A friend in one of my groupmes who is also a lawyer made a wild statement last night that a lawyer advising Trump to release his tax returns would constitute malpractice. I said, "How?" Haven't heard back. I haven't kept up with that case but I wonder if there is any Title IX law, state rape victim law, or something like that that makes those statements confidential. My guess is it's not solely based on statements in any mediation, but probably statements in a mediation like that.
Police reports are never admitted in Alabama, either. Even if authenticated, they're still hearsay. Totem pole/weakest link/hearsay on hearsay.
i don't mean any disrespect... but it took me 3 mins of Google research to know the answer to this question. and i am not licensed in alabama. you should know this already, as an actual alabama licensed attorney who handles PI cases.
i don't practice in alabama and you need to chill, you'd be surprised at what can come in. and if you're getting your answers to admissible evidence at trial off google.... edit-also my boss who has been practicing PI for 40+ years and has record breaking verdicts in multiple counties in this state was worried it might come in...
well at least my criminal trial got continued. It's crazy. It's a case where my guy tripped while bottle feeding his baby and dropped it on its head. Then he got scared when DHS got involved and they asked him what happened and he said he didn't know. So now they're labeling him a liar. The head trauma specialist at the hospital is who called DHS and she's on a witch hunt. Drove from Mobile to Pascagoula for a grand jury hearing to testify. So they haven't given me a report from the doctor re causation etc. Haven't given me a CV. All they've given me is a blurb in a letter about what she's expected to testify about. And they gave me that two days ago when trial was supposed to be on the 17th. And it's exceptionally rare to get a deposition in a criminal case. So I'm going to ask for it but probably won't happen. In a civil case the judge would've just thrown the expert out and they would've been screwed because it would've been an untimely and insufficient dislosure. Seems like the rules on experts are a lot more vague, not delineated, and relaxed in criminal cases. And I don't know why that's true because we're dealing with someone's liberty not money.
so one of the car wreck factory firms here had this LOP arrangement with one of the docs here where they'd send patients and the patients would get 33 visits on a LOP-mostly physical therapy. But then it turned out that the doc wasn't doing any of the treating at all and the person that was doing the treating was just a joe schmoe off the street with no medical training whatsoever but I guess they were telling people that she did have training. so then this defense lawyer that handles all the insurance defense for USA which is defending most of the claims from this car wreck factory firm-this defense lawyer gets wind of this somehow. and he somehow sues the doctors clinic for fraud I guess in the name of USA or someone else-I'm not sure how they have standing. But in this case for next week our client first treated with this fraud doc. Another lawyer at my firm is arguing a motion in limine today about this. But dang it creates a problem for us. We didn't set up this LOP. But we certainly dont want the defense lawyer bringing up all that crap- "were you aware that the person you were treating with was a complete fraud" and we don't want them arguing the bills weren't reasonable and necessary because they were a fraud-and if we don't claim the bills or records or talk about the treatment it becomes a gap in treament. Lots of different directions that could go.
The bills aren't reasonable and necessary if they weren't from a healthcare provider. That's pretty simple. As for how to handle it, just don't claim them and explain to the jury that your client was the victim of fraud.
Drop the bills, move in limine to keep any reference to the bills themselves out. You can still talk about the treatment. So what it's from someone without a medical license? That doesn't matter. It's the fact that your client is trying to treat and get better is what matters. Use this to your advantage. The defendant's negligence forced your client, who wasn't doing anything wrong, to have to go and treat with a place and she got victimized even further because of it.
yah i've been arguing that we shouldn't claim them. It's like 10k so not gonna make or break the case
Was the doc overseeing the therapy by the person without a license? Or was it legit just some person off the street? Also, it seems like the judge wouldn't let that come in. From what you said, those folks haven't been convicted of anything. And anyone with 300 bucks can file a lawsuit
Your key words are trust and betrayal. She trusted the other drivers on the road to drive safely and not put others in danger. The defendant betrayed that trust. She sought out doctors she thought she could trust to help her get better, they betrayed her trust too. Fortunately in the (not so) great state of Mississippi we have our civil justice system to right these wrongs. We worked hard in jury selection, discussing everyone's beliefs and feelings, and my client trusts our civil justice system and most importantly, trusts in you. Go forth young Gump and bring home a just verdict
You can also backdoor the fuck out of some financial position of the parties evidence when they try to push it. Say they ask what you're worried they'll ask. Q. Were you aware that the doctor you were going to was a fraud? A. Not at the time, but I didn't really have any other options. I needed medical care and couldn't afford it.
Are any of you guys in the Detroit area? i am in alabama, but I need to find a new lawyer in the Detroit/Wayne County area to handle some child support stuff for me, since the guy i was using up and died on me.
so that big divorce trial i did earlier this year..the judgment came in-judge gave me everything i asked for-opposing party has to give my client $900k within 6 months of the judgment.
One of my best friends is a lawyer in Michigan. From what I understand child support is a bitch out there.
