Personal Injury Law

SCOTUS Rules for Plaintiffs in "Light" Cigarette Case

Posted on December 16, 2008
The United States Supreme Court has ruled for the plaintiffs in a case involving an assertion of federal pre-emption in litigation involving whether selling "light" cigarettes was deceptive. As pointed out in this article in the New York Times,  "[t]he question before the court was not whether use of the term “light” amounted to fraud...

Chamber of Commerce Wants to Preserve Right to File Suit

Posted on December 15, 2008
That's right.  The Chamber of Commerce believes in  the right to file suit if you have been aggrieved by the conduct of another. As long as you are a car manufacturer and want to complain about new laws limiting greenhouse gas emission standards...

A Bad Day

Posted on December 13, 2008
Professionally speaking, it is hard to have a worse day than having a United States Supreme Court justice say this:  " “I simply cannot follow your argument because I believe you have just made a statement to me that is utterly irrational...

Preparing Clients for Events at Trial

Posted on December 12, 2008
Ten days or so ago I included a post from Paul Luvera's blog about the importance of using checklists for taking the deposition of an eye witness. Here is another post from Paul.  This time he is sharing a checklist on information you should share with your client about the trial process...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

New Trucking Regulations Means Increased Public Safety

Posted on December 10, 2008
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has issued an amend to its regulations to require interstate commercial driver’s license (CDL) holders subject to the physical qualification requirements of the agency's regulations  to provide a current original or copy of their medical examiner’s certificates to their State Driver Licensing Agency (SDLA)...

Medical Malpractice Reporting Statute

Posted on December 08, 2008
Many plaintiff's lawyers from across the state received assessments from the Department of Commerce and Insurance for failure to report data concerning medical malpractice settlements and judgments received during the prior year.  Many of the penalities approach $20,000 and, as one lawyer told me, the penality he has been assessed is greater than the fee he received in the case...

Tennessee Trial Law Report

Posted on December 07, 2008
Thank you to the hundreds of you who have said such kind words about our new newsletter, Tennessee Trial Law Report - Tort Law Edition.  Brandon Bass and I have worked hard to put together a newsletter than will save you time and make you money. Our idea was to have one source where a tort lawyer could stay up-to-date with all of the case law in the field of torts, civil procedure, evidence and trial...

Luvera's Sample Talking Points for Trial

Posted on December 06, 2008
Paul Luvera has offered-up a list of his talking points for trial, an example that can be applied to a myraid of cases.  See them here.

The Case for a "Loser Pays" Rule

Posted on December 05, 2008
The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research has issued a report extolling the virtues of a "loser pays" rule. Here is an excerpt from  the "Executive Summary:" This study explores the likely effects of adopting a "loser pays" rule for attorneys' fees in the United States...

Eye Witness Deposition Checklist

Posted on December 03, 2008
Paul Luvera's blog includes this great checklist for taking the deposition of an eye witness. Paul makes the point that "lawyers must use a checklist for every deposition they take no matter how experienced there are.  If seasoned airplane pilots use checklists, lawyers should too...

Deciding Who To Depose

Posted on December 01, 2008
Here are links to two interesting blog posts by Stewart Weltman in his "Lean and Mean Litigation Blog" on the subject of formulating a discovery plan before taking depositions.  The knee-jerk response is depose everyone, but as this author makes crystal clear that is not always the smart thing to do...

IIHS Announces TOP SAFETY PICKS

Posted on November 26, 2008
The Insurance Institute for HIghway Safety has announced its TOP SAFETY PICKS for 2009. The picks " recognize[ ] vehicles that do the best job of protecting people in front, side, and rear crashes based on good ratings in Institute tests. Winners also have to have electronic stability control (ESC), which research shows significantly reduces crash risk...

PDF Portfolio Webinar and Booklet

Posted on November 24, 2008
A couple weeks ago I wrote a post about use of PDF Portfolios to organize documents.  The source for that post has recently given us access to an eseminar that he did on creating electronic closing binders using PDF technology - either PDF Binder or PDF Portfolio...

Whoops! at NPR

Posted on November 23, 2008
It has been revealed that Dr. Frederick K. Goodwin, host of NPR's "Infinite Mind," earned at least $1.3M from drug makers.   He received the payments for giving lectures.   NPR says it did not know about the payments, Goodwin says it did, but clearly the show's listeners did not...

2008 Medical Malpractice Report Released

Posted on November 19, 2008
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   2004           6        2005           5 2006           6        2007           7 Total settlements                      2004         444 2005         461 2006         453 2007         492 Cases Dismissed   With No Payment 2004        1916 2005        2361 2006        2514       2007        2238  (plus another 306 claims dismissed on defense verdicts for a total of 2534) Total settlement $                 2004   $108,000,000 2005    $119,000,000 2006   $100,000,000 2007    $126, 225,485  (this includes two settlements made after trial, one pursuant to a high-low agreement and one a traditional post-trial settlement...

Duty Imposed on Anthrax Manufacturer

Posted on November 17, 2008
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...

Failure to Supplement Discovery

Posted on November 10, 2008
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...

New Newsletter Available

Posted on November 08, 2008
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...

Great Trial Lawyer Series

Posted on November 07, 2008
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.

Justice Programs - Chattanooga November 6 and 7

Posted on November 05, 2008
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're Number 2!"

Posted on November 04, 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...

"A Handbook for Tennessee Tort Lawyers 2009" Available

Posted on November 02, 2008
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...

Important Summary Judgment Case Released

Posted on November 01, 2008
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...

Is Exxon Mobil Considering a New Line of Business?

Posted on October 30, 2008
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...

PDF Portfolios

Posted on October 29, 2008
I have been doing some reading about Adobe Acrobat recently and came across this post about organizing documents using PDF Portfolios.  I have not tried this method of document organization and, I confess, will probably ask one of our paralegals to look into it for our firm rather than attempting to do so myself...

"Hospital Compare" Website

Posted on October 28, 2008
The U.S. Department of Heath and Human Services has a website that delivers information on how well hospitals care for patients with certain medical conditions or surgical procedures, and the results of a survey of patients about the quality of care the patients received  during a recent hospital stay...

2008 Tennessee Medical Malpractice Claims Report Released

Posted on October 28, 2008
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   2004           6        2005           5 2006           6        2007           7 Total settlements                      2004         444 2005         461 2006         453 2007         492 Cases Dismissed   With No Payment 2004        1916 2005        2361 2006        2514       2007        2238  (plus another 306 claims dismissed on defense verdicts for a total of 2534) Total settlement $                 2004   $108,000,000 2005    $119,000,000 2006   $100,000,000 2007    $126, 225,485  (this includes two settlements made after trial, one pursuant to a high-low agreement and one a traditional post-trial settlement...

Information on Doctors

Posted on October 27, 2008
The Federation of State Medical Boards has a website that allows you to order professional information on physicians and physician assistants.  The reports include infomoration about disciplinary sanctions, education, medical specialty, licensure history and locations...

Twombly - What it Means.

Posted on October 24, 2008
Why should you care about the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Bell Atlantic Court v. Twombly , 127 S. Ct. 1955 (2007)? Because it changed the rules of pleading in federal court and, because Tennessee looks to interpretations of the federal rules to interpret its own similar rules, it will be raising its head in Tennessee state court...

FRE Rule 502 Becomes Law

Posted on October 22, 2008
The Congress has approved changes to the Federal Rules of Evidence, including the addition of Rule 502 dealing with  the waiver of attorney-client privilege and work product protection as a result of inadvertent or intentional disclosure to another party...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.