Articles Posted in Miscellaneous

A report from Safety Research & Strategies called "Public Safety at Risk: Bankruptcies Leave Legacy of Defects, Injuries and Deaths"  projects what will happen now that there will be 30 million GM and 10 million Chrysler products still on the road after bankruptcy agreements cancel the ability for accident victims to seek compensation by suing the companies.

The verdict?  "More than 3,400 U.S. citizens could be killed or injured in the next 12 months by defective cars that are immune from lawsuits."  The estimate is based on the number of claims against the manufacturers between the 3rd quarter of 2003 and the 4th quarter of 2008.

 Read the report here.    

It doesn’t sound particularly appealing. 

Leave Memphis Friday afternoon.  Drive to Nashville.  Pack a new bag.  Catch a flight to Charlotte.  Race through the airport from Gate E35 to B3.  Catch a flight to Mrytle Beach.  Catch a 45-minute long shuttle to a North Carolina resort.  Carry your bag up the steps to a second floor room at 12:30 in the morning.  Get a few hours sleep and go to a windowless ballroom.  Hang around a few hours to give a speech to a room full of people who had a similar ordeal to get there.  All the while knowing that you have to reverse the process the next day in an effort to get home for a meal with the family on Father’s Day.

But the drudgery evaporated when I heard Lt. Col. V. Stuart Couch, USMC, speak at Saturday’s luncheon of the North Carolina Advocates of Justice Annual Meeting.  Who is Col. Couch?  He was the Gitmo prosecutor  – a career prosecutor – who refused to prosecute a terrorist who had been subjected to torture.  Read more here.

The June 2009 edition of the Tennessee Trial Law Report should be arriving in the mailboxes of our subscribers on Tuesday, June 2.   The Tennessee Trial Law Report is the only newsletter in Tennessee written to meet the complete needs of the tort law practitioner.

This edition includes a summary of 16 different cases addressing various aspects of the law of torts, civil procedure, evidence and trial as decided by Tennessee appellate courts between March 15 and April 15, 2009. The newsletter totals 39 pages, including 19 pages containing the full-text (in addition to our summary) of the most important opinion issued last month.

The newsletter also includes (a) Part 3 of my new, four-part article of the law of jury selection; and (b) a summary of the status of 13 cases of interest to tort lawyers that are pending before the Supreme Court of the United States and the Supreme Court of Tennessee.

Last night at about 10:45 EDT I had to occasion to start counting blessings.  My advancing age means I do this more and more, and it also causes me to realize that I should have counted those blessings more frequently in years past .  I will tell you what gave rise to the time for reflection in a moment, but permit to re-count a few of the blessings of yesterday:

• I woke up at 5:30 EDT in the beautiful Mayflower Hotel in our Nation’s Capitol, where I am attending the 86th Annual Meeting of the American Law Institute.
• My health remains good enough to permit me a good early morning workout.
• I heard a wonderful speech by Judge Pierre N. Leval, Judge of he US Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, about ALI and its role in the development of the law.
• I heard a moving speech by Nicholas deB. Katzenbach, Attorney General under President Johnson, who forcefully explained his view of the role of lawyers to their clients and how the lawyers who advised President Bush on torture did not fulfill that role.  I thought about how much my friend Howard Vogel, an ALI member from Knoxville,  would have enjoyed the presentation – one he missed only because he has not one but two grandchildren arriving any day now.
• I watched the discussion of Tentative Draft No. 6 of the Restatement of the Law Third – Torts: Liability for Physical and Emotional Harm.  Yesterday’s discussion involved duty of land possessors.  This is the work of Bill Powers (President, University of Texas),  Mike Green (Wake Forest School of Law) and the late Gary Schwartz (UCLA).  Bill and Mike has worked on the Restatement Third for fifteen years and their work is almost complete.  To understand the history-making nature of their work, the Reporter for the Restatement (Second) of Torts was a a guy named William Prosser.
• I had lunch with Bob Peck, the lawyer who argued the Williams case before the SCOTUS this year – and won.  Bill Wagner, lawyer extraordinaire from Tampa, was there too (and picked up the tab) as was Vincent Johnson (law professor – St. Mary’s).
• I  listened to the interesting discussion of Tentative Draft No. 2 of the Restatement of the Law Third on Employment Law.
• I received a telephone call from Angela at  the office of my friend Congressman Bruce Bailey (D-Iowa) informing me that (a) no, the Congressman could not join me for dinner Monday night as I had requested  but (b) I could join him at the Bruce Springsteen concert instead.
• I stood on the steps of the SCOTUS Building, looked at the Capitol, and thought about how fortunate I was to be a lawyer and live in such a wonderful country.  Call me a sap, but there is something about DC that is still very moving to me, despite many visits over many years.
• I saw Bruce with Bruce from Suite 368 at Verizon Center – a wonderful show from a man whose music causes one to reflect on his blessings.
• I got the chance to talk about some public policy issues with Bruce Braley, and it was refreshing to see a man in the position to make change be so passionate about doing so. 
• My 17-year old daughter thought the Bruce-invite was neat enough to invite me to be her friend on Facebook, a privilege that I had been previously denied.  That act got her a big smile, and a Bruce t-shirt.
• My 13- year old son thought it was "cool" that his old man was seeing Bruce.  That got him a t-shirt.
• Both of those young adults are healthy, as are my wonderful wife Joy and my daughter Kate.  Are there greater blessings?

