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, [...]
Inevitable Consumer Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against Nutella’s “Healthy” False Advertising
One of the great things about being a lawyer is that, like a sports fan watching a play unfold, you can foresee lawsuits before they're even filed. Nutella is delicious, creamy, and chocolaty, but one thing it is not: healthy. That didn't stop Ferrero, the makers of Nutella, from starting up a healthy-for-kids advertising campaign last year in Europe, as profiled by the nutrition researchers at Obesity Panacea: Although this may surprise some of our readers, I really like junk food. I eat far too much pizza, I love chicken wings, and Nutella, the original chocolate hazelnut spread, is one of ... Continue Reading
Another Falsified Logbook, Another Preventable Truck Accident Death
Like with the patient safety violations at Gosnell's clinic, I hate seeing articles describing tragedies that mirror my cases, tragedies would have been avoided if we simply had better laws or law enforcement. Like the article in today's Inquirer: A truck driver who plowed his 77,000-pound rig into an Infiniti on the Schuylkill Expressway in 2009, killing a Fort Washington man, was charged by federal prosecutors yesterday with lying about breaks he was supposed to take on the road. Authorities said that Valerijs Nikolaevich Belovs, 57, of Northeast Philadelphia, falsified his driver daily logbooks between Dec. 20, 2008, and Jan. ... Continue Reading
Guard Your Time Like It’s Your Money, Because It Is.
What's the most important tool on a lawyer's desk? There are a variety of alternative fee arrangements — like the contingency fee model our firm uses and the flat-fee model that is wrongly under attack — but there are really only two types of business models for law firms: those which profit from efficiency and those which profit from inefficiency. The latter model is used by the "BigLaw" firms with hundreds of lawyers working together to maximize the fees billed to the client. They call it "leverage," a clever name for using four attorneys — two of them too junior, ... Continue Reading
“They Stole My Idea” Doesn’t Always Amount To An Intellectual Property Lawsuit
The Limited Scope Of Inventors' and Creators' Rights Under Copyright, Trademark, and Patent Infringement Law The business lawsuits actually filed, and defamation lawsuit not filed, surrounding Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook have inspired some of my more popular posts. But there is one litigious part of the Facebook story that I did not cover, and that was the lawsuit brought by the Winklevoss twins against Zuckerberg alleging that he stole the idea for Facebook from them. Here's why I avoided that part: without knowing the intricacies of the case (a case they're trying to reopen), there's not a lot for me ... Continue Reading
New Medical Malpractice “Tort Reform” Just Another Pack of Lies
Insurance-Funded Congressional Representatives Again Try To Deny Justice For Patients Injured By Medical Malpractice Some bad ideas just will not go away. A few days ago The Pop Tort noted that the new, anti-patient Congress was holding hearings on medical malpractice liability. If they had listened to the excellent testimony of Joanne Doroshow, Executive Director of the Center for Justice & Democracy, they would have realized that injured patients need more, not less, legal protection. But the “hearings” were a sham anyway, and a few days later the insurance-backed members of Congress introduced a new plan to strip away the ... Continue Reading
Another Reminder: Lawyers Should Protect Themselves With A Paper Trail
I've written before about the need for lawyers to create a "paper trail" to protect themselves from later accusations of malfeasance or negligence. Yesterday the New Jersey Law Journal gave a vivid example of where the lack of a paper trail can go: Ex-employees of Prudential Life Insurance who say the company bribed their lawyers to keep their bias claims out of court are seeking access to thousands of documents the company asserts are privileged. The request was made in a motion by Stephen Snyder, the attorney for 73 of the 234 plaintiffs, who told Bergen County Judge Brian Martinotti ... Continue Reading
Ready, Fire, Aim: How Not To Threaten Sanctions Against Opposing Counsel
[UPDATE: The lawyer called me and asked to "restart" our relationship, including by removing the more provocative elements, so I did. Water under the bridge.] Yesterday I received an email which said: Pursuant to New Jersey Rule of Court 1:4-8, please allow this correspondence to serve as notice that Defendants intend to file a Motion for Sanctions as the claims filed by [my client] against Defendants [his clients] are frivolous and in violation of NJ Rule 1:4-8(a). More specifically, [my client]'s claims include allegations of Fraud (Count I), Conspiracy (Count II), violations of the New Jersey Wage Payment Law (Count ... Continue Reading
Walking The Line In Medical Malpractice Cases: New Jersey Appellate Division Vacates $19 Million Birth Injury Award
A recent medical malpractice case from the bought-yourself-an-appeal department: Citing multiple trial errors, a New Jersey appeals court has reversed an $18.9 million verdict against an obstetrician whose delay in ordering a Caesarean delivery a jury found to have caused cerebral palsy in the child. The panel found that Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Louis Locascio failed to limit the testimony of a labor-and-delivery nurse, to issue the jury a contemporaneous limiting instruction on the nurse's testimony and to allow the defendant to admit into evidence a report that had exculpatory value for the obstetrician. ... Zeh, the nurse on duty ... 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
Sen. Specter: Supreme Court Needs More Transparency
In The National Law Journal: Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., took to the floor of the Senate on Monday to talk about the vacancy on the Supreme Court, and while he was at it, one of his favorite Supreme Court topics: camera access. "I believe Congress has the authority, should it choose to do so, to direct the Supreme Court to permit its proceedings to be televised," Specter said. ... "If the public had access to what was going on in the Supreme Court," Specter said, "it seems to me there would be a clamor to have more openness, more transparency, ... Continue Reading
