Would also quit before I'd file a 593 page motion. Also the fact that it was some pre lit administrative law thingy makes it worse.
Comp guys , when you have a client get released and his TTD checks become PPD checks, do you take a % on that? I'm going to put in my contract that PPD payments will be considered part of their settlement and we will be taking a % on that. Client claimed we couldn't take a % on PPD checks recently. First time I've ever had that happen.
We finally have two associates that I can delegate work to. Both are mid-20s associates less than 2 years out of law school. I don't wanna be mean, because I had to cut my teeth as well, but their work product so far leaves a lot to be desired. In the past 2 weeks, one has sent me a 20 page Motion to Compel on simple overdue discovery responses (generally just a 3-4 page form Motion), and the other copy/pasted our attorney-work-product litigation report into an MSJ -- which included all of our vulnerabilities and evaluation of exposure.
This is really why there should be some sort of required clerkship at local law firms during law school where you get experience doing this type of thing. Much more meaningful for practice than law review.
Was it 20 pages of text or was it all attachments where y'all had reached out to get responses? I don't think I've ever filed more than 2-3 motions to compel discovery that were longer than 2 pages.
It was basically a compendium of the rules of discovery in WA, with references to Federal Discovery rules, and seeking sanctions (and a similar legal analysis of why sanctions are warranted because we've meet and conferred twice instead of only once). Kid's ruthless, my boss will love him.
I could forgive the motion to compel. Inexperienced should err on the side of overworking. The combination of laziness and just not getting it required to copy/paste a privileged report would really stick in my craw.
Both pretty bad, but I agree. Why would a discussion of weak points and exposure have any place in a MSJ?
Young lawyers rarely understand the overwhelming value in succinct well-written motions. It never occurs to them that most humans would prefer to read two pages than twenty.
I filed a long motion to compel after a deposition where the lawyer instructed his client not to answer tons of questions. My favorite was "I instruct the witness not to answer that because I don't know the answer to it."
They have even less understanding of the value of picking up the phone and talking to opposing counsel.
Defense bar who does PI - how do y'all feel about pre-litigation/early litigation settlement demands on cases with gut liability and big injuries? Do most carriers default to "we need to do more discovery" or does papering the file with a demand early on help promote resolution? I go back and forth on this and have not decided if its effective to start sending demands early on and continue to supplement as the case develops versus sending one demand after the majority of necessary discovery is completed.
I think it helps to send the demand early. Most claim handlers are pretty lazy, so if you can do their work for them on the front end, they're probably going to put more on the file. Otherwise, they may make a really bad evaluation early and make it difficult to come off of later.
Setting aside med mal because it’s a different animal, in my experience it’s highly variable by carrier. In years past I did work for some carriers that were dying to settle everything as early as possible and that would have been very helpful. Others get sticker shock at an early high demand and want you to investigate the shit out of it.
That's always what I've heard -- it's usually better to try to get the reserves set high early and get it in the hands of an adjuster at a higher level.
True, but from my experience they will still set reserves in an appropriate place so it doesn't require an act of congress to get sufficient authority once the investigating is done.
I used to think the latter. now I'm way more the former. I'm sure Georgia's bad faith law is much better than Texas (and definitely Alabama) but on a lot of cases I'll just keep sending demands and a lot of times they get higher. Every time a depo goes badly for them or we get some new evidence, I try to send another demand. Even if it's just "This is your 5th opportunity to do the right thing and pay your policy limits." I started doing it more as I got a smaller case load where I was able to do a more thorough presuit workup and because I felt like a few of my cases were dragging along because the idiot attorney on the file wasn't giving a fair representation of what was going on to the adjuster.
I'd like to make a prediction on how this ends up going - The kid pulls this in the wrong case and ends up on the wrong side of someone like Morgan Adams who proceeds to burn him alive.
Went out for a one week "vacation" last week (still worked a fair bit throughout), and now I'm back in the office, swamped, and my paralegal set up four fucking deposition this week (one every morning tuesday-friday). I want to die.
Had a hearing on my Motion to Dismiss recently. Opposing counsel filed a comp claim that clearly should be dismissed. At the hearing, he was blatantly lying to the Judge about the facts of the case. I filed post-hearing exhibits just to show the Judge he was lying to the Court. Waiting on an Order but deciding if I want to file a Motion for Sanctions against him. Issue is comp in central Florida is a small world and we regularly have cases with the guy.
The judge is a real stickler for her scheduling order, so her first inclination is to deny any motion to continue. My client was amended in less than 90 days before trial, so I had to lay out a timeline of all of the shit that happened before we got involved and then explained how we were prejudiced having to do all the shit we have to do in the next few weeks.
I'm fairly certain the in house defense attorney is wearing a bath robe for our deposition. I'm really digging the idgaf energy she's bringing to this thing.
Update on my deposition experience this morning: 1. Defense attorney wearing a bath robe 2. My client is Bosnian and him and the translator are screaming at each other. 3. The court reporter was just throwing up everything she's eaten in the last freaking week. She requested a five minute break and then forgot to mute herself while she ran to the bathroom and just wretched all over. 4. Lots of fun not so subtle Chinese racism because the Employer is a Chinese guy who took him to some fake Chinese doctor on Buford Highway after he fell 15 feet and lost consciousness.
Has anyone ever heard of the Feds paying on a claim and settling a case pre-lawsuit? I know it's a completely pointless exercise, but I'm basically writing a law review article over here because of so many novel legal issues.
Depends on what branch of the feds you are dealing with. We've settled VA med mal claims multiple times pre suit. Presuit you're dealing with general counsel for US Department of Veteran Affairs. The lawyer is going to be in DC. Once suit is filed of course it gets sent to the DOJ/ US Attorneys office . The presuit authority from general counsel goes out the window as well. The USAs office completely gets to override whatever the DC lawyer thought. Both the ones we settled presuit were clear cut medical malpractice cases such as retained instruments.
Back when we used to file things in paper, we had a federal judge who required a courtesy copy of anything filed. For non-dispositive motions, he had a standing order setting a 10 page limit. I had an oral argument where opposing counsel wrote a 22 page brief. The judge made a point of counting the first 10 pages, tore the rest of the brief from it, and threw it in the trash in front of counsel.
Judges are possibly only rivaled by texas high school football coaches in their belief in their own self importance. As a general rule I hate all of them
She just petitioned the Court for a "late August/early September 2021" trial date. She filed in July 2021. Her discovery responses aren't even due yet. ugh
I can petition Scarlett Johansson to be my wife but we live on planet earth not fairytale land. I'm really looking forward to the train wreck that case is about to become.
all the med mal VA cases are FTCA. Depending on the branch of the government you are dealing with, you may not be dealing with the DOJ first. Eventually if you can't get it resolved presuit then you will be dealing with the DOJ
I definitely get what you are saying and I agree. But there is usually a reason why judges have so many rules or are strict. Usually it is because they have lawyers that will try to get away with anything and if you give them an inch they take a mile. At the same time there are also plenty of cool judges that were practitioners and try to just resolve issues without being self important.
i had to deal with an 8 year lawyer at norton rose fulbright over that interior design case. she treated this interior design thing she was handling for a friend with the importance of like a 100 billion dollar case. she kept threatening to file a lawsuit and eventually i was just like ok go ahead. i looked at the district clerks website and she literally had one pleading with her name on it with 4 other lawyers. turns out she didnt actually want to file a lawsuit.
wtf. Did she just hang a shingle right out of law school? I can’t imagine any supervising partner would allow such stupidity.