I love when a defense lawyer really wants their client to just admit liability in a run of a mill MVA case where the defendant is clearly at fault but the defendant can't bring themselves to in their depo. In your standard soft tissue case, I'd much rather the defendant not admit liability. Happened today in a depo where lady rear ended my client who was stopped at a red light. This lady was so pissed at me from the beginning of the depo . The attitude seeping off of her was palpable. Then when I asked her if she blamed my client for what happened, she just couldn't help herself.
I definitely negotiate pre lit. I typically have around 50-55 MVA cases so it would seem a little crazy to just file suit on all of them. But I'd say lately at least 50% of the time I just end up having to file suit after getting laughable pre lit offers.
I think it depends on the case. If it's a legit big case with high specials, that will likely require experts for both sides, pre-lit can be good. Soft tissue stuff there's no chance you'll get a legit offer.
Unless limits are huge, you’re losing big money negotiating pre-lit in auto or trucking cases. They will set reserves early, and you’re fighting against that.
I’ve filed and settled a case for six figure limits within 60 days of the accident. Unless you’re concerned about math on the filing fee, file it.
Soft tissue case is worth whatever it is worth. I just straight up tell them what I think it's worth. Sometimes they pay it. Sometimes they don't and I just litigate it. I don't see how I'm losing money on that.
How many times defending a trucking company did you settle pre-lit knowing you had bad shit you didn’t want to disclose? In high value cases, limits early or let me dig.
I don't fuck around with pre lit in big cases. Let client get to MMI, file suit, hire experts, written discovery, start taking depos. With the rare exception that I settled a commercial case in Alabama for $300k last year pre lit . Have a friend in Mobile that said that was a great result for that case even if we had litigated it or tried it.
Maybe anecdotal, but not really a lot? Most have been awful fatality accidents where the only issue is "how much?" i've rarely had cases where our driver was high or there was some egregious fact we didn't want disclosed. A lot of my FedEx WD cases get resolved prelit
Well yea, if you dig deep enough you will always find something to inflame a jury, legit or not. There's always more training that could've been done, something in the background check that could've been uncovered, etc. That doesn't always mean the juice is worth the squeeze, imo. You've been a defense guy for 90% of your career, you know this. But if you admit liability you can shield a lot of that with a liability admission, and depending on the jurisdiction can kick out a lot of that entrustment stuff. "Judge, the only thing for the jury to decide is how much we're paying." Also, in 10 years in trucking law, for the big companies there aren't a whole lot of bad apples or inflammatory actors. You get those in the small carriers that probably shouldn't be operating.
Coverage amount is a big part of it, but if it’s an interstate carrier they have a million. That’s always worth the filing fee.
Carriers also lie about coverage. I got a policy limit tender in a bad commercial case and filed it anyway to learn they have a whole lot more excess because I filed in federal court and they had to disclose.
Just had my calendar call this morning start with someone playing hardcore gay porn on their computer. That was fun.
multi car pile up with 6 lawyers involved and one of them sued my client who is also a plaintiff. everyone but said lawyer has agreed to dates for the deposition of said lawyers client. Said lawyer has failed to respond to 4 follow up emails requesting whether said date works for her. I called her office to see if I could discuss the date with her. She wasn't there and she is the only one that does her calendaring and never called me back. I'm about to just notice the depo and she's then going to call me irate. It's impossible to get dates that work for the 5 other lawyers. Same thing is happening with the trial date . Have a date that works for all 5 but she is holding that up too. Fun times.
This is the busiest month I've had since going out on my own. Cases with the new PI firm ramping up. Starting settlement talks with one of my injury clients. FedEx has taken to removing every case under the sun and filing ridiculous Motions to Dismiss, so just bill the fuck out of it. Three new business clients that want operating agreements and other membership/employment contracts drafted. I'm getting pretty close to hiring an administrative assistant, but I'm also greedy and have pretty much zero overhead. Some of my friends hire virtual assistants from India, and I know there are services in Mexico, but I'm skeptical. /dearlegaldiary
If you find a way to make more money than me while working remotely and living in travel destinations , I'm going to be super pissed and jealous.
