Personal Injury Law

Expert Witness Article

Posted on February 18, 2008
The Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel has a magazine called the FDCC  Quarterly.  There are some good articles in the publication, and I think many of you would enjoy an article in the Spring 2007 magazine called "Scientific and Other Expert Testimony:  Understand It; Keep It Out; Get It In...

New Products Liability Decision Released

Posted on February 15, 2008
The Tennessee Court of Appeals (Middle Section) has released an opinion in a products liability case.  As I have before, such decisions are few and far between and we can learn from everyone of them.This decision is particularly important because it was authored by Judge (now Justice) Bill Koch...

What It Takes To Be A Great Trial Lawyer - Part 8

Posted on February 13, 2008
Great Trial Lawyers Understand the Importance of Depositions Great trial lawyers understand the value of depositions, and whether the deposition is taken personally or the task is delegated to another, go into a deposition with clearly defined goals determined after adequate preparation...

Off Topic - Rain on a Tin Roof

Posted on February 12, 2008
We live in a log cabin in the woods in Williamson County.   This morning we are blessed with a strong rain - weather that we haven't seen much of in the last year.Other than frequent sightings of deer and turkeys, one of the joys of living here is the sound of rain pelting the  tin roof...

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"Other Similar Incident" Evidence

Posted on February 08, 2008
There are relatively few products liability cases filed in Tennessee, very few actually tried, and even less appealed.So, when a products case hits the appellate courts, we all learn.  And when  evidence issues are  discussed in a product liability opinion there is cause for absolute jubilation...

Tort Law Tidbit

Posted on February 06, 2008
This is an unusual tort law tidbit directly only at lawyers for plaintiffs.  If you are not interested in reading a rant, I suggest you move to a different site now.If you represent plaintiffs in tort cases you need to be a member of the Tennessee Association for Justice, a contributor to its Circle of Advocates,  and a contributor to  Lawyers Involved For Tennessee, a PAC for lawyers interested in preserving the civil justice system...

What It Takes to Be A Great Trial Lawyer - Part 7

Posted on February 04, 2008
Great Trial Lawyers Learn the Facts. I was in a deposition several months ago in a case that  involves an intersection wreck.  There are  several different plaintiffs represented by several different lawyers, several defendants, and counsel for a UM carrier...

The "What It Takes to be a Great Trial Lawyer" Series

Posted on January 31, 2008
Here are the opening paragraphs of my December 15, 2007 post that gave rise to a series of posts that has garnered a good deal of attention:I participated in a panel discussion at for the Young Lawyers Division of the Tennessee Bar Association on Friday and was asked this question: what does it take to be a great litigator? I knew in advance that I would be asked that question and gave the matter a good deal of thought driving from Atlanta to Nashville Friday morning...

Lose the Evidence - Lose the Case

Posted on January 30, 2008
The Tennessee Court of Appeals (Middle Section) has ruled that "trial court has the discretion to sanction a party by dismissal of its case where the party’s destruction of evidence severely prejudices an adverse party’s defense irrespective of whether the destruction was inadvertent or intentional...

Off Topic - Sentencing Criminals in Federal Court

Posted on January 29, 2008
A federal judge has written a "Top Ten" list taking issue with the United States Supreme Court opinions on the sentencing of criminal defendants.  Read it here.

The State of the State Address

Posted on January 29, 2008
Governor  Bredesen gave his State of the State address last night .  He did not say that he had any desire to limit the right to trial by jury for any citizen against any defendant in any industry.This comment scares the nursing homes:  "My job is to open more doors to alternatives here in Tennessee...

What It Takes To Be A Great Trial Lawyer - Part 6

Posted on January 28, 2008
6. Great Trial Lawyers Don’t Cheat There are lots of opportunities to cheat in the practice of law. You can withhold information during the discovery process. You can improperly coach a witness or client. You can knowingly violate orders on motions in limine...

Appellate Forms - And More

Posted on January 25, 2008
Did you that our appellate courts had forms to help guide you through the appellate court process?This page at the Administrative Office of the Courts website has various forms relevant at different stages of the appellate process, inlcuding a sample brief cover page, a motion for extension of time, etc...

Videotaping of Rule 35 Exams

Posted on January 23, 2008
The Oklahoma Supreme Court has ruled that a plaintiff has a right to videotape a Rule 35 examination (often mistakenly referred to as an "independent medical exam").  The Court's conclusion:"Our decision to allow an examinee to videotape a court-ordered independent examination was foreshadowed by our decision in McCullough v...

Pushing Pills for Profit

Posted on January 22, 2008
This study in PLoS Medicine reports that, based on estimates from publicly available data, drug manufacturers probably spend more money on advertising than they do for research and development. In the words of the study:   "From this new estimate, it appears that pharmaceutical companies spend almost twice as much on promotion as they do on R&D...

