Are you going to agree to capping your damages at $75k? If not, I think they have a point. But, hell, where you practice, moving from a decent venue to federal court will likely give you a better jury. The NDAL Western Division Jury Area is Bibb, Fayette, Greene, Lamar, Marion, Pickens, Sumter, Tuscaloosa, Walker, and Winston counties. The Selma division of the Southern District is fantastic, too.
IF they were smart they would have propounded RFAs to Z asking him to admit the case was less than $75k.
I don’t want it removed. It’s a Hale County case. But yes, I would agree I’m capped at $75,000. I plead that the damages sought by the Plaintiff are less than $75,000.
Damages are very low. Have a witness who will claim driver told him that he was smoking marijuana prior to accident.
Your jury division will be Hale, Perry, Dallas, Wilcox, and Marengo. :obamanotbad: If you want it gone, look at Wilkins v. Stapleton, Case No. 6:17-cv-1342-Orl-37GJK (M.D. Fla. Aug. 1, 2017). I guarantee you'll find something procedurally insufficient in their removal.
Yeah, not awful. But I’ve got Judge Wiggins who I get along with really well. And it’s just not worth it honestly. I’ve already found another southern district case from 2021 saying the exact opposite of what they said in their petition—that blanket statements of punitive, emotional distress, etc. don’t automatically show its over $75,000.000.
Just had to threaten to file a lawsuit on social media to get sam houston to run a stallion stakes race next week 100 people paid $600 when their horses were yearlings to qualify for this race and because only 3 entered they were just not going to run a $75,000 race and tel us to fuck our selves racing secretary called me 10 minutes after I posted and said they would run lol
Actually, it's even better. This case is in the Southern District. He cites in his Motion two cases from the Northern District that a request for punitive damages will result in Court saying it's facially above $75,000.00. Just stumbled upon a 2020 opinion from the Southern District that say this, "For its contrary proposition, the defendant relies on several opinions from a particular sister court. These cases have “routinely been criticized and rejected,” including by this Court. The defendant offers, and the Court discerns, no reason to revisit that conclusion." I'm asking for attorney fees.
My favorite part is him saying the law is crystal clear and citing two cases from another court that this same court has said is BS. In other words Judge, you don’t know what you’re talking about.
yep. We try to be super thorough and over the top with our notice of removals for this exact reason. they love to swat that shit back if they can find a way
nothing like starting your day by getting railroaded by a terrible decision by an unqualified judge in a discovery dispute hearing and just taking the idiocy on the chin. I love this profession
Long story short, my wife's mother is dying from late stage Alzheimer's (she cannot swallow anymore) and my wife has power of attorney over her and an advanced directive. She is deciding not to put her mother on feeding tube that would have to be surgically implanted. Wife's brother has threatened legal action against her multiple times despite not having any power of attorney or getting his selfish piece of shit ass down here to see his mother. Can he actually do anything other than get a lawyer to write a sternly worded note? Wife tried to set up a meeting with a lawyer before this but the lawyer she saw didn't do mediation and she hasn't had the time to schedule a meeting with a new one.
If your wife has power of attorney and her mother signed an advanced directive stating that she did not want to be in a feeding tube, I don’t see what rights her brother has. Of course this is America and anyone can sue but this doesn’t strike me as close to the Terri Schiavo situation. This could lead to a break up of the family though with people taking sides.
It's just her and her brother, my wife's mother has long been divorced and all her long-time friends are on my wife's side but they don't have the spine to speak up for her against her brother. It's just an unnecessary amount of drama by a person who did not care to involve himself with his mother's late life and instead just bitch at the only person who took care of her (my wife). My MIL lived in our house for six months until she got vaccinated and needed more intensive care, my wife's brother has visited a total of two times during year and a half period.
I don't see a cause of action for the brother. He has no legal standing to do anything. If he filed something I'd ask for attorney fees for having to defend it.
Power of attorney doesn’t mean anything in this situation. That’s finances. If the advanced healthcare directive says no feeding tube, shouldn’t matter what brother wants/says/does.
