What made physicians policies cluster****s is many required Dr consent to settle. Unlike other liability policies
Board Lawyers
- Thread starter twenty02
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It’s become abundantly clear that if a prominent public figure or institution sucks up (or, better yet, pays up) to Trump, they’ll derive significant benefit. Conversely, if Trump perceives them as an enemy, our VP (vindictive president) will go after them.
All of this, of course, has First Amendment implications. But nobody’s crying for a big law firm, or for a law school that refuses to capitulate when Trump’s DOJ attempts to dictate its curriculum. Watch for this administration’s 1A assault, though, to expand significantly in the coming months.
Not Ego Man’s problem. SCOTUS declared POTUS above the law as long as he/she/it’s “working.”
Trump is going to lose every case stemming from these orders--but that isn't the point of these executive orders, These executive orders are to punish the law firms indirectly by having them lose client who do NOT want to be involved in this mess. The damage, for most, was done the moment pen hit paper. No client wants to be bothered by this crap.
I represent several contractors and large engineering firms in contracts with the Corp of Engineers. Contract negotitions, lawsuits, negotiations, whatever. There is a trickle down fear that has spread from these that I am already hearing. Nobody knows my political position--in large part because it is clear as mud and very issue specific. But, my clients and many other peoples clients do a lot of work with the federal government or state government that get federal funding (work on the great lakes, large tunneling projects, waste water treatment plants), and those clients are scared to death of running afoul of this administration. That is exactly what this administriation wanted.
Bad outcomes don't always mean fault in your typical duty/breach/causation analysis. There's no way to predict what a jury would do. The only things I know about Juries for sure is that they hate liars and they generally get it right. I'd rather have a jury trial in most cases than a bench trial at the state court level.
Another aspect that is important, any good lawyer worth his weight will tell you when you have a shit case. There have been many times where I have thought, "dammit, we take this through discovery, and I'm going to make 500k in fees easily off this". If I did that and the claim is worth $750k and I spent 500k in fees on a bad case defending a design firm that screwed up, I'm going to lose a client. Most lawyers that I deal with think the same way
Agreed but each county is so so different re composition which in the tort world has a huge impact on outcomes. Actually settlements as well as the adjusters know.
Rule number one:
The jury must like your client.
I have several war stories that confirm this.
Of course. But in 3 week trial relating some sort of business litigation, the jury will hate everyone.
My favorite was I had a case in this remote rural co in Missouri. Was a death case. The lawyer on the other side would simply not respond. To anything. Finally I left him a couple of incredibly nasty messages. Nothing. Called back to make all these threats and the prick picked up. Before I unloaded again he goes please. Listen to me for one second. And I am hoping you’re one who can appreciate this.
I am 63 years old. Right now I am sitting at my gf’s kitchen table in her one bedroom one bathroom apartment outside of fort myers studying for a bar exam I have no chance of passing as there’s no chance I have the stamina anymore. It’s been 40 years since I took the last one. I left my wife and
I go STOP. just stop. Do what you need to do and you will not hear as much as a peep from me until you can.
About two months later the guy calls at like 9:30 on a Sunday night. Hey would you take this?
Big number. So he comes back for the wrongful death settlement hearing. He walks into the courtroom. Ct clerk hugs him. You know I’ve been thinking about you you old fool. Call me once in a while. Judge goes “hey buddy.” I’m like wtf. I start my statement and the judge puts his hand up. Didn’t even get a full sentence out. Hey Mike this is a big number. You good with doing this. Sure about it? He goes I am. Then he signed the order.
As we’re walking out I go to the lawyer: god damn. I don’t think a trial would have gone that great for me here.
He goes. Not on anything in controversy 🤣🤣🤣🤣
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It gets better. He called me two years later out of the blue about his son. He was finishing law school and was looking for a job. We hired him. And he did great. Fast forward a couple years and he left us to start a firm with his dad.
He never took it. He worked remotely and came back when he had to. Then left and started his own firm with his son
The good thing about representing an organization is that you can usually select your courtroom client from among a group of people.
It really is crazy how different counties are. The city. Holy shit.
Were any of you good people on the corner of hodamont and Martin Luther king boulevard at 1:30 am on Tuesday April 5 2021.
