Personal Injury Law
Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog 
Maryland personal injury related material from Miller & Zois.
Post Frequency: 0.8/day Last Entry: November 16, 2009 at 15:26:46 Recent Entries: 293
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Rolexes and Introductions
Posted on November 16, 2009Whenever I prepare for giving an opening statement, as I am today, my head is filled with more advice that I have heard or read over the years than expletives Bill Belichick threw out last night. I am writing today about two issues: what you should wear to trial and how you begin your opening.
Negotiating a Settlement with Car Insurance Companies
Posted on November 11, 2009Accident lawyers attempting to negotiate settlements with insurance companies tend to view insurance companies as monolithic, i.e., "Insurance Company A is difficult' or "Insurance Company B is easy to deal with on claims." It is an oversimplification...
University of Maryland Medical Systems v. Waldt
Posted on November 10, 2009The Maryland Court of Appeals republished University of Maryland Medical Systems v. Waldt today. One of our lawyers, John Cord, has created a document comparing the two opinions. This PDF document highlights the differences between the October 20, 2009 opinion and the November 10, 2009 opinion...
Personal Injury Statistics
Posted on November 10, 2009While not as fun as, say, baseball statistics in the pre-steroids era, I really do enjoy looking at statistics on personal injury lawsuits. The Department of Justice just released a new report on personal injury lawsuit statistics (which I found via TortsProfBlog)...
How to Talk to a Judge
Posted on November 09, 2009John Bratt reports in his Baltimore Injury Lawyer Blog on his appellate argument before the Maryland Court of Special Appeals on Friday. John asked the court to affirm a jury verdict his client obtained last year in a truck accident case in Charles County, Maryland...
Maryland Drunk Driving Laws: Change We Need
Posted on November 05, 2009The Baltimore Sun has written another story about the tragic death of a young woman who was a junior at Johns Hopkins and was killed by a drunk driver who has had nine previous drunk driving convictions. I've avoiding writing about this topic because I really could not think of anything meaningful to add...
Subsequent Remedial Measures: New Opinion from Ohio
Posted on November 04, 2009Sean Wajert's MassTort Defense Blog (c/o Torts Prof Blog) has an interesting post on a new opinion by the Iowa Supreme Court on the question of whether you can admit subsequent remedial measures in cases that sound both in negligence and strict liability...
Aluminum Bat Lawsuit: $850,000 Verdict
Posted on October 29, 2009The New York Times reports that a Montana jury found on Wednesday that the maker of Louisville Slugger baseball bats failed to adequately warn about the dangers that aluminum bat can pose, awarding $850,000 for the tragic death of an 18 year-old boy hit by a ball while pitching in a American Legion baseball game...
New Maryland Medical Malpractice Opinion
Posted on October 28, 2009The Maryland Court of Appeals reached a decision in University of Maryland Medical System v. Waldt, a case that is reverberating among medical malpractice lawyers in Maryland. Yet the back story is better than the case. The case was tried by two of the most prolific lawyers in Maryland?s history: Steve Snyder and Billy Murphy...
Malpractice Editorial Version 2.0
Posted on October 28, 2009Medical malpractice lawyers, victims? advocacy groups, doctors (and their lobbyists) and insurance companies have produced a heretofore unprecedented spate of editorials on medical malpractice reform in the last few months. Even I?m bored with it. But this editorial in Salon is a little different because the message ? that medical malpractice tort reform is not the answer ? comes from a pediatrician...
University of Maryland Medical Systems v. Waldt
Posted on October 28, 2009This morning I blogged about University of Maryland Medical Systems v. Waldt in one of the longest posts in Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog history. Apparently, in light of my blog post and the criticisms contained in the post, the Maryland Court of Appeals withdrew the opinion...
Juror Questions
Posted on October 26, 2009I once had a jury ask the judge to see my damage exhibits in a case where I had asked for over $800,000. We all knew what that meant: Plaintiff's verdict. The judge gently chided the defense lawyer for making no offer in the case. I took a deep, satisfied breath with confidence that a jury verdict was imminent...
Insurance Medical Exams
Posted on October 25, 2009I found this nugget from a hearing transcript in a brain injury truck collusion case where we are trying to require the defense's medical expert to provide a modicum of documentation regarding the amount of income he earns from insurance companies: There are a lot of experts on both sides of the aisle who may as well be independent medical examiners because they are honest doctors who just call it as they see it...
Health Insurers Antitrust Exemption
Posted on October 23, 2009This from NPR: In the ongoing health care overhaul drama, the Obama administration and the health insurance industry have gone from uneasy allies to bitter adversaries. One result is that health insurers stand to lose a privilege their industry has enjoyed for the past 64 years: They, like Major League Baseball, have been exempt from federal antitrust laws...
Evidence of Expert's Personal Practices: A New Opinion in Georgia
Posted on October 23, 2009The Georgia Supreme Court recently ruled in Condra v. Atlanta Orthopaedic Group on an interesting issue in medical malpractice cases: can the standard-of-care medical expert be subject to cross examination about what the expert would have done if the doctor had treated the patient? (If you are not interested in the nuance of the facts, skip the next two paragraphs to cut to the chase...
Trial Lawyer Tips
Posted on October 23, 2009Years ago, a personal injury lawyer in Southern California named Mitch Jackson started blogging. Mitch had great content and was posting frequently. One day I looked up and he disappeared, joining the list of talented people burned on blogging. Mitch sent me an email this week telling me that he was up and blogging again...
Denver Motorcycle Lawyer Comment
Posted on October 22, 2009I received the following comment in my inbox on Monday morning: I was just made aware that if the person who hit you is under-insured, you may be able to use your own motorcycle insurance or even your car insurance for compensation. At first glance, I thought it was a strange thing to share with me...
Maryland Law We Need to Change: Car Insurance for Cabs
Posted on October 19, 2009Most of my information and opinions on taxis and taxi drivers come from the television show Taxi. Unlike most 70s/80s television shows, Taxi holds up fairly well on reruns. Anyway, it is pretty clear that Baltimore City and Prince George?s County cab companies are a different animal than Alex Reager's Sunshine Cab Company...
Miller & Zois on Twitter
Posted on October 19, 2009By popular demand, Miller & Zois has just created a Twitter page that links to all Miller & Zois blogs. Okay, maybe popular demand is a little strong but I have gotten a lot of requests. All right, no one actually asked. But if you are not following our lawyers' blogs on an RSS feed, this is another easy way to do it...
What Has Texas Gotten in Exchange for Draconian Malpractice Caps?
Posted on October 16, 2009The Pop Tort has a blog post underscoring that Texas? draconian medical malpractice tort reform, while a boon for doctors, has hardly improved medical care in Texas. There has been a lot of talk about how doctors are flowing into Texas as a result of tort reform...
Wrongful Death Case in Florida
Posted on October 14, 2009Jurors in Florida heard arguments yesterday in a lawsuit filed by the family of a 16 year-old boy who died while training at the IMG Academy?s International Performance Institute. According to the wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family's lawyer, the sports academy should have performed a thorough enough physical examination before allowing the child to participate in strenuous exercise...
Insurance Law Professors
Posted on October 09, 2009I've joined the 21st Century this year and started using PowerPoint in my insurance law class at the University of Baltimore School of Law. I've been a professor at UB for 11 years, teaching every semester. But after five or six classes using PowerPoint, I really can't imagine teaching without it...
Speeding Ticket Camera
Posted on October 07, 2009After putting my kids to bed last night, I took a look at Gregg Easterbrook's Tuesday Morning Quarterback before going to bed. Easterbrook writes on a lot of different topics such as human happiness (interesting sounding book I've never read), global warming, science, space, theology, etc...
Maryland Pedestrian Accident Appellate Opinion
Posted on October 06, 2009The Maryland Court of Appeals decided Abrishamian v. Barbely, a pedestrian accident appeal from Montgomery County, after jury awarded only half of the client?s special damages (medical bills and lost wages) and gave $0.00 for pain and suffering. The Plaintiff loses this appeal and it is not a close call...
Changes to the Federal Rules of Procedure
Posted on October 05, 2009The Drug and Device Law Blog has a guest post explaining expected changes to the Federal Rules of Procedure that will dramatically change how time is calculated in litigation in federal court. If you are an attorney with a case in federal court, you really need to read this post...
Medical Malpractice Lawsuits and Malpractice Premiums
Posted on October 02, 2009In response to a call from one doctor for medical malpractice reform in Montana, Thomas C. Bulma, a Missoula lawyer, points out the following facts: Only one Montana dentist has been the subject of a lawsuit in Montana in the past 10 years. The dentist prevailed...
Yaz Lawsuits Consolidated
Posted on October 02, 2009The Yaz lawsuits pending around the country in federal court were consolidated yesterday in MDL-2100, Yasmin and YAZ Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation. John Cord's Drug Recall Lawyer Blog provides all of the details of the transfer...
Jeans Day!
Posted on October 02, 2009Today, it Jeans Day at Miller & Zois in honor of breast cancer. Everyone who wore jeans today made a contribution to breast cancer research. Cancer is an awful thing but I really think we are going to beat it in my lifetime.
Trial Article
Posted on September 30, 2009I'm pleased to report that an article that John Bratt and I wrote has been accepted for publication in December in Trial, the flagship publication for the American Association of Justice. The article is about mediations in catastrophic personal injury cases...
Aspirin MDL
Posted on September 25, 2009Sean Wajert's MassTortDefense blog reports that Bayer moved last week to dismiss the master complaint in the federal MDL involving combination aspirin products pending in New York. Plaintiff's' lawyers in this MDL allege Bayer marketed combination aspirin and dietary supplement products without approval from the FDA and deceived the plaintiffs and putative class members with respect to the safety and efficacy of the products...
The Recession and Accident Jury Verdicts
Posted on September 24, 2009I have been interested for a while in how the recession is impacting jury verdicts. Back in June, I wrote about a few articles that drew differing conclusions and I pointed out that neither had any meaningful statistical evidence that supported their claims...
Are American Doctors Overpaid? My Vote
Posted on September 21, 2009An article in Slate raises an interesting question: are doctors overpaid? Unquestionably, the article points out, doctors in the United States make a lot of money relative to doctors in other countries. American doctors make four times what French doctors earn...
"I'm Sorry" May Have No Impact on Medical Malpractice Lawsuits
Posted on September 16, 2009The new popular wisdom that gained currency last year is that doctors who apologize for their mistakes are less likely to face a medical malpractice lawsuit than doctors who refuse to come clean. This supports what medical malpractice lawyers have long claimed: patients are often most angered by concealment of the malpractice and the concern that it will happen again to another patient...
Cross Examination of Truck Accident Lawyer
Posted on September 14, 2009I have put on-line Laura Zois' cross examination of the defendant driver in a Baltimore City truck accident case tried last month in which the Plaintiff received a verdict of over $1 million. The case has since settled. This truck driver cross examination underscores that truck accident lawyers need to know the applicable trucking regulations inside and out...
Insurance Defense Lawyers: Are You Toxic?
Posted on September 11, 2009Above the Law has a post of discussing a thread of comments to another blog post about being an insurance defense lawyer. Basically the question is whether the "low-end of insurance defense" is "toxic." I'm not entirely sure what is meant by "low-end," but I'm pretty sure I've been the plaintiffs' lawyer in cases that would fit this commentator's definition...
Dr. George Hossfeld Comes After Medical Malpractice Lawyers... and My Family
Posted on September 11, 2009I had a great morning this morning. I arrived excited and ready to attack the day. This was the email in my in-box: name: George Hossfeld email: EmrgncyMD@[withheld] phone: ___________________ Interested In: You obviously do not have a clue re the mind of a doctor...
Obama to Discuss Medical Malpractice Tonight
Posted on September 09, 2009"The president will talk about meaningful malpractice reform tonight. What I hope that does is cause Republicans to understand that we're close to getting something truly significant done for the American people, truly significant for those struggling with the high cost of health insurance," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said this morning on "Fox Morning News...