Yes, the music of the Boss causes one to count blessings, and May 18, 2009 goes down as a very blessed day, indeed. 

The May 2009 edition of the Tennessee Trial Law Report should be arriving in the mailboxes of our subscribers on Monday May 4.  The Tennessee Trial Law Report is the only newsletter in Tennessee written to meet the complete needs of the tort law practitioner.

This edition includes a summary of 16 different cases addressing various aspects of the law of torts, civil procedure, evidence and trial as decided by Tennessee appellate courts between March 15 and April 15, 2009. The newsletter totals 43 pages, including 19 pages containing the full-text (in addition to our summary) of the most important opinion issued last month.

The newsletter also includes (a) Part 2 of my new,  four-part article of the law of jury selection; and (b) a summary of the status of 20 cases of interest to tort lawyers that are pending before the Supreme Court of the United States and the Supreme Court of Tennessee.

A heartfelt thanks to Lexmonitor, a daily review of law blogs and journals, for these kind words about my post  discussing testimony by podiatrists.

Tennessee injury lawyer John Day has been blogging for years, and his posts display a keen knowledge of what makes a blog consistently readable and valuable to your readership. This post analyzes a case and provides opinion and questions for the reader – a great example of a blog post that will keep readers coming back.

Ms. Arizona was asked a question about universal health care during  her Miss USA pageant interview    Her response reminded me of  the frequent, mindless sound bites offered by the 2008 GOP candidate for Vice President of the United States. 

Watch the video clip here.

Universal health care – I can see it from my house.

The Wall Street Journal has been writing a series of articles about crashes of medical helicopters.  A total of 13 crashes took 29 lives in 2008.

This crashes can give rise to several potential types of claims.   The patient  has a potential claim,  assuming he or she can prove that there was negligence in the operation or maintenance of the helicopter.  Assuming that the health care providers are employed by the same entity that owns, operates and maintains the helicopter, they will be limited to a worker’s compensation claim.  If a different company flies, owns, or maintains the helicopter, a lawyer should look to see whether the negligence of any of the non-employers contributed to cause the incident.  Of course, it is always possible the crash was caused by a defect in the helicopter, the failure of a replacement part, etc.

Let me hasten to add that not every crash will give rise to a lawsuit.  For example, the patient who survives a crash may not be able to prove that the crash caused an injury.  Or the family of a deceased patient may not be able to show that the patient would have survived the acute illness or trauma the resulted in the air transport of the patient in the first place.   A through investigation of each crash is necessary to determine whether the crash was caused by negligence, whether the crash caused an injury or death, and whether the wrongdoer, if any, is protected from liability by worker’s compensation law or some other law.

David Mills, lawyer and cartoonist,  held a contest to determine the best caption for this cartoon.  The winning caption appears below.

I submitted several entries, including "“Yes, I made $4M last year testifying for Ford, but that does not influence my professional judgment," and "demonstrative evidence is essential when proving loss of consortium for the single male."  I also offered this caption from the standpoint of a juror: “He makes more sense than the last three witnesses.”  I did not win, but must confess that the winning caption is much better than any of those I offered.

David has a wonderful gift.  I confess – I am jealous.

It is 1:45 AM.  I just returned to the Carolina Inn after spending a little time on Franklin Street in downtown Chapel Hill, NC.  My daughter and I had the pleasure of being in the Dean Dome and watching the Tar Heels win their 5th National Championship.  It was a great game to watch – if you were a Carolina fan.

Go Heels!