The Connecticut Supreme Court ordered a new trial this week in a medical malpractice case for an interesting reason: the defense expert testified at trial that malpractice lawsuits drive up health care costs by forcing doctors to practice defensive medicine. The big issue in the case was whether appropriate standard…
The Governor signed yesterday a bill that allows auto insurance companies in cases where the at-fault driver has insufficient insurance coverage to consent to settlements against the at-fault driver without (1) limiting their right to raise any issue relating to liability or damages in an action against the insurer; and…
Personal injury lawyers hate talking about their contingency fee agreements with their clients. Me too. But it is an interesting and important topic and one of great importance to people who are seriously injured and will hire an attorney. This post explains how our law firm operates and gives a…
Patients with DePuy ASR hip implants, recalled in 2010, are making their way to trial. DePuy is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, and they are defendants in a type of class action known as multidistrict litigation (MDL). There are over 6,000 lawsuits, about 4,000 in a federal Ohio court,…
State Farm recorded another win in a family use exclusion case this week in the Maryland Court of Special Appeals, in Stickley v. State Farm. Sad Facts of Stickely v. State Farm This is an awful case. The plaintiff was a passenger in a car accident in Montgomery County in…
Friday, I wrote a blog post about the Maryland Court of Appeals opinion in Tracey v. Solesky that imposes strict liability for pit bull owners and, seemingly, landlords, in dog bite cases. I’ve offered an opinion supportive of the court’s ruling and argued that the court should go a step…
The Maryland Court of Special Appeals issued its opinion on Friday in WMATA v. Williams, a workers’ compensation claim that addresses how far the chain for causation can go before the court decides that a later “related” injury is just too attenuated. Although I do not handle workers’ compensation cases,…
A divided Maryland Court of Appeals has made a new law today. In Tracey v. Solesky, the court ruled that in dog bite cases involving a pit bull or cross-bred pit bull mix; it is no longer necessary to prove that the dog in particular or pit bulls in general…
Ask the average person or even the average lawyer what they think of forum shopping. It is viewed as a crime against the people. So let’s talk about “forum selection” instead. Forum selection is important, showed by the frequency with which parties contractually provide for and battle over venue. There…
There were no personal injury appellate opinions this week in state or federal court in Maryland this week but there are a few cases elsewhere worth a read: In Morse v. Davis, the Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed a $1.25 million verdict (actually $2.5 million reduced by the cap) in…