I’m a trial lawyer for injured people and businesses at The Beasley Firm. Founded in 1958, we have recovered over $2 billion for our clients through hundreds of verdicts and settlements in excess of $1 million. We’re listed in Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers in America, U.S. News’s Top Lawyers, [...]
Young Lawyers: Be Careful Emulating Great Trial Lawyers
Norm Pattis has some advice for trial lawyers: A friend recommended several films as classics about trial, so my wife and watched one of them over the weekend, Otto Preminger's, Anatomy of a Murder. ... What makes the film worth watching, however, was the manner in which both sides asked patently improper questions designed and intended to anchor themes in the minds of the jurors. Once such a question was asked, the other side predictably objected, and in the course of the objection reframed the issue at hand in the manner intended by the party asking the question. Here's an ... Continue Reading
Bankruptcy Court Lifts Stay On Philadelphia Family Court Architectural Designs
At The Philadelphia Inquirer: In a ruling applauded by advocates of a new Family Court building in Center City, a federal bankruptcy judge found Friday that $6 million in architectural drawings were no longer part of a bankruptcy proceeding filed by developer Donald B. Pulver's firm. The ruling by Judge Eric L. Frank increased the chances that the state would be able to start construction on the facility at 15th and Arch Streets before Gov. Rendell leaves office in January. ... Pulver filed for bankruptcy, hoping to maintain his developer's role and the architectural drawings, after his plan to develop ... Continue Reading
E.D.Pa. Shoots From The Hip In Assessing Value of Medicaid / Medicare Lien In Personal Injury Settlement
One of the big issues that's been floating around the personal injury / wrongful death world over the past few years is the extent to which states can recoup the money they spent on an injured person's care if that person later sues the person who caused the injury and obtains a settlement. The Supreme Court gave us a partial answer in Arkansas Dept. of Health and Human Servs. v. Ahlborn: There is no question that the State can require an assignment of the right, or chose in action, to receive payments for medical care. So much is expressly provided ... Continue Reading
Philadelphia Taxes Bloggers… And Hot Dog Vendors, And Lemonade Stands, And…
The internet got very, very mad at Philadelphia this week: So, this little story intern Valerie Rubinsky wrote about the city hitting up small-time bloggers for a $300 business privilege license has sort of exploded on the Interwebs, from the New York Daily News to Yahoo to Michelle Malkin to freaking nutball conspiracy site Infowars (!) to Fox 29 — which did a piece on it without, you know, mentioning where their brilliant story idea came from. (What's that word for ripping off a story without attribution again?) Kudos to you, Valerie Rubinsky, for finding a story that combines two ... Continue Reading
Thoughts On The Third Circuit’s New Section 1 and RICO Enterprise Opinion in the Insurance Brokerage Antitrust Litigation
Last week, after more than a year of drafting following oral argument, and nearly two years after the original District Court order, a Third Circuit panel (Chief Judge Scirica and Judges Fisher and Greenberg) issued their magnum opus on pleading Section 1 antitrust violations after Twombly and Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations ("RICO") Act "enterprises" after Boyle in the consolidated Multi-District Litigation In re: Insurance Brokerage Antitrust Litigation. The plaintiffs alleged a massive, "global" conspiracy among the major insurance companies and insurance brokers to artificially allocate customers and rig prices for commercial insurance: Plaintiffs are purchasers of commercial and employee benefit insurance, ... Continue Reading
Ready, Fire, Aim: A Lesson In Bad Legal Writing From The Lowe’s Drywall Class Action Settlement Kerfuffle
The internet has not been pleased with the proposed settlement reached between Lowe's — which denies ever selling any tainted Chinese drywall — and the plaintiff's attorneys in a Georgia state court class action. There's two problems with the proposed settlement, which has not yet been approved by a judge. First, the settlement is a dreaded coupon settlement (i.e., a settlement in which the plaintiffs get only coupons or vouchers to buy more stuff from the defendant), one that will use particularly unreliable notice procedures for letting potential class members know about the settlement. For more, see ProPublica and the ... Continue Reading
An Associate’s Guide To White Dress Shirts, Ladders, and Bootstraps
Over at the Delaware Corporate and Commercial Litigation Blog, Francis Pileggi highlights one of the many quirks of practice in Delaware: Professor Bainbridge discusses an article here from The Wall Street Journal that quotes a Delaware Superior Court judge in connection with a dress code for those who appear in his court. Most Delaware lawyers know that it is at least an unwritten rule that a "white dress shirt" is expected of lawyers who appear in a Delaware court. Delaware, it must be said, has among the most formal and quaint procedures I've ever seen. Even though, as Pileggi previously pointed ... Continue Reading
“Curating The Legal Web” — How Much Filtering Does Substantive Legal Blogging Need?
Jason Wilson is trying to figure out — first at his own site, then again at Slaw — what to do with the explosion of legal analysis on the internet: [W]e have seen a rapid growth in legal media outlets, although I don’t think we could characterize all of them as “expert.” Regardless, thousands of lawyers and legal professionals are creating content, and more specifically, analytical material. Little of that content, however, is curated (i.e., evaluated, authenticated, and categorized). And if digital outlets are going to compete against traditional publishing companies, their collective analytical content—which is fast becoming substantial—will need ... Continue Reading
Oracle v. Google: Litigation As Negotiation By Other Means, Or As Total War?
As widely reported by every tech site on the internet, last week Oracle (which recently acquired Sun Microsystems) sued Google for infringing upon a variety of software patents Sun obtained while developing the Java software platform. For the facts, I can't improve upon the fine commentary at Groklaw, CNet, and tech-specific sites like RedMonk. James Gosling, inventor of Java programming language, has even commented on it. Two conclusions are inescapable: Sun could have, but chose not to, sue over the same patents, likely (at least in part) to preserve goodwill with the developers who used the Java framework; There's a ... Continue Reading
The Economic Damage Caused By Medical Malpractice Dwarfs The Cost Of Lawsuits
I've posted many times before about the economic realities of medical malpractice liability. Via The Pop Tort, a new study commissioned by the the Society of Actuaries has revealed the economic cost of medical malpractice in America: SCHAUMBURG, Ill., (Aug. 9, 2010)–Findings from a new study released today estimate that measurable medical errors cost the U.S. economy $19.5 billion in 2008. Commissioned by the Society of Actuaries (SOA) and completed by consultants with Milliman, Inc., the report used claims data to provide an actuarially sound measurement of costs for avoidable medical injuries. Of the approximately $80 billion in costs associated ... Continue Reading