MISDU is the most useless, unorganized, pain in the ass organization that i've ever had the displeasure of dealing with.
took treating ortho surgeons video depo in that 18 wheeler case today. opposing lawyer objected to the entire deposition because he said i hadnt designated him as a expert and given him an expert report. the expert designation deadline isn't even here. i've deposed doctors many times prior to the expert designation deadline without getting a written report yet or formally designating them as experts. opposing lawyer had the same medical records as me which i gave him months ago. he said the reason he objected was he was "going in blind". never seen that objection before. of course when the designation deadline gets here i'll designate him as an expert and include all the opinions about causation etc
what i usually do is get the treating docs testimony in depos then give that to a life care planner that way she has all their opinions regarding future medical treament, limitations, etc and i usually do all of that and then when its time to disclose experts i just turn it all over. how do you do it?
So part of the me position I took is analyzing possible fraud claims to be passed on for possible criminal prosecution. This one woman has claimed that 7 successive large orders were not delivered by Fed Ex. Due to her history Fed Ex now takes pictures when they deliver to her residence to verify the drop off. She steadfastly refuses to have a signature required at delivery. I first listened to a recorded call. Then tried calling her. In the recorded call she sounded weak and feeble. When I called her 30 minutes later she was all peppy and upbeat. Upon a little more investigation I discovered she has done this under 2 names delivered to the same duplex. She was referred to her local District Attorney's office for suspicion of fraud that reaches the felony level. This company has however issued thousands of dollars worth of replacements for the "lost orders". I'm willing to bet almost all of this stuff ended up on eBay.
Sitting in on some of our escalation meetings, we have so many clients that will have 10+ claims for a replacement item and then file a complaint with the BBB when we deny the final claim.
Why don't you get the docs to give the opinions to the life care planner (you need those opinions to do proper 26 disclosures anyway) and dump it all on the defense all at once? You're giving them all the opinons ahead of time and making their job easier. They're going to feed those depos to their retained experts and your guys are locked in and you have no way to rebut it if they aren't coming live.
will probably start doing it that way. the way described above has worked for me thus far but you're right. i'm mostly worried weather that $3500 deposition i just took is worthless. i'm not sure whether his argument is correct though.
I had a client come in who had terminated her prior attorney in a letter that she e-mailed to the paralegal who had been her primary point of contact throughout the case. She didn't e-mail it to the actual attorney, she didn't mail it to him, or anything like that. She figured sending it to the paralegal would suffice and put them on notice of their termination. The former attorney failed to file their fee lien within the 20 days after termination that the statute gives him, and he filed it about 45 days after she sent the letter to the paralegal. So when we start negotiating the fee lien after the claim settles, I tell him we would offer him 20% of his lien, and I mentioned that I believed it to be generous since he filed his lien late, and it was therefore invalid. He tried to negotiate up his lien, and I told him to fuck off. I filed a motion to dismiss his lien. He filed a response saying that the Claimant hadn't properly put him on notice because she e-mailed it to his paralegal and not to him. The statute just says that you have to file the lien within 20 days after "notice of termination of the contract in writing by the client." It doesn't say that the notice has to be to the attorney's e-mail. I still think he should just take what I was offering. If we lose, I really don't care (it's not a huge settlement), but I just thought this guy was spending way more time than it's worth on something where he quite obviously fucked up. He even sent me documents proving that the paralegal received the e-mail on the date it was sent by the Claimant. Sounds like he needs to have a talk with his paralegal instead of fucking around with these motions...
the good news is i got causation (something i didn't know i was going to get going into it-especially good considering they're denying the wreck ever happened). my guy has a history of chronic lower back pain going back to 2000. he did a decent amount of pain management in 2008-2009. But he hasn't been to a doc for his back in the last 5 years or so. So our story is yah he has DDD but he treated, got better, got off pain meds, was working his job full time which is manual labor. Now this wreck has messed all that up. And ppl with DDD are more susceptible to injury so that preexisting condition actually makes this injury worse. Spine surgeon today said that absent evidence showing otherwise, he's treating this is a chronic exacerbation of a preexisting condition. he said if my guy was treating for it within a 6 month window prior that it drastically change his opinion. but my guy didn't. he said if pain managment doesn't resolve his pain issues that he would have to get with my guy again to reevaluate. but that he doesn't think he's a surgical candidate because he's 36 years old and surgeries on ppl of that age more often than not don't make it better. this makes the case even better for me imo.
On top of all that, you know the paralegal got the email and was like "oh shit, we're fired. Better send this to my boss." Attorney just got lazy.
So this happened at about 4 AM this past Saturday, Borden is one of our bigger clients. This should be an interesting one to work http://wkrg.com/2016/10/08/major-bayway-accident/ I have no idea how that happens. The trailer has been sitting in Mobile Bay since the accident, they're removing it this evening.
Client forced our hand to get her out of jail, despite needing more credit for time in. Dad doesn't want her out. She gets out finally.... Dead a week later.
Sorry, should have said it was a drug issue. So she od'd. I get tricked pretty fucking easy. Mainly because I put myself in their shoes. Client says "dude, I just lost my job, car, apartment. I'm definitely not fucking with drugs again. I don't need rehab. Just time served." To me, that's believable. Understandable. So I go with it.
it's obviously not your fault. I got a $150k settlement for a knuckle head client and told him until i was blue in the face that he needed to invest it wisely. what did he do? went out and bought a really nice big truck that he didn't need and the engine blew up a few days later and he was calling me again. some ppl you just cant change or do anything for, you do the best you can but at a certain place it's out of your hands
Likely no way this is applicable but is anyone here licensed or know someone that is licensed in West Virginia and/or Louisiana? Thx