Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog

The Maryland Daily Record has an article today by Lawyers USA writer Sylvia Hsieh on the expected wave of lawsuits involving Darvocet and Darvon. The gist of the article is that this is the next big thing: "Plaintiffs’ personal injury attorneys are gearing up to initiate an onslaught of litigation against makers of the popular painkillers Darvon and Darvocet."

There is no question there are going to be a lot of lawsuits with very good cases. We are looking at Darvocet/Darvon cases and have a webpage devoted to these claims. But I really do not think this is the next big mass tort. I think there are going to be a small number of good cases and a lot of cases that go nowhere.

Continue reading "Darvocet Lawsuit Predictions" »

Paul Luvera writes a blog post about cross examining experts based on a presentation he heard in New Orleans from a Florida lawyer named Dorothy Clay Sims (now famous from the Casey Anthony trial).

The post is worth reading if you are a personal injury lawyer cross examining an expert. I also like the whole idea of this post. First, it is a lawyer reporting on what he learned from another lawyer. This is what good lawyers and good professionals do: use ideas and techniques learned from other people.

The other neat thing about this post is that it is Paul Luvera writing the post sharing perspectives from another lawyer. Luvera has had more than his fair share of million dollar verdicts. A lot of lawyers with track records that pale in comparison to Luvera take their ball and go home when it comes to opening their minds to learning from other lawyers (or witnesses, focus groups, juries or anyone else). Of course, the whole thing is circular: lawyers that are willing to keep their minds open to learning from other lawyers are far more likely to get successful outcomes for their clients.

In March, I wrote a post about failed efforts in Maryland to require DWI offenders to install an ignition interlock system in their vehicles. Specifically, the bill before the legislature this year would have required people convicted of alcohol related offenses to only drive cars equipped with an ignition interlock system for some period of time. Simple premise: cars can't start if you are not sober. My first thought is who would be opposed to this. It just makes too much sense.

Reading the Maryland State Bar Association Legislative Preview today, I found out something interesting I didn't know: this bill passed the Maryland Senate 44-0 before getting stalled in the house judiciary committee. Okay, so not one person in the Maryland Senate thinks it is a bad idea but we can't even get it to a vote in the House of Delegates?

I think the people of Maryland would be very depressed to see how the sausage is made.

This comment to my last blog post on this should be required reading for the Maryland House of Delegates Judiciary Committee:

Our son died as a passenger in an alcohol related car accident in 2002. Since then we have been trying to get a law passed for Ignition Interlock Devices in every car. State Assemblyman Felix Ortiz has been working with us and there is a bill in the NYS assembly which we are hoping will become a law some day. My husband and I also hoped that the law would be named Christopher's Law, similar to Megan's Law and our son would have died for something. We always believed that the technology could advance to more than blowing into a device but rather detecting blood alcohol levels through the skin; for example through a steering wheel. This shouldn't be too difficult; the technology is already there with bracelets that detect blood alcohol levels through the skin. More information about this can be found at our blog and our website.

In the past, I have written on the value of fractured and broken legs. Now, in a relentless, unyielding effort to cover the settlement and trial value of every single bone in the human anatomy, let's thin slice broken legs a little thinner: femur fractures in Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Virginia.

This month's Metro Verdicts Monthly graph on the front of their publication compares verdict and settlement amounts for femur fractures in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia. Since 1987 the median verdict or settlement amount of a femur fracture case in the District of Columbia has been $250,000.00, and in Virginia it has been $200,000.00. However, the median verdict or settlement in a femur fracture case in Maryland has been $75,000.00. The national average is $167,000.

Continue reading "Value of Femur Fractures" »

A lawsuit has been filed by the Center for Science in the Public Interest - fancy name - against McDonald’s in the liberal bastion of San Francisco. The lawsuit alleges that the McDonald's practice of including toys with its Happy Meals is deceptive advertising. From now until the time this lawsuit is dismissed in eight years, people will call it the McDonald's Happy Meal lawsuit.

