October’s Chicago Lawyer contains excerpts from an interview with John L. Kirkton, the editor of the Jury Verdict Reporter for the last 17 years. One great myth debunked by Mr. Kirkton is the theory that jurors give more around Christmas. Lawyers are always looking to schedule trials around Christmas and…
David Davis, a Massachusetts based jury consultant, offers five thoughts in The Jury Expert (link since removed) on the psychology of how jurors process requests for damage awards I think interests accident and malpractice lawyers. I found of particular interest his theory that consumers—and by implication, jurors—have a propensity to…
The Los Angeles Times reports that dog and cat food companies will pay $32 million to settle lawsuits filed by pet owners whose dogs and cats died last year after eating contaminated pet food. You would be hard-pressed to find someone who loves animals more than I do. Very hard…
I just finished George Lakoff’s book, Don’t Think of an Elephant! Know Your Values and Frame the Debate. Channeling my inner Joe Biden, I loved the book; I hated the book. (2019 Update: By golly, Joe Biden is still relevant today!) I hated the book because as much as Lakoff…
The Baltimore Sun reports today that Maryland Insurance Commissioner Ralph S. Tyler ordered nine premium finance companies – companies that finance the Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund premiums, which consumers are still required to pay in full – to stop charging ridiculously high finance charges. Two of these finance companies also…
I have received several calls from clients with personal injury claims against AIG fearing their claims are unprotected. Yesterday, we got a call in one of our AIG cases. Someone from Resolute Systems called and said that AIG had given them the assignment of settling large cases. They are setting…
Last year, my Dad was in an auto accident where the Defendant admittedly ran a red light. Believing in his superhuman ability to drive an automobile, he did not have collision insurance on his car. The insurance company, which shall remain nameless (Ameriprise), denied liability claiming that my father did…
The News-Democrat (St. Louis and Southwestern Illinois) has a story about accident lawyers trying to get access to car and truck accident police reports to get clients. They look through these police reports, get the names and addresses of injured people who might have a lawsuit and then write them…
Overlawyered links to a post called Munchausens by Attorney. The blog, Throckmorton, is written by a doctor who says he is a “mere foot soldier stuck in the medical-legal battlefield.” I don’t know what this means, either. But it is a decent blog. The post deserves a link because the…
I received this email from a personal injury lawyer in Maryland this morning: I have an MIA complaint involving Allstate offered the number provided by Colossus and now, of course, refuses to produce any Colossus manuals, etc. Do you have some useful Colossus materials? I don’t. Maryland’s bad faith law…