Trials Archives - The Thompson Law Firm https://thethompsonlawfirm.net/category/trials/ Fort Myers Florida Trial Attorney Mon, 18 Mar 2024 18:53:14 +0000 en-US hourly 1 This Kind of Courthouse Reporting Reveals a Bias Against Plaintiffs https://thethompsonlawfirm.net/this-kind-of-courthouse-reporting-reveals-a-bias-against-plaintiffs/ Mon, 18 Mar 2024 18:53:14 +0000 https://thethompsonlawfirm.net/?p=23776 As reported in Law 360 … The Florida Supreme Court’s recent decision not to reinstate a nearly $31 million jury award against a bar that served alcohol to an underage person who later crashed into a pedestrian was the right call, experts said, and provided much needed clarity on the state’s dram shop statute. Read […]

The post This Kind of Courthouse Reporting Reveals a Bias Against Plaintiffs appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

]]> As reported in Law 360 …

The Florida Supreme Court’s recent decision not to reinstate a nearly $31 million jury award against a bar that served alcohol to an underage person who later crashed into a pedestrian was the right call, experts said, and provided much needed clarity on the state’s dram shop statute.

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1813400?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2024-03-18&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=0?copied=1

The establishment in question is a Tallahassee watering hole near the FSU campus frequented by students. Its owner is a locally well-known donor to conservative legislators and the University. If you ignore this and blithely chalk the result up to unidentified “experts” cheering, you’ve done a grave disservice to the plaintiff, the plaintiff’s lawyer, and especially the jury. What a monumental waste of time and resources.

The post This Kind of Courthouse Reporting Reveals a Bias Against Plaintiffs appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

]]> What Do Trial Lawyers Have In Common With Teachers? https://thethompsonlawfirm.net/what-do-trial-lawyers-have-in-common-with-teachers/ Thu, 14 Mar 2024 14:20:45 +0000 https://thethompsonlawfirm.net/?p=23768 One of the better trial judges I have appeared in front of started as a math teacher. This lawyer did that in reverse. When I entered the classroom each new school year, I became responsible for teaching a group of strangers who may not have wanted to be there, about a subject that they may […]

The post What Do Trial Lawyers Have In Common With Teachers? appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

]]> One of the better trial judges I have appeared in front of started as a math teacher. This lawyer did that in reverse.

When I entered the classroom each new school year, I became responsible for teaching a group of strangers who may not have wanted to be there, about a subject that they may not have wanted to learn and were largely ill-equipped to understand. This easily could be considered the job description of a trial attorney.

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1812240?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2024-03-14&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=12?copied=1

The post What Do Trial Lawyers Have In Common With Teachers? appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

]]> Lawyer Misconduct in Closing Can Get A Verdict Overturned https://thethompsonlawfirm.net/lawyer-misconduct-in-closing-can-get-a-verdict-overturned/ Mon, 04 Mar 2024 15:17:56 +0000 https://thethompsonlawfirm.net/?p=23736 Defense lawyers who convince a judge to keep out evidence of prior similar accidents don’t get to argue to the jury that there is no evidence of similar accidents. “The misconduct of Appellant’s counsel has resulted in unnecessary expense to his client and to Appellee, a waste of judicial resources, and inconvenience to the jurors […]

The post Lawyer Misconduct in Closing Can Get A Verdict Overturned appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

]]> Defense lawyers who convince a judge to keep out evidence of prior similar accidents don’t get to argue to the jury that there is no evidence of similar accidents.

“The misconduct of Appellant’s counsel has resulted in unnecessary expense to his client and to Appellee, a waste of judicial resources, and inconvenience to the jurors who took four days out of their lives listening to evidence and rendering a verdict, given that the case must be retried before a new jury,” the panel said Friday. “Such conduct cannot be condoned.”