I'm going to focus group this lawsuit. Hold on. I'm back. Jury's back. Everyone thinks it is stupid. Notably included in that group are mainstream progressives like myself. We are not libertarians. But liberals are Americans, too. (A few tort reformers heads just exploded but let's move on.) We are a people that are historically opposed to others making decisions for us when we have all of the facts available for us to make our own decisions and the majority of us think the behavior is okay.

Continue reading "McDonald's Happy Meal Lawsuit" »

I mentioned as an aside in a blog post last week that I monitored the conviction of the at-fault driver in a wrongful death car accident case that I have. The case was in District Court in Essex. Judge Martha Russell presided over the case. She's a new judge and a good one who was obviously very experienced in dealing with criminal cases. Judge Russell was very patient with unrepresented defendants. She displayed not an ounce of superiority or contempt in dealing with defendants who offered stories that were sometimes a bit worthy of contempt. If you are a judge out there and you are trying to impress me (oh, it is a long line, I'm sure), treat the parties and, if you don't mind, the lawyers, the same way you would if you did not have all of the power in the room. They say you can learn a lot about people by the way they handle adversity. I think you can learn more about someone by how handle power.

Okay, now let's move on to the actual purpose of this post. I noticed that the defendants at the criminal cases I watched were generally dressed very poorly, wearing clothes you should not wear to something that matters. Maybe just as important as wearing the appropriate clothing is wearing it appropriately. Quick tip: it is probably not a sign of respect if you are wearing your pants four inches south of your waist. (Note: this was originally written as north which is obviously a typo! A reader corrected me!) If you are trying to show respect, that you are repentant, or even that you are not guilty, it makes sense to dress like you have respect for the court and respect for the process.

Keene Trial Consulting has a post on this subject: Tattoos: When Should You Clean Up Your Witness? Douglas Keene writes that the goal of a trial lawyer in presenting their client is to "help the jury see the witness as 'kind of like me' or 'someone I can trust.'"

Continue reading "What to Wear for Trial?" »

The Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog is now ranked #61 on the Avvo Top Legal Blogs.

Okay. This is an honor that will be hard to put on a t-shirt. For lots of reasons. But if you look at the 60 blogs ahead of us, there are few personal injury related blogs. So, I'm pretty pleased about that.

This news is particularly sweet because I get snubbed every year by the ABA's list of top 100 legal blogs. My goal in writing this blog is to develop a readership base, not to develop a client base. So I don't need to win an Oscar, I'm thrilled to win the People's Choice award. (Note to ABA Blog People: I don't really mean this. Pick me next year. Please.)

Avvo simply uses Alexa to compute the rankings. There is no doubt that Alexa's ability to rank legal blogs and other websites is somewhat flawed. But I do think Alexa is a decent barometer. If you look at the 60 blogs ahead of the Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog, you will see they are mostly very good blogs.

So there.

• Baltimore Injury Lawyer Blog also rising

The Insurance Journal reports a rise in legal malpractice claims. Incredibly, there has been no hand wringing about increased malpractice rates for lawyers or fears that lawyers will no longer be able to keep their practices open as their insurance rates rise. We have never had a legal malpractice claim yet our rates continue to increase. No one cries for us.

A part of the rise in the number of legal malpractice claims is countersuits against lawyers who are suing their clients to pay their bill. But I think the larger problem is what the article calls "door law," a phrase I have never heard before but I really like. Door law is when lawyers take any client who walks through the door who might generate a fee. When law firms step outside their areas of expertise, bad things are going to happen.

