Articles Posted in Miscellaneous

Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) made a speech recently wherein he wondered about a possible connection between violence in courtrooms and activist judges.

You really have to wonder about the intellect (or, at least, the intellectual honesty) of a person who would make such remarks. The suggestion that a criminal court judge in Georgia was murdered because of his politics is patently ridiculous.

Do you see how hard he struggles to find the right words? He knows he is about to say something preposterous, but just can’t help himself.

Are you thinking you got the wrong blog? Bankruptcy law? What does John Day know about bankruptcy law?

The answer is “absolutely nothing.” Well, that is not quite true; I know enough about bankruptcy law to know when to call a bankruptcy lawyer.

But this opinion caught my eye. In Rousey v. Jacoway the United State Supreme Court ruled that creditors may not seize individual retirement accounts in bankruptcy proceedings. Several other courts had reached a contrary position, reasoning that since one can withdraw money from an IRA before retirement the assets in the IRA should not be protected from creditors. The 9-0 opinion was authored by Justice Thomas.

I wrote yesterday about the bad day the lawyers at Kirkland & Ellis and the folks at Morgan Stanley were having. Well, it got worse.

Matthew McCarrick, the blogger who has the excellent blog I cited yesterday, was kind enough to let me know of a recent development in the case.

Judge Maass has now granted a partial default judgment against Morgan Stanley and has disciplined several K&E lawyers. Perelman need now only prove that he relied on information from Morgan Stanley in connection with the Coleman – Sunbeam sale and that he suffered damages.

Here is a recent law review article that summarizes the state of the law of sanctions in cases involving electronic discovery. The article, entitled “Electronic Discovery Sanctions in the Twenty-First Century,” is authored by a federal court judge and a law clerk.

The lawyers at Kirkland & Ellis, a major law firm with its home office in Chicago, had a real bad day recently after its client got hammered with sanctions.

Financier Ron Perelman has sued Morgan Stanley for fraud, alleging that it helped appliance maker Sunbeam Corp. conceal accounting woes tht reduced the value of Perelman’s investment in Sunbeam. The trial is scheduled to begin shortly.

The trial judge is Elizabeth Maass. She ruled that Morgan Stanley hid emails and hit failings in its search for emails. “Many of these failings were done knowingly, deliberately and in bad faith,” Judge Maass wrote in her order.

Those of you who do any products liability, medical negligence, or commerical litigation know that e-discovery is a hot topic. More and more discoverable data never makes its way to a piece of paper, so a RFP seeking only paper documents will not get you what you hoped to get or are entitled to get.

Likewise, courts are imposing requirements on lawyers to advise their clients to maintain electronic data after a lawsuit has been filed. The failure to act promptly and appropriately can have dire consequences.

A Seattle law firm has created a blog dedicated to electronic discovery. Take advantage of this firm’s resources to educate yourself about and stay current on this important issue.

The Insurance Commissioner from the State of Washington has issued a report that examines whether or not there is a medical malpractice insurance crisis in the state.

Rather than relying on simple statements from doctors and their insurers the Insurance Commissioner did a closed claim study covering about 90% of the physicians from the state. The report shows that the number of $1,000,000+ verdicts or settlements is relatively flat and that there were only 50 verdicts for the plaintiff in the 10 – year period covered by the study. Seventy-three percent of the claimants recovered nothing.

This data, not dissimilar from information received from the a recent Texas study, adds further support for the notion that rising medical malpractice insurance rates are out of control or that they are caused by a defect in the jury system that will be fixed by caps on damages.

Sorry for the lack of a post yesterday; I am at a conference in Florida and the day was a little hectic.

I didn’t write the Trial Lawyer’s Prayer, but I wish I had. Read more of Evan Schaeffer’s stuff by clicking here.

Trial Lawyer’s Prayer, by Evan Schaeffer

The ABA is hosting a 90-minute teleconference and live audio webcast on how to unearth fact information on the Internet.

Carole Levitt and Mark Rosch, authors of the ABA’s The Lawyer’s Guide to Fact Finding on the Internet will be the speakers. They will address issues like locating public records, locating background information on people and companies, and effective search techniques.

The seminar will take place on April 14, 2005 from 12:30 to 2:00 Eastern time. Call 800.285.2221 weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Eastern time to register. The program is eligible for 1.5 hours of CLE credit. Click here for more information.

Many of us have attempted to use police officers as expert witnesses at trial. We have also had them used against us.

The Delaware Supreme Court has recently ruled that it was reversible error for a trial judge to permit a police officer to testify to the “primary contributing cause” when the police officer was not qualified as an expert in accident reconstruction. The decision in Lagola v. Thomas may be read by clicking here.

Testimony by police officers in traffic wreck cases often carries substantial weight. This decision may be of assistance to you in your attempt to exclude the opinion testimony of a police officer.