Litigation

Dealing with Translators in Depositions

Posted on September 10, 2008
As information technology and the new economy continues to shrink the size of the world, I'm regretting not learning a foreign language. I'm reminded of this every time I take a deposition with an interpreter which is becoming a more frequent occurrence...

Total Body Formula Recall: MD, VA, DC, PA

Posted on August 20, 2008
A progression of my practice now has me  working  with the Billy Murphy  Firm in Baltimore, MD. 1 South Street, 23rd Floor Baltimore, Maryland 21202. Tel #: 410-539-6500. My good friend Mark Zamora is at the forefront of helping people injured by this supplement...

Fee Agreement - The First Step

Posted on August 05, 2008
One of the attorneys at our firm has prepared a  “practice tip” sheet for updating your client fee agreement.  Among other topics, Mark’s article incorporates the points addressed in NY Professional Ethics Committee Opinion (#739, July 7, 2008), which contains logic that I believe is instructive no matter what state(s) you practice in...

Lawyers Referrals in Car Accident Cases: How to Keep from or Explain to a Jury

Posted on July 11, 2008
The Accident and Injury Lawyer Blog has a post on a issue that troubles many accident lawyers in our smaller to mid-sized case: how to explain to a jury the fact that the injury lawyer referred the client to a doctor. This post give some thoughts on the best way to handle the lawyer referral problem...

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Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog Post on Building a Referral Network for Malpractice and Injury Lawyers

Posted on June 18, 2008
I wrote a blog post this morning on the Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog on how to build a network of referring lawyers for personal injury lawyers. I note that I left out one obvious piece of advice: have a meaningful blog that is of interest to other lawyers...

Compelled Vocational Rehabilitation Exam?

Posted on June 16, 2008
We received an interesting motion to compel a few weeks ago. Defendant's medical malpractice lawyer is seeking a 2 hour interview from Plaintiff with Defendant's vocational rehabilitation expert. In his motion, the defense lawyer argued that because the vocational rehabilitation expert interviewed the Plaintiff, the Defendant is being put at a disadvantage...

Lawyers and Facebook

Posted on June 11, 2008
Dave Swanner, the co-founder of the Trial Lawyer Resource Center, has a blog post this month on his much praised South Carolina Trial Law Blog discussing the efficacy of Facebook for lawyers. I’m not sure if it is an effective resource for injury and malpractice lawyers but it sure is pretty cool way to keep in touch with people and follow what they are doing...

IME Doctor's Financial Records

Posted on June 10, 2008
The National Law Journal published a story last month on what is increasingly becoming a battle with defendants' lawyer in Maryland and apparently nationally over the terms and conditions of defense medical exams.” Accident lawyers in Maryland are beginning to realize that allowing the plaintiff to submit to an IME is a bargaining chip to require examining doctors to comply with their obligations to produce their relevant financial information...

Chantix: Reports of More Serious Side Effects

Posted on June 06, 2008
The Wall Street Journal Health blog reports that more than 100 traffic or personal injury incidents have been linked to the smoking cessation drug Chantix, according to the Institute for Safe Medication Practices. Researchers theorize that visual disturbances that may be caused by Chantix are causing these accidents...

When Should a Plaintiffs' Lawyer Name Experts in Personal Injury Cases?

Posted on June 02, 2008
When to Name Experts Choosing between being a plaintiffs’ lawyer or a defendants’ lawyer is bit like choosing whether to play offense or defense in football. Actually, it is really not like that at all. But one of the benefits of being a plaintiffs’ lawyer in medical malpractice and accident cases is that you can (1) largely dictate the pace and direction of the case, and (2) you can be fully prepared from the moment litigation commences...

Have an Oral Argument? Bring Your Thesaurus

Posted on May 28, 2008
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia reportedly told lawyers at a dinner of the 7th Circuit Bar Association dinner earlier this month that when writing briefs and giving arguments, lawyers should "use words that would make people look at you funny if you were to use them at a cocktail party...

Preparing Your Client for Mediation

Posted on May 28, 2008
In many ways, lawyers in personal injury cases should prepare for mediation in the same manner we prepare for trial, excluding, of course, witness preparation. If the case does not settle, you will already have some of your prep work done. The one thing I used to often forget is to properly prepare the client for the mediation...

Trial Presentation Tip of the Day

Posted on May 13, 2008
The auto tort case I tried involved a car accident involving a car that pulled out of a gas station and hit our client.  At trial, the Defendant claimed the car must have been coming so fast that he could not have seen the Plaintiff coming.  I think I showed through the Defendant's illogical time/speed/distance estimations that the accident did not happen as he suggested...

Oklahoma Medical Malpractice New Filing Requirement Vetoed

Posted on May 13, 2008
Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry vetoed a bill yesterday that required Oklahoma lawyers representing medical malpractice victims to obtain certificates of legal merit from a medical doctor before filing a malpractice lawsuit, citing an Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling that requiring a certificate of merit is unconstitutional...

Be Smart About Your Dealings With Experts

Posted on May 09, 2008
What I hated most about being a defense lawyer was that 75% of the work that you did seemed to have nothing to do with getting a good result in the case. Instead, we were always working to make our firm look good to the client. (Note: I was never very good at that anyway because the filter I had to root out all of the things that I thought but should have said was somewhat defective...

Total Body Formula Recall

Posted on May 03, 2008
My office is investigating the makers of Total Body Formula, a supplement  that was recently recalled. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is advising consumers not to purchase or consume Total Body Formula in the flavors of Tropical Orange and Peach Nectar, or Total Body Mega Formula in the Orange/Tangerine flavor...

