Assumption Of The Risk

In the Summer of 1985, I was just out of 1L and clerking at my Father’s office in Ft. Lauderdale. My first assignment involved reading depositions in the case of an amateur boxer being maintained on life support after an AAU bout in Miami. The allegation was that the bout had been negligently staged without […]

Metrics For A New ‘Patient-Centric’ Safety Movement

According to the Institute of Medicine in the 1990’s, an estimated 100,000 people died as a result of medical mistakes every year in the U.S. (a number that has more than doubled, according to a new study by Johns Hopkins University). The Institute of Medicine (IOM) is a Congressionally mandated, non-profit research body. Their initial […]

December 5, 2015

Today, we conducted inspections of a roll-off dump truck. I have had multiple cases involving claims of “pinch point accidents” causing death, flying debris thrown from containers and sensitive records dumped from roll-off dump trucks just like this one.  

What Is A Jury Trial No. 6: The Closing Door

  No one gives a damn about the things I give a damn about. The liberties that we can’t do without seem to disappear like ghosts in the air. When we don’t even care, it truly vanishes away.             Jason Isbell, Alabama Pines In this jury trial series, we’ve been through history, television and the […]

What is a Jury Trial (No. 4)?

When George Mastin rolled into town with his “Unparalleled Exhibition of Oil Paintings”, it was a sensational event by late 19th Century standards – enough to bring out the whole community. Broadsides on barn doors and tavern walls announced the happening, including historical and religious lectures. The Erin Twin Brothers would be there to clog dance. […]

What Is A Jury Trial (No. 1)?

The Jury consequently invests the people … with the direction of society.             Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America   This series is about jury trials. Conflict has been used to resolve disputes for centuries – perhaps as long as time itself. Before trials, opposing sides would meet on a field for a battle or […]

Why I’m A Trial Lawyer (No. 5)

Reed wrote me a letter me on June 7, 1984, after I graduated from college at Washington and Lee. He wanted to walk me through how to think about law school and a career in the law. He wrote that letter more than 130 years after Lincoln’s notes on a law lecture (see, the previous blog […]