Two hands go up.
WHAT?!!! HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE!!!!!
Do any of you have any personal experience with a police officer
THEY SHOT MY BROTHER!!!!!
THEY LIE!!!!!!!!
Poor insurance defense goat. Okay ladies and gentlemen please remember that there has to be a basis for anything you award. I can’t state this strongly enough. This is not Powerball. Please. It’s not Powerball.
I tried plaintiffs side PI for 6 months before landing my job at the class action firm. Thought I wanted to be a real deal trial lawyer. My first trial where I was first chair. On my own. No help. Car wreck case. Rear ender, plaintiff claimed she needed back fusion, but hadn't done the procedure (no insurance, no money). Opposing counsel was trying his 100th jury trial. 40ish years old. Told me while drawing up jury instructions together that the only reason he hadn't settled the case was because he hated my boss so much (perfectly valid--I did too).
During voir dire, I'm asking all these questions I'd read about from Mike Tigar (my crim law prof who defended Terry Nichols in the Oklahoma bombing case) and Bob Cilfford. Real upper level stuff. At a break the judge, retired but who came back when the trial docket was overflowing, is asking me WTF, this is a car wreck case not the Nuremberg trials. I tell him judge, this is how I do things. He says, counselor, how many trials have you had? I lie and say "this is my third, judge." The jury pool comes back in and I start asking "has anyone ever been in a car wreck?" A few hands go up. So I ask the first one, describe what happened. He does. I'm "actively listening" and a question just pops into my head, so I ask it, real conversational-like: "Did the guy who hit you have insurance?" Oh fvck, I think, as the words slipped out of my mouth.
Holy shit was there an uproar. Defense counsel objecting like mad. Judge irate, yelling at me in front of the jury pool "Did you just ask him about insurance!" "Judge, you granted the motion in limine!" Judge calls a recess, brings me and the defense lawyer back in his chambers, and chews me out for a good 10 minutes. I say nothing. Judge tells me these are the questions you're going to ask for the remainder of voir dire, write them down, and if I hear anything else asked, I'm calling a mistrial.
I excused myself to the bathroom before we went back in, promptly puked in the toilet, cleaned myself up, looked in the mirror and seriously contemplated just leaving and quitting the practice of law, and then went back into the courtroom. Ended up winning the trial, but jury award was only for the amount of the surgery, nothing else. Very conservative collar county. Client was ecstactic, boss was furious and chewed me out for not getting 500k.
holy shit!!!!! fantastic. i had a lawyer friend who worked with a captive firm. trial setting every single monday. would look at it on sunday night. they got graded based on a scale. soft tissue case in some random county. $2k in meds. jury awarded $50k. he quit on the drive back. went to work fixing tickets and running night court dockets.
we had a case one time. i can't remember what it was worth 25 million. who knows. i wasn't long out of law school. i had one job. to walk the sj response over to the court house and file it. 9/11 had happened so shit that was once open wasn't. you couldn't get to the court clerks anymore. so it's 5:00 the day it's do. i can't get to anyone and the lady who runs the law library asks me what i'm doing. i tell her and she goes oh don't worry. just give it to me. i'll file it for you. breathe a big sigh of relief.
three months later its called up. i go over with two of the big dog partners. judge goes i see that i have a motion from holland & knight and it appears counsel for the plaintiff hasn't filed anything. i just froze. thankfully the judge gave us time. fing hell that was the first moment where i thought wearing fancy suits to happy hour and bangin paralegals is definitely fun but this might have been a bad career choice
Ha.
First officer death case I had was a deputy who shot a crazy-drunk Hispanic who threatened wife and daughter with a knife. He goes outside, she calls 911, my guy shows up, decedent approaches with a knife, my guys draws, fires, dead. Claims 2 or three warnings. Questionable shoot (shudda waited for back up) but defensible. I meet the deputy for the first time. Tell me about what you did before beoming a deputy. Marine, served in ‘Nam. What did you do in the Marines. Sniper. . . . Settled a few weeks later. No way could he take the stand. Told the sheriff to get rid of the guy.
That's great. without an experience like that, you likely would not be the man you are today- book club would have never started, and frankly you probably would have just gone on to some rando message board posting memes of muppet characters.
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