Articles Posted in Miscellaneous

An insurance defense firm was hit with a jury verdict in a legal malpractice case last Thursday, February 2. 2006. The lawsuit arose after the now-plaintiff insurer got hit with an adverse verdict in a products liability trial.

The plaintiff in the malpractice action claimed that the underlying case was lost because the defense lawyer “spent woefully few hours preparing, failed to call critical witnesses and muffed chances to attack the plaintiff’s credibility.” More specifically, the evidence alllegedly “showed that [the defense attorney who actually tried the case] spent 20.5 hours preparing for the ladder trial, failed to elicit expert testimony that could have refuted the [original] plaintiff’s experts, failed to take advantage of expert testimony for defendants that got out on summary judgment and failed to exploit evidence that would have shown [the original plaintiff] to be a lying fraud.” In all, 21 errors were claimed.

I have seen some recent evidence of this kind of case as well. I sit on the Standards Committee for the National Board of Trial Advocacy and as part of my work on that committee I have to review lawsuits filed against board-certified lawyers. I just reviewed a big stack of them on Tuesday and can tell you that the type of lawsuits filed against lawyers are different today than they were just five years ago. Historically, the claims involved blown statutes of limitation, other missed deadlines and an occasional failure-to-disclose-conflict case. We now see more and more “strategy-related” claims.

Here is a PDF of the brochure of a seminar sponsored by the ABA titled “2006 Emerging Issues in Motor Vehicle Product Liability Litigation.”

The seminar will be held April 5 – 7, 2006 at the Biltmore in Phoenix.

My wife and I are headed to Phoenix today, this time for for a Board of Directors meeting for the National Board of Trial Advocacy. I was in Boston for a committee meeting of the group two weeks ago; this meeting is our annual mid-winter meeting customarily held (surprise!) at a location with warm weather. Our annual meeting will be held in Seattle in July.

One of the items on the agenda at the meeting is the potential adoption of a new “civil litigation advocacy” certification. This certification, if adopted, would be available to lawyers with substantial experience in litigation but who lack sufficient experience to receive civil trial certification.

Recognizing civil ligitation as a speciality is controversial, but in my opinion there is a real need to recognize demonstrated competence for ethical lawyers who have a litigation practice but lack sufficient face time in front of a jury. I drafted the original set of standards for the proposed certification, but Barry Nace of Washington, D.C. has improved upon them.

Here is an interesting case out of the DC Circuit that warns us that an oral motion to amend is not appropriate in federal court and therefore it was not error to deny it.

This speech, by the General Counsel of Boeing to Boeing executives, is a fine example of a lawyer who is trying to steer his employer in an appropriate direction.

One sample: “We as the leaders of the Boeing Company get to choose what kind of culture we are going to have. And we make these choices every day by what we do and frankly what we choose not to do. But the consequences of all those choices are our collective responsibility.”

There are more of these people out there than some plaintiff’s lawyers would like to admit. Thanks to the WSJ Law Blog for letting me know about this speech.

Drake Holliday, a Legal Aid attorney in Nashville for 30 years, died February 2.

Drake was one of those people who refused to turn his back on the poor. When President Reagan cut back on legal services to the poor, Drake stuck it out and continued to help thousands and thousand of Tennesseans. He knew poverty law, and he used to help people fight back.

He was active in political campaigns for men and women who believed that the poor deserved a fair shake. He was particularly active in Bill Purcell’s political career, helping him get elected to the State House (where he later served as Majority Leader) and later as Mayor of Nashville.

William Childs, author of the Torts Prof Blg, assembled the thoughts of several bloggers concerning the President’s comments about the lack of OBs in rural areas. He was kind enough to include my prior post on the subject.

I attended and spoke at the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association’s Mid-Winter Convention yesterday. Gary Gober of Nashville was the Program Chair and put together a fine program, as usual.

Gary is but one example of many plaintiffs’ lawyers who are “givers” rather than “takers.” Gary was President of TTLA over 20 years ago, but still gives of his time and money to support the work of our Association. There are many others who fall into this category, men and women, some past officers and some future officers, who step up to the plate time and time again to help advance the cause of civil justice in this state. Some give knowledge, some give time, some give money, and some give all of the above – and each of us is indebted to every single one of them.

On the other hand there are “takers.” There are lawyers who spend thousands of dollars advertising for clients but refuse to give money to support legislative efforts designed to support the rights of those clients. There are lawyers who make a good living representing plaintiffs but refuse to give time or money to support the association. There are lawyers who seek the help of the association or its members when they are need, but turn away when asked to help. These men and women thrive off the efforts of others, giving nothing, taking whatever they can, and smile all the way to the bank.

Last night I attended a reception for the General Assembly that was sponsored by the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association. Several state senators told me that they thought that the legislative special session could end in a couple days.

The House and Senate have passed different “ethics” bills, which means that a conference committee has to attempt to come up with a consensus bill that each body then must vote on. There are some huge differences to work out, although there is no doubt that a bill will be passed.

The end of the special session means the beginning of the ordinary session, which means that we will see a major fight by hospitals, doctors, and their insurers to avoid accountability for medical negligence. This session will be the biggest battle on the issue since the mid-80s.

Why no posts this weekend? Am I getting lazy?

I had to be in court in Nashville Friday morning to argue a motion in a products liability case and then went immediately to the airport to catch a flight to Boston. I had a great dinner at The Federalist on Beacon Hill Friday night. Work started Saturday morning at 7:30 and was finished at 2:00. I was staying on Arlington Street and walked down to the Wharf to meet an old friend for a cup of coffee. It was 55 degrees in Boston and the people of the city – thrilled at the warm weather – were out in droves.

I went back to the hotel to have a cocktail and then walked back to the North End to have dinner on Hanover Street I love walking in Boston, so I walked back to the hotel about 10:00.