You're the lawyer I guess, but from everything that has happened it seems like my wife has authority to make medical decisions for her mom and her brother doesn't, regardless of the advanced directive which is vague in some parts (what my wife's brother is contesting). My MIL isn't comatose, but she literally cannot eat or drink anymore and if she gets a surgically implanted feeding tube there's going to be pain and it's not going to improve her quality of life, only extend the amount of time a few months she's alive. The advanced directive implies she doesn't want a feeding tube if she's "unresponsive" but she is technically awake but basically completely gone mentally and still can't talk coherently at all. Not the best place to for me to vent, but this is like a nightmare scenario playing out with what my wife spent extensive time setting up because her brother has been a selfish asshole for so much of the past couple of years.
There all sorts of power of attorney rights, depending on what the granting document is. If she has POA for all of her affairs, the brother can go choke on a bag of dicks.
Just finished a mediation where the best offer last night was 40k global (nowhere close to being enough). And the best and final offer today was 20k global. Why even bother showing up to mediation if this is your plan. Was supposed to go to trial on tuesday, but Miami-Dade just shut down the courthouse due to omicron. UGH
That's what the advance healthcare directive is in this situation, no? I'm assuming (maybe too much) that they did the full planning with a DPOA and then the living will/AHCD.
At least in North Carolina, they differentiated living wills (where the the individual chose what happens to them) and health care power of attorneys (where the individual designated another person to be in charge of their health care decisions). I believe that the individual could choose which document overrides in case of a conflict.
Yeah, that's different than Alabama. We can put a proxy directly into the AHCD. Regardless, if the DPOA and AHCD all give the daughter authority, don't see any standing for the brother.
Being in-house for 99.9% of my career, I feel like I learn so much more from this thread than I do in most all of the CLEs I take every year. And I just want to tell all you fine posters that I greatly appreciate it and if we ever meet up, the first round is on me (even the rich folk like Gallant Knight ).
Don't smoke weed , go to work, get injured, and file a comp claim . It will not turn out well for you. That is all.
So glad I'm not a coverage guy and just sit around and read policies all day. I'm trying to get a guy contractor coverage and I'm like this with all the exclusions, definitions, amendments in a CGL and umbrella: Spoiler
The easy part is explaining why none of it is ambiguous to a state court judge who hasn’t read your motion prior to oral argument.
In Alabama, only a personal representative of an estate can bring a wrongful death claim. So, only a personal representative of an estate can release a wrongful death claim. Typically, a plaintiff's lawyer will set up an estate when signing up the case to avoid another family member getting to the probate court first and running the case. Occasionally, most frequently when a plaintiff's lawyer is not involved, a carrier (or self-insured defendant) will arrange to have an estate set up so that they can get a valid release. Either way, it's the norm for a defendant to require an estate be in place to issue payment -- regardless of who sets up the estate. I've spent the better part of the morning arguing with a plaintiff's lawyer that she cannot, in fact, "just file it" and "add a bad faith claim" if we don't issue payment without an estate in place. Hell, in theory, she doesn't even have the authority to settle the claim without an estate.
I mean unless it's a minor, the first three words of the statute are "The personal representative..."
There have been quite a few occasions where older/experience defense lawyers have given me advice on shit like this and my response is generally thank you and not fuck off im filing a bad faith claim
This is a do not pass go, case dismissed for lack of standing thing. I'm guessing this has to be her first death case.
I mean this is him trying to help her get in the courthouse door. She could end up being barred by the SoL if she does it wrong and isn't careful.
She just cc’ed my partner who she kind of knows through a sorority alumnae group — not the same school or age, just an alumnae group — demanding one of us call her and making a completely incorrect statement of the law. Said partner knows nothing about this case and doesn’t even do any work for this client. I told her that I was out of the office but would call Monday. “In the meantime, take a look at [cite to case that says that wrongful death action brought by party other than personal representative of the estate is a legal nullity and cannot be cured by substitution of the proper party].”
Judge allows healthcare system to prevent its AT-WILL employees from accepting better offers at a competing hospital by granting injunction to prevent them from starting new positions on Monday Outagamie County Circuit Court Judge Mark McGinnis granted ThedaCare's request Thursday to temporarily block seven of its employees who had applied for and accepted jobs at Ascension from beginning work there on Monday until the health system could find replacements for them. Each of the employees were employed at-will, meaning they were not under an obligation to stay at ThedaCare for a certain amount of time. One of the employees, after approaching ThedaCare with the chance to match the offers they'd been given, wrote in a letter to McGinnis, that they were told "the long term expense to ThedaCare was not worth the short term cost," and no counter-offer would be made. https://www.postcrescent.com/story/...acare-court-battle-over-employees/6607417001/