We lost a two week death case last week against a major car manufacturer. Soul (and wallet) crushing.
Removed a death case from a very bad venue in South Alabama to federal court. Plaintiff moved to remand, Magistrate recommended that the Court grant the remand. There was an issue with timeliness of all Defendants consenting (unanimity requirement). Basically, plaintiff was arguing for form over substance, we were arguing substance over form (obviously federal courts are generally the former). Filed a hail mary objection to the Magistrate's report, asking the Judge to not adopt the Report and Recommendation. Received the Order yesterday that the District Judge agreed with us and denied the Motion to Remand. Plaintiff is more than likely going to try and appeal to the Eleventh Circuit, so we'll see. Still a victory for the time being.
This is what Big Meech was talking about. Once you work hard enough for someone else, potential clients just start emailing you with business. Congrats RJF-GUMP
Our was in an unbelievably favorable state venue. One of the main experts wasn't exactly forthcoming with our side about all of his prior testimony. So of course Ford, who had like 3 different firms working for them, had gotten hold of transcripts of every single time the guy had ever testified before and shredded him up pretty good.
That's rough. That's the kind of stuff that ruins an expert and puts him out of business. Products is a small community, a lot of the same experts on every case, and once they're killed once, they don't come back. I keep a database not only of all the defense experts, but my experts as well. Florida fortunately has very favorable (in this context) case law on impeachment materials so I'm able to get everything they have on my expert ahead of time. The law sucks when I want to sandbag the defense experts but fortunately a lot of defense lawyers fail to ever send northup requests.
I've worked about 40 hours total on a motion to compel in a massive, massive products liability case. I finished it up, sent my paralegal all the exhibits saying "this is exhibit A," "this is exhibit B," etc. Somehow or another, she uploaded the wrong document as one of the exhibits. I didn't send her that document. I don't even know where she got it. So I just had to file an amendment with the correct exhibit. Thank god a partner caught the error but now I'm going to look like a dumbass.
I heard a story about a plaintiff's lawyer accidentally uploading his client's complete, unredacted medical records to Alacourt. So, it could be worse.
No doubt. I took my boss' name off the notice of amendment and just put my own name on it. It's 100% not my fault, but I figure if anyone has to look like a dumbass and fall on that grenade, it might as well be the "dumb associate." You're welcome, boss. Edit: He put his name back in and took mine out. He said if he's the one that gets to reap the rewards then he's the one that should deal with the problems. I appreciate that, but I'm totally OK with dealing with the problems if I can get a little more of that reaped rewards. Put my name back in and write me a check, please.
one time i copy pasted a pleading as a template for another pleading. i forgot to take out the style of the case from the first one. happens it was against a catholic school. so the new pleading had Party A v. Catholic School and we hadn't even filed the other lawsuit yet against the catholic school so I kinda let the cat out of the bag on that too. The chancery judge in the case in which I botched the pleading was a huge catholic. My boss was not pleased.
defended the depo of the surviving spouse in a med mal death case yesterday. This could be the biggest case of my career. the lawyer on the other side has been described as the best med mal defense lawyer in the state of mississippi and I've been told " I don't know if he's ever lost a case". He threw his weight around against me and was not very nice. /coolstory
I have had defense lawyers do this when filing cme depositions with attachments on numerous occasions.
One of my favorites - we represented a client in the purchase of property from a bank. We also frequently represent that bank (conflict waivers were obtained). The buyer client did not get along with the bank guy. In his contacts folder, the buyer client assigned the bank contact the name of "DICKHEAD," yes, in all caps. So, in an email by the buyer client on which the bank and multiple attorneys were copied, the contact displayed as "DICKHEAD <[email protected]>"
Been working my ass of this week preparing for trial, second chair. Set to strike the jury on Monday. Client calls us this AM and tells us that his entire account, including deposition testimony and other sworn statements, are all a lie. So that's cool.
YOU KNOW I READ ALOT OF USELESS THINGS IN THIS THRED . I see a lot of individuals talking , some have invested theire time in the business . but ya know what I don't see ???????????? SAMMY AND THE OTHERS MAKING SOME CASH . NOW WHAT BIG TALKERS ?
"Listen, our client is ready to be done with this litigation. How about I just get you a reasonable demand and we wrap this up?"
about to start reading our expert witnesses book on sedation in an anesthesia case. Gonna be a thrilling 300 pages.