Personal Injury Links: Post Holiday Blues Edition
Posted on September 09, 2009One of my post Labor Day resolutions is to blog more often to continue to grow the Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog readership. But I'm still trying to get trying to get back into the flow of things today, so instead of a substance post, I'll just leech off the work of others: Missouri medical malpractice claims reach an all-time low...
Yaz/Yasmin/Ocella Lawsuits
Posted on September 09, 2009For more information on the Yazmin/Ocella/Yaz lawsuits, visit our Yaz attorney claim information center which provides a general overview the Yaz lawsuits, an update on what plaintiffs' Yaz lawyers are doing in these cases, an explanation of the how the Yaz lawsuits will proceed, the latest medical research on Yaz, and medical journal information on the potential association between Yaz and gallbladder injuries...
Obama Speech on Medical Malpractice Tort Reform
Posted on September 09, 2009President Obama laid out the specifics of what he thinks about medical malpractice tort reform tonight. Well, not really. Let's just say President Obama is keeping his options open. The trial balloon Obama he floated was to test out ?a range of ideas? to bring down the cost of medical malpractice insurance for doctors...
Robo Calls and Unwanted Faxes
Posted on September 03, 2009LawyerUSA reports on a $24 million settlement between a Florida company and the Federal Trade Commission over allegations that it made illegal, pre-recorded "robo-calls," selling what the feds say was questionable coverage. I'm fine with the federal government policing this stuff, and, in principle, I'm fine with lawyers bringing claims that help the government enforce our rules...
Father Sues Stepfather Over Child's Suicide
Posted on September 01, 2009Tragic and bizarre lawsuit in Baltimore City where a father sued his son's stepfather for leaving a loaded gun in the house, which the boy used to commit suicide. Incredibly, the father won a $50,000 verdict. Agree or disagree with him, the father certainly was willing to go to great lengths to make his point that I largely support: guns are dangerous and you cannot leave a gun and bullets out for minor children - or anyone else - to grab...
Maryland Motorcycle Accident Verdict Overturned
Posted on September 01, 2009On Friday, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals reversed a $3 million jury verdict in Cecil County v. Dorman. That statement overmagnifies what happened. The jury verdict of $3 million is misleading because Maryland?s Local Government Tort Claim Act limited the actual verdict to $200,000...
When to Serve Interrogatories?
Posted on August 28, 2009There is a split of opinion among personal injury lawyers as to whether plaintiffs should propound interrogatories before or after taking depositions, particularly in a case where there is a significant dispute as to liability. When looking at this question, it is important to acknowledge that defense lawyers in personal injury cases are like actors: there a lot of Jack Nicholsons and Meryl Streeps and there are also a lot of folks who call themselves actors but their acting skills do not rise to even Skinamax quality...
CBO on Defensive Medicine and Tort Reform
Posted on August 27, 2009The Baltimore Sun's Jay Hancock observes that Charles Krauthammer holds the Congressional Budget Office up as the apex of unbiased reality in one context, but ignore its findings about the insignificant costs of defensive medicine and malpractice reform in the exact same column...
Personal Injury Lawyer Blogs: Thoughts on Blogging
Posted on August 24, 2009The Drug and Device Law Blog has an interesting post on how long lawyers stick with blogging. The short version: most lawyers fail miserably at blogging over the long haul. Lawyers blog for a lot of different reasons, usually related, at least in part, to furthering their professional career...
Little League Lawsuits
Posted on August 24, 2009There is good article on lawsuits involving Little League teams (and participant sports generally) in LawyersUSA this morning which includes a number of quotes from me.
Medical Malpractice Tort Reform and Obama's Health Care Plan
Posted on August 20, 2009Real Clear Politics has a blog post suggesting that the Democrats are going to flip at the last minute on medical malpractice tort reform to save President Obama's health care bill. The theory on which this premise rests is that the only real obstacle for Democrats to malpractice tort reform is that Democrats do not want to offend trial lawyers...
Maryland Malpractice Law
Posted on August 18, 2009John Cord and I have put together a pretty good summary of Maryland malpractice law, including an analysis of the Maryland statutes that are germane to malpractice. We also added a sample malpractice certificate of merit and an expert report that comply with Walzer...
Cell Phones and Car Accidents: Jarring Statistics
Posted on August 13, 2009I've been preaching about the perils of cell phone usage and, in particular, text messaging, because it is clear that cell phone usage causes car accidents. There is a bit of hypocrisy in this. I use the cell phone in the car. I justify this because I keep both hands on the steering wheel while using my Bluetooth...
Truck Accident Jury Verdict in Baltimore City
Posted on August 11, 2009I'm pleased to report that Laura Zois and John Bratt obtained this morning a $1,063,000 verdict in a truck accident case in Baltimore City after a four day trial.
Preparing Clients for Mediation
Posted on August 11, 2009One of the most important things to do to prepare for mediation is to get the client ready for mediation. If you are prepping a client for mediation in a personal injury case, don't forget to prepare the client for what may come in the defense lawyer's opening statement...
From My Mailbox
Posted on August 10, 2009From my email box this weekend: i need an example direct examination of liabiliy expert in snow/ice slip and fall case preferably illinois. We have dedicated an area of our Personal Injury Lawyer Help Center to providing sample examination outlines and sample trial transcripts because our lawyers think it is really helpful to have real samples to review, particularly for personal injury lawyers who have not had the opportunity to try a lot of cases...
How Do Doctors Handle Malpractice Lawsuits?
Posted on August 07, 2009Kevin, MD blogs about the toll a medical malpractice lawsuit takes on doctors who commit medical errors. The post acknowledges that the focus typically is, and should be, on the victims. But it is important to remember that medical malpractice comes from different places...
Ameriprise: Battling for "Most Difficult Car Insurance Defendant" Title
Posted on August 06, 2009Five years ago, I had never heard of Ameriprise Auto & Home Insurance. Now, I'm seeing more and more Ameriprise claims that involve an Ameriprise insured defendant. Ameriprise certainly does not have a lot of market share in Maryland. But the Ameriprise website claims it is one of the fastest growing insurance companies in the country...
Disc Injuries: Settlement and Trial Value Aid
Posted on August 05, 2009Jury Verdict Research provides some incredibly interesting data this month on a topic of great interest to accident lawyers: disc injuries. Eighty percent of disc injuries that go to trial are from injuries suffered in auto/truck/motorcycle accidents...
The Mission
Posted on August 04, 2009This mission - should you choose to accept it - is clear. It is being executed by others with discipline throughout the country. If properly implemented, it will fill the RSS feeds of every medical malpractice lawyer in this country with editorials from New York to Timbuktu (not the goal but a fun byproduct)...
Personal Injury Roundup of Links
Posted on August 03, 2009Wisconsin Supreme Court begins to lean to the right, notwithstanding last week?s informed consent holding. $11 million malpractice settlement in Chicago (Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer). Advice on coordinating PIP and workers? compensation in third party car accident cases...
First Neurontin Lawsuit is Dismissed During Trial
Posted on July 30, 2009Bizarre outcome for the first Neurontin trial. The family agreed to dismiss the lawsuit in the middle of trial after an anonymous donor - huh? - offered to put money in a trust for their 10-year-old daughter, according to Mark Lanier, the family?s lawyer...
Henry Louis Gates and the Cambridge Police
Posted on July 29, 2009I'm pretty diligent about sticking to issues of interest to personal injury lawyers on this blog. But Eugene Robinson has a great article on the Henry Louis Gates debacle that was both insightful and fun to read.
Another Plaintiff's Informed Consent Victory
Posted on July 28, 2009In another big informed consent opinion, the Wisconsin Supreme Court in Bubb v. Brusky overturned the trial court and an intermediate Wisconsin appellate court in finding that a doctor did have to inform his patient of the treatment options if the medical community is split as to the appropriate course...
Medical Malpractice and Informed Consent in Maryland: New Maryland Court of Appeals Opinion
Posted on July 27, 2009Big summer for the Maryland Court of Appeals in personal injury/medical malpractice appeals opinions. The latest in a recent spate of Maryland high court opinions, McQuitty v. Spangler, involves a tragic case of a boy who was born with severe cerebral palsy...
Neurotin Lawsuit Goes to Trial
Posted on July 27, 2009The first Neurontin suicide lawsuit against Pfizer gets underway today in Boston. The case is being billed by many, including even the trial judge, as an underdog of the Creed-Balboa variety. Pfizer has not set aside a reserve to deal with any of the Neurontin lawsuits...
Defensive Medicine and Medical Malpractice Costs
Posted on July 27, 2009I've complained before about medical malpractice reform advocates who hold the Congressional Budget Office up as the apex of neutrality and wisdom in one context, but ignore its findings about the insignificant costs of defensive medicine. Charles Krauthammer managed to do this within the same editorial in the Washington Post on Friday...
The Revenge of Bizarro Ron Miller
Posted on July 24, 2009Last month, I wrote a post about an article I read from Ron Miller, a politician in southern Maryland, who wrote an article suggesting we take a shot at health courts in Maryland to help resolve malpractice cases. Mr. Miller fails to note that we already tried this in Maryland and it completely failed...
Ben Roethlisberger Lawsuit
Posted on July 24, 2009John Bratt on the Baltimore Injury Lawyer Blog finds a way to make the lawsuit against Ben Roethlisberger of interest to personal injury lawyers. I offer my own thoughts from a more philosophical and less substantive perspective here.
Yaz Lawyer: Information for Attorneys Handling Yaz/Yasmin Lawsuits
Posted on July 24, 2009The Yaz and Yasmin litigation is just now starting to take off, with at least 11 lawsuits around the country. Lawyers evaluating Yaz/Yasmin cases need to pay particular attention to (1) the injuries; (2) the defendants; and (3) viable claims.
Washington, D.C. Medical Malpractice Verdicts
Posted on July 22, 2009How many medical malpractice trials have there been in Washington D.C. this year? Ummm, let?s see, medical malpractice lawsuits are out of control. I know this because I read the Forbes article repeating the ?malpractice lawsuits are running amok and medical malpractice lawyers are the problem? mantra...
Complaints Against Doctors On-Line
Posted on July 22, 2009The Washington Post has an article today about doctors who seek pledges from their patients not to complain on websites about the health care services they receive. Let's set aside the obvious for a second that these agreements are very unlikely to be enforceable, either legally or practically...
Maryland?s Cap on Damages in Lead Paint Cases
Posted on July 21, 2009The Maryland Court of Appeals has two big cases in 2009 ? one a lead paint case, the other a medical malpractice claim - in which plaintiffs seek a path around Maryland?s non-economic damages cap after big jury verdicts. Plaintiffs lost Round 1 today...
Context for Medical Malpractice Claims
Posted on July 17, 2009The total cost of medical litigation and malpractice insurance premiums has fallen to an all-time low according to a new Public Citizen report. Medical malpractice litigation?s share of overall health care costs has fallen to less than 0.6 percent...
Forbes Article on Lawsuits in New York
Posted on July 15, 2009I was tempted to respond to this Forbes article on how our tort system and medical malpractice lawyers are ruining New York. But, to save myself some effort, I decided to wait the obligatory fifteen minutes to give the resident New York personal injury blogger, Eric Turkewitz, a chance to respond...
Holes in Shoes Motion Case Ends in Mistrial
Posted on July 13, 2009The personal injury case with the "Motion for Counsel to Get New Shoes" that I blogged about Friday ended in a mistrial, setting aside what apparently would been a $2.2 million plaintiff's verdict. So, essentially, filing this silly motion may have cost his injured client $2...
Defense Lawyers Success Secret: Worn Out Shoes
Posted on July 10, 2009The Palm Beach Post has an insane story about a plaintiffs' lawyer in a personal injury case in Florida who filed a motion to prevent a defense lawyer from wearing shoes with holes in them: Part of this strategy is to present Mr. Robb and his client as modest individuals who are so frugal that Mr...
New Maryland Appellate Opinion on Survival Actions
Posted on July 09, 2009The Maryland Court of Special Appeals found Monday that the trial court erred in excluding the estate of a five year old drowning victim from presenting a survival action for conscious pain and suffering of the child while drowning. You can find the opinion here...
