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.

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11 Ways To Celebrate National Book Month (2023)

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Ben Brody, a Jewish 22-year-old living in Los Angeles, has suffered harassment and permanent reputational damage ever since Musk amplified to his 158 million followers on X, formerly known as Twitter, false accusations tying Brody to the right-wing brawl, according to the complaint obtained by Law360 and lodged in Travis County District Court.

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1728421?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_me

Slander, defamation, and invasion of privacy cases are exploding in the internet and conspiracy theory age – where false allegations can be amplified and spread around the globe almost instantly. Review a reported decision that I successfully argued on appeal at the link below. It changed Florida law to help define how these claims are brought and won.

Bill Thompson Jr.’s Winning Appeal in Doe v. Beasley Broadcast Group

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A hospice medical director was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to pay $18 million for his role in submitting more than $150 million in bogus Medicare claims on behalf of patients he falsely claimed were near death.

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1726856?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2023-10-02&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=5?copied=1

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In transcripts of various depositions examining the plaintiffs’ four experts, then-Kline & Specter attorney Thomas Bosworth “alternated between being rude, demeaning and obnoxious,” U.S. District Judge Stephanie L. Haines said in her Wednesday opinion, highlighting Bosworth’s use of a “higher-pitched, mocking tone to belittle the female defense counsel.”

Combined, the four depositions lasted a bit under 28 hours, according to calculations presented by the Nelson Mullins legal team, which together amounted to $19,713.50 in fees, the amount of monetary sanctions handed down on Wednesday.

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1726333?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2023-09-28&read_main=1&nlsidx=1&nlaidx=12?copied=1

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“Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world…would do this, it would change the earth.”

William Faulkner

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Trying to parse out what may remain confidential, whether you have a “qualified protective order” or not, is an interesting but unclear area.

Doe’s lawyer explained that the primary caselaw relied on by the defendants, a 1985 Illinois Supreme Court case, Novak v. Rothnam, was inapplicable because in Novak, a psychiatrist testifying at a criminal trial waived the confidentiality of that information. His client’s information was subject to a qualified protective order under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, Paris told the justices.

“There was a qualified protective order in this case that made very clear the limits of waiver,” he said. “Here, we have a qualified protective order that says [the waiver is] for the litigation. … The statements that [the firm made] were made outside of court, outside the litigation.”

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1724261?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2023-09-22&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=0?copied=1

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A Pennsylvania appellate court’s recent ruling makes clear that a hospital’s internal documents are generally considered fair game for discovery in medical malpractice suits and the onus is on health care providers to prove otherwise, experts said.

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/personal-injury-medical-malpractice/articles/1723936?nl_pk=029cff45-637f-44e3-babf-75563f8e0bfd&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=personal-injury-medical-malpractice&utm_content=2023-09-21&read_main=1&nlsidx=0&nlaidx=0?copied=1

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Strongly reminiscent or suggestive of (something).

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