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, [...]
The True Self Of The Plaintiff’s Trial Lawyer
It's counterintuitive, but the law is more a science than an art. If you look at the entire universe of legal questions raised in and among our society on any given day, the vast majority have a simple, clear, and obvious answer. Speed limits are constitutional. So is the sales tax. It is illegal to walk into a gas station, point a gun at the cashier, and demand their money. It is negligent for a driver to text while driving. If you hire a painter to paint your house for $1,000 and the painter does not paint your house, you ... Continue Reading
King & Spalding Ethically Had To Drop The DOMA Defense
When news broke that King & Spalding was withdrawing from representing the House of Representatives in the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) lawsuits, and that former solicitor general Paul Clement was leaving the firm to continue that representation, I didn't think much of it. Lawyers leave law firms all the time, typically for a constellation of reasons, constellations that usually include the North star of money and which sometimes include a star or two related to ethics or professional satisfaction. I'd imagine that money played some role in Clement's decision to leave King and Spalding, too. It usually does when ... Continue Reading
Pennsylvania Legislature Puts Insurers Over Injury Victims
[Update: Unfortunately, the "Fair Share Act" passed. Stuart Carpey has some details.] It’s that time of year again. As The Legal Intelligencer and other sources report, Pennsylvania’s joint and several liability laws — which ensure that the economic damage caused by negligent companies falls on insurers and other defendants proven to have been at fault rather than on injured plaintiffs — are on the chopping block again at the Pennsylvania General Assembly: At press time, the state House of Representatives was on its third consideration of House Bill 1, called the "Fair Share Act." The act would change Pennsylvania's doctrine of ... Continue Reading
The Right To Counsel Includes The Right To Fire Your Lawyer
Since I spent Sunday with my family and Monday working, I’m late to the Joseph Rakofsky story. The criminal defense blogosphere has all piled on (Jamison Koehler, who as a DC lawyer, has a particular interest, Mark Bennett, Scott Greenfield, Eric Mayer) as did the generalists like Carolyn Elefant and reporters like Elie Mystal and Debra Cassens Weiss. In short, a judge declared a mistrial in a murder trial because the defendant’s lawyer, who had never tried a case before, didn't understand the rules of evidence and was caught instructing his private investigator to "trick" one of the government's witnesses. The lawyer then ended ... Continue Reading
Good Lawyers (And Doctors) Aren’t Cheap Because They Can’t Do Piecemeal Work
Fred Wilson, the always inspiring venture capitalist, posted yesterday A Challenge To Startup Lawyers: We closed an investment recently. It was a seed round. Our firm priced the round and we were joined by a number of small VCs and a few well known angels. We agreed to close on a standard set of "light preferred" documents without negotiation. There was no investor counsel on the transaction. We just signed the standard documents which were tweaked to reflect the round size, share price, and board provision in the term sheet. The legal fees for this transaction were $17,000. I talked ... Continue Reading
It’s Legal Malpractice Not To Sue Hospital Residents For Medical Malpractice
It may sound strange coming from me, but I don't like suing people, particularly not in personal injury or professional liability actions where the real target of the suit is not even the company that employed the negligent person, but really the employer’s insurance company. But I often end up suing everyone I can, including employees, for one reason: I don’t have a choice. If, years down the road, some hospital or law firm or bank or construction company wants to claim that the negligent employee was an "independent contractor" or "outside this course and scope of their employment," or ... Continue Reading
Pennsylvania Injury Lawyers: Don’t Let Insurance Companies Send Settlement Checks To Medicare, Medicaid or DPW!
[UPDATE: Complicating matters, on June 29th, 2011, a Third Circuit panel ruled in the Tristani v. Richman case (PDF) that Medicare / Medicaid has the right to assert liens, and that the default medical expenses apportionment scheme under 55 PA. CODE § 259.2 is appropriate. Expect more litigation and appeals to follow, likely beginning with a petition for en banc review. Despite the above, though, I don't believe the below analysis has changed — insurers still have no basis for refusing to pay plaintiffs. The lien is between the plaintiff and Pennsylvania's DPW.] This post is meant for all of my ... Continue Reading
Philosophy Explains How Legal Ethics Turn Lawyers Into Liars
I am a fan of the American court system. There is no natural law requiring people to resolve their differences by asking third parties to represent them and advocate on their behalf in front of impartial decision-makers. The folks in classical Athens and Rome thought it was a good idea, the Europeans rediscovered the practice in the Middle Ages, and the adversarial system of law has been consistently practiced by England, and then America, ever since. Since the classical time, there have always been restrictions on lawyers intended to keep them honest. Most of those "restrictions" have amounted to nothing ... Continue Reading
Why Philadelphia Is The Worst Judicial Hellhole In The United States
The American Tort Reform Association's Annual Report on "Judicial Hellholes" is out again. Whoops, I mixed up my link — that's a link to reasonable commentary by the Center for Justice & Democracy. The actual misleading, faux-scientific report is here. My take is similar to The Pop Tort's ode to the judicial hellholes list: Your courageous “Judicial Hellholes” report at long last draws attention to the many injustices corporations have to face day in and day out. You have finally given a voice to the “mom and pop” tobacco companies, gasoline conglomerates, and insurance providers. Philadelphia apparently takes #1 on the ... Continue Reading
The Barnes Museum and The Dilemma of Dead-Hand Control
At the Weekly Standard, art critic Lance Esplund has an essay decrying the upcoming move of the Barnes Museum from Lower Merion, Pa., to Philadelphia: Now after years of litigation, Albert Barnes’s intentions have been subverted and his will broken. And the Barnes Foundation is scheduled to be moved. Galleries have already been closed. Ground broken. Pictures crated. The thousands of artworks are all being uprooted from their home in Merion, Pennsylvania, a leafy suburb 20 minutes from downtown Philadelphia, and transplanted to the mall on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway next to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Advocates claim the ... Continue Reading
