I saw this and it reminded me of a recent conversation I had. I was having dinner with several judges and was complaining about what I felt have been some rather meager fee awards in consumer protection action cases. (Note: I had no pending cases before these judges on any attorneys’ fee issue and I…
My friend Bill Marler is THE man when it comes to food poisoning cases. His firm, based out of Seattle but with a nationwide practice, knows the science of food poisoning inside out. We worked together on an e coli case in East Tennessee that we wrapped up earlier this…
The Tort Deform Blog is offered by the Drum Major Institute of Public Policy. They say that they blog "confronts and transcends the arguments put forth by the tort ‘reform’ movement, working to ensure that all Americans can access the courts." The blog is well-written and provides a lot of information…
We had our hearing on the subrogation issue mentioned in last Friday’s post. Judge Bivins ruled that the made-whole doctrine survived the adoption of no-fault insurance in Michigan and also found that our clients were not made whole from our prior settlement with the defendants. Accordingly, he declined to enforce the…
Mark Zamora (of A Georgia Lawyer ) and David Swammer (of the South Carolina Trial Law Blog) have been working on a group blog for nearly a year and went live about ten days ago. It’s called the Trial Lawyer Resource Center with a shorter URL of TLRCBlog.com. I am…
Employee Froman died in an on-the-job accident. Darling, one of the owners of the employer, threw away the equipment involved in the accident after being asked by an Indiana OSHA employee to keep it for inspection. Froman’s estate filed suit against the employer; the suit included claims for negligent and intentional spoliation…
The Supreme Court of Connecticut recently determined that a cause of action exists for intentional spoliation of evidence. Plaintiff was hurt in a ladder incident (it collapsed), filed suit, and repeated asked the defendant to preserve the ladder and requested the opportunity to inspect it. Defendant’s expert examined the ladder,…
Some of you will recall that a couple of years ago former Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Penny White, former Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Joe Riley and I started "Justice Programs." For the third consecutive year Justice Programs is offering a 15 hour seminar program in Memphis, Knoxville, Chattanooga and…
Plaintiff filed a wrongful discharge and whistle-blower suit against his employer. The employer sent him a letter advising him to preserve all data on his company-issued laptop (which Plaintiff retained in his position for a period of time after the litigation began). Plaintiff destroyed 2200 personal files of data before…
How can a Rule 10 opinion be noteworthy? Those of you who have no life other than the law know that a Rule 10 opinion is one that "shall not be published, and shall not be cited or relied on for any reason in any unrelated case." So why discuss it…