Who Should You Call as Your First Witness? You give your opening statement. The defendant gives her opening. Who do you call as your first witness? Too many plaintiffs’ lawyers – particularly in car accident cases – spend too little time on this question, because scheduling conveniences dictate the order…
I love talking to jurors after a trial. You spend days looking a seven or eight people (6 plus alternates in Maryland) and you get to know them. Sort of. But, really, you have no clue. Because jurors are incredibly poker faced. If they are showing “how to avoid giving…
In DRD v. Freed, the Maryland Court of Appeals affirmed the constitutionality of the Maryland cap on noneconomic damages. I was a big Fred Flintstone fan. So when the court in Freed said the cap was “embedded in the bedrock of Maryland law” because it has been around for 17…
Plaintiffs’ lawyers put a lot of energy into writing what we call a demand: a letter that sets forth the injured victim’s case and attaches the medical records. I sometimes use the phrase “demand” even though I don’t like it. Inherently, battles with insurance companies in these cases are adversarial.…
Something interesting has come out of Alaska that does not involve Sarah Palin, oil, or snow. No, really, it’s true. In Whitney v. State Farm, the Plaintiff had a serious injury case that far exceeded State Farm’s 100/300 policy. (Yeah, State Farm is writing those in Alaska too.) State Farm…
While preparing our client to testify at trial on Tuesday, I had a hard time getting her not to mention that she had received workers’ compensation benefits. So many of her choices were pushed by what workers’ comp would or wouldn’t do. When you are coaching someone to be as…
I promised in my last post to write more about our $2.5 million medical malpractice verdict on Monday, a post I will enjoy writing. But preparations for trial on Monday – the worst ankle break I have every seen suffered by maybe the sweetest client I have every taken to…
Our clients were awarded $2.5 million in a Montgomery County wrongful death medical malpractice case earlier tonight. It is late. I’ll have more thoughts tomorrow, including my thoughts on just how seriously this jury took the idea of public service. Just a great story. In the meantime, congratulations to our…
This post was supposed to be about Medicare set-asides but I started with such a long intro about the psychology of claims adjusters that I’ll just hit the Medicare issue in a later post. (Or I’ll completely forget about it.) To understand claims adjusters, get inside the labyrinth that is…
One thing I like about David Ball’s “Damages 3” is his willingness to talk about tough issues that personal injury lawyers deal with but no one really talks about in polite conversation much less in a trial advocacy book. In his book, Ball writes about attacking stereotypes head-on with juries.…