Defensive Medicine and the Congressional Budget Office
Posted on July 06, 2009Obama's original health care bill is dead on arrival because after the Congressional Budget Office -- the nonpartisan gold standard of objectivity according to GOP talking points - concluded last month that the proposed health care reform would cost $1 trillion over the next decade and still leave millions uninsured...
Vicodin and Percocet Recall on the Way?
Posted on July 01, 2009CNN reports that an FDA government advisory panel voted yesterday to recommend eliminating prescription drugs that combine acetaminophen with narcotics -- such as Vicodin and Percocet -- because of their risk for overdose and for severe liver injury. I'm glad to see the FDA is looking at the safety and efficacy of existing drugs...
Overlawyered: 10th Birthday
Posted on July 01, 2009Overlawyered celebrates its 10th birthday today. I disagree with many of Walter' Olson's views but we have a lot of common ground, too. I read his blog almost every day as do a lot of others who, like me, share a different philosophy on many issues...
Personal Links: July 4th Weekend Edition
Posted on June 30, 2009If you have any suggestions for links, send me an email, I'm all ears. Maryland specific links are at the bottom: The New York Times reports that General Motors will continue to have responsibility for products liability lawsuits filed against it after bankruptcy...
Wrist Fracture Verdicts and Settlements
Posted on June 29, 2009Metro Verdicts Monthly graph this month is the median verdict and settlement value of wrist fracture cases over the last 22 years. The average settlement/verdict in Washington D.C. is $105,000. Maryland is less than half that: $50,000. The average settlement/verdict in a wrist fracture case in Virginia is $52,583...
Are Doctors Better Than Lawyers? Yes
Posted on June 25, 2009Notwithstanding the last two blog posts, I have found reason #394835 why I want my kids to be doctors instead of lawyers: an on-line law school course graduate has been made a new member of the Massachusetts bar. This new lawyer's picture is in the Boston Herald story...
Medical Malpractice Lawyers in Maryland Are the Problem Says Ron Miller?
Posted on June 24, 2009Ron Miller has written an article for Southern Maryland Online titled, "Is There a Doctor in the House?" Mr. Miller argues that Maryland needs medical malpractice reform if we are going to reform our health care system and that we have to make medical malpractice lawsuits in Maryland "less attractive" for Maryland medical malpractice lawyers...
Medical Malpractice Lawsuits: How Strong Is the Link to Defensive Medicine?
Posted on June 24, 2009According to Harvard University economist Amitabh Chandra, annual jury awards and legal settlements involving doctors amount to $3.6 billion, a drop in the bucket in a country that spends $2.3 trillion annually on health care. Medical malpractice reform advocates claim that this does not account for defensive medicine...
Product Liability Lawyer Accused of Misconduct
Posted on June 22, 2009The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky has an article on an amazing lawsuit in Kentucky in yet another derivative claim of the fen-phen litigation. Plaintiff claims that her lawyers told her that her echocardiogram showed that her heart was "like a tire that might burst? as a result of the use of fen-phen...
New Massachusetts Opinion on Duty and Foreseeability
Posted on June 18, 2009A hospital did not breach a duty of care as a matter of law to a police office who was injured responding to a traffic accident allegedly caused by a just-released colonoscopy patient, Massachusetts' highest court has ruled, affirming the trial court below...
Claims for "My Plane Went into the Hudson Bay"
Posted on June 17, 2009The Wall Street Journal reports that AIG is playing hardball with Flight 1549 claims from passengers that suffered injury or lost property (cell phone, i-Pods, etc.) when their plane landed in the Hudson River. Their thinking? An AIG spokesman told the Wall Street Journal that bad publicity is better than no publicity, which explains AIG's thinking with those bonuses...
Personal Injury Links: Post Vacation Update
Posted on June 15, 2009I'm back from the Maryland State Bar Association convention in Ocean City. What? You did not see me there? Okay, I never actually made it to the convention. But the brochure looked nice. Anyway, I'm back and these are the links of interest I found this weekend: Maryland law firms are hiring...
Obama to AMA: Open to Reform, Not Malpractice Caps
Posted on June 15, 2009From President Obama speech today: Now, I recognize that it will be hard to make some of these changes if doctors feel like they are constantly looking over their shoulder for fear of lawsuits. Some doctors may feel the need to order more tests and treatments to avoid being legally vulnerable...
Obama Turns on Medical Malpractice Tort Reform?
Posted on June 11, 2009President Obama will speak to the American Medical Association on Monday. What's on the agenda of the President? There is speculation that he will support some form of medical malpractice reform to throw doctors a bone in his health care reform package...
Collateral Source Rule Under Attack in Indiana
Posted on June 08, 2009The Indiana Supreme Court issued a troubling opinion last week in Stanley v. Walker, ruling that the discounted price actually paid for medical care by insurance is admissible as evidence. Ah, what about the collateral source rule? Well, the Indiana Supreme Court thinks they have us covered...
Personal Injury Jury Verdicts and the Recession
Posted on June 04, 2009Michigan Lawyers Weekly published an article titled ?Populist juries side with plaintiffs.? (No web link available.) This title got my attention because I have been speculating about the impact our economic troubles are having on jury verdicts. The thesis of the article appears to be that juries are more likely to side with plaintiffs in this economy, but are less likely to give large damage verdicts...
Bousch & Lomb Settlement
Posted on June 03, 2009The Drug Recall Lawyer Blog has a post today supplementing/rebutting Mark Herrmann's blog post on the Drug and Device Law Blog on the Daubert issues in the Bausch & Lomb eye infection cases. Mark posted his blog at 5:00 a.m. and John responded a few hours later...
Breast Cancer Lawsuits
Posted on June 02, 2009The Doctors Company provides a list by Dr. Richard E. Anderson of 39 ways for doctors to get sued for for not properly diagnosing breast cancer or failure to properly treating breast cancer after it has been diagnosed (via Day on Torts, via Eric Turkewitz's New York Personal Injury Attorney Blog)...
Cerebral Palsy Verdict in Frederick
Posted on June 01, 2009The Maryland Daily Record reports that a Frederick County jury awarded nearly $4 million to a boy in a malpractice lawsuit claiming the child?s cerebral palsy was caused by his doctors? failure to properly monitor his heartbeat before delivery. The jury?s verdict was against an ER doctor and an obstetrician...
Denture Cream Lawsuits: An Overview of the Problem
Posted on June 01, 2009Zinc is common enough?it is even a dietary requirement. Humans should typically ingest between eight and eleven milligrams per day (often through red meat, nuts and grains). However, lawsuits alleging zinc toxicity of denture creams are showcasing how too much of a good thing can be harmful...
Slow Blog Posting Week
Posted on May 29, 2009Not many Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog posts this week. A few years ago, I started the Maryland Lawyer Blog because I found the injury blog just had too many posts that were not focused on malpractice, car accidents, and product liability cases. The Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog is meant to be a niche blog on just personal injury cases...
Drug Recall Lawyer Blog
Posted on May 27, 2009We recently added a sixth lawyer, John Cord, to our team at Miller & Zois. You can read his biography here. John has started his own blog, the Drug Recall Lawyer Blog. This blog is directed a product liability lawyers handling drug and medical device case in Maryland and around the country...
Should Blogs Name Names of Non Public Figures?
Posted on May 21, 2009The Maryland Lawyer Blog yesterday wrote about the hubbub in the legal blogosphere when an associate at Quinn Emanuel - a large law firm that represents the Washington Redskins in their dispute with American Indian groups - engaged in an email exchange with a partner after another partner wrote one of the big firm standard "We Are the Masters of the Universe" email after a favorable ruling...
Unbelievable Personal Injury Lawyer Ads, Part II
Posted on May 20, 2009Esquire (via Overlawyered) has videos of the five worst lawyer ads. It is worth taking the time to watch these. If you do nothing else today, click on the last one, the California Switchblade. Transcendent unintentional comedy. If you are having fun, go to YouTube...
Humor at Trial
Posted on May 19, 2009I read a series of articles in Trial Magazine on cross examining experts at trial. One article revolved around a joke the lawyer made and how everyone laughed, except for the expert. The moral of the article is that the expert?s failure to laugh at the joke ?showed the witness?s pomposity? and was the ?key to the jury acceptance of [plaintiff?s] experts and their credibility...
Vison Loss Settlement and Verdicts
Posted on May 18, 2009Metro Verdicts Monthly graph this month is the median verdict and settlement value of ?vision loss? personal injury cases. Omitting defense verdicts, the average settlement/verdict in Washington D.C. is $500,000. What do you think the average is in Maryland? Somehow, I doubt you would guess anything in the neighborhood or even the zip code of $192,700...
(Mostly) Personal Injury Related Links
Posted on May 14, 2009A big firm lawyer in New York kicks her young kids out of the car. I can't decide whether the presentation of this story is wildly inappropriate. Probably. Evan Schaeffer talks about prepping personal injury clients for deposition Is it okay if Supreme Court Justices nominees are fat? Answer? Sure, but get to the gym once in a while...
Settlement Loans: The Bane of Personal Injury Lawyers
Posted on May 13, 2009The lure of a settlement loan is clear: up front money. The interest rate for settlement loans? Imagine the interest rate that Gazzo (Rocky Balboa?s loan shark boss in Rocky I) must have charged. Then double it. How do they get around usury laws that say you can?t take advantage of other people? How are these settlement loans not a dictionary definition of predatory lending? The backdoor is that the outcome of a car accident claim or lawsuit is theoretically uncertain...
Workmen's Compensation Uninsured Motorist Setoff: New Opinion for the Maryland Court of Special Appeals
Posted on May 12, 2009The Maryland Court of Special Appeals in a 2-1 decision today affirmed a Frederick County trial court?s grant of summary judgment to Erie Insurance in an underinsured motorist lawsuit. The nutshell: State Farm paid its $100,000 liability policy in a serious injury car accident case...
"Relates Back" Lawsuit Reinstated: New 1st Circuit Opinion
Posted on May 11, 2009The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals wrote a helpful opinion for product liability lawyers who get the name of the defendant wrong when filing just before statute of limitations expires. The court elevated substance over form in finding the the claim "relates back" under federal law...
Hydroxycut Recall
Posted on May 05, 2009The FDA has warned users of weight loss drug Hydroxycut to stop taking the popular weight-loss product because of risk of severe liver damage. The Hydroxycut recall focuses us all for the zillionth time on FDA?s ability to sufficiently police so much as a high school prom...
Medicare Liens
Posted on May 05, 2009We can can hold hands and agree with the Drug and Device Law Blog on few things related to drug and medical device litigation but this is one: we hate Medicare liens and the government is making life even more difficult for parties on both sides of the v...
New Tort Against Medical Malpractice Doctors : Should Courts Force Doctors to Confess Their Own Negligence to Their Patients
Posted on May 05, 2009University of Baltimore law professor Richard W. Bourne wrote an article published this year in the Arkansas Law Review articulating the theory that there should be an independent tort claim when a doctor destroys evidence or when a doctor fails to disclose to the patient that there has been a breach of the appropriate standard of care that causes injury...
Bad Golf Shot Lawsuit Ends with Summary Judgment
Posted on May 04, 2009The New York Appellate Division affirmed, in a 4-1 opinion, a trial court?s ruling granting summary judgment in favor of a golfer who struck his friend in the eye with a golf ball. Both the plaintiff and defendant were medical doctors and friends? before the accident...
Botox Black Box Warning
Posted on May 01, 2009The FDA announced that it will now require Botox and its progeny to provide black-box warning. The FDA said the labeling is necessary to warn doctors and patients that Botox has potentially fatal complications, including problems with swallowing or breathing...
The Difference Between Moral and Civil Responsibility
Posted on April 30, 2009The New York Daily News reports that the family of a high school student in New York, who was killed in a stolen vehicle hit-and-run drunken driving accident, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the driver of the car, the owner, and the family that hosted an underage drinking party...
Personal Injury Lawyer Adverstising
Posted on April 27, 2009?For What It Is Worth? has a picture on a blog entry I found via Overlawyered. It pictures a van that could be a replica of a cartoon mocking personal injury lawyers. The blog, written by a non-practicing lawyer in Connecticut, provides no context for the picture, so I was 99% sure at first glance that it was a joke/hoax...
