I have expressed my disdain for Maryland’s cap on non-economic damages many times on this blog. I read an interesting article in the University of Baltimore Law Forum on an issue to which I have never given much consideration: the impact of the cap on non-economic damages on women. In…
The Maryland Court of Appeals issued an interesting opinion last week on Maryland’s assumption of the risk doctrine in American Powerlifting Association v. Cotillo. The Plaintiff, a Prince George’s County police officer, suffered injuries in a powerlifting contest at Patuxent High School in Calvert County, Maryland. He brought a negligence…
Twenty-nine people have applied to fill the at-large vacancy on the Court of Special Appeals left by Judge James A. Kenney’s mandatory retirement. (Parenthetically, most judges continue to sit on the bench after they retire, so can we just drop the mandatory retirement nonsense? The antiquated notion of mandatory retirement…
On January 1, 2008, the recent IOLTA rules approved by the Maryland Court of Appeals go into effect. There have long been rules for Maryland lawyers to open a trust account for the deposit of client funds that are not purely payments for legal fees or expenses. What had been…
One new bill that came out of Annapolis this year, and will become Maryland law on October 1, 2007, aimed at limiting one of the predatory insurance practices: the “don’t hire a lawyer and I’ll give you a quick settlement” tactic. Among the major auto insurance carriers in Maryland, I…
According to Metro Verdicts Monthly, the median motor vehicle accident wrongful death case in Maryland is worth $505,000. This is interesting information. What does this data tell us? Not much. Why? The motor vehicle accident data has little probative value because it does not include the amount of the insurance…
The Maryland Senate has passed House Bill 425 and the Maryland House of Delegates today also passed the bill, which puts a new requirement of good faith for insurance companies dealing with their insureds. The bill now heads to Governor O’Malley for his signature. The Governor has previously pledged support…
The Maryland Gazette reports today that Peter G. Angelos is lobbying the General Assembly’s judicial committees to kill a bill that would allow Maryland to join 46 other states in switching from a standard of contributory negligence to one of comparative fault. Angelos’ fear, which all Maryland plaintiffs’ lawyers fully…
The Maryland legislature is considering joining the rest of the civilized world – okay, I’ll kill the hyperbole – the vast majority of jurisdictions by adopting a comparative negligence standard in Maryland. The contributory negligence standard we have in Maryland is harsh to injury victims and creates genuine challenges for…
A fire broke out at the Prince George’s County courthouse on Wednesday, destroying a large section of the 126-year-old building. It damaged two floors of the courthouse. The old courthouse is connected to a modern wing by a series of corridors. This is the second time the courthouse has been…