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1808976?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2024-03-04&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=1?copied=1

The post Lawyer Misconduct in Closing Can Get A Verdict Overturned appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

]]> Juror Misconduct Warrants New Trial In Birth Injury Suit https://thethompsonlawfirm.net/juror-misconduct-warrants-new-trial-in-birth-injury-suit/ Thu, 22 Feb 2024 15:00:41 +0000 https://thethompsonlawfirm.net/?p=23702 I was trying a Georgia med-mal case involving an infant with injuries caused by hydrocephaly when a juror brought a medical textbook into the jury room on the first day of trial. The Court discharged that juror the day it happened. This Tennessee case is like that except nobody noticed until it was too late. […]

The post Juror Misconduct Warrants New Trial In Birth Injury Suit appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

]]> I was trying a Georgia med-mal case involving an infant with injuries caused by hydrocephaly when a juror brought a medical textbook into the jury room on the first day of trial. The Court discharged that juror the day it happened. This Tennessee case is like that except nobody noticed until it was too late.

… one juror had gone home, looked up the warnings on his EpiPen, and brought that information to deliberations. The trial court first granted, then on reconsideration denied, the motion, prompting the appeal.

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1804861?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2024-02-22&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=7?copied=1

The post Juror Misconduct Warrants New Trial In Birth Injury Suit appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

]]> Law Students Are Learning To Be Trial Lawyers In A “Flight Simulator” https://thethompsonlawfirm.net/law-students-are-learning-to-be-trial-lawyers-in-a-flight-simulator/ Wed, 21 Feb 2024 13:55:50 +0000 https://thethompsonlawfirm.net/?p=23698 Law students who would traditionally experience only a few courtroom scenarios over a semester have begun working with programs that can provide an entire array of courtroom curveballs, thanks to large language model artificial intelligence technology. Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1804884?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2024-02-21&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=1?copied=1 Based on real-life experiences, I have suggestions for “curveball” fact patterns to throw at these […]

The post Law Students Are Learning To Be Trial Lawyers In A “Flight Simulator” appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

]]>

Law students who would traditionally experience only a few courtroom scenarios over a semester have begun working with programs that can provide an entire array of courtroom curveballs, thanks to large language model artificial intelligence technology.

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1804884?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2024-02-21&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=1?copied=1

Based on real-life experiences, I have suggestions for “curveball” fact patterns to throw at these kids. Here’s one for starters:

Say you’re trying a case against your old boss and his client. It is a two-week-long medical malpractice case involving a birth injury and a brain-damaged baby with moderate to severe cerebral palsy. The defense attorney for the hospital – your old boss – is scheduled in another medical malpractice trial at the same time in a different court. In response to his plea for a continuance (to which you object), the Judge indicates she plans to force a trial of your client’s case each morning for four weeks while his other case is tried for four weeks in the afternoon. Go, young people. What do you do?

The post Law Students Are Learning To Be Trial Lawyers In A “Flight Simulator” appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

]]> On Jury Selection https://thethompsonlawfirm.net/on-jury-selection/ Wed, 27 Dec 2023 16:15:43 +0000 https://thethompsonlawfirm.net/?p=23585 I have had State Farm adjusters sitting in the venire eager to get on an auto accident jury. In one case, I remember a State Farm adjuster on the venire panel. I used internal State Farm documents with the Judge showing that the insurance carrier encouraged their employees – when called for jury duty – […]

The post On Jury Selection appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

]]> I have had State Farm adjusters sitting in the venire eager to get on an auto accident jury. In one case, I remember a State Farm adjuster on the venire panel. I used internal State Farm documents with the Judge showing that the insurance carrier encouraged their employees – when called for jury duty – to maneuver their selection onto a jury to make mischief. The judge would not strike the juror for cause, and we were forced to use a peremptory challenge. These are always difficult decisions.

Here is a Florida appellate court decision that may help with that.

During jury selection, Okaloosa County Circuit Court Judge William F. Stone refused to excuse for cause one of the jurors who Seadler flagged as biased. This meant Seadler was forced to use one of his three peremptory challenges to toss the problematic juror, the justices’ opinion said. Seadler was ultimately forced to accept a different juror he didn’t want and would have removed if he only had that challenge, the opinion said.