U.S News and World Report Rankings and the University of Baltimore Law School
Posted on April 21, 2009U.S. News and World Report ranks the University of Baltimore Law School in the Third Tier again in its annual rankings of law schools. I was hoping to see the Law School jump to the second tier, but that is probably not yet realistic. But a new state-of-the-art building for the law school is coming and lots of other changes...
Malpractice Lawsuits Is the Only Deterent in Maryland, Part II
Posted on April 21, 2009Yesterday, I wrote about how the Maryland the Maryland Board of Physicians does not deter bad doctors and that the most viable deterrent to bad medicine in Maryland is medical malpractice lawsuits. Today, the Maryland Daily Record reports that the consumer advocate group Public Citizen has found that Maryland's physician discipline system is one of the worst in the United States...
Maryland Malpractice Lawsuits and the Public Interest
Posted on April 20, 2009The Baltimore Injury Lawyer Blog today underscores why meritorious medical malpractice lawsuits not only bring justice for the malpractice victim but also serve society. The post contrasts two cases of malpractice and cover-up: one by a Maryland lawyer, the other by a Maryland doctor...
Baltimore Residents Neglect Jury Service
Posted on April 20, 2009The Maryland Bar Journal just published an article on an interview with retired Howard County Judge Dennis M. Sweeney, who talks about the jury trial system in Maryland. One amazing fact Judge Sweeney offers is that the no-show juror rate in Baltimore City is approximately 60%...
GEICO
Posted on April 17, 2009Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway took a bath this year. But in Buffett's annual letter to shareholders, he seems pumped about how GEICO is faring in the car insurance market. Buffett noted that under GEICO chief executive Tony Nicely, GEICO did its part to keep Berkshire Hathaway profitable, increasing GEICO's market share to 7...
First Year Lawyers Starting Salaries
Posted on April 16, 2009Mega law firm McKenna Long & Aldridge announced yesterday it was cut the starting salaries of its first year lawyers by $20,000. (The original version of this post said "to $20,000." Now that really would have been news!) There has been delay in reducing starting associate salaries even while these large firms are laying off scores of lawyers...
Lawyers USA Article on Independent Medical Exams
Posted on April 14, 2009LawyersUSA has an article today on a frequent topic on this blog: "independent" medical exams. There are a number of quotes from me in this article.
Value of Wrongful Death Cases in Maryland Where Victims Is 65 or Older
Posted on April 13, 2009Lawyers handling wrongful death cases encounter an awful argument from defense lawyers in cases where the victim is 65 years-old and older: you have to discount the value of your claim because the victim was old, anyway. The argument is so callous no lawyer would directly make this argument to a jury, especially in a jurisdiction like Maryland where there is a meaningful cap on wrongful death and survival action damages...
IME Doctors Caught on Tape
Posted on April 01, 2009The New York Times has a good article today on Independent Medical Examination doctors, including a doctor referred to by New York injury lawyers as "Doctor Says-No." We have a number of IME doctors in Maryland that must be related to him because they have the exact same last name...
Lawsuit Against Maryland Malpractice Lawyer by Referring Lawyer
Posted on March 31, 2009The Maryland Court of Special Appeals wrote an opinion of interest to Maryland malpractice lawyers who receive referrals from other Maryland lawyers in medical malpractice cases. This case involves a Maryland lawyer who referred a cancer misdiagnosis case involving an allegedly misread mammogram to a lawyer that handles medical malpractice cases, agreeing to a fee split...
Maryland Auto Accident Cases: A New "Amount in Controversy" Law Passes the Maryland Senate
Posted on March 24, 2009Maryland Senate Bill 468 passed today in the Maryland Senate. It increases - from $10,000 to $20,000 - the maximum amount in controversy in a civil action in which a party may not demand a jury trial. In other words, defendants would only be able to "bump up" cases between $20,000 and $30,000 from District Court to Circuit Court...
Seroquel Study 15
Posted on March 23, 2009The Washington Post has an article providing more detail on Study 15, the Seroquel study that saw the same fate as many pharmaceutical company drug trials do that the companies don't like: they stick them in their glove compartment - even deeper than I would stick my parking tickets in college...
Medical Device Safety Act of 2009 and Doctors
Posted on March 20, 2009New England Journal of Medicine has an editorial from doctors who support federal legislation that would give injured patients the right to sue medical device manufacturers in state courts. Sometimes I have a case against multiple defendants where each defendant would be better served by making a stronger case against the other defendant...
Nursing Home Abuse in Maryland in 2007: Getting Worse, Not Better
Posted on March 19, 2009Maryland?s nursing homes had an ?off year? according to Jay Handcock?s blog for the Baltimore Sun. The Government Accountability Office reports that citations in Maryland for inflicting residents with ?actual harm? or putting them in ?immediate jeopardy? were given to 17% of Maryland?s 234 nursing homes last year...
Personal Injury Links
Posted on March 17, 2009Links from about the personal injury world: Michael Kinsey, taking a break from offering his breathtaking insight that the stimulus package is not cost free (who knew?), has an editorial in the Washington Post discussing the insanity of juries deciding complicated issues regarding whether proper warnings are placed on drugs...
Exxon Jacksonville Verdict Part 2
Posted on March 12, 2009The rest of the Jacksonville Exxon Verdict has been read. Total verdict: approximately $150,000,000. Huge verdict. But I have no idea what Plaintiffs' lawyers were demanding or Exxon was offering to settle the case. Exxon certainly seemed to be rolling over on negligence so it is no surprise that there was a Plaintiffs' verdict...
Jacksonville Exxon Verdict: No Punitive Damages
Posted on March 12, 2009A Baltimore County jury did not award punitive damages in the Jacksonville Exxon oil spill in 2006. The jury did award economic damages for property damage and loss of value of property. The diminution of property value awards to these Jacksonville homeowners is ranging from $300,000 to $1...
Defendants' Truck Accident Lawyer's Advice: Set Up Another Corporation to Avoid Responsibility
Posted on March 11, 2009Bob Franklin, a well respected Maryland lawyer who defends trucking companies for Franklin & Prokopik, wrote an article on defendant truck accident cases advising defense lawyers on handling plaintiffs? truck accident lawyers? vicarious liability arguments entitled...
Trial Tactics Tips from George W. Bush
Posted on February 25, 2009I was trying an auto accident case recently where the Plaintiff?s lost wages were at issue. The Plaintiff did not have an ?off slip? from a doctor. Instead, she took off work when she felt like her pain dictated taking a day off. On cross-examination, my client was grilled ? over objection ? about whether the medical records sitting at the trial table contained an ?off slip? from a doctor...
Medical Malpractice and the Baltimore Sun's View
Posted on February 25, 2009The Baltimore Injury Lawyer Blog offers additional insight into the Baltimore Sun's editorial on proposed changes to the medical malpractice cap in Maryland, including the Sun's publication of a letter to the editor presenting the victim's point of view on the issue of malpractice caps...
Youth Detention Center: Two Judges Taking Kickbacks in Pennsylvania
Posted on February 23, 2009CNN has a story that would be very hard to believe if there was not a guilty plea. Two judges in Pennsylvania were paid $2.6 million in kickbacks to sentence juveniles to facilities for troubled teens. The judges have been disbarred and have resigned from the bench, agreeing to serve over 7 years in prison under their plea bargains...
Medical Malpractice and the Baltimore Sun
Posted on February 23, 2009Last week, I wrote on the Maryland Medical Malpractice Attorney Blog about the Baltimore Sun taking a position opposing medical malpractice caps, choosing the new, innovative path of side stepping the substance of this issue and trying to demonize trial lawyers...
Famous People and Lawsuits
Posted on February 20, 2009The worst thing going for the perception of plaintiffs? trial lawyers ? and by extension, plaintiffs ? is famous people. Because they sue and get sued in a way that completely misleads the public as to the extent to which the civil justice system is misused...
Sample Trial Transcript in Car Accident Case
Posted on February 19, 2009We had put a sample trial transcript from a car accident trial in Charles County, Maryland on our website a few weeks ago. The sample transcript had some difficulties: the full transcript took too much time to load and specific sections were labeled by bates number instead of the actual numbers on the trial transcript...
Circuit Court Removal by Insurance Companies in Maryland Car Accident Cases
Posted on February 11, 2009There is a battle now in the Maryland state legislature about whether Maryland should increase the minimum jurisdictional amount before a defendant can remove a case from District Court to Circuit Court. Defense lawyers for State Farm and Allstate, the two largest auto insurance providers in Maryland, routinely "bump up" District Court claims to Circuit Court if the amount in controversy is more than $10,000...
Lord & Whip Partnership Brawl
Posted on February 10, 2009A Lord & Whip partner filed a Complaint for Voluntary Dissolution in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court. The Complaint is juicy to say the least, including information on how much revenue one partner had brought into the firm and how one of the Lord & Whip partners told the partner seeking dissolution that he was a "sociopath" who needs "psychiatric treatment...
Personal Injury Related Links
Posted on February 05, 2009It is much easier to comment on the content of other people's writings than writing commentary that is original and interesting. So let's go that route today. This is what I've been reading: Justice Scalia can?t handle a tough question from a 20 year-old co-ed...
High-Low Agreements in Personal Injury Cases
Posted on February 03, 2009Generally, I dislike trying personal injury cases with high-low agreements that contain the size of the verdict. If you are going to force us to take the case to trial, I would prefer to have the chance of the upside. My gut level reaction is no deal...
Seroquel Lawsuits: Followup to Summary Judgment Ruling in Florida
Posted on February 02, 2009Last Wednesday, I reported on the Seroquel summary judgment in Florida in the much awaited first Seroquel MDL. The opinion appeared to give AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals a boost (although there are a thousand variables that are involved in the 1% rise in the stock price ? the Seroquel lawsuits are a small piece of the large mosaic that is a major pharmaceutical company) and depress not only Seroquel litigants and their lawyers, but also plaintiffs? lawyers in drug and medical device litigation, who have had a tough year...
Seroquel Lawsuit Dismissed
Posted on January 28, 2009Unfortunate setback today in the AstraZeneca Seroquel lawsuits pending in federal court: two lawsuits set for trial in Orlando next week have been dismissed. This was the first MDL class action trial in federal court, where most of the Seroquel lawsuits have been filed...
Medical Malpractice and the Cost of Health Care
Posted on January 23, 2009Robert J. Samuelson is one of the country?s most prolific economists. His regular columns in Newsweek and the Washington Post secure his status as an opinion leader on economic issues of our day. Samuelson is unrepentantly a proponent of Reagan supply side economics...
Robert J. Samuelson is one of the
Posted on January 23, 2009Robert J. Samuelson is one of the country?s most prolific economists. His regular columns in Newsweek and the Washington Post secure his status as an opinion leader on economic issues of our day. Samuelson is unrepentantly a proponent of Reagan supply side economics...
Prince George's County Jury Awards TV Reporter $5,000
Posted on January 22, 2009The Washington Post reports that a Prince George's County jury awarded $5,000 to a WJLA-TV (Channel 7 in Washington, D.C.) reporter, stemming from an incident where P.G. County police officers detained her briefly at gunpoint, as well as used excessive force, nearly four years ago...
Preemption in the Media
Posted on January 22, 2009The Supreme Court's ruling in Medtronic v. Riegel has largely been ignored by broadcast media. But I found a clip from MSNBC's ?Countdown with Keith Olbermann? on preemption and President Bush's efforts until the bitter end to push for preemption. Keith Olbermann's portrait on these things is not exactly "fair and balanced...
Baltimore Law Firm Layoffs - Are All of the Jobs Going?
Posted on January 22, 2009The Daily Record Blog has posts on layoffs at Saul Ewing, Whiteford Taylor & Preston, and Ballard Spahr. Law students hearing all of this have to be depressed. But unless the current economic crisis is worse than I think, the market for lawyers will bounce back...
