unexpected When Preparing for Trial

Posted on January 11, 2010
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...

Day on Torts: A Handbook for Tennessee Tort Lawyers

Posted on January 09, 2010
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...

Great Blog Posts About Findlaw's Blogs

Posted on January 08, 2010
Some of you heard me rant about West Publishing Company during the recent Justice Programs seminar.  Well, here are a couple great posts about West's pollution of the blawgosphere.  The controversy arose when Findlaw launched "The New York Personal Injury Law Blog" years after a wonderful blog by the same name was started by Eric Turkewitz...

Ice, Snow and Premises Liability in Tennessee

Posted on January 07, 2010
Tennesseans are clearing the grocery stores of bread, milk and other essentials as the National Weather Service informs us that snow will cover the state. The threat of bad weather gives us the opportunity to review the law of Tennessee concerning the liability of possessors of land concerning ice and snow...

Choice of Words at Trial and Deposition

Posted on January 06, 2010
Once again, Winning Trial Advocacy Tips has an excellent article for those of us who try cases. Here is an excerpt: There's something strange about how our brains work.  For some reason, our brains don't seem to comprehend the word 'Don't' very well...

Tennessee Data From the National Practioners Data Bank

Posted on January 05, 2010
The National Practioners Data Bank collects data about malpractice claims paid by health care professionals.   The NPDB has a report that lists all of medical malpractice paid claims against all Tennessee health care providers between September 1, 1990 through November 29, 2009, a period one month short of 20 years...

New Local Rules in Memphis

Posted on January 01, 2010
The judges in Shelby County have adopted new local rules of court.  Here is a copy.

Legal Malpractice Case - An Oldie But a Goodie

Posted on December 31, 2009
 Legal Malpractice Law Review brought to my attention an interesting legal malpractice case from 1979 in Pennsylvania, Schenkel v. Monheit, 226 Pa. Super. 396 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1979).  The plaintiff's lawyer in the underlying case (and now the defendant) failed to sue the original defendant's employer in an auto accident case...

Nevada Supreme Court Restricts Lawsuits Against Pharamacies

Posted on December 31, 2009
The Nevada Supreme Court has ruled that a pharmacy does not owe a duty of care to unidentified third parties who were injured by a pharmacy customer who was driving while under the influence of controlled prescription drugs.  In reaching the decision, the court rejected the arguments that  pharmacies have a duty to act to prevent a pharmacy customer from injuring members of the general public and that Nevada's pharmacy statutory and regulatory laws allow third parties to maintain a negligence per se claim for alleged violations concerning dispensation of prescription drugs and maintenance of customers' records...

Tennessee AOC Releases 2008-09 Annual Report of the Tennessee Judiciary

Posted on December 30, 2009
The Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts has released the 2008-09  Annual Report of the Tennessee Judiciary.   The report includes information about court filings and dispositions for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2009. Here is some of the important data included in the Report: 1...

Ambulance Driver Crashes Into TDOT Help Truck - Is There an Incapacitated Driver Defense?

Posted on December 30, 2009
David Cline, the paramedic who was killed when the private ambulance he was driving slammed into the back of a TDOT roadside help truck on Interstate 65 on October 22, 2009,  had a history of medical problems, including narcolepsy and epilepsy...

Economic Loss Rule Applied in South Carolina Truck Fire Case

Posted on December 29, 2009
The South Carolina Supreme Court has ruled that the economic loss rule precludes a truck owner's tort claims against the truck manufacturer.  The case is Sapp & Smith v. Ford Motor Company,  Opinion 26754 (S.C. December 21, 2009). Sapp filed suit against Ford alleging property damage to his vehicle (there was no personal injury or damage to other property) as a result of a fire Sapp claimed was caused by a design defect in the cruise control switch, which he said would short circuit and cause a fire in the engine compartment...

Problem Nurses Move From State to State

Posted on December 28, 2009
Today's Tennessean has an article originally published in the  Los Angeles Times that reveals  a problem with nurses moving from state to state and leaving behind a bad disciplinary record. The article reports that "using public databases and state disciplinary reports, reporters found hundreds of cases in which registered nurses held clear licenses in some states after they had been sanctioned in others, often for serious misdeeds...

Social Networking and its Impact on Trials

Posted on December 28, 2009
Philip Brown, author of MS Litigation Review and Commentary, has an interesting post on the impact of social networking on the work of trial lawyers. An excerpt:   I have talked with lawyers who are worried about a juror going home and researching parties on social network sites...

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