Maryland Injury Law Center

March 16, 2007

Videotaping a Defense Medical Exam: Should Personal Injury Lawyers Explore This Option?

When I received an advertisement for a book on Deposing Difficult Doctors by Florida personal injury lawyer, Kim Hart, the title caught my attention. The advertisement included excerpts from the book. What caught my interest is videotaping “independent” medical exams (IMEs). The book makes two arguments in favor of videotaping IMEs:

1. “If you make it a practice to videotape all compulsory medical examinations, you soon will have videotapes of most of the doctors used by the insurance companies in your area. Give your client a copy of a previous videotaped compulsory medical examination and the transcript from the examination of the doctor who is scheduled to examine her. This will take all the mystery and surprise out of the situation and help calm your client’s fear of the unknown.”

2. “A defense-oriented CME [I assume this stands for compulsory medical exam] doctor often plays Mr. Nice Guy at the examination. He will make sympathetic statements to your client such as, “I can see you have suffered a lot” or “I can tell that this injury has had a serious effect on your life.” If a physician is two-faced and projects Mr. Nice Guy at the compulsory medical examination but Attila the Hun at trial, showing the jury a tape of the examination can communicate to them instantly what a scheme he is.”

March 13, 2007

Peter Angelos Opposes Comparative Negligence

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

The Maryland Gazette reports today that Peter G. Angelos is lobbying the General Assembly’s judicial committees to kill a bill that would allow Maryland to join 46 other states in switching from a standard of contributory negligence to one of comparative fault.

Angelos’ fear, which all Maryland plaintiffs’ lawyers fully share, is that with comparative negligence we might lose joint and several liability, which allows plaintiffs to seek full recovery from culpable parties who are not 50% responsible. All defendants who are substantially contributing causes of a plaintiff’s injury are individually fully responsible for the total amount of a jury award to a successful plaintiff. A separate court action later decides how much each defendant pays.

More to the point for Mr. Angelos, his firm handles asbestos cases where some responsible parties are bankrupt. Mr. Angelos’ concern is his potential failure to gain a full recovery in these asbestos cases.

March 7, 2007

Most Outrageous Lawsuits: The Attack on Personal Injury Lawyers Continues Unabated

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

America Online (AOL) is running an article titled “Most Outrageous Lawsuits.” It appears in the money and finance section of AOL and was also prominently displayed on the AOL home page. As a frequent user of AOL (I really love their product) for the last 11 years, I keep seeing this article over and over.

The “crazy lawsuits” AOL describes come directly from groups like Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (CALA) and the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA), groups who see personal injury lawyers as the great Satan whose sole mission is to destroy corporate America while lining our pockets with millions of dollars.

These groups rely on a false premise: that the American public cannot be trusted and American juries give out ridiculous awards that unsubstantiated by the evidence or even common sense. The groups that vilify personal injury lawyers are entitled to their opinion and they are not wrong that frivolous lawsuits sometimes get filed. What it does not entitle them to is their own facts. But they often make up their own facts, manufacturing insane lawsuits and verdicts that never happened.

February 23, 2007

Don’t Object Just Because You Can: Dr. Robert O. Gordon’s Deposition

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

My partner, Laura Zois, conducted a videotape trial cross-examination of frequent flyer defense medical expert, Dr. Robert O. Gordon, a doctor who makes a lot of money working for insurance companies and, frequently, for State Farm. During his examination, he spewed out many inappropriate and factually incorrect statements. Here is an example:

Q. And why not, Doctor? Would you explain the reasons for your opinion?

A. Well, first of all, there was nothing in the emergency room report, or in the report of the doctors that he was sent to by his attorney, that indicated that —

February 16, 2007

Lawyers Using Handwriting Analysis in Jury Selection

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

The National Law Journal reports that a few personal injury lawyers are relying on handwriting experts to help the lawyers in selecting juries. Handwriting analysis uses various clues, including the amount of pressure used, the size and angles of the letters, and spaces between words to paint a picture of a potential juror.

