Litigation

Blockbuster Punitive Damage Awards: California Leads The Way!

Posted on December 08, 2009
Alison F. Del Rossi and W. Kip Viscusi have a recent article on "blockbuster punitive damages awards" up at Social Science Research Network. This is the first time CBL has run across Dr. Del Rossi. Dr. Viscusi writes extensively on...

Cal Supremes on Attorney-Client Privilege: Absolute Privilege Means Absolute Privilege

Posted on December 01, 2009
Here's a new, pro-business decision from the Cal Supremes reinforcing protection of the attorney-client privilege. In Costco Wholesale Corporation v. Superior Court (Randall) (November 20, 2009) ___Cal.4th___ (S163335), the defendant's in-house counsel had retained an outside firm to interview some...

SCOTUS Denies Cert in Ford Punitive Damages Case

Posted on November 30, 2009
CBL first declared Ford's hopes for reversal of the Buell-Wilson punitive damage award (as reduced in multiple post-verdict proceedings) dead in a post on March 28, 2008. Wrong. Ford soldiered on for nearly another two years. But it's over now....

SF Chron Reports On The Personal Injury Reduced Medical Specials Issue

Posted on November 30, 2009
Cal Biz Lit has been following the trail of cases addressing what happens when a successful personal injury plaintiff had his or her medical bills paid by insurance, and the insurer has a deal with the providers to reduce fees...

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Can A Personal Injury Plaintiff Recover For $3 Aspirins? For $75 Booties? Issue Now Joined In California

Posted on November 24, 2009
It's been more than year since Cal Biz Lit posted about the whole Hanif / Nishihama / Olsen question. That question, specifically, is this: "Just what does a personal injury plaintiff get when her medical bills are $200,000 but the...

Component Parts In Product Liability: Now It's 2 - 1 Defense (And A Blow Against Junk Science, Too)

Posted on November 17, 2009
Cal Biz Lit has been following the evolution of the Courts of Appeals' efforts to answer this question: if a manufacturer's product is not itself defective, but becomes defective when used in conjunction with a third-party's defective products (e.g., the...

Tort Plaintiffs Be Warned: Contra Costa and Santa Clara Counties Are Not Friendly Places

Posted on November 13, 2009
To help you get your weekend off to a rousing start, here's a bunch of statistics. Just what you were hoping for, right? About a year ago, Cal Biz Lit reported here on the U.S. Department of Justice's 2005 survey...

Joint & Several Liability For Punitive Damages

Posted on November 11, 2009
One of the more peculiar features of California tort law is the interplay between several liability and joint and several liability. Under California's Proposition 51 (Civil Code section 1431.2), when there is more than one tortfeasor, a defendant's liability for...

Component Parts In Product Liability: The Saga Continues

Posted on October 23, 2009
CBL, and a lot of our clients in product liability matters, have been closely watching the law develop in California on this question: if a manufacturer's product is not itself defective, but becomes defective when used in conjunction with a...

Court of Appeal Reconsiders Arbitration Decision, Then Rules The Same Way

Posted on October 21, 2009
As Cal Biz Lit noted here on August 31, arbitration awards in California are almost never reversible. But as that post pointed out, in Burlage v. Superior Court Of Ventura County (Spencer) (August 31, 2009) ___ Cal.App.4th ___ (2d Civil...

Some More Musings On MMSEA

Posted on October 06, 2009
Last week, I ran across a pretty good, pretty concise introductory white paper on MMSEA by a Houston company, Medical Research Consultants. If you read the Adams Nye white paper here, and the MRC white paper here, you'll have a...

Is Manufacturer Liable For Injuries Caused By Somebody Else's Components? Now It's Anybody's Guess

Posted on September 28, 2009
Last week, CBL reported here on O'Neil v. Crane Co. (September 21, 2009) ___Cal.App.4th___ (B208225), and the decision earlier this year in Taylor v. Elliott Turbomachinery Co., Inc. (2009) 171 Cal.App.4th 564. Both cases addressed this question: if a manufacturer's...

Now, That's A Big Verdict

Posted on September 24, 2009
Per today's Law.com: A Santa Clara, Calif., jury awarded $49 million in damages Monday to a college student who was on his way to a camping trip when two trucks collided and one struck the car he was riding in,...

You Didn't Supply The Dangerous Parts? That's OK -- You're Liable Anyway

Posted on September 22, 2009
Earlier this year, one of our courts of appeal decided Taylor v. Elliott Turbomachinery Co., Inc. (2009) 171 Cal.App.4th 564, a product liability decision generally considered to be quite pro-defense. In Taylor, decedent was exposed to asbestos gaskets and packing...

Is There Any Claim For Spoliation Of Evidence Left? Maybe Just a Little Bit Of One?

