The history of “bad cholesterol” has had a checkered past. Bayer’s cholesterol-reducing blockbuster Baycol allegedly caused over 100 deaths. Bayer paid over $1 billion to settle the Baycol cases. Now come Crestor and Zocor, two more widely prescribed prescription-strength drugs designed to lower “bad cholesterol”. Both drugs allegedly cause serious…
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.…
In what I would like to be a regular feature, I have provided a summary of opinions in the last week or so that may interest Maryland tort attorneys. Maryland opinions are important, but I think reading opinions from other jurisdictions also give a better understanding of the arguments and…
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…
The first lawsuit has been filed over the Indiana State Fair stage collapse that killed six people last week. The suit claims that flimsy stage construction and failure to heed warnings of “severe thunderstorms” caused the injuries and deaths that ensued. Ultimately, and I have written this before, I think…
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…
Virginia is making great strides in cutting the number of drunk driving accidents. The path to success is not a secret: aggressive enforcement. Virginia officials also cite increased driver education. This is bunk, and everyone knows it. Government officials must get performance incentives for citing education as the cure for…
I was surprised at the media response to the University of Baltimore School of Law Dean Phillip J. Closius’ resignation/firing last week. The story was on the front page of the Baltimore Sun on Saturday. My blog post on this on Friday received a tremendous amount of traffic. I really…