she is now very interested because we've got a dude with a black escalade to take her to appointments
They must have gone to a conference or something. The doctors around here are all starting to get similarly aggressive on charging outrageous fees refusing to refund them if there’s a scheduling problem
ortho here wants $7k for his depo. The case is worth like $25k . I'm thinking about going to trial without a testifying doc and just putting the meds in.
such a weird situation in a current case I am defending: Colorado Plaintiff sues in federal court against UM/UIM insurer. Accident occurred in Dallas, Texas. Hit and run driver. Plaintiff was in a hotel van / shuttle at the time of the accident. So it is a Texas auto policy for a texas hotel with texas witnesses and law enforcement. Plaintiff sues the insurer and the hit/run driver in federal court in Colorado. We file a motion to dismiss due to improper venue. In the alternative, we seek the court to transfer the matter to Texas. if we were in state court, the matter would not be ripe and there would be no discovery. However, we have a scheduling conference in federal court. The magistrate says the MTD may not be ruled on for months and thus discovery should move forward. I don't like it, but whatever. Few weeks later, Plaintiff's counsel reaches out and asks if the insurer will agree to a tolling agreement in case the matter is dismissed and they have to re-file in Texas. They have SoL concerns. My client does not agree. While the MTD is ripe, Plaintiff files the exact same lawsuit in Texas through local counsel. Same allegations, parties, claims, etc. Insurer hires Texas counsel to handle. So now there are duplicative lawsuits in different federal venues. for some reason, Plaintiff serves the insurer for the Texas lawsuit, starting their response clock. simultaneously, Plaintiff serves lengthy and detailed WD in the Colorado case. so my client is forced with potentially filing another motion to dismiss or stay in Texas, while being faced with discovery in the Colorado case that may be moved venues. so bizarre. feel like Plaintiff's counsel is getting into dangerous territory here. they want to keep the case because the guy has had multiple surgeries and has racked up quite a bit of past and future meds. However, we do have a bunch of surveillance on him mountain biking, hiking, climbing, etc. post-accident. So it could be a fun damages case. Probably not a home run for P's counsel, but I understand why they see a big pay day incoming. working on a motion on our end to get a stay, likely through Rule 26(c) since it provides an automatic stay pursuant to our local federal rules.
they're about to read the verdict in that lawsuit that i was talking about last week https://video.ibm.com/channel/gQ6Av8NTQDw
Trial going 4/29. Discovery closed a 1.5 months ago. Witness list was due well before. they just added a new lawyer Monday. New lawyer just tried to late disclose an additional expert and is suddenly trying to set *7* depositions before trial starts.
Wonder if they had tried to tender and it was rejected or if they really thought it was just a good idea to play the damages lottery at trial
Really sounds like the Colorado lawyer should have referred it to a Texas attorney and enjoyed the referral fee
Instead, im going to drag her back in front of the magistrate to explain why my client should have to litigate the same case in two different federal venues. Should be a fun conferral call tomorrow for the 26c motion I drafted today.
(1) I'm guessing the Colorado venue is a more plaintiff friendly venue than the Texas venue? Guessing that's the primary reason for filing in CO. (2) This statement confused me: "if we were in state court, the matter would not be ripe and there would be no discovery." Ripe for what? What does ripeness have to do with discovery? Why is there a difference between state and federal court for ripeness? (3) Tolling agreements are not enforceable in MS. You can have a tolling agreement and the SOL can still run and you're fucked. (4) I really don't know why they filed in CO first, but if the SOL was really approaching in TX they did the right thing. Have 2 lawsuits filed and let the courts figure out which one is the proper venue. After that you dismiss the improper lawsuit. (5) As for defense counsel, the Texas folks are likely going to end up with the primary defense. And the Defendant will survive, they're an insurance company and it's not going to cost that much extra for them to Defendant the CO lawsuit until MTD gets ruled on. In summary, I see no big deal here and I applaud the Plaintiff lawyers for fucking with yall so bad.
buddy in ATL just called me. Bad wreck in MS, plaintiffs all from GA. He wants to make me local presuit counsel . What is a typical % for that? We didnt get into specifics of %s. I’ve done it before but I’m curious what other folks have seen.
well the piece of paper that macleod has goes up in value $3,500/day. the nerds at thompson coe better hope there is some issue to bail them out.
