I will not be blogging for a few days. I am taking today off for Thanksgiving and tomorrow morning I am off to Mexico where I will be speaking at a seminar on tort law to some Tennessee lawyers who also have an interest in diving. I will be speaking on Saturday and Sunday (three hours per day) and spending the rest of the time relaxing in Cozumel.
I hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday.
I am pleased to announce that I have been elected to membership in the American Law Institute. The ALI is the organization that creates the Restatements of the various areas of the law and participated in the creation of the Uniform Commerical Code, the Model Penal Code, and numerous other codifications and studies.
In particular, I hope to be able to make a contribution to a current ALI project, "Restatement of the Law Third: Liability for Physical Harm," and other tort projects over the years.
Thank you to Knoxville lawyer and mediator-extraordinare Howard Vogel for nominating me for this position, and to United States Court of Appeals Judge Cissy Daughtrey, Tennessee Chief Justice William Barker, Tampa attorney Bill Wagner, and Memphis attorney Lucian Pera for writing letters to ALI on my behalf.
Read the story here in the Chicago Tribune.
The Tennessee Court of Appeals has ruled that a minor can sue to recover medical expenses paid to treat injuries received by the minor as a result of the negligence of another. Although most of us (at least those of us who represent plaintiffs) have thought this was probably the law, it is nice to see an opinion from this century addressing the issue directly.
Here is the entire section of the opinion on the subject that addresses this important issue:
"As a final matter, Defendant contends that the trial court erred in admitting evidence of
Plaintiff’s pre-majority medical expenses since a minor does not having standing to assert a claim for expenses incurred on his behalf and Mrs. Craig was not a party to the suit. Tennessee Code Annotated section 20-1-105 provides that a claim for medical expenses incurred by a minor during his or her minority does not belong to the minor, but rather to the minor’s parents. See also Burke v. Ellis, 58 S.W. 855, 857 (Tenn.1900). However, in Smith v. King, No. Civ.A. 958, 1984 WL 586817, at *2 (Tenn.Ct.App. Sept. 21, 1984), the court addressed a substantially similar issue and determined that a minor plaintiff may maintain his or her own cause of action for medical expenses and include the amount of medical expenses incurred on behalf of the minor as an element of his or her damages.
I have reported on a number of spoliation cases in this blog recently, but this is the first on against an attorney. Plaintiff argued that Plaintiff’s counsel had failed to inspect or secure evidence in the possession of the plaintiff’s decedent’s employer in the underlying products liability action. Plaintiff also filed a spoliation claim against the employer. Both claims were dismissed, and Plaintiff appealed.
The Arkansas Supreme Court noted that a first-party spoliation claim is not recognized in Arkansas. After reviewing law from across the nation on point, the Court said that "we believe it would be inconsistent for us to hold that a third party, who is not a party to the underlying action, could be liable for damages, including the possibility of punitive damages, for the same conduct that would not be actionable if committed by a party to the lawsuit. Furthermore, we cannot recognize a new tort as a means to deter third-party spoliation of evidence when the result of such a tort would create potentially endless litigation over speculative loss. A victim of third-party spoliation should seek a remedy in a means other than an individual tort claim." [Citation omitted.]
Read Downen v. Redd, NO. CV-2004-107 I (Ark. S. Ct. 11/02/06) here. Use the "Search" function to find other spoliation cases on this blog.
Almost everyone knows that Millberg, Weiss, at one time the country’s leading class action law firm, has been indicted. The allegation is that the firm paid plaintiffs be serve as class representatives.
I have followed the story for several years but this article in Fortune (and posted on money.cnn.com) caught my eye while I was searching for something to read on an airplane. You will not believe how it came to be that largest class action firm in the country got into so much trouble.
I do not know if the firm violated the law; I give it the same presumption of innocence I try to give everyone charged with a crime. But if the facts set out in this article are true, the firm has got a problem. A real problem.
Chris Nearn correctly pointed out that my post Saturday had incorrect dates for programs in Memphis and Nashville. I don’t know how I messed that up. Thanks Chris. Here is a corrected post.
Thursday and Friday I was in Chattanooga for the first Justice Programs seminar of the year. We doubled our attendance over that of 2005 and put together a solid seminar program (if I do say so myself). The Reed House is a good venue.
Unfortunately, something has happened with my wireless card in my notebook computer and I was unable to post yesterday.
Well, I was wrong about the identity of the person who sent me the t-shirt. It turns out it was a lawyer from Tennessee, a regular reader who is an ND fan (but not an ND grad).
Thanks again.
No, I’m not dead, just a little tired. I have been in Cincinnati the last two days, preparing a witness one day and attending his deposition on the second day. I did not get home until 8:15 last night and am feeling the effects of spending two long days on the road.
Today I play catch-up until I hit the road at 3:00 to go the Knoxville for the UT – LSU game tomorrow afternoon.
I will be back next week with information you can use to better serve your clients.
Here is another blog on tort reform.
The introduction: "Tort reform” has become a staple of Republican politics. Limits on lawsuits are offered as a solution to everything from the health care crisis and economic stagnation to America’s moral decline. Americans overwhelmingly believe that the nation is awash in frivolous lawsuits.
And that’s just where The Tortellini comes in. Because most of what you’ve heard about “lawsuit abuse” is wrong. The majority sentiment on legal reform comes courtesy of a long disinformation campaign by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other big business sponsors like the tobacco, insurance and automobile industries. These folks have managed to convince voters from to Hawaii to Maine that plaintiffs in civil actions are whiners, hustlers, and layabouts, and that their attempts to win the “lawsuit lottery” have created a “litigation explosion.”
Day on Torts