John Roberts and Giving the Oath to Obama
Posted on January 22, 2009The LA Times has a story on Chief Justice John Roberts' failed effort to administer the oath of office to President Obama. I interviewed with John Roberts in 1993. I did not get a job offer. I'm really feeling better about that these days. The funny thing is Roberts is well known for his cool under fire in the zillion arguments that he made before the Supreme Court before getting appointed to the Court...
Garnishing Personal Injury Settlements in Maryland
Posted on January 21, 2009The Maryland Daily Record reports that a personal injury settlement is not subject to garnishment for child support, according to the Maryland Court of Special Appeals opinion in Rosemann vs. Salsbury, Clements, Bekman, Marder and Adkins, LLC. This action stems from an effort by a father to obtain child support from the child?s mother (which is not exactly the norm)...
Car Accident Lawsuits: Time Magazine Article
Posted on January 16, 2009Take a look at this Time Magazine article on auto accident lawsuits. The article has the usual stuff: insurance company complaints about high verdicts, people faking injuries, jackpot justice, the backlog in the courts, and the fact that most personal injury victims only receive small settlements...
Preparing Witness for Cross-Examination
Posted on January 15, 2009Some advice from an article in Lawyers Weekly: If the witness has to answer "yes" to anything during cross-examination, "make sure it is a very proud 'yes,' rather than looking like a deer in headlights when you're cross-examined. That way the jury won't think the opposing lawyer is scoring any points...
Litigation Society?
Posted on January 12, 2009I enjoy picking up the Outlook section of The Washington Post on Sunday?s to read George Will. I rarely agree with him. But I?m always impressed with his writing and analysis. Sunday?s article offers thoughts on a topic that is obviously near and dear to my heart: litigation...
Medtronics Lawsuit
Posted on January 08, 2009This is the bill introduced in the Senate last year to overturn Medtronic v. Riegel. A similar bill was introduced in the House of Representatives about six months ago. If you look at the Senate bill, you will note that one of the cosponsors was the junior Senator from Illinois...
Medtronic Lead Cases Suffer Major Setback
Posted on January 06, 2009An opinion was published yesterday by Medtronic MDL Judge Richard H. Kyle. The opinion ruling on Medtronic?s motion for summary judgment begins with this sentence: The federal courts are frequently confronted with sympathetic plaintiffs who are, nevertheless, without remedy by operation of law...
A Tale of Two Lawyers
Posted on January 05, 2009The Internet tells two stories this morning. First, the Maryland Daily Record tells the story of an applicant to the Maryland bar who has been practicing law, apparently without incident, in New York for 25 years. This New York lawyer apparently wanted to relocate to Maryland and took and passed the Maryland bar...
Medical Malpractice Caps, David Petraeus, Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King: Watch Me Strain to Relate Them All Together to Close Out 2008
Posted on December 30, 2008The Daily Herald in Chicago published an editorial yesterday that urges the Illinois Supreme Court to overturn the Illinois cap on non economic damages in medical malpractice cases. The article, written by the President on the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association (I guess they have not gotten the Association for Justice memo), does not cover any new ground opposing tort reform...
The Failures of For-Profit Nursing Homes
Posted on December 29, 2008The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently published a report analyzing approximately 16,000 nursing homes in this country and assigned each a rating ? from one star to five stars - based on such criteria as health inspections and staffing...
Insurance Settlements: Last Minute Holiday Shopping
Posted on December 23, 2008Last minute shopping? Trying to buy something for someone who has everything? Consider my book, Insurance Settlements by James Publishing for $129 ( ISBN 0-938065-53-X). This stocking stuffer two volume treatise discusses how to position a lawyer's car accident, truck accident, medical malpractice or product liability case to the best possible settlement at every step along the way...
Hospitals Suing Patients
Posted on December 22, 2008The Baltimore Sun had an article on Sunday about the unfairness of the nature and the speed of lawsuits hospitals are filing against patients for unpaid hospital bills. The numbers are staggering: Maryland hospitals have filed 132,000 lawsuits in the past five years for unpaid bills, a third of which have been filed in Baltimore City District Court...
Is Baltimore a Judicial Hellhole?
Posted on December 18, 2008Baltimore is "teetering along the edge of a hellhole" because of its hospitable climate for personal injury lawsuits, according to a new study from the American Tort Reform Foundation. If you are a lawyer handling medical malpractice, accident or products liability cases in Baltimore, this comes a little out of left field because while Baltimore is considered a more reasonable jurisdiction than most in Maryland to try personal injury cases, Baltimore plaintiffs? lawyers hardly see Baltimore as a personal injury utopia...
Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog and Twitter
Posted on December 16, 2008You can now follow the Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog on Twitter.
Closing Arguments: Something to Remind the Jury in Serious Personal Injury Cases
Posted on December 16, 2008Pat Malone put on his website a closing argument he made in a Maryland medical malpractice case. In his final thoughts to the jury, he reminded the jurors of what I always remind jurors of when I'm delivering a closing: the memories of the victim will fade for you and for me, but this person is going to live with these injuries for the rest of his/her life...
Republicans and Democrats and Jury Awards: Does Party Affiliation Matter?
Posted on December 15, 2008Wisconsin Lawyer (via Overlawyered via JuryVox) has an interesting article on the impact a juror?s political bent has on the amount of damages awarded in personal injury cases. The study contained 476 mock jurors who identified themselves as either Democrats or Republicans...
New ICD Technologies
Posted on December 12, 2008In an article published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, the cardiologist who sounded an early alarm on the later recalled Medtronic Sprint Fidelis leads warns that a soon-to-be-approved electrical component for implantable heart devices may prove dangerous to patients...
Maryland Mediators
Posted on December 12, 2008We have added to the Personal Injury Lawyer Help Center a list of mediators in Maryland handling personal injury cases. Our law firm uses this list when someone suggests mediation (or arbitration) just to get a feel of who is out there doing these mediations...
Attention Maryland Lawyers Handling Snow and Ice Slip and Fall Cases (Assuming There Are Any Left)
Posted on December 11, 2008On Monday, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals decided Allen v. Marriott Worldwide Corporation, a Montgomery County slip and fall on ice case. The case sends a clear message to Maryland slip and fall lawyers: most ice slip and fall cases will not get to a jury...
Federal Judges Get a Bailout
Posted on December 11, 2008The federal judges got their own financial bailout package. A judicial pay raise has been tucked into the proposed $14 billion bailout for U.S. automakers. This pay raise puts judicial salaries on a par with members of Congress. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid apparently insisted that the judicial pay raise go into the automaker bailout package...
Black Friday Walmart Lawsuit
Posted on December 04, 2008Reuters reports that the family of a man killed in a stampede of frenzied Christmas shoppers on Black Friday filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Wal-Mart in New York. This is a very public case. It is going to be hard to find a juror that has not heard about it...
Let's Blame Maryland Medical Malpractice Lawyers for Everything
Posted on December 02, 2008Southern Maryland News has an article about a serious problem: the shortage of doctors in Southern Maryland. This is a good issue that needs attention. I?ve written about his on the Maryland Injury Lawyer blog in the past in a post titled ?Doctor Shortage in Maryland? A Doctor in Southern Maryland Says There Is a Shortage of Doctors...
Post Holiday Personal Injury Related Links
Posted on December 01, 2008I took most of last week off for the Thanksgiving holiday. Instead of putting out a post this morning, I thought I would pass along what I have been reading over the past week, germane to personal injury law. EurekAlert has an article titled ?Electronic Health Records May Lower Malpractice Settlements...
Representing Personal Injury Accident Victims in Catastrophic and Wrongful Death Cases
Posted on November 24, 2008I've been asked by Trial, the Journal of the American Association for Justice, to write an article on mediations in death and catastrophic injury cases. The article will contain a section about preparing your client's for the mediation process which is what I did yesterday last week in a wrongful death truck accident case, meeting with the decedent's 15 year-old daughter and her mother, and the victim's mother and three children...
Defense Lawyers Ex Parte Conversations with Doctors
Posted on November 21, 2008In an awful decision this week in a wrongful death medical malpractice case, the Michigan Court of Appeals overturned a lower court?s ruling which would have prevented ex parte communications between defense counsel and a Plaintiff?s treating physician from being entered into evidence, because HIPAA privacy rules already prohibit medical malpractice defense lawyers from meeting ex parte with plaintiff's physicians even if the Plaintiff has executed a HIPAA authorization...
Jury Consultants: To What Extent Does Methodology Matter?
Posted on November 17, 2008Risk & Insurance had an interesting article about ?scientific perspective? in predicting jury verdicts. The premise of the article is that the quality of jury consultants varies wildly because different jury consultants use different methodologies. In the litigation world, there are no barriers to entry for those who seek to be jury consultants...
Advice for Doctors in Medical Malpractice Lawsuits
Posted on November 12, 2008Dr. Henry M. Learner, an instructor in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Harvard, writes an article in this month?s OBG Management called ?Rebuff Those Malpractice Lawyers? Traps and Tricks.? Dr. Learner is also the president of Shoulder Dystocia Litigation Consultants, a group that works with defense lawyers, medical malpractice insurance company case managers, and hospital risk managers in shoulder dystocia-related injuries and litigation...
Wrongful Death Verdicts for Minor Children: A Large Sex Based Difference in Verdicts
Posted on November 11, 2008In wrongful death cases, the size of jury verdicts has always tilted in favor of men, which is why many have argued that caps on non economic damages are sexually discriminatory. In a new study, Jury Verdict Research offers a very different conclusion when comparing compensation in wrongful death claims between minor females and minor males...
Cancer Misdiagnosis Cases in Maryland: New Malpractice Opinion from Maryland's High Court
Posted on November 10, 2008In January, I wrote about Marcantonio v. Moen, an Anne Arundel County medical malpractice lawsuit that was dismissed on summary judgment by the trial court. The malpractice lawsuit alleges wrongful death as the result of an OB/GYN?s misinterpreting a sonogram and failing to order sufficient tests to follow up on the woman?s symptoms...
Obama Wins: Now What?
Posted on November 05, 2008I rarely offer my views on subjects outside of personal injury issues on the Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog because I don't think anyone really cares. No, really. I'm pretty sure about this. But today is a pretty special day so I'll make an exception, regardless of whether anyone's listening...
Electing Judges in Maryland
Posted on November 05, 2008The Maryland Lawyer Blog wrote a short post on December 3, 2007, about Governor O?Malley?s elevation of Anne Arundel County District Court Judge J. Michael Wachs to the Circuit Court bench. Judge Wachs was overwhelmingly approved by voters yesterday, receiving approval from 99 percent of those who voted...
Washington Post Editorial on Wyeth v. Levine
Posted on November 03, 2008Wyeth v. Levine is big, obviously. I did not realize quite how big until I saw this Washington Post editorial on Election Eve of all times, arguing that the issues in Wyeth v. Levine should be decided by Congress, not the Supreme Court. This case is not just big in the products liability lawyer world...
Oral Arguments in Wyeth v. Levine
Posted on November 03, 2008The Supreme Court Oral Arguments in Wyeth v. Levine are available here. I read about 40 pages of it - more than half - and I hope to finish it tonight. Is there anyone who even pretends to know how the Supreme Court is going to rule in this case? Potential upside to a broad pro-defendant ruling: Congress and President Obama are mobilized to pass a strong bill that overrules Wyeth v...
Chantix Lawsuits Are Up; Chantix Sales are Down
Posted on November 03, 2008Chantix sales in this country have fallen 49% percent, Pfizer reported last week. However, internationally, sales jumped 60 percent. This report comes as the FDA said it may need to upgrade warnings on Chantix after increasing reports of road-traffic accidents and seizures involving people on Chantix...
Personal Injury Links: Halloween Edition
Posted on October 31, 2008Deliberations has a blog post on an issue I have never considered: whether a downturn in the economy leads to less diverse juries. Dr. Wes (via Overlawyered) tells us doctors donated a lot more to Senator Obama then Senator McCain. May It Please the Court sets out the 10 greatest trials in history...
Justice Clarence Thomas on Listening
Posted on October 30, 2008Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas told a group of lawyers in Atlanta last week that judges should spend more time listening and less time talking. "I believe quite strongly we, as judges, need to take the approach we're here to solve difficult problems, not debate with lawyers," Justice Thomas told the lawyers...
