It is getting harder and harder to trust anything online these days. Be careful what you read or consume is just no longer possible. To be fooled is easy for all of us. If you are somewhat attuned to the social media world, like I am at 55 years old, it is easy to miss fakes, deepfakes, photoshops etc. I …
If you are a litigator, it’s time to get out the popcorn: Donald Trump Civil Trial
So, there are a lot of things that the general public does not know about litigation in the real world that lawyers who actually litigate cases consider litigation 101. Trump’s trial is going to reveal the basics to the public I guess. What are the basics so far? 1) request a jury trial at the time of your first pleading. …
What’s new in Mass Tort Law? Phillips CPAP and Hair Straightener Litigation
I was recently contacted about a developing mass tort situation involving Phillips CPAP machines and decided that the client did not have a case. The issue in these cases is whether a connection can be drawn between cpap machines and a patient’s cancer. After reviewing the literature and the patient’s pathology report it appeared that the one thing I could …
You Get What You Pay For: Mediation
I am in the middle of negotiating the end to a case with clear liability, clear damages, and some thorny legal issues. When I get towards the end of a case, mediation is often a way to resolve it. I rarely arbitrate cases these days. Mediation is basically a negotiation where both sides want the case to settle but …
Mink on the Loose in Pennsylvania: Nuisance
I love a good mink story. According to the New York Post, some animal activist released 6,000 mink from a mink farm in PA. I know next to nothing about mink or minks. What I do know is that mink farming forms the basis for one of the pivotal cases in nuisance law. I always have a few nuisance cases …
Influencers Gone Crazy / How it Affects the Law of Evidence:
It is getting harder and harder to trust anything online these days. Be careful what you read or consume is just no longer possible. To be fooled is easy for all of us. If you are somewhat attuned to the social media world, like I am at 55 years old, it is easy to miss fakes, deepfakes, photoshops etc. I …
How Much Does The Personal Injury Client Affect Settlement and Deposition Preparation?
It matters a lot. Are you a Roger Federer type or Novak Djokovic? Some people are just very genuine, approachable, and likeable people. Others are not. Most of us are somewhere in between. But, those likeable guileless people are going to get a better settlement for the same case. Why? Well, more than likely the deposition displayed the plaintiff as …
What happens When You Win a Motion for Summary Judgment or What I did this weekend on my way to Tenerife?
Tenerife you say? I had a chance to go visit the Canary Islands over the Labor Day holiday weekend and Tenerife is one of the largest and most visited islands in the chain. It’s a long but entertaining story. Anyway, the Islands are a bit like Europe’s Caribbean, I think. Beautiful, volcanic islands off the coast of Africa and …
The Trump Situation: One Case Is Usually Too Much for your average client.
Again, regardless of your political position, as a lawyer, it is simply incomprehensible to think of a single client trying to handle all of these different, bet the farm type cases going on in the same calendar year. Many of my clients are normal, everyday folk, who work for a living, raise their families, support their kids and parents, go …
Here is an Un-Triable Case: So, what do you do here?
In February, 2022, your client, a New York man was hit by a Volkswagen driven by a woman, which allegedly left your client with severe injuries. He became the plaintiff. The case is ongoing in the New York Court system. The man had filed three or four prior motor vehicle cases in the past ten years. That does not make …