Every small and solo firm group im in has people singing the praises of virtual assistants, particularly from the phillipines.
It was some kind of prank. But yeah. Someone was screen sharing gay porn. Happened in a whole bunch of hearings in my county apparently.
My firm is using them. Takes a couple tries to find a good one, but once you find one that can handle the work, it’s amazing the work they do for so little money. I’m basically doubling the salary of mine under the table because I feel bad at how little they get paid.
Late to the party, but I would venture a guess that a firm that large with that many resources has a system that is plug & play for complaints. Throw in party names, addresses, location of accident, etc and boom. Almost all of the stuff I’ve ever received from them was form or template anyway. It also helps that complaints don’t have to be overly-detailed to get past dismissal.
every plaintiff law firm in the country has a form complaint for run of the mill mva cases that have sections highlighted that need to be changed
I believe it. I think my friend at M&M said he filed around 300 complaints himself last weekend. Doing the math, that massive firm-wide number seems pretty believable.
A document you would sign if you walk into a yoga studio or fitness gym that outlines the terms of your membership. Main part is the liability waiver.
You could probably get a million examples online that are the same as what I provide, but if they want to pay me to draft it I won't say no
There's a big insurance defense firm that uses AI to draft answers. A carrier I used to do work for tried to get us to buy the software/service. They started capping billing for answers at .2
When I did workers comp defense for a small form, we had a client that capped all bills except reviews and attendance at hearings at 0.1. Of course the partner over me handled all the reviews that he billed under his name.
Coworkers and I were playing around with ChatGPT yesterday and I asked it to draft a MSJ under Florida law on open and obvious conditions. I was humored yet mortified that it was far from the worst motion I’d ever seen.
Doesn’t ChatGPT keep your information to use for its collective AI? I’ve never used it, but vaguely remember this from a flurry on online CLE I “attended” on ethics.
If you’re requesting a run of the mill motion and review and edit before filing, then I don’t know if their is an ethical issue unless you’re billing as if you spent the time writing the entire motion yourself. Would be akin to using a template imo.
Me neither but I mostly do transactional work that’s more bespoke. From what I gather appears most useful for generating a skeleton draft.
Those were two separate thoughts jumbled together. But if I use a template and just input names, then it wouldn’t take me as long as if I did a motion entirely from scratch. So if I bill my time accurately it would take half the time.
Finally got my notice for trial. At 8:41 this morning. FOR A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT CASE THAT WAS #15 ON THE DOCKET. This judge completely skipped the case I spent all weekend prepping for and called a completely different one. If attorneys pulled shit like this, we'd be sanctioned into oblivion.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/break...owski-plastic-surgeon/?itm_source=parsely-api Fucking nuts. Cliffs: Pro se plastic surgeon murdered opposing counsel in his law firm building's bathroom. After murdering the attorney, he gets on a 10:30 a.m. telephonic hearing with the court before taking the body to his car and presumably dumping it somewhere. Reading the complaint, there can't be more than $50k at issue.
Sounds like the murderer sued a billing company for failing to file claims and bill properly for the medical services the murderer was providing and the victim represented said billing company. But what does that have to do with this: "One irate patient ended up handing out photographs of her unreconstructed breasts and telling others in the practice that Kosowski had “butchered” her and calling him a liar. She also posted “negative and defamatory reviews” online." Why were her breasts "uncreconstructed" and what does that have to do with billing? That article could have been a little less confusing on certain things. It's crazy that this guy was president of his class at Darmouth Medical School and then goes haywire and murders a lawyer in a bathroom.
Haven’t been following closely but it will be hilarious if the dude who sued Paltrow has to pay like $500k in attorneys fees
I figured that was it but the whole unreconstructed breast threw me off. I'm assuming he did a reconstruction and then her bills didn't get paid by her insurance. I think that and the butchering is a red herring/unrelated to the billing issue.