October?s Chicago Lawyer contains
Posted on October 28, 2008October?s Chicago Lawyer contains excerpts from an interview with John L. Kirkton the editor of the Jury Verdict Reporter for the last 17 years. One great myth debunked by Mr. Kirkton is the theory that jurors tend to give more around Christmas. Personal injury lawyers are always looking to schedule trials around Christmas and defense lawyers always try to avoid civil jury trials in December because they think the spirit of giving leads to more sympathetic jurors...
Larger Verdicts During the Holiday Season?
Posted on October 28, 2008October?s Chicago Lawyer contains excerpts from an interview with John L. Kirkton, the editor of the Jury Verdict Reporter for the last 17 years. One great myth debunked by Mr. Kirkton is the theory that jurors tend to give more around Christmas. Personal injury lawyers are always looking to schedule trials around Christmas and defense lawyers always try to avoid civil jury trials in December because they think the spirit of giving leads to more sympathetic jurors...
Wyeth v. Levine
Posted on October 27, 2008The Wall Street Journal has an article today on the oral arguments before the Supreme Court in Wyeth v. Levine. In an unrelated but very related story, The Washington Post had an article from a Republican suggesting that the RNC drop the focus on McCain and turn to salvaging the Senate races...
Obama and Tort Reform
Posted on October 23, 2008In the final debate, Senator Barack Obama was asked to name a situation where he stood up to leaders of his own party. The answer Senator Obama most forcefully pointed to was his vote in 2005 for the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) which he described as standing up to trial lawyers...
Exact Numbers in Personal Injury Cases
Posted on October 22, 2008David Davis, a Massachusetts based jury consultant, offers five thoughts in The Jury Expert on the psychology of how jurors process requests for damage awards that I think is of interest to accident and malpractice lawyers. I found of particular interest his theory that consumers ? and by implication jurors ? have a propensity to judge precise amounts of money to be lower in magnitude than similar round prices...
Deposition Question That a Lawyer Should Not Ask
Posted on October 15, 2008John Bratt has a Baltimore Injury Lawyer Blog post about a defense lawyer asking a question in an auto accident case for the sole purpose of embarrassing a witness. The question had no relevance to the accident or the Plaintiff's injuries from the accident...
Dog Food Case Settles: Who Won?
Posted on October 14, 2008The Los Angeles Times reports that dog and cat food companies will pay $32 million to settle lawsuits filed by pet owners whose dogs and cats died last year after eating contaminated pet food. You would be hard pressed to find someone who loves animals more than I do...
The "Framing" of Personal Injury Lawyers and Tort Reform
Posted on October 10, 2008I just finished George Lakoff?s book, Don't Think of an Elephant! Know Your Values and Frame the Debate. Channeling my inner Joe Biden, I loved the book; I hated the book. I hated the book because as much as Lakoff obviously tried to fight it, he does too much of the ?no reasonable person could think this way unless they were being manipulated? spiel...
Seroquel Diabetes Lawyer: Attorneys for Seroquel Induced Type 2 Diabetes
Posted on October 09, 2008There has been evidence since 2002 that drugs in Seroquel?s class caused a 3.34 times greater risk of diabetes than other antipsychotic drugs (which is what Seroquel is supposed to be prescribed for in the first place). In September 2003, the FDA began mandating Seroquel patients are at great risk for type 2 diabetes...
Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund's Finance Companies Take a Hit
Posted on October 07, 2008The Baltimore Sun reports today that Maryland Insurance Commissioner Ralph S. Tyler ordered nine premium finance companies - companies that finance the Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund premiums, which consumers are still required to pay in full - to stop charging ridiculously high finance charges...
Class Action Lawyer Look at the Spiriva HandiHaler
Posted on October 07, 2008Our lawyers are now investigating potential Spiriva HandiHaler lawsuits after the Journal of the American Medical Association, underscoring long held concerns, reported that Spiriva HandiHaler users may face increased risk of heart attacks or strokes and other cardiac problems...
Class Action Lawyers Look at the Spiriva HandiHaler
Posted on October 07, 2008Our lawyers are now investigating potential Spiriva HandiHaler lawsuits after the Journal of the American Medical Association, underscoring long held concerns, reported that Spiriva HandiHaler users may face increased risk of heart attacks or strokes and other cardiac problems...
Personal Injury Claims Against AIG: Will They Get Paid?
Posted on October 03, 2008I have received a number of calls from clients with personal injury claims against AIG fearing their claims are unprotected. Yesterday, we got a call in one of our AIG cases. Someone from Resolute Systems called and said that AIG had given them the assignment of settling large cases...
Property Damage Claims: My Dad's Battle with Ameriprise and Thoughts on Handling Property Damage Claims Without a Lawyer
Posted on September 30, 2008Last year, my Dad was in an auto accident where the Defendant admittedly ran a red light. Believing in his superhuman ability to drive an automobile, he did not have collision insurance on his car. The insurance company, which shall remain nameless (Ameriprise), denied liability claiming that my father did not react quickly enough to avoid the accident Ameriprise's theory of the case was that Dad is 71 years-old and therefore must have reacted too slowly to avoid the accident...
Ambulance Chasing Lawyers or Providing Equal Access?
Posted on September 29, 2008The News-Democrat (St. Louis and Southwestern Illinois) has a story about accident lawyers trying to get access to car and truck accident police reports in an effort to obtain clients. These personal injury lawyers look through these police reports on automobile accidents, get the names and addresses of people who have been injured and might have a lawsuit, and then write them a letter soliciting their case...
Doctors and Lawyers and Medical Malpractice
Posted on September 27, 2008Overlawyered links to a post called Munchausens by Attorney. The blog, Throckmorton, is written by a doctor who says he is a ?mere foot soldier stuck in the medical-legal battlefield.? I don?t know what this means, either. But it is a pretty decent blog...
Colossus and Allstate
Posted on September 26, 2008I received this email from a personal injury lawyer in Maryland this morning: I have an MIA complaint involving Colossus. Allstate offered the number provided by Colossus and now, of course, refuses to produce any Colossus manuals, etc. Do you have some useful Colossus materials? I don?t...
The Slope Is Rarely So Slippery
Posted on September 24, 2008In his blog the Art of Advocacy, Baltimore lawyer Paul Mark Sandler suggests a counter to the slippery slope argument: "The 'slippery slope' argument falsely assumes that once you take a moderate first step in a particular direction, a catastrophic chain of events will follow...
State Farm
Posted on September 23, 2008The Baltimore Injury Lawyer Blog last week published a comment written by a State Farm in-house counsel, issuing a rebuttal of sorts about a trial John Bratt tried against State Farm last month. John's verdict in this case was 8 times the State Farm offer...
Medical Malpractice in Maryland: Too Often, the Names Don't Change
Posted on September 23, 2008I read in the paper today that Dale Adkins III and Emily C. Malarkey, both with Salisbury, Clements, Bekman, Marder & Adkins in Baltimore, filed a wrongful death medical malpractice case against an OB/GYN in Salisbury. We also have a medical malpractice case pending against the same doctor...
NuvaRing Lawsuits: Specific Causation in Drug and Medical Device Cases
Posted on September 18, 2008Last month, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (JPMDL) created MDL for the 11 NuvaRing lawsuits pending in federal court. Discovery for federal NuvaRing lawsuits ? both pending and future - will be centralized for discovery purposes in the Eastern District of Missouri before Judge Rodney W...
Judge Edward A. DeWaters, Jr.
Posted on September 15, 2008Judge Edward A. DeWaters Jr. died on Saturday of pancreatic cancer yesterday. Judge DeWaters was appointed in 1972 and retired in 2001. Judge DeWaters was at one time the chief judge for both Baltimore County and Harford County. I never had a case before Judge DeWaters...
Favorite Non-Legal Blogs
Posted on September 11, 2008I was tagged by the Drug and Medical Device Blog with an Internet meme (I don?t know what this is but I get the idea) asking Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog to (1) to identify five non-law blogs that we find to be interesting, and (2) to tag five lawyers to do the same thing...
Average Wrongful Death Verdicts for Females: Age Is More Than a Number
Posted on September 09, 2008Interesting data from Jury Verdict Research on the median and average values of wrongful death cases where the decedent is female. The overall average compensatory award for wrongful death of an adult female over the last eight years in the United States is $2,990,032 ($1,102,976 is the median)...
Personal Injury Links for the Week
Posted on September 05, 2008These are some personal injury related links from around the country this week: The Burlington Times News has an article about North Carolina?s decision to require North Carolina doctors to report all medical malpractice payments greater than $25,000...
Plaintiffs' Lawyer Are Committing Fraud and Defense Lawyers are Powerless to Stop It
Posted on September 03, 2008The Mass Torts Blog, another defense lawyer blog brought to you from our friends at Dechert, posts on Labor Day about medical screening in mass tort cases. The allegations are basically that plaintiffs' product liability lawyers are committing fraud when screening clients...
?We Can?t Compete with MAIF? Complain Maryland Car Insurance Companies
Posted on September 02, 2008The Baltimore Sun reports that car insurance companies in Maryland are resisting the Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund's (MAIF?s) car insurance rate-lowering proposal because MAIF?s plan to lower rates puts the private sector at risk. After a hearing in Baltimore, Maryland Insurance Commissioner Ralph S...
Sarah Palin
Posted on August 29, 2008Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, is John McCain choice to be his vice-presidential candidate on the Republican ticket for the White House, according to CNN. Sarah Palini is a first term governor in Alaska. McCain I think is actually around 108 years old because I think - bless him - those years as a POW are like dog years...
Baltimore Injury Lawyer Blog Post About Settlement on the Courthouse Steps
Posted on August 28, 2008The Baltimore Injury Lawyer Blog has a post about a settlement John Bratt had just before trial in a car accident case this morning. The blog discusses the timing of settlement offers and how settling accident cases on the "courthouse steps" - particularly in small and midsized cases - is probably not in the best interests of the accident lawyer, the client, the defendant, or the insurance company...
Publication of My Book on Maximizing the Value of Personal Injury Cases
Posted on August 28, 2008Insurance Settlements, a two volume treatise for which I am the lead author, is now available from James Publishing. This treatise is for personal injury lawyers handling auto accident, truck accident, medical malpractice and product liability cases with a lens toward getting the best possible outcome at all stages of these cases (though trial)...
Big Companies as Plaintiffs: 180 Degree Change of Tune
Posted on August 27, 2008The Baltimore Sun reports today that a federal jury California awarded Mattel a $100 million verdict in their copyright infringement lawsuit against Bratz-maker MGA Entertainment Inc.over the rights to the popular Bratz doll franchise. "Mattel has pursued this case first and foremost as a matter of principle," Mattel CEO Robert A...
My Frustrating Call with an Erie Insurance Adjuster Today
Posted on August 27, 2008I just hung up with an adjuster from Erie. One thing I can say about Erie is that the Erie adjusters ? particularly in larger cases ? are pretty sophisticated. Agree or disagree with them, they are usually very sharp. Their defense lawyers ? Erie relies on Rollins Smalkin a lot in the Baltimore area and McCarthy Wilson throughout much of the rest of Maryland ? are very competent and generally easy to deal with on personal injury claims...
University of Baltimore Law School
Posted on August 26, 2008The Wall Street Journal published an article today on law schools gaming the system to improve their U.S. News and World Report rankings. It focuses in part on the rise of the University of Baltimore School of Law, which has risen dramatically in many ways under new dean Phillip Closius, including the U...
Should Companies Be Required to Disclosure Expected Litigation Obligations in Product Cases?
Posted on August 25, 2008The Wall Street Journal has an editorial with an anti products liability lawyer spin. No surprise. But what is surprising is that I actually agree with it. In light of Enron and other business collapses that left stockholders holding the bag without any real picture of the financial condition of the company, the Financial Accounting Standards Board wants to tighten standards...
Baltimore City Juries
Posted on August 24, 2008The Baltimore Injury Lawyer Blog has a interesting post about Baltimore City juries from the perspective of a Maryland accident lawyer.