I thought for sure that stress at work could contribute to an aneurysm rupture and resulting TBI. My hired gun neuro disagrees. Damn it. Sounds like this is a very hard case to make.
I feel like maybe I'm an idiot here the way this is going. Give them to Friday to pay me or I'm taking my slight reduction offer off the table. Adjuster comes back today and tells me she'll go to $175,000.00 wants to know my client's response, told her I didn't have to talk with him, the answer is just no. She then said if I go to $200,000.00, would you move to $250,000.00? Again, the answer is no. I'm not moving. Her gotcha to me is that the kid was weight bearing after a couple of months and has healed well. This is just an incredibly good Plaintiff venue. I told her to come make the argument, and I think she'll pay the limits plus her defense costs. It's like we're looking at two different files.
I have given them a fairly big compromise (in my opinion). I gave them a bottom line offer ($275,000.00), and said if not accepted by Friday, I'm scheduling the doctor depo, and once I incur any costs related to it the demand is $300,000.00 and will never come back down, and this is the response I get. As I told them in my last letter--cloud cuckoo land.
Remember that case I posted about a few weeks back with the 2-year-old that died during elective outpatient surgery? Well, the anesthesia groups and their practitioners sent me a denial today and did NOT request arbitration. This means no caps on non-economic damages
my only addition to this is my cousin is in one of these and makes absurd money. take them to the fucking cleaners.
So my newest referral is a denied liability commercial vehicle case where the crash report puts my client at fault. It's a rear end collision and the investigating officer spoke with only the defendant driver. Diagram says my client swerved in front of the defendant vehicle. Which means absolutely nothing other than the carrier is going to deny liability. It's in Hinds County which has got to be one of the best venues in the south east. It's so bizarre having a great venue that I don't really know what to do with myself. I'd be getting rid of this case if it were on the coast.
Not my case but our firm got a $56.6m verdict against Ford yesterday in Colorado Springs. 45m in punitives. Interesting note - all female jury.
Link to a news article available? I’m involved in a Goodyear case in federal court this summer where the plaintiff is suing for defective tires
Most bizarre negotiation I’ve ever been in. I give my bottom line, they give a number, I say no and don’t move, they make a small increase, I say no and don’t move, rinse and repeat.
A receiver got appointed for Defendant's properties because he was trying to move around assets . There's a $10M judgment against him in a federal whistleblower case and the district judge suspected Defendant was trying to dissipate assets and trying to make himself judgment proof. The district judge in that case then froze all Defendants assets and appointed a receiver. Defendant then had to get a bank to loan him $10M against his properties to satisfy the judgment. Meanwhile Defendant/receiver let the expert deadline expire in our case and the receiver was asking for more time today at a hearing in our case. What if I got up there as a plaintiff and said judge, I know I blew the expert deadline, but I'm broke, and now I need to sell off some stuff so I can get money and get some experts, and I need you to give me a pass on all this . I would get laughed out of the court room.
I have clients by the name of Jordan (2x), Jody, and Janelle -- two of them with the last name Smith -- and all four of them have depos or hearings in the next two weeks. I am mixing them up left and right. And I don't even smoke weed anymore.
Thanks. We are defending the insured driver, and really the dispute is between Plaintiff and Goodyear. They haven't settled yet and indicated that if they do settle, it will occur on the "courthouse steps." Wondering if Goodyear will see a gigantic Colorado verdict vs an automaker and get nervous, despite the fact the cases are quite different.
Told my client to wear something nice for her deposition today. She showed up in a tucked-in Harley Davidson t-shirt. RTR
I know I've mentioned Washington's arbitration process a few times, way to fast-track cases if Pltf stipulates damages are capped at $100K. Medical experts can testify via declaration, so we always just have a doctor review the records and bills, draft something simple saying everything is reasonable, necessary, and related. Our witness and exhibit list is due Monday for a hearing, tried out a new guy rec'd by our well-known chiro. Dude fucking cut our medicals from $15K to $9k and said only like 50% of her treatment after 6-weeks was related. So, I've spent all Friday afternoon finding a new doc to draft a declaration on short notice to submit on Monday. WTF?! That's one way to lose a good referral source.