Just got out of a custody trial that I won and was awarded attorney's fees. It helps when the opposing party is a complete moron.
So I have an Appellate case where the opposing party cited Marbury v. Madison in his appeal involving an order of removal to an adjoining county.
I'm not going to say they're common in Mississippi. It definitely happens but the other party needs to have screwed up pretty bad for that to happen. In your average custody trial attorney fees are not granted to the victor.
Strange. Temporary fees get awarded all the time here. Our Agreements often provide for payment of fees. At trial, if one spouse makes significantly more money and loses on a couple issues, an award is presumed. If that spouse really fucked up, our judges are likely to hammer them. Maybe it's where I work and the cases we handle.
Here if there is a large income discrepancy, the side with money is often on the hook for fees, win or lose. Unfortunately I do legal services work and often represent low income people. Sort of felt like it was my duty after graduating college and law school with no loans.
Not common in Missouri unless one party has an inability to pay or there is some malfeasance by one of the parties. This was a case that never should have been filed and it lasted through a Friday afternoon. The judge was not pleased. Same in Missouri.
I literally just had a fucking guy come in here and tell me he can't work because of what amounts to a bad paper cut. Fuck you for wasting my time, you motherfucker.
i had a guy say he crushed his finger at work and has permanent loss of sensation and numbness, the doc said no future medical treatment and 0 % impairment rating. I've been taking some serious nickel and dime comp cases.
I might have mentioned this before but when I was working in Nashville a couple years ago I was doing plaintiff labor/employment law. Had a guy come in and tell me this entire compelling story about how he was fired because he was black. Once he is done with his long diatribe I proceed to ask him about any write-ups or drug/alcohol related issues. Mother fucker failed 3 drug tests in that first month of work so they fired him. Yet somehow the company fired him because he was black and the drug testing facility had messed up his piss test all 3 times. It took everything in my power not to yell at the guy and kick his ass out of the door.
I took an EEOC Title VII case one time and filed it in Federal Court client said he was fired because he was black. Turns out he was fired because he missed work all the time. I withdrew
plaintiffs lawyers on here-how prevalent are runners in your area? I'm pretty sure lots of ppl here have runners that go to the scene of boat wrecks and 18 wheeler wrecks and give the injured person $/card/phone number.
I'm in the panhandle now but they're everywhere in south Florida. There's some in Orlando. It always makes for fun when someone tries to solicit your client. It's something the bar needs to come down on but hasnt.
I know they exist up here in Atlanta, and I almost busted another Claimant's attorney for having one, but whatever. I agree the bar needs to crack down on that shit.
there's been occasions where my adjusters have been on the phone with claimant's doing recorded statements the morning after their accidents that occurred the night before (like 9pm-1am) and they get a knock on the door from an investigator at 8am with a contract wanting to represent them. have also heard about stores having to kick people runners of stores handing out atty cards after accidents mostly Florida
It's fairly prevalent here, but the BBO doesn't care. The biggest offenders are all pretty much former members of the BBO ethics committee.
if you're out soliciting slip and fall cases you've taken a wrong turn or four somewhere in your life.
looks like I'll be signing on to do doc review for a local firm that handles huge class actions suits. Got to start somewhere
I do defense work, but have tons of friends on the plaintiffs' side. The worst offenders are some of the holier-than-thou "big time" plaintiff firms. I can think of one incident in particular that took the cake. There was a really tragic death of a young child and my buddy's firm signed the case up. The following day, an on-duty officer showed up at the family home accompanied by an "investigator" from one of the most prominent firms in the state. As if that wasn't bad enough, when the investigator was told the family had already retained my friend's firm, his firm received a call from the managing partner of the prominent firm and threatened that if they did not withdraw he would report them to the Bar for illegally soliciting cases.
The Kyle field death case was solicited by a runner in houston. Flew to the mothers house in Dallas with a k
i need to get my firm to start paying for the jury verdict reporter for MS. Do you guys get those for your state? My buddy at a defense firm used to send it to me-his firm paid for it and emailed it to everyone and he'd just forward it to me. then he switched firms. but these things are gold. i can see what kind of verdict ppl are getting in car wreck cases by county, med mal, premises liability, etc. really gives you a feel for the current climate. i've even used them to help convince clients to be reasonable in settlement negotiations-look Mrs X , a defense verdict came down two weeks ago with exact same facts as your case-and you want a million dollars!