A Florida jury tacked on $50 million in punitive damages to a roughly $211 million award to the family of Maya Kowalski, the child at the center of the Netflix documentary “Take Care of Maya,” against Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital for mistreating Maya to the point that her mother took her own life. Read […]
When I was a young lawyer, jurors were not routinely allowed to ask their own questions of witnesses. When the jury instructions and other trial rules were modified to make this a regular feature of trials, most of us came to believe that juror questions were an important and useful change to the way trials […]
My favorite football coach is famous for his mantra: “The standard is the standard”. In court, however, proving negligence often depends upon establishing a “standard of care” that may be vague. In medical malpractice cases, expert witnesses often testify to a national minimum standard 0f care that applies in all communities. In this interesting Florida […]
In Florida, there is a presumption that the driver of a vehicle that rear-ends another is at fault. That presumption may be overcome by evidence of a sudden stop, sudden entry into traffic or cutting off traffic. Given that, you might rightly wonder why the carrier of the sand truck in this recent case in […]
An overlooked aspect of personal injury claims is the stress associated with the litigation, including opening up discovery to the other side and awkward encounters with treaters who are somewhere on the spectrum between skeptical or suspicious and hostile. Especially in serious cases, where the victim constantly in the care of medical professionals. As I […]
I have litigated similar issues regarding the duty a hospital owes to relatives of a patient, intentional infliction of emotional distress, wrongful death, and immunity. Here is a link to the reported appeals decision in my case. These are difficult cases, trying for all involved. Press attention can help but can also add to the […]
I’ve been around the block long enough to know that in personal injury cases – particularly serious ones – there are frequently issues “behind the curtain”. The other side will often conceal these issues but they can affect everything from trial scheduling to negotiations. Sometimes, the defense counsel will be upfront but more often your […]
When I worked with my Father, we had a case involving catastrophic injuries in a Ford pickup rollover caused by an inoperable seatbelt. We won that case at trial and, to fully recover, we had to take the case to the Florida Supreme Court. I wrote about that case in a prior post linked just […]
You need a lawyer who has taken the defense the distance – and then some – for leverage against the other side in your serious personal injury case. Unless the lawyers and carriers on the other side believe your lawyer has ‘the guts’, they have no incentive but to delay. Even after an appeal, I […]
Jury Selection inevitably raises interesting social issues that can affect the outcome of your case. The article linked below reveals a relevant issue when a large corporation is a party. To those involved in corporate litigation, the public’s shifting views toward company loyalty and the employer-employee relationship beg the question: How might experiences and attitudes […]