Posted on September 20, 2009
As a product liability defense lawyer, I've long been interested in the subject of spoliation of evidence, if only because of the drubbing our Supremes have always given all possible versions of this theory. I like to think of the...

So What Happens When I Walk In The Door?

Posted on September 18, 2009
I've long had a wise-crack I use with some corporate clients (usually long-term ones who I count as friends) to the effect that "When I walk in the door, the good news is over." The point being, of course, that...

Binding Arbitration Award Reversed For Excluding "Material Evidence" Causing Substantial Prejudice

Posted on August 31, 2009
CalBizLit is not personally a huge fan of binding arbitration, although many of our clients are. CBL realizes that arbitration often reduces the likelihood of a "high end," or runaway verdict. This is why defendants tend to favor arbitration and...

$13.8 Million Punitive Award Against Philip Morris

Posted on August 25, 2009
So here's the story: Betty Bullock smoked Benson & Hedges and Marlboros for 45 years, and was diagnosed with lung cancer. She sued Altria / Philip Morris, and in 2002, her case went to trial, resulting in a compensatory award...

More About FaceBook: How To Get Facebook Records In The Litigation Arena

Posted on August 24, 2009
CalBizLit posted last Wednesday here about renowned attorney Mark Lanier's privacy law suit against Facebook, which was met with the derisive hoots it certainly deserved. But there's a more serious issue about Facebook, MySpace and other social network sites that...

Lawsuit Charges FaceBook With Violating California Privacy Law

Posted on August 19, 2009
Mark Lanier, one of the most successful plaintiff's toxic tort and drug lawyers in the country (and a really skilled trial lawyer who is generally despised by American business) is going after Facebook. He's representing five plaintiffs, a diverse group...

Plaintiff Bar's Position On Medicare Set-Asides

Posted on August 13, 2009
Even though it isn't strictly a California issue, we've been following developments in the MMSEA and Medicare Cost Recovery area, with earlier posts, links and white papers here, here, here, here and here. Now the American Association for Justice (fka...

Attorney's Lien vs. Medical Lien: Attorneys' Lien Wins

Posted on August 11, 2009
Most plaintiff personal injury attorneys' have provisions in their fee agreements giving them a lien against client recovery. In a wide variety of circumstances, the medical providers may have a lien against the recovery as well. So what happens when...

CAN-SPAM Act -- Common Sense From The Ninth Circuit

Posted on August 10, 2009
The Ninth Circuit decision in Gordon v. Virtumundo (9th Cir., 2009) ___ F.3d ____ (No. 07-35487) is in a case that actually originated in the District Court for the Western District of Washington, not from California at all. But it...

Ford Explorer Rollover Coupon Settlement -- Coupons Gathering Dust

Posted on August 04, 2009
More than a year ago, CalBizLIt blogged -- no, not just blogged, whined and ranted -- about the coupon settlement in the Ford Explorer Cases, JCCP Nos. 4266 and 4270. Fundamentally, CalBizLit hates coupon settlements. CBL, which generally believes in...

Boomer Verdicts for July

Posted on July 31, 2009
Riverside County: Jury tags K-Mart in an age discrimination case for $916,000 compensatory damages on Tuesday and $25 million in punitives on Wednesday -- more than twice what the plaintiff attorneys asked for. Media coverage here and here. Sears (owner...

A Mediator's Perspective on Medicare Recovery and Settlements

Posted on July 31, 2009
Although this subject doesn't strictly relate to California law (which is generally the field on which CalBizLit plays), CBL has been following developments relating to Medicare's recent, potentially more aggressive approach to recovering payments as well as the reporting requirements...

Prop 65 DART Committee: No Listing of Bisphenol A (At Least For Now)

Posted on July 28, 2009
CalBizLit has just returned from ten days' vacation, and is more than a little bit behind on just about everything, including blog posts. However, we left one shoe waiting to drop just before departing: whether or not Bisphenol A, a...

Court of Appeal Expands Assumption of Risk Defense in Burning Man Case

Posted on July 15, 2009
It seems hard to believe, but until not all that long ago (1975, to be exact), contributory negligence was a complete defense in California tort cases. There were some wildly successful defense lawyers who would try and win just a...

Proposition 65 DART Committee To Consider Bisphenol A

Posted on July 13, 2009
CalBizLit has mentioned here and here that there is currently a significant up-tick in the increase of chemicals listed either as carcinogens or reproductive toxicants under Proposition 65. However, there's a big one coming up at the meeting of the...

Trial Court Strikes Blow For Common Sense In Anti-"Ladies Day" Case

Posted on July 10, 2009
CalBizLit previously blogged here and here about that brave crusading lawyer and sometime litigant Alfred Rava's efforts to eliminate the scourge of business discrimination against fathers, who sustain humiliation and other forms of emotional distress when they are deprived of...

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