Independent Medical Exams in Accident Cases
Posted on June 10, 2008The National Law Journal has an article on the increasingly contentious battleground over the circumstances of ?independent medical exams.? Personal injury lawyers in Maryland in car and truck accident cases are increasingly battling over the terms and conditions of the plaintiff?s medical exam, from who can attend the exam to more substantive concerns like the production of the IME doctors? financial records...
False Imprisonment Cases: Median Verdicts and Settlements
Posted on June 09, 2008The latest edition of Metro Verdicts Monthly provides numbers on false arrest/imprisonment cases in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. The median legal false arrest/imprisonment verdict or settlement in Washington D.C. was $25,000.00. Virginia and Maryland have slightly higher median settlement/verdicts of $26,000...
Forum Non Conveniens Opinion in Randallstown High School Shootings Case
Posted on June 03, 2008The Maryland Court of Special Appeals ruled yesterday in Peyton-Henderson v. Evans that Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge George L. Russell, III did not err in transferring a lawsuit from Baltimore City to Baltimore County that was filed as a result of the May 2004 shooting at Randallstown High School...
Are High Low Agreements Admissible in Medical Malpractice Cases: Connecticut's View
Posted on June 02, 2008I read over the weekend an interesting decision from the Connecticut Supreme Court that came out last week. The case, Monti v. Wenkert, is an absolutely awful medical malpractice case involving a seventeen year-old girl who presented with significant but subjective symptomology that was dismissed as psychological by her GP, his physician?s assistant, and the emergency room at the hospital...
Is Chantix the Next Class Action?
Posted on May 29, 2008The Baltimore Sun reported last week that the FAA has banned pilots and air traffic controllers from using the quit-smoking drug Chantix following a study that found it had apparently contributed to auto accidents and other mishaps that posed risks to both users and others...
Do We Know How to Drive and How Much Does It Matter?
Posted on May 27, 2008In a story that was making news before the Memorial Day weekend, GMAC Insurance polled 5,524 licensed drivers and asked them 20 questions from the tests given by various state motor vehicle administrations around the country. There are a zillion statistics offered by this study but the one that is getting everyone's attention is that approximately 33 million of us would fail a written drivers test if they took it today...
Insurance Company Claims Files: An Inside Look
Posted on May 16, 2008I was a defense lawyer for a number of years. Incredibly, when I write motions, I still find myself reflexively referring to my client as ?the Defendant.? But as time goes on, I?m starting to forget exactly how corporate defendants and insurance companies think...
Digitek Recall Lawsuits
Posted on May 16, 2008Digitek is manufactured by Icelandic generic drug-maker Actavis Totowa; it is distributed by Mylan Pharmaceuticals under the label "Bertek and by UDL Laboratories under the label "UDL." Digitek is medication for patients with mild to moderate heart failure, and control of ventricular response rate in patients with chronic atrial fibrillation...
Dennis Quaid Testifies Before Congress on Heparin and Preemption
Posted on May 15, 2008Dennis Quaid testified yesterday before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform considering the reversal of the Riegel v. Medtronic Supreme Court decision finding that state tort claims regarding medical devices were preempted if the FDA granted pre-market approval for the medical device...
Doctor Files Medical Malpractice Lawsuit
Posted on May 13, 2008In the Maryland Lawyer Blog a few weeks back, I wrote about what I thought was the primary fuel to the tort reform engine: people do not expect to be the victims of an accident that is the result of the negligence of someone else, and they certainly do not expect to be victims of medical malpractice...
Stryker Hip Implants: More Reports of Problems
Posted on May 13, 2008The New York Times ran an article yesterday aptly titled, ?It Must Be Bob. I Hear His Hip Squeaking,? discussing people with hip implants, largely Stryker hip implants, who were told to try new ceramic hip implants. The Stryker hip implants and their sister implants were promoted as being much more durable than the previous generation of hip implants...
Congress Looks at Riegel v. Medtronic
Posted on May 12, 2008On Wednesday, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform begins hearings on the reversal of the Riegel v. Medtronic holding that state tort claims regarding medical devices were preempted if the FDA granted pre-market approval for a medical device...
Legal News/Blogosphere Week in Review
Posted on May 12, 2008I like to blog on Monday but given my figurative post-Mother's Day weekend hangover, I decided to review the original stories/opinions of others as opposed to venturing to offer my own: The Baltimore Sun had an interesting article on allegations of bizarre misconduct by a Nevada judge in a bizarre story with a lot of interesting six degrees of separation subplots...
The Size of Plaintiff's Personal Injury Law Firms
Posted on May 06, 2008The Legal Intelligencer has an interesting article about the size of personal injury law firms. I have always found it interesting that personal injury law firms in Maryland and in most states tend to come in two sizes: small and very small. Peter Angelos? office in Baltimore is the sole exception in Maryland, largely because they have their hands around the asbestos juggernaut...
Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Verdicts and Settlements in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia
Posted on May 02, 2008Every month or so, I report on the Metro Verdicts Monthly graph on the front of their publication which compares verdicts and settlements for a certain type of personal injury claim in Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. Sometimes I am surprised by the difference in the results...
Lawyer Questions Fairness of Baltimore City Jurors After Medical Malpractice Verdict
Posted on April 28, 2008On Wednesday, a Baltimore City jury awarded a 78-year-old Owings Mills woman $2 million in a medical malpractice case stemming from a failed surgery that led to three successive leg amputations. After the verdict, Defendant?s medical malpractice lawyer gave this quote to the Maryland Daily Record: ?This reaffirms my long held view that it is extremely difficult for a physician to get a fair trial in Baltimore City, particularly where there is a bad outcome and a sympathetic Plaintiff...
Heparin Litigation Update
Posted on April 23, 2008The New York Times yesterday reported that the FDA has announced that the oversulfated chondroitin sulfate contaminant found in Chinese-made heparin, which has officially been linked to 81 deaths and will soon be linked to a lot more, has also been found in drug supplies in Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand and, of course, the United States...
Southwest Safety Inspections Lawsuit
Posted on April 17, 2008Four passengers have filed a lawsuit in Alabama against Southwest Airlines, alleging breach of contract, negligent and reckless operation of an aircraft, and unjust enrichment. The essence of the complaint is that the company breached its contract with its customers by carrying them on planes that missed safety inspections...
Feel Good Wednesday
Posted on April 16, 2008Yesterday, we settled a serious car accident case in mediation that I never thought would settle. The client was looking well beyond the fair value of the case, valuing the claim at $2.1 million (our maximum potential recovery with Maryland cap on pain and suffering damages) and defendant undervalued the claim from the very beginning...
Personal Injury Loans
Posted on April 16, 2008I saw today an interesting blog post by a Massachusetts law firm advocating that Massachusetts ban finance companies who offer loans to people using their personal injury cases as collateral. The post (and a comment to the post) argues that by making the loans non-recourse loans contingent on the settlement, these companies get around existing usury laws...
2008 Legislative Session's Impact on the Maryland Personal Injury Lawyer
Posted on April 14, 2008Although I'm hardly an expert on the Maryland legislature, I look at some of the bills that impact Maryland personal injury lawyers and their clients that passed or failed in this legislative session in Annapolis and provide some commentary on them on the Maryland Lawyer Blog today...
Allstate May Not Be Quite at Full Disclosure
Posted on April 14, 2008My blog post on Thursday left the impression that Allstate had produced all relevant documents that plaintiffs' lawyers have been demanding. Apparently, after reviewing all of the documents, this may not be the case. Click here for the Time-Picaqune (New Orleans) article on what plaintiffs' lawyers say is still missing...
Allstate Relents and Produces Internal Claims Documents
Posted on April 09, 2008Back in January, I wrote about Allstate?s on going war with the state of Florida (and Missouri) in which it arrogantly racked up more than $4 million in fines for refusing to turn over documents that they had been ordered to produce and which had been requested by the insurance commission in Florida...
Heparin Recall Death Toll Rises
Posted on April 09, 2008The FDA yesterday raised from 19 to 62 its estimate of the number of people who may have died as the result of the Baxter heparin recall. Regrettably, this number is going to continue to rise well past 62 fatalities. Our law office alone has received calls in scores of heparin related death cases...
Let's Give the FDA More Work
Posted on April 04, 2008A House committee this week approved legislation that would give the FDA new authority over the tobacco industry, giving the FDA the ability to regulate the sale and marketing of tobacco products such as flavored cigarettes and "light and low tar" products...
Value of an Amputated Toe
Posted on April 03, 2008A recent Jury Verdict Research analysis of jury verdicts over the last 10 years found that the overall median award for the amputation of one toe is $119,008. The median award for foot nerve damage or tarsal tunnel syndrome accident cases was $143,265...
Does Singulair Cause Suicide?
Posted on March 28, 2008The FDA said yesterday it is looking into a possible association between Merck's allergy and asthma drug Singulair and suicide. The FDA has received reports of mood changes, suicidal ideation and suicide in patients who have taken Singulair. Trying to get out on the front of the curve with its package insert, Merck has previously updated Singular?s drug labeling four times to include potential risks of tremors, anxiousness, depression and suicidal behavior that has been reported in some users of Singulair...
Financial Information on Hired Gun Experts
Posted on March 27, 2008Our lawyers have long believed that professional expert witnesses? financial information, including their tax returns, may be discoverable and admissible for the purpose of showing potential bias. Yesterday, the Alaska Supreme Court joined the list of jurisdictions that agree with us...
Personal Injury Lawyer Websites Disguised as Medical Websites
Posted on March 26, 2008Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse issued a press release today pointing out that, according to a new national study by the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, many personal injury lawyer websites disguised as health care websites are jeopardizing the public health...
Compelling the Defendant's Address in Auto Accident Cases
Posted on March 24, 2008Last week, I received a call from an insurance company (Progressive) asking how many occupants were in our clients? vehicle in a car accident case our lawyers are handling. Sadly, it appears someone saw our clients get in what was a pretty serious accident, noted the vehicle information, and then pretended that they had been involved in the accident...
Legal Malpractice Settlement and Verdicts in Maryland, Virginia and Washington D.C.
Posted on March 21, 2008Metro Verdicts Monthly recently provided data on legal malpractice settlements and verdicts in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. The median legal malpractice settlement/verdict in Washington D.C. was a whopping $262,500.00. In Virginia and Maryland, the median legal malpractice settlement/verdict was $212,500...
Gadolinium MRI Lawsuits
Posted on March 21, 2008When I started practicing law, I spent most of my time defending a pharmaceutical company in AIDS/hemophilia cases, litigation involving approximately 10,000 completely innocent people who contracted HIV from the use of Factor VIII and Factor IX blood products...
Heparin: The Payoffs and the Pitfalls of Manufacturing Drugs in China
Posted on March 17, 2008The Boston Globe published an article on Friday about the concerns surrounding the manufacture of drugs and medical devices in China. Looking at the Baxter Heparin cases and seeking input from the perspective of a plaintiff?s lawyer, the Globe called me for an interview...
Value of Vertebrae Fracture Personal Injury Cases
Posted on March 10, 2008A Jury Verdict Research report this month found that over the last ten years, the national median award at trial in personal injury cases for a vertebra fracture is $112,537. Almost two-thirds of the cases in the study were motor vehicle accidents, which is the leading cause of spinal injuries in this country...
MDL Panel Choice of Venue/Choice of Law
Posted on March 10, 2008Alexandra D. Lahav, a law professor and editor of the Mass Tort Litigation Blog, has an interesting blog post on choice of law made by the MDL Panel in cases consolidated for discovery where the applicable law chosen may foretell the outcome of the case...
Valuing Pain and Suffering Injuries: Per Diem Arguments
Posted on March 07, 2008The biggest intangible dealt with by personal injury lawyers in settling or trying a personal injury case is noneconomic pain and suffering damages. These damages defy ready conceptualization and the law provides little in the way of assistance to jurors who make the final call in the end...
