The attorney-client privilege protects private communications between a client and a lawyer. This sensible rule promotes a full and frank discussion so that the client can get the best advice without the interference of prying eyes and ears. It assumes the communications are strictly private – not in the presence of anyone other than the client and lawyer. It also assumes no disclosures to third parties that would waive the privilege – by the client or the lawyer. Here’s an example to illustrate the point: Let’s say that early in my career handling plaintiffs’ medical malpractice claims, a client drove his car through a hospital’s glass front. The fact of the accident is not attorney-client privileged. I could write about the fact that my client was found in his car, half in and half out of the hospital window, without violating my ethical duty to the client. However, my private discussions with my client (before and after) would be privileged, and I couldn’t share them on my blog.

Work-product privilege protects our thoughts, impressions, and strategies in the case—as long as they are not shared in public or with any unauthorized third party (authorized third parties, for instance, would be the many vendors used to help work the case, and the privilege binds them). Staying with our example, my thoughts and opinions about my client ending up in his car half in and half out of the hospital plate glass window would be privileged unless and until I made those thoughts or opinions public as part of my client’s case. Included is any discussion of how or why my client told me he was found in his car, half in and half out of the hospital.

Generally speaking (and hypotheticals aside), my job is to pursue civil remedies to obtain justice for my clients. The most effective way to do this is to take steps toward a jury trial. The right to a jury trial is the foundation of every settlement and verdict obtained. The Seventh Amendment to our Constitution is dishonored whenever the right to a jury trial is impaired or legislated out of existence.

The Seventh Amendment right to jury trial comes from the Magna Carta – the King’s deal to avoid violence with his subjects by guaranteeing certain rights, including the right to jury trial. Causing violence to property and persons is always counterproductive to pursuing a jury trial. But that assumes the existence of a meaningful right to a jury trial, as guaranteed by our natural rights under the Constitution.

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Early America adopted English common law and a long history of cherished rights, including the right to trial by jury – which dates back to 1215. In that year, Pope Innocent III issued an order validating a person’s right to a trial by peers. That same year, at Runnymede in England, King John was forced on a battlefield to sign Magna Carta – the ancient pact he made with English Barons, including a stipulation to man’s right to “the lawful judgment of his peers”. These are the events that first set rule of law above kings.

A kid gunned down a health insurance CEO as he walked a busy Manhattan sidewalk into a shareholder’s conference. In America, there’s a certain passion surrounding guns and the Second Amendment. The Surgeon General issued an advisory about an epidemic of gun violence and deaths resulting therefrom. U.S. Surgeon General Issues Advisory on the Public Health Crisis of Firearm Violence in the United States

Firearms are the leading cause of death for American children and adolescents. HHS Report on Firearm Violence in America

At the same time, Americans have lost respect for our justice system in record numbers according to Gallup. Trust in court system at record low: Gallup

There are many reasons for both of these trends. They aren’t all related. But here is what I propose. We need a movement similar to the #2A movement to promote jury trials, a right guaranteed by the Seventh Amendment to our Constitution. And we need to invest time and money into improving our court systems and their rules so they can demonstrate their importance to our system of governance.

Self-defense and a well-regulated militia should be a last resort. There wouldn’t be a need for violence if we took our jury trial rights as seriously as our gun rights. Project 7A is designed to start that process.

The post What is Project 7A? appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

“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

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… 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

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David Dickey, who represents Hannah Waite’s parents, told Law360 on Friday that he proposed settlements of $250,000 to each doctor, but the defense refused and made no offers of their own.

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1803831?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2024-02-20&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=0?copied=1

The post Jury Awards $30M To Family Of 23-Year-Old Who Died From Ulcer appeared first on The Thompson Law Firm.

Lee’s family successfully argued that inexperienced doctors on call at the hospital waited three hours before removing the clot from a major artery, leading to brain damage, according to Lee’s attorneys with Gair Gair Conason Rubinowitz Bloom Hershenhorn Steigman & Mackauf, who said the verdict is the largest award ever in a medical malpractice case in Westchester County.

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1779270?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2023-12-21&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=0?copied=1

In many cases, the front-line providers use inexperienced providers as a shield to hold themselves at a remove from patient care. Frequently, the experienced providers will blame the inexperienced providers with not sharing important information. This often results in substandard or negligent care and treatment.

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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.

“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

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A man who won a nearly $26 million verdict against Temple University Hospital in a leg amputation medical malpractice case was awarded an additional $3.7 million in delay damages by a Philadelphia judge, who described the hospital’s bid to undo the verdict as “disingenuous,” in an order docketed on Monday.

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1715818?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2023-08-29&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=1?copied=1

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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 related to the great resignation affect jurors’ perceptions of large corporations?

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1712681?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2023-08-25&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=18?copied=1

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