Continue reading "Refer Your Personal Injury Cases to Us. Seriously." »

• The Baltimore Injury Lawyer Blog on the difference between how accident lawyers handle truck accident claims and how they handle car accident claims
• The New York Personal Injury Law Blog writes about infamous Stella Liebeck of McDonald's coffee spill fame. Apparently, there is a film at Sundance on Stella Liebeck that offers the real story on the McDonald's coffee spill case and what it was all about. (My favorite movie at Sundance? Queen's Boulevard starring Vincent Chase. Great film! Better than Aquaman in my opinion). Personally, I don't care about the real facts in Stella Liebeck's case anymore. It was 18 years ago. Who cares anymore? I think it is a sad commentary that a case this old is a rallying cry. Tort reform folks need better writers. We have a jury system which is invariably going to lead to some injustices because humans are human. Grab on to those examples and quit focusing on an 18 year old case you have misunderstood anyway.
• DePuy hip replacement recall lawsuits find a home in an MDL in Ohio. I was hoping the cases would get transferred to New Jersey under Judge Susan B. Wigenton. Why? Because DePuy didn't want that. So it must be a good thing.
• Choosing between the LSAT and your grandmother's funeral (Above the Law).
• Soon-to-be Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Judge Alison Asti has a controversial fundraiser that I don't think is that big of a deal.
• The South Carolina Lawyer Blog reports on a settlement with Crocs, Inc. after a man was injured while wearing Crocs on an escalator. Plaintiff's lawsuit claimed that Crocs are "prone to entrapment when pressed against the skirt guard of step riser." My wife hates them but I have Crocs. I figured they were prone to entrapment when pressed up against a moving escalator. Phillip Howard should immediately call a press press conference to announce that this case is bigger than Stella Liebeck.
• Sean Wajert makes a decision for Dechert on the Mass Torts Defense Blog: the law firm does not want any business from the City of San Francisco. Big firm or not, I'm glad Sean is willing to speak his mind which makes his blog a good read even though I often disagree with it.

The Maryland Court of Special Appeals decided on Thompson v. State Farm, a bad faith claim against State Farm that arose out of a car accident in Millersville, Maryland in Anne Arundel County. At issue is a common battleground in Maryland car accident cases: venue. A regular issue that is usually, but not always, decided in favor of however the trial judge sees it.

State Farm won the case and the CSA sided with the trial judge. This was, however, anything but a garden variety venue case. This case involved an appeal of a Maryland Insurance Administration finding that State Farm had not committed bad faith which made the venue issue that much more complex. As I talk about below, the court gets into the two bad faith statutes and begins what I don't suspect will be the first appellate effort to sort through them.

Plaintiff's lawyer was the well respected Debbie Potter, from the Jaklitsch Law Group. Debbie was doing what good accident lawyers do, trying to get venue in a favorable jurisdiction. Her argument was that venue was proper in Baltimore City because State Farm does business in Baltimore City and State Farm could not point to anyone who would be inconvenienced by deferring to the Plaintiff's choice of venue. (Liability for the car accident was not in dispute so, arguably, the location of the accident or the domicile of the at-fault driver should not enter into the calculus.) In fact, for any bad faith case against State Farm any State Farm witnesses would likely be coming from Owings Mills (where State Farm houses its adjusters). Obviously, the argument goes, Annapolis is further from Owings Mills than Baltimore City.

Continue reading "New CSA Venue Decision" »

One of the highest praises you can give to a baseball player is to call him a "professional hitter." Tony Gwynn was a professional hitter. It is another way of saying, "That guy is a pro."

I was watching an old CNN rerun of Parker-Spitzer this morning on the treadmill. (Note: I'm lying here. I was watching Jon Stewart.) Spitzer was interviewing Senator-elect Rand Paul who was pushing for budget cuts but will only discuss items he won't cut. Say what you will about Spitzer's personal life. (I'm pausing waiting for you to finish. You done? Okay.) But that guy is good and you can see how he got to where he did. After watching what was essentially Spitzer's cross examination of Paul, I turned to my wife and said, "Eliot Spitzer is a professional lawyer."

You can watch the interview here.

The Maryland Court of Appeals reinstated a wrongful death accident lawsuit today, finding in a 6-1 opinion that a Baltimore City trial judge erred in failing to give an instruction on the inapplicability of assumption of the risk in FELA cases. The case involved a man who was killed when the mounted roof of his work vehicle came into contact with an energized wire.

I just took a quick look at the opinion. I will write more here if I find anything of particular interest.