Yamaha Rhino ATV Lawsuits
Posted on March 07, 2008Yamaha ?Rhino? All-Terrain-Vehicle (ATV) litigationhas drawn the interest of our lawyers. The Yamaha Rhino ATV appears to have design defects that make the Yamaha Rhino ATV unreasonably unsafe for its occupants. The big problem with the Yamaha Rhino ATV roll is that it will rollover during turns on flat surfaces, even at low speeds, because it has a center of gravity that it too high, too top heavy, and the tires are too small for the expected uses of the vehicle...
Heparin Recall Answers
Posted on March 06, 2008The FDA performed MRI tests on Baxter's heparin blood thinner that has already caused at least 21 deaths. The MRI found that as much as 20 percent of the drug's active ingredient was made from an undetermined counterfeit material. Although our lawyers did not "rush to judgment," we strongly suspected that there was a manufacturing defect with heparin that originated in China...
Doctor Shortage in Maryland? A Doctor in Southern Maryland Says There Is a Shortage of Doctors
Posted on March 04, 2008The Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog received today the following comment from an emergency room doctor in southern Maryland regarding my blog post on the alleged shortage of doctors in Maryland: "You are guilty of not supporting your assumptions with data as well...
Do We Trust Juries?
Posted on February 26, 2008According to a recent poll on jury duty, the answer is yes. Fifty-eight percent of those surveyed believe that a jury is fair and impartial all or most all of the time. Even more interestingly, half of those surveyed said they would expect a jury to give a fair verdict as opposed to a judge...
Riegel v. Medtronic
Posted on February 20, 200802The Supreme Court opinion in Riegel v. Medtronic was issued this morning. I'm just starting to read it now and will comment later today about the holding once I get a chance to actually read the case. Scalia wrote the opinion which scares me but seven justices join Scalia's opinion so I do not think the holding will be too radical...
Maryland Lead Paint Jury Verdict
Posted on February 19, 2008The Maryland Daily Record reports that a Baltimore jury awarded $82,000 to an 8-year-old boy who only briefly exhibited elevated levels of lead in his blood. In May 2000, the boy?s level was four micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood. In December, his level rose to 29 micrograms...
Discovery of Injury Victim's Social Networking Sites
Posted on February 18, 2008There is another good blog post from the Drug and Device Law Blog this time regarding electronic discovery with respect to on-line diaries and the social networking like Facebook and MySpace. I have not had this issue arise with one of our clients but it is only a matter of time...
Baxter Heparin Recall
Posted on February 15, 2008With the preemption arguments raging on in the Supreme Court and in circuit courts around the country, we have yet more evidence that making the FDA the gatekeeper for product liability claims is tantamount to naming Roger Clemens the new performance enhancing drug czar...
New Maryland Court of Appeals Opinion
Posted on February 13, 2008The case of Titan v. Advance was decided yesterday by the Maryland Court of Special Appeals. Titan is a case where the Plaintiff alleged negligent repair of a roof that led to the clogging of a roof drain, which then resulted in the flooding of the Plaintiff?s premises on Eastern Avenue in Baltimore, Maryland, at Crown Industrial Park...
Voir Dire in Maryland: Follow-up to Judge Sweeney's Article on Voir Dire in the Daily Record
Posted on February 07, 2008Last month, retired Howard County Judge Dennis M. Sweeney wrote an article in a series of articles he is writing for the Daily Record. The latest article discusses voir dire. One point Judge Sweeney makes is that judges have an aversion to proposed voir dire questions that seem to be uniform in every case the lawyer tries...
Contingency Fees
Posted on February 05, 2008Point of Law has an interesting blog post on a new study regarding contingency fees. I found two conclusions of interest. First, the study found that people who had the financial means to pay attorneys? fees up front still preferred a contingency fee arrangement, even if that arrangement meant they were ultimately likely to pay more in fees...
Super Bowl 42
Posted on February 04, 2008Super Bowl 42 was a great Super Bowl for Miller & Zois for two big reasons. First, buried in our testimonials on our website is a great testimonial from one of our former clients, future Hall of Fame defensive end Michael Strahan, who was in the limelight last night putting relentless pressure on Tom Brady...
Stryker Trident Hip Implant Problems: Class Action Lawsuit on the Way?
Posted on January 28, 2008Medical device maker Stryker said last week that it will voluntarily recall the hip implant surgery products Trident PSL and Hemispherical Acetabular Cups. This recall comes on the heels of a warning from the FDA to fix a host of long-standing problems, primarily the failure to function and poor fixation with its hip implant components and in its manufacturing of hip replacement parts...
State Farm Probe Continues? Mississippi Attorney General Says Criminal Probe of State Farm Has New Focus
Posted on January 28, 2008Last week, we were talking about the hot water Allstate found itself in with the state of Florida. This week, we look to Mississippi where Attorney General Jim Hood has opened a new hurricane Katrina related criminal investigation of State Farm, which he says is different from the earlier ?crimes against policyholders? investigation...
Do You Have a Case Against a Doctor When Her Assistant Licks Your Toes?
Posted on January 24, 2008The New York Personal Injury Lawyer Blog tipped me off to an article in the Chicago Tribune last week about a patient who filed a lawsuit against her eye doctor and his assistant alleging that the patient's toes were licked during her eye exam by the doctor?s assistant in Skokie, Illinois...
New St. Jude Defibrillator Leads Approved
Posted on January 24, 2008Medical device maker St. Jude Medical reported that regulators both here and in Europe have approved its new Durata lead wires, which attach implantable defibrillators to the heart and regulate heart beat. Ostensibly, the Durata leads have a softer tip and slightly curved coil that will make these defibrillator leads more flexible and durable...
Celebrity Medical Malpractice Cases
Posted on January 23, 2008The wife of former Dallas Cowboys running back Ron Springs has filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against two Texas doctors she accuses of letting him slip into a coma, leaving him mentally and physically incapacitated. Springs? case is a wonderful story with a tragic ending...
Article on Medical Malpractice in the New Yorker
Posted on January 22, 2008How many times have you Googled for one purpose and then found something interesting completely unrelated to what you were looking for? This weekend, looking for something completely unrelated, I found a New Yorker article from two years ago on medical malpractice in the comments section of a blog...
Should You Bring Your Expert Witnesses Live to Trial?
Posted on January 21, 2008No blog post today on the Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog but I did put up a post today on the Trial Lawyers Resource Center Blog discussing the circumstances under which a videotaped deposition of an expert might be preferable to bringing the expert live at trial...
West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Elliott E. Maynard's Conflict of Interest
Posted on January 15, 2008There is an interesting story today in the New York Times on the chief justice of the West Virginia Supreme Court, Elliott E. Maynard, and his relationship with coal-company executive Don L. Blankenship. Apparently, these two met ?accidentally? in Monte Carlo in the summer of 2006, sharing several meals even as the coal executive?s company was appealing a $76...
Loss of Vision in One Eye: Case Values in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington D.C.
Posted on January 14, 2008Metro Verdicts Monthly has a graph in this month?s issue that reflects the median verdicts and settlements when the injury victim loses vision in one eye in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. The median for the loss of vision in one eye in Maryland is $231,000...
Welcome to 2008: Jurors on the Internet
Posted on January 14, 2008I read an interesting article in The Oregonian on Sunday discussing the growing phenomenon of jurors turning to the Internet for information while the jury is still deliberating. The article was precipitated by an Oregon DWI criminal case involving reality TV star Matt Roloff (who I have never heard of and cannot muster up the energy to Google)...
Medtronic Recall: Comment on Wall Street Journal Editorial
Posted on January 10, 2008An editorial in the Wall Street Journal last week discusses the Medtronic recall of its Sprint Fidelis defibrillator leads. On October 15, 2007, due to reports of at least five patient deaths associated with defects in its Sprint Fidelis defibrillator leads, Medtronic withdrew from the market all defibrillators with those leads...
Shortage of Doctors in Maryland?
Posted on January 09, 2008The Washington Post and the Baltimore Sun wrote yesterday about a new report that Maryland faces a doctor shortage that may well become severe by 2015. We already have a shortage of doctors and things will get worse? I don?t know anyone ? family, friend or client ? who could not find a medical doctor when they needed one...
New Maryland Court of Special Appeals Ruling on Wrongful Death Medical Malpractice Case
Posted on January 08, 2008The Maryland Court of Special Appeals found in a 2-1 decision last month that a reduction of 30 percent in the survival chances of a woman with uterine cancer as the result of medical malpractice is not actionable as a matter of Maryland law. Marcantonio v...
Seroquel Lawsuits: The Problem with Off-Label Use of Seroquel
Posted on January 07, 2008Seroquel (generic quetiapine fumarate), is an antipsychotic medication manufactured by AstraZenica. The drug was approved in 1997 for treatment of schizophrenia, but additional off-label uses to treat anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorders, dementia and autism are where the big money is for AstraZenica...
We Agreed to It But You Can?t Enforce It Because It Is Unethical: The Vioxx Settlement
Posted on January 07, 2008Plaintiffs? lawyers in the Vioxx litigation are running away from a key term in an agreement that was signed about twenty minutes ago ? the requirement that plaintiffs? lawyers advise either all or none of their clients to accept the deal. Think about that for a second...
Riegel v. Medtronic: New England Journal of Medicine Editorial
Posted on January 03, 2008There is an editorial in this month?s New England Journal of Medicine on Riegel v. Medtronic, the preemption case soon to be decided by the Supreme Court that has pharmaceutical and medical device companies sitting on the edge of their seats. Quick background: A man was injured when a balloon catheter exploded during an angioplasty...
Is Maryland's New Bad Faith Law Retroactive?
Posted on January 02, 2008One question that has remained unanswered is whether Maryland?s new bad faith law is retroactive. On Dec. 17, 2007, U.S. District Court Judge J. Frederick Motz ruled that the Maryland legislature intended Maryland?s new first party bad faith law to be retroactive...
Sample Demand Letter
Posted on December 27, 2007One notable absence from the Maryland Personal Injury Lawyer Help Center has been a sample demand letter, an omission I rectified today. One of my goals in 2008 is to make the Help Center a more complete resource for personal injury lawyers. Most of what we have added in the last year has been by request, so if there is something you want to see, drop me an email and we will put it up...
Videotaping Independent Medical Exams
Posted on December 26, 2007In March, I wrote a blog post discussing whether it makes sense for personal injury lawyers to videotape medical exams by the defendant's lawyer's doctor. Last week, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that a plaintiff who is required to submit to an "independent medical examination" (hereinafter the more honest "defense medical exam") may videotape the exam...
Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog: On Vacation?
Posted on December 19, 2007I'm working on finishing a new book I am writing for James Publishing on maximizing the value of personal injury cases that should be out in early spring. I'm sure I'll be plugging my book like crazy at the appropriate time but, for now, I offer it as an excuse for the blogging hiatus that some of you have noted...
Medical Malpractice Liability to Third Parties
Posted on December 12, 2007On Monday, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts overturned the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by a woman against a physician who had failed to warn his patient of the side effects of a medication. These side effects had caused the patient to lose consciousness at the wheel and kill the woman?s 10 year-old pedestrian son...
State Farm?s Profit: Excessive?
Posted on December 07, 2007Many plaintiffs? personal injury lawyers are complaining that State Farm?s profit surged to $5.6 billion in 2006 ? up 75% from $3.2 billion in 2005. State Farm?s CEO, Ed Rust, Jr., received a $5.26 million dollar pay raise last year and is now earning $11...
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Can driving accident be cause for termination?
If your state is an at-will state, the company can fire you for any reason or fo...
Must I refinance my house aftering taking full ownership after a divorce via a quit claim?
When financing there are at least two documents...the mortgage and the note. The...
What rights does a father have when a woman waits 13 years to tell a man he is a father & he missed out on the growing up of that child?
Actually, he has as much right as she to request a paternity test, plus he can f...
I signed myself out of a hospital because I thought the care was negligent. I am a nurse and know a great deal about medical care. I was in the hospital a year ago for less then 12 hours and they sent me a bill for over
If you can prove tha the care was negligen you need to get a lawyer and try to n...
How to prevent an arrest from appearing in the local newspaper?
Dont know the law in Minnesota but in most jurisdictions an arrest is a matter o...
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