What It Takes To Be A Great Trial Lawyer - Part 5

Posted on January 21, 2008
5.  A Great Trial Lawyer Maintains A Reasonable Caseload In Part 4 we discussed the fact that great trial lawyers take time to think about their cases. And we mentioned that many lawyer argue that they don’t have time to think. I suggest that there are only four possible reasons why lawyers don’t have time to think...

Op-Ed Published

Posted on January 18, 2008
The Tennessean  has been kind enough to print an op-ed piece I wrote and to editorialize against the health care industry's attempt to avoid full responsibility for the harm it causes to its patients.Read the editorial here.Read my op-ed piece here...

Article on T.C.A. Sec. 20-1-119

Posted on January 18, 2008
The United States Court of Appeals  for the Sixth Circuit released a decision several months ago that presents a real danger for plaintiff's lawyers and their clients who seek to rely on T.C.A. Section 20-1-119 to avoid a statute of limitations defense...

Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility

Posted on January 17, 2008
The Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility has a  website that includes a section that allows you to search ethics opinions by key word.  Of course, it also has a complete set of the displinary rules.

Surgical Errors

Posted on January 16, 2008
The November 2007 Annals of Surgery  has an interesting article on surgical errors.  The abstract of the article says that  the authors "analyzed 444 randomly sampled surgical malpractice claims from four liability insurers. Among 258 claims in which injuries due to error were detected, 52% (n = 133) involved technical errors...

Are Doctors Fleeing Tennessee? The Facts

Posted on January 15, 2008
We are hearing it again this year:  doctors are leaving the state because we don't have caps on damages in medical malpractice cases.  When pressed for evidence on this point,  a doctor will refer to "some guy in Memphis" or "some woman in Knoxville" who quit practicing medicine because of the risk of being sued...

Fax Filing of Affidavit Not Sufficient

Posted on January 14, 2008
The Eastern Section of our Court of Appeals has ruled that Rule 5A(4)(c) of the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure means what it says and that a party cannot fax file an affidavit opposing a motion for summary judgment .Rule 5A (4)(c) says that “The following documents shall not be filed in the trial court by facsimile transmission: ...

Book Updated

Posted on January 13, 2008
Day on Torts:  A Handbook for Tennessee Tort Lawyers 2008 has been updated to include all cases through Sunday, January 13, 2008.The updates work like this.  After you have found the leading case summarized in one of 233 sections of the book, go to the "Free Updates" page of the book website, scroll down to the relevant section, and you will any decision released since October 1, 2007 on that subject...

Tort Cases By The Numbers - Part 2

Posted on January 12, 2008
Yesterday I wrote about tort statistics revealed by the 2006-07 "Annual Report of the Tennessee Judiciary."  Among the statistics I cited was that there were 584 medical malpractices cases filed in the state of Tennessee and a total of 15 medical malpractice trials...

Tennessee Tort Cases By the Numbers

Posted on January 11, 2008
The Tennessee Supreme Court has just released the 2006-07 “Annual Report of the Tennessee Judiciary.” It has some amazing, indeed alarming, information. There were 584 medical malpractice cases filed in Tennessee last year. To put that in perspective, there were 10,165 general “Damages/Torts” cases filed...

What It Takes to Be A Great Trial Lawyer - Part 4

Posted on January 10, 2008
A Great Trial Lawyer Takes Time to Think It is easy to get lost in the daily grind of litigation. The phone constantly rings. The computer’s “ding” tells us that another email has arrived. Each piece of mail brings another task and another deadline...

Check A Little Later

Posted on January 09, 2008
I have an early morning meeting and won't be able to post until closer to Noon.  Check back later for another in the Great Lawyer series.

Evidence of Settlement

Posted on January 07, 2008
T.C.A. Sec. 29-11-105 (b) says as follows:  "No evidence of a release or covenant not to sue received by another tort-feasor or payment therefor may be introduced by a defendant at the trial of an action by a claimant for injury or wrongful death, but may be introduced upon motion after judgment to reduce a judgment by the amount stipulated by the release or the covenant or by the amount of the consideration paid for it, whichever is greater...

What It Takes To Be A Great Trial Lawyer - Part 3

Posted on January 04, 2008
A Solid Knowledge of the Rules of Civil Procedure. The adoption and expansion of the discovery section in the modern-day rules of civil procedure was intended to reduce the number of trials by providing a mechanism for the flow of information between parties to litigation...

Better Looks = More Money? For Lawyers?

Posted on January 03, 2008
The Economist reports about a new study that links physical appearance and income.The article says that " a series of surveys in the United States and Canada [show]  that when all other things are taken into account, ugly people earn less than average incomes, while beautiful people earn more than the average...

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