Prince George’s County Circuit Court Judge William D. Missouri has been elected chair of the National Conference of State Trial Judges, which is the most prestigious organization of general jurisdiction state trial judges in the country. Judge Missouri, a former Prince George’s County prosecutor, has been on the bench in…
Last month, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals issued its opinion in Maryland Casualty Co. v. Hanson. The issue in the case involved whether multiple exposures to lead-based paint over multiple years constituted multiple occurrences such that the insurance policies would stack or whether the policy’s “limitation of liability” provision…
Two challengers are running against three incumbent judges in Baltimore City: lawyer Nicholas J. Del Pizzo, III and Maryland District Court Judge Emanuel Brown. These candidates present a formidable challenge to the sitting judges Gale E. Rasin, John C. Themelis, and Barry G. Williams. In particular, danger is Judge Williams.…
As I showed yesterday, my post today is on a trial we had last month in Baltimore, Maryland. Our client was making a left on a light turning red and hit a car coming in the opposite direction making a right turn. These are tough cases in Maryland, Virginia, the…
The Maryland Daily Record reported yesterday that U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett dismissed the complaint filed by prison inmate Byron Smoot against hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, finding that Simmons and co-defendant Missouri based Kellwood Company lacked the requisite minimum contacts with Maryland that would make them amenable to jurisdiction…
An Arkansas woman whose husband died of smoke inhalation and burns in a camper fire resulting from a refrigerator defect settled her lawsuit against Norcold Refrigerators and a camper dealership for $7 million last week. The fire’s cause was due to cracked tubing in the camper’s Norcold refrigerator, which resulted…
On Friday, I gave a small diatribe about the foolishness of allowing a doctor’s attorneys, after getting hit with a $28 million medical malpractice verdict, to bring back the jurors to essentially cross-examine them on their answers during voir dire. I explained that Maryland lawyers could not pull this stunt…
Happy 4th of July weekend! For the holiday, I am posting some random facts interspersed with a few opinions from the perspective of one Maryland lawyer. I am blithely stealing this format from several authors, most notably John Eisenberg, who writes for the Baltimore Sun sports section. Fact: There are…
The Maryland Court of Appeals last month issued another opinion interpreting Maryland Insurance Code Annotated Section 19-509 in State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. DeHaan. Here, the Plaintiff’s night got off to a great start: the Baltimore Ravens won their first Super Bowl over the New York Giants, a…
Rene Stutzman of the Orlando Sentinel reported this week the post-trial tactic of the defendant’s medical malpractice lawyers after a $28 million verdict in Florida. The tactic: if you lose the trial, put the jurors on trial. Defense attorneys say three of six jurors lied during jury selection and are…