Attorneys have no opportunity to see the handwriting of prospective jurors. But personal injury lawyers in other jurisdictions review juror questionnaires that would provide a handwriting analysis. I remember reading somewhere that handwriting that is flamboyant and flowery would be preferable than tight and concise. (I’m not sure what someone would make of mine because it is illegible!) But if I practiced in a jurisdiction where I saw the jurors’ handwriting, I would want to see a study on point before spending a lot of resources analyzing their handwriting.

February 15, 2007

New University of Baltimore Law School Dean

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Phillip J. Closius was named as the new dean of the University of Baltimore School of Law today. Dean Closius is the former dean of the University of Toledo College of Law. He is a former practicing attorney who teaches and conducts scholarship in the areas of Constitutional, First Amendment and Sports Law.

Dean Holmes made a lot of progress in his tenure at the University of Baltimore. Hopefully, Dean Closius can build off Dean Holmes’ work to take the University of Baltimore School of Law to the next level. I started on the adjunct facility at UB in 1998 and now teach at the University every semester. I have seen a lot of progress in recent years in the quality of students and the resources we have, and I hope that the new dean can keep this ball rolling.

February 6, 2007

$8 Million Verdict in Prince George’s County

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Yesterday my partner, Laura G. Zois, tried a wrongful death auto accident case in Prince George’s County against Allstate. The jury awarded our client $8 million. Allstate made no offer to resolve the case.

We cannot collect the entire amount not only because of Maryland’s cap on pain and suffering damages but also because there is no first-party bad faith on uninsured motorist claims in Maryland. I understand that the Maryland General Assembly introduced a bill to bring the first party bad faith to Maryland.

I try very hard to keep the “insurance companies are pure evil” sentiment out of the Maryland Personal Injury Lawyer Blog because I think simplistic generalizations defeat real discussion of the issues. I teach Insurance Law at the University of Baltimore Law School and try even harder there to remain balanced in my approach to the class.

February 5, 2007

Will Maryland Drop Contributory Negligence

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

The Maryland legislature is considering joining the rest of the civilized world – okay, I’ll kill the hyperbole – the vast majority of jurisdictions by adopting a comparative negligence standard in Maryland. The contributory negligence standard we have in Maryland is harsh to injury victims and creates genuine challenges for Maryland personal injury lawyers seeking justice for their clients. Under contributory negligence, the accident or medical malpractice victim’s failure to exercise due care which contributes even in the slightest way to the plaintiff’s injuries is an absolute bar to recovery. Under this rule, even if the jury believed the plaintiff was only 1% at fault for his/her injuries, the plaintiff would be completely barred from recovering for those injuries.

All but 5 states have moved into the modern era and adopted contributory negligence. It would be a blessing for injury victims in Maryland if Maryland dropped that number down to 4.

The Maryland Gazette posted an interesting – albeit pro-business – article on Friday on this issue of Maryland reconsidering contributory negligence.

January 31, 2007

Prince George’s County Pedestrian and Bicycle Accidents

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

prince george's county pedestrian bicycle accidents

Click to enlarge

Prince George’s County recorded 285 bicycle and pedestrian deaths between 1994 and 2003, far more than Montgomery County, Fairfax County, or the District of Columbia, according to a report by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. More pedestrians and bikers are killed Prince George’s County than in any other jurisdiction in the region.

Every year approximately 5,000 pedestrians are killed in motor vehicle collisions in the United States. There are many causes for bicycle and pedestrian deaths but we see a lot of these cases in P.G. County.

January 28, 2007

Lucentis May Increase Risk of Stroke

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

The New York Times reported on Saturday that Genentech posted a letter on its website warning eye specialists of its new eye drug Lucentis, which may increase the risk of stroke for those on Lucentis. Genentech found that patients taking their marketed dose of Lucentis were much more likely to suffer a stroke than patients taking a lower dose.

What Is Lucentis?

Lucentis is a recombinant humanized monoclonal antibody. What it does is that binds to and inactivates vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF-A) which is considered the dominant inducer to the growth of blood vessels. Lucentis is a fragment derived from the same antibody.

Lucentis treats age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, macular edema, and other serious eye conditions.