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1779945?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2023-12-22&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=5?copied=1

The post On Jury Selection appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

]]> A major victory for Maya’s family, their lawyers, and patients everywhere. I cannot overstate how impressive this work is under difficult circumstances. https://thethompsonlawfirm.net/a-major-victory-for-mayas-family-their-lawyers-and-patients-everywhere-i-cannot-overstate-how-impressive-this-work-is-under-difficult-circumstances/ Mon, 13 Nov 2023 15:10:30 +0000 https://thethompsonlawfirm.net/?p=23470 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 […]

The post A major victory for Maya’s family, their lawyers, and patients everywhere. I cannot overstate how impressive this work is under difficult circumstances. appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

]]>

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 more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1739675?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2023-11-13&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=0?copied=1

I have been following this case and blogged about it

here (“A Difficult Case”), 

here  (“I Was Afraid This Would Happen”), and    

here (Juror Questions).

Medical malpractice cases are difficult on their own. When you add novel issues regarding damages and liability, they can become overwhelming. In addition, this case was tried in a jurisdiction considered by most trial lawyer to be relatively conservative.

I tackled similar issues in a neighboring county. You can read the results of that successful appeal

here (Estate of Thomas versus Lee Memorial Health System).

I have nothing but complete admiration for Maya’s family and their legal team for this brilliant result and wish the best for them during the inevitable appeal.

The post A major victory for Maya’s family, their lawyers, and patients everywhere. I cannot overstate how impressive this work is under difficult circumstances. appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

]]> Juror Questions https://thethompsonlawfirm.net/juror-questions/ Tue, 07 Nov 2023 14:50:23 +0000 https://thethompsonlawfirm.net/?p=23459 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 […]

The post Juror Questions appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

]]> 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 unfold. In my experience, jury questions corroborate the seriousness with which our citizen juries work.

That doesn’t mean everyone is always happy about it.

A Florida judge refused Monday to toss a juror who attorneys for Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital said had clearly shown bias and an unwillingness to consider the evidence through his many questions to witnesses throughout the trial over the hospital’s care of Maya Kowalski, the child at the center of the Netflix documentary “Take Care of Maya.”

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1764023?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2023-11-07&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=0?copied=1

The post Juror Questions appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

]]> The Standard Is The Standard https://thethompsonlawfirm.net/the-standard-is-the-standard/ Mon, 06 Nov 2023 14:55:42 +0000 https://thethompsonlawfirm.net/?p=23456 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 […]

The post The Standard Is The Standard appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

]]> 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 case against a tire repair shop, the appellate court considered the application of a med mal precedent to a situation where evidence of the “standard of care” was a little more vague. Trial lawyers with experience know that this is more than just a theoretical problem – cases can be prepared to minimize if not eliminate the issue.

In Friday’s opinion, the panel for the Fifth District Court of Appeal wrote that Moyer — which concerned a medical malpractice wrongful death suit — may have found that testimony of internal policies could be admissible, but that such evidence “does not conclusively establish” a standard of care.

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1740726?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2023-11-06&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=13?copied=1

The post The Standard Is The Standard appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

]]> 11th Circ. Affirms $12M Award Over Deadly Fla. Keys Crash https://thethompsonlawfirm.net/11th-circ-affirms-12m-award-over-deadly-fla-keys-crash/ Thu, 26 Oct 2023 14:24:06 +0000 https://thethompsonlawfirm.net/?p=23387 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 […]

The post 11th Circ. Affirms $12M Award Over Deadly Fla. Keys Crash appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

]]> 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 the news would waste everyone’s time and money delaying a resolution of this case and taking it up on appeal. There is a simple answer: as long as they have the money, they still have it. Maybe they’ll pay now. Or maybe not.

“Thus, not only was the jury-instruction error harmless because the estates were entitled to a directed verdict, but Discount Rock actually benefitted from that error by getting an unearned second bite at the negligence-issue apple,” the Eleventh Circuit said.

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1736856?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2023-10-26&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=2?copied=1

The post 11th Circ. Affirms $12M Award Over Deadly Fla. Keys Crash appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

]]>