Remember the woman who said she found a finger in the chili she bought at Wendy’s?
She was arrested late yesterday afternoon. Read the press report here.
There is supposed to be a press conference today so that we can get the details behind the arrest.
I am taking the weekend off. Those of you who are kind enough to stop by on Saturdays and Sundays (and there are scores of you who do) please know that I will be back on Monday morning.
I am going to Wisconsin (my home state) for a family reunion. Cheese curds and sausage for everyone!
Have a great weekend.
Call it a coincidence, but the General Assembly has passed a bill addressing the subject of bullying in schools. Read an article about it here. The bill requires school districts to develop a policy that prohibits harassment, intimidation or bullying.
To see the bill itself, click here and look up SB 1621 by Senator Black.
Well, that isn’t quite right. “Bullying” is just a sub-class of the tort we all know as intentional infliction of emotional distress.
According to press reports of the trial, the plaintiff perfusionist was the subject of a verbal attack by a heart surgeon. The plaintiff claimed that the attack forced him to leave his job.
The jury found the claim meritorious, and awarded the plaintiff $325,000. No punitive damages were awarded. In final argument, the plaintiff’s lawyer called the defendant “a domineering manager who viewed himself as untouchable” who “wanted to put [the plaintiff] in his place when the [he] threatened to tell hospital administrators that [the defendant] had verbally abused other members of his staff.” Read the post-trial press report here.
Use this link to access a free version of the Tennessee Code. This site allows ready access to the sections before and after the section you want to review; you can even easily read an entire chapter if you want to do so. Maybe you can do that on Westlaw, but I have never fiqured out how to do so.
Thanks to Robert Ambrogi for telling us that the ABA Section of Litigation offers a free , weekly e-mail newsletter with litigation tips from James McElhaney.
McElhaney writes a regular article for the ABA publication Litigation (which, by the way, is one of the best litigation oriented magazines out there) and is the author of several books on trial techniques. Order the newsletter by clicking here.
Believe it or not, there is an entire website dedicated to educating you on the currrent application of the Daubert decision.
This site includes the original decision, later decisions by the USSC on the subject, cse law by area of expertise, recommendations on tactics, some state law decisions, and more.
What a wonderful contribution to lawyers! Thanks to Peter Nordberg, the man who puts it all together for us.
I have been invited to speak at the Murfreesboro American Inns of Court meeting on April 28, 2005. The speech will address recent developments in tort and comparative fault law.
The meeting is at the Stones River Country Club in Murfreesboro. The social hour begins at 5:30, dinner is at 6:30, and the speech will begin at 7:00 or so.
I will post my handout materials after the speech.
A survey of federal judges concludes that there is not a problem with frivilous litigation in their courts.
Seventy percent of the the judges surveyed said the frivilous litigation was a “small problem” or a “very small problem.” Only one percent of the judges said it was a “very large problem.”
Thanks to Evan for informing me about this report.
Anna Alaya, the woman who allegedly found a finger in a bowl of Wendy’s chili, has decided not to sue the organization. Read about it here.
Weny’s is still offering a $50,000 reward for information about the source of the finger.
Day on Torts