Im in employment and we have been getting crushed by one particular judge deciding that theres no such thing as constructive termination and no pleading or record sufficient to show a prima facie case of discrimination. Judges who used to have a history of being pretty plaintiff friendly have become markedly more aggressive in granting motions to dismiss/motions for summary judgment also. They are under a ton of pressure from the chief judge and supreme court to clear dockets.
Had a similar situation where my guy was paralyzed after a MVA on the way back from a job. He was a passenger in the at fault vehicle, and his employer didn't have any insurance for WC or for auto. We pursued WC benefits against the general contractor on the job alleging that they were the statutory employer to see if we can salvage something, but the statute is pretty clear that my guy wouldn't have been able to get anything from the alleged statutory employer. They paid us $50k just to go away, but the guy's life is fucked.
Large employers that don't have UM policies on buses/vans that they know employees use often for work are dicks. Have had that happen multiple times. Also some sheriff and police departments don't carry UM policies so if their officers/deputies get catastrophically injured in a MVA on the job and don't have their own UM they are screwed.
I think my biggest case right now is a Sheriff Deputy that was involved in a really bad MVA with an uninsured motorist with 3 and counting surgeries thus far and the county does have a large UM policy in place for sheriff deputies.
I'd me more likely to get a counter claim for $100M against my client than the other way around with our judiciary.
We got hired as trial counsel. The amount we settled for was 8x the amount offered at mediation. I think value wise we did pretty well. There was significant risk on both sides.
I’ve been in a court-ordered zoom mediation since 11:00 EST. The case is in California, so who knows how late we go. We have six parties in separate rooms. After an initial joint session, I’ve seen the mediator once, for 20 minutes.
Me with the mediator, 2-3 minutes and a counter offer Insurance companies with the mediator, 20+ minutes a counter offer. It's so frustrating.
I've been having the same experience recently on the defense side. Plaintiff's counsel makes astronomical demand last week to start mediation, seemingly ignoring her recently disclosed medical expert who more or less agrees with our expert about MMI, future care, and reasonableness of care. So we think she will start at like 650k (being generous). She starts at 900k and change. We are a bit taken aback, but put forward a good faith offer to get the ball rolling. 1 hour goes by. Mediator comes back with a ridiculous bracket (low end is well-above our authority of 400k). We say we can't agree to that bracket and ask for another demand. another 45 minutes go by, and mediation is over. have had a few like that. Seems like at least twice a mediation we are left waiting for 30+ minutes and the return from the mediator is just some other demand. Always curious what is happening in the other room that takes so long but results in so little movement.
Have a personal injury case where a doctor attacked my client. Just reached a settlement , or at least I thought, and OC tried to make my client agree to dismiss the criminal case a material term of the personal injury settlement. Looks to me like that violates multiple rules of professional conduct and would render the settlement void.
Is it up to the victim to dismiss? Wouldn't that be up to the state? Same question like when a cop asks someone "do you want to press charges?" Is it really up to the victim? If there's probable cause/sufficient evidence, isn't it up to the police/the state? Maybe they need that victim to testify, so the real question is "are you willing to provide evidence we need to pursue charges?" IDK my bff jill
I once got ordered to mediation in a case that did not need to be mediated. The plaintiff's lawyer on the other side is a friend, and we try cases against each other all the time. We were sitting in our respective rooms after each talking to the mediator once, and it was getting close to lunch time. I texted him and asked if he'd come out to the hall to talk for a second, knowing that we could just skip whatever bullshit was going on and figure out if we could settle the case. I asked him "what the hell has she been doing in there for an hour?" He looked at me quizzically and said "she hasn't been in our room." So, he and I walked around the office and saw the mediator standing outside smoking a cig. She was just straight up running the clock.
It is definitely up to the prosecutor. Obviously the victim telling a prosecutor that they want the charges dropped carries some weight. Victims may not be paid to agree to refuse to testify or to withhold evidence. A civil settlement should not require or result in the dismissal of the criminal charge, nor a refusal to testify or cooperate. The civil plaintiff may agree to advise the prosecutor of his/her satisfaction with the settlement and to request dismissal of the criminal case or approval of a plea agreement, but the negotiating parties must understand that prosecutorial discretion always rests with the prosecutor, such that the criminal case may well proceed despite the payment, the settlement, and the victim’s request. A quid pro quo in which a civil plaintiff is paid at least in part to not proceed with the prosecution of a criminal charge appears to violate numerous rules of professional conduct.
Ya, wouldn’t not be shocked if that’s the case a good majority of the time. Especially with zoom mediation, they can just pop in and out of rooms with no repercussions if they are just scrolling TMB
We were pretty pissed. She's a friend of one of the Jefferson County judges who kept sending her shit, so there wasn't too much we could do about it.
Responding to an MSJ on a coverage issue. It's so dumb it's hard to even understand what he's trying to argue.
I hate this when you're dealing with slapdick lawyers. You have to spend half the brief articulating their own position and how illogical it is.
Insurance defense lawyers-I have a question about setting reserves: I have a pre lit UM case with major injuries and clear liability where the adjuster has asked for the medical records where my guy is probably 50% done treating. Is it possible that they set the reserves too low if I send them medical where he's only 50% done treating with multiple surgeries upcoming and then it becomes a pain in the ass trying to get them to come around to the full value later? I've heard discussion before about adjusters setting reserves low which causes major problems down the line which I'd like to avoid. Conversely they could see the writing on the wall with the upcoming surgeries etc and set the reserves properly. I usually like to wait until clients are completely done treating, MMI, physician opinions are secured, any experts are secured, and send one demand.
I know this isn't all that helpful, but it kind of depends on the carrier. I would err on the side of getting them information sooner than later.
as someone who hates when Plaintiff/Claimant's counsel won't send over records because they want to wait for him to finish treating, screw that. Yes, it depends on the carrier. But whether you get info to me today or in a year, the evaluation is going to end up the same. The sooner we get records, the sooner I can inform my client about what is going on, the sooner I get a grasp on the case, and the better chance we have at settling pre-suit. Is Plaintiff still building up his damages and injury claims? Sure. Am I going to hold it against the Plaintiff if all of a sudden a head injury starts showing up in the records 2/3 of the way through treatment? No, not any different than if I got all the records at once and put my timeline together. Reserves aren't that hard to move as long as you keep supplying information. Too often, holding back records through treatment just leads to suit being filed because my client did not have any or enough information to evaluate the claim as SOL neared.
the way geico was structured in florida, it would be to your benefit to give them as much as possible. The initial layers of adjustors didn't have much power to change what was available so you would want to make your way up the chain sooner rather than later.
They won't tell me presuit. At some point I'll file suit and they'll have to disclose it. And typically I can even find out pre lit once we make a demand and start negotiating. It's a sheriff department and my client was a deputy. Not sure if they have a fleet policy with a ton of vehicles on the policy where coverage is stackable or not.
Now that I think about it, he's an insured , so I have no clue how they could legally not disclose it. My guy didn't want us to even make a claim on it until last week because he was worried about retaliation by the department.
There's also no guarantee that the adjuster won't set reserves without anything. You may be shooting yourself in the foot by waiting.
Just got a $250K/$500K UIM suit that was removed to Federal Court. I am woefully unprepared for litigating in Federal Court. Have had one single Fed case in WA in 5+ years of practice out here. Fuck me.