Central United Class Action Information

Posted on May 02, 2008
A good friend of mine and fellow attorney Joey James has been addressing wrongs caused by Central United. That company  issued  cancer policies, and  as has been argued successfully in court, failed  to do what it promised to do in those policies...

Why a Personal Injury Lawyer's Track Record Matters

Posted on March 28, 2008
This is a guest post from Miller & Zois personal injury lawyer Laura G. Zois.Most of our law practice is based on referrals from other lawyers. Some lawyers first try to settle a claim themselves. In many case, these lawyers are amazed to see the offer rise the moment we notify the insurance company of our involvement in the case, even if the adjuster is an out-of-state adjuster, which is often the case in truck accident cases, who may not have ever heard of Miller & Zois...

Hourly Billing in Personal Injury Cases

Posted on March 26, 2008
Personal injury clients expect their lawyers to diligently handle their claim, turn over every stone that there is to turn, and remain in constant and concise communication with them about their case. The problem with hourly clients in personal injury cases is that they don't want to pay for it...

Should You Bring Your Expert Witnesses Live to Trial?

Posted on January 21, 2008
There is no question that, all other things being equal, live witnesses are more interesting than videotaped depositions. It is simply more interesting to connect with an actual human being than it is with a figure on a videotape. But all things are not always equal...

End Runs Around the Statute of Limitations

Posted on December 26, 2007
For plaintiffs’ lawyers, the statute of limitations is a habitual pest. As easy as it usually is to avoid, it is the most common basis for legal malpractice actions against personal injury lawyers. A more common pain for most of us is the great case where the statute of limitations has passed before the client calls...

Medicare Liens: Can Personal Injury Lawyers Do Anything About Them?

Posted on December 12, 2007
In a perfect world, personal injury lawyers could just get the best possible recovery for their clients, either by settlement or trial, and that would be the end of it. Often, it is just the beginning of a case because of medical liens. In terms of hierarchy of difficulty, Medicare liens are among the most difficult...

Medtronic Lead Recall: More Problems on the Horizon

Posted on November 27, 2007
Medtronic Sprint Fidelis Defibrillator Lead wires may cause greater risk to Medtronic defibrillator patients than was originally thought when Medtronic first announced that it was, essentially, recalling the Sprint Fidelis leads. Sadly, and this really underscores where we are in this country with medical device safety, this news comes not from Medtronic, but from a report by a Deutsche Bank analyst named Tao Levy...

The Public Relations War Personal Injury Lawyers Must Fight

Posted on November 27, 2007
The Stella Awards are making the rounds on the Internet once again. It seems that the Stella Awards, honors given out to the most unbelievable lawsuits of the year, may highlight cases that are just that: unbelievable. The year's top prize continues to go to the same case, a woman who won almost two million dollars in a lawsuit against the maker of her RV which crashed while it was on cruise control...

Gerry Spence's Trial Lawyers College

Posted on November 26, 2007
I read an interesting wire service article in the Maryland Daily Record today on Gerry Spence's Trial Lawyers College. Given Gerry Spence's trial record and the verdicts he has obtained, it is hard not to be interested in copying the tactics and strategies he employs...

Attorney Richard Shapiro's Site: Retinopathy of Prematurity

Posted on November 08, 2007
Richard Shapiro is a nationally renowned lawyer who has devoted his life’s work to helping the victims of medical mistakes.  His compassion for those who have been injured, especially children, is nationally known. He obtained justice for a child in excess of $10 million dollars for a blind, quadriplegic girl named Jessica R...

Trucking Interrogatories

Posted on September 13, 2007
Brian Parker - a young lawyer working in Mark Zamora's law offices in Atlanta submits these Trucking Interrogatories: INTERROGATORIES GENERAL What is Defendant’s document retention policy? WRECK Was driver within course and scope of his employment at the time of the collision? If anyone on behalf of Defendant went to the collision scene please answer the following: Who on behalf of Defendant photographed or video graphed the scene, vehicles or both? Who on behalf of Defendant measured the collision scene? Who on behalf of Defendant interviewed potential witnesses? Who on behalf of Defendant investigated the wreck? Who on behalf of Defendant reconstructed the wreck? Who on behalf of Defendant took possession of the vehicle contents? What was the destination of the driver at the time of wreck? Please include in this answer: the delivery time of the load on the accident vehicle and if the delivery of load was time sensitive please explain...

Loss of Consortium Part II: How to Apportion

Posted on August 27, 2007
After my blog post on Friday on loss of consortium damages, I received the following comment from "Florida Lawyer" that raises a common concern regarding the apportionment of damages in personal injury cases:"Do you have any suggestions regarding the handling of a loss of consortium claim in a case where: 1) the injured spouse is totally incapacitated as a result of the accident 2)insurance company is willing to tender limits (limits will not make Plaintiffs whole), and 3) the tortfeasor does not have significant assets to satisfy any potential excess judgment...

Loss of Consortium Claims

Posted on August 24, 2007
I was reading David Ball's book on damages last night. His comments on loss of consortium claims really rang true to me. His first point was that too many lawyers bring a loss of consortium claim as an afterthought, rendering the claim essentially worthless...

Three Times Specials

Posted on August 17, 2007
If anything drives me crazy, it is phrases like "three times specials." Smart personal injury lawyers avoid this kind of discussion when trying to settle a case with an insurance company. Otherwise, you are just telegraphing to the adjuster that you are looking at your client as simply a number, not a name, and you really have not thought through your case...

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