There is an interesting medical malpractice case on appeal in Ohio – Longbottom v. Mercy Hospital – that I thought deserved a quick blog post today. The case poses some interesting questions on how far outside the box of the case a jury can go in making inferences that were…
Maryland Injury Law Center
Why Serious Injury Cases are Hard to Settle Without Filing Suit
Serious personal injury cases, where pain and suffering damages are high but less than the cap on non-economic damages, are the hardest claims to value and the hardest cases to settle without suing. Almost invariably in these cases, I’m telling my clients that the case’s value is likely to be…
Judge’s Communications with Jurors: New Maryland High Court Opinion
I rarely write about criminal cases because I find criminal cases uniquely depressing and because they rarely relate to what we, as personal injury lawyers, are doing. Venus and Mars. I have no idea how to handle a criminal law case and criminal lawyers have no idea how to handle…
Spoliation of Evidence in the Real World
Last Friday, a federal judge in Washington D.C. issued an opinion on whether to impose discovery sanctions on Marriott that I think is an instruction for personal injury lawyers dealing with defendants that destroy evidence. In Mahaffey v. Marriott, plaintiff’s lawsuit alleged that while exiting an elevator in a motorized…
Defective Steroids Cause Meningitis in Maryland
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has warned about an outbreak of fungal meningitis that affects several states, including Maryland. Meningitis is a serious and potentially fatal infection near the brain and spinal cord that can cause brain damage or death. Anyone at risk should get to the…
New Appellate Opinion on “Relates Back” in a Lap Chole Case
The Georgia Court of Appeals issued an opinion last Thursday on an interesting issue in a wrongful death malpractice claim that we see all too frequently: botched laparoscopic gallbladder surgery. Quick facts in this classic malpractice case. Defendant performs a lap chole procedure on a man. The man returns to…
Are Witness Statements Discoverable? New Appellate Opinion
Instead of discussing various torts that could be committed against Raul Ibañez, a man I will now irrationally detest for the rest of my adult life, let’s talk today about witness statements and whether they are discoverable. There was an interesting opinion in a California wrongful death case this summer,…
Dollar for Dollar Comp Setoff in Uninsured Motorist Cases
We often handle car and truck accident cases for victims who were working at the time of the crash. (I guess a motorcycle accident claim could also be while the employee is on the job – but I have never had or seen that case.) In these types of cases,…
Why Our Recent Appellate Win Is Important to Maryland Auto Accident Attorneys
As I mentioned last week, I’m pretty excited about our law firm’s win in Buckley v. Brethren Mutual. I think this is an important case for two reasons. First, it shows that the Maryland Court of Special Appeals respects the actual intent of Maryland’s statutory scheme for uninsured motorist claims.…
What Is the Cost of a Mass Tort Lead?
I get so many emails from so many marketing companies. Just today I got an offer to write a guest post on this blog (no), an email telling me I rank poorly in Salisbury, Maryland on the search engines (he’s wrong), and two more random emails from companies telling me…