Articles Posted in Miscellaneous

It is not uncommon for the defense in personal injury cases to attack the character of the plaintiff.  It seems to me that young defense lawyers particularly enjoy doing this to uneducated, unsophisticated plaintiffs. 

The defense in a products case in California  introduced evidence that the plaintiff had a mistress and was a bigamist.  The jury rendered a defense verdict, and the plaintiff moved to set it aside saying that the admission of the evidence unfairly prejudiced the jury against the plaintiff.  The California Court of Appeals, 2nd District agreed, saying

 Michelin’s primary basis for introducing evidence of Winfred’s illicit conduct was to contradict his deposition testimony that he could not recall who [his wife and mistress] were. But his extramarital affairs were irrelevant to the substantive issue in the case: the cause of the accident. To the extent the evidence was relevant to Winfred’s credibility, it was more prejudicial than probative. … From start to finish, Michelin painted Winfred as a liar, cheater, womanizer, and a man of low morals based principally, if not solely, on what we have concluded was inadmissible evidence.

Day on Torts: A Handbook for Tennessee Tort Lawyers 2009 is almost ready to go to press.   The 2009 edition will include reference to all of the Tennessee appellate cases on tort law released in the last year, add over 20 new statutes of interest to tort lawyers, and update rules of civil procedure, evidence, and appellate procedure.

Importantly, the 2009 edition will includes at least 20 new chapters.  Each chapter addresses the leading case on an important tort law subject.  The additional  chapters mean that the book will now include over 250 subjects.

The 2009 edition also includes a much more detailed table of contents in the "Selected Statutes" section.  We believe this change will make that section of the book even easier to use.

Many of you know that former Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Penny White, former Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Joe Riley and I have a seminar company called "Justice Programs."  We offer a 15 hour CLE program each Fall that permits attendees to meet all mandatory CLE obligations for the entire year and, more importantly, gives civil trial practioners the opportunity to gain valuable information for their practice.

Here is the outline for our course in 2008:

Tort Law / Comparative Fault – John Day

SVMIC’s position on how the new statute making it more difficult to sue physicians will impact what doctors pay for medical malpractice insurance:

"Regarding the effect of this reform on your professional liability insurance, it will be difficult to quantify what, if any, rate changes are a direct result of the reform. A multitude of factors affect the filing of suits and awards in medical malpractice cases, therefore it may be a period of time before any effect will be realized. We congratulate the TMA on their accomplishment after many years of hard work for reform."

Is anyone surprised by this?

Ok – I know I have not been posting lately.  I spent 8 days in Canada fishing and returned on Saturday night.

I am now back to work and will be back on a normal blogging pattern this week.

Thanks for coming back to the site.

Did you know that Tennessee has a specific statute addressing sex abuse claims against therapists?

The "Therapist Sexual Misconduct Victims Compensation Act" is set forth in T.C.A. Sec. 29-26-201 et seq. A "therapist" is defined as "any person who performs therapy regardless of whether the person is licensed by the state." "Therapy" is also a defined term, and includes marital counseling, substance abuse treatment, family counseling, and other treatment.   The statute of limitations is the most generous of any personal injury claim in Tennessee.

AAJ has released a report titled "The Ten Worst Insurance Companies in America."  Read it here.

The list: 

1.  Allstate

This post has nothing to do with torts.

How is it possible that the White House, which has direct access to and hopefully control  over the State Department, the Defense Department, the CIA, the NSA, and  host of other agencies, possibly rely on a Web site called Encyclopedia of World Biography to prepare a biography on a world leader?   Want to know more?  Read this article in the Washington Post.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/08/AR2008070802652.html

BTW, read this for George W. Bush’s bio on the same site.  A teaser: 

I spent the last week at Rosemary Beach, Florida with my family.  I took a week off from blogging and virtually everything else and did nothing.

Let the blogging begin!  Here is a Tort Law Tibit from June of 2005:

The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices is available, free of charge, online at the Federal Highway Administration website. The site not only has the latest 2003 edition, but goes back as far as the 1993 revisions. You should be able to find the right edition to address any pending or potential claim for a roadway that is dangerously unmarked. Compliance with the MUTCD is necessary, but not always sufficient. The MUTCD and the law still require reasonableness by a contractor or highway planner.

Harris Interactive conducted a online poll about  jury service in December 2007.  The findings include the following:

* "Two-thirds (65%) of Americans have been called to serve jury duty, two-thirds of that (68%) actually attended, leaving one-third (32%) who did not.

* Of those who have attended jury duty, just over half (55%) have actually served on a jury.