Absolutely. I was the same way. Was helping a long time grizzled criminal defense lawyer try a case once. Could not understand why he was letting this one witness testify without argument. She got on the stand, and he absolutely tore her to shreds. When he got done, we went to lunch, and he told me "and that's why you don't base your case on the testimony of a crack whore."
I moved my office today to a different floor because we’re renovating. I already feel like I’m missing things.
Claims adjuster for my roof claim today in an aggressive tone : “Why didnt you report this earlier!?”. Me “I don’t appreciate you attacking me or your tone. I thought you worked for me.” Her “I don’t work for you.” Me “I’m requesting a different adjuster.” Hours later some redneck that was way more chill calls and is my adjuster. Now I know first hand on my own claim how an adjuster will try to fuck you.
Trial depo of my clients treating pain management doc in the golf cart case started at 9AM this morning and didn't finish until 4:30PM in the afternoon. Brutal. Highly contentious. The doctor said on the record he had never been attacked so blatantly and openly in such an unprofessional manner in his career. I said I was going to stop the depo multiple times. He was freaking rock solid though and crushed everything they were trying to throw at him. We are going to have to edit this video so much because there is so much screaming and yelling from the lawyers in between questions there is no way either side wants the jury to see all of that. I think it was a really bad look for them though . So shitty towards him and on the substantive questions he just crushed it and never waivered.
Have you ever had a depo where they are going through the preexisting records and saying "Doctor do you see where she said her pain was a 4/10 in this record from 4 years before the wreck?" And they do that for hours ? Every time I was objecting "The records speak for themselves. Do you have a specific question." After hours of that they finally just gave up and said they had no more questions.
I have to go back and look up fee schedule. The whole time I was thinking god this is going to be so expensive. Guessed to my partner afterwards that it would be $10k. My direct exam when from 9AM to about 12:30 PM. But I’d guess that at least 30 minutes of that was him cross examining the doc on voir dire of his qualifications. I went through qualifications then asked if OC had any voir dire on qualifications and instead of asking about qualifications and training he started trying to tee up a strike for cause that a pain management doctor can’t opine about discogenic pain or much of anything in the spine which is completely asinine. “You don’t treat the actual disc now doctor, do you?” After a little of that I started calling him out and told him this isnt cross this is voir dire on qualifications. He kept doing it. I kept objecting and calling him out. Shit like that is why my direct took so long. This is a complex case and plaintiff has a vast amount of preexistings that I had to address. But if the other guy wasnt being a jackass we would have been done in 2 hrs with my direct. So instead it finishes at 12:30ish. Then the old man OC asks for a 30 minute break. I was dumbfohnded. I said 5. He said it was a medical emergency that he eat a sandwich. Then whenever we went back on he went until 4:30ish in the afternoon with the most god awful and obnoxious cross I’ve ever seen. Mind numbingly slowly going through all the visits with this guy as if this was the first time he read these records. He didnt have an outline in front of him. He had stacks of records. When he finishdd going through a visit with the doc, he put that visits pages on the floor. Then in the preexisting records just asking the doctor to read subjective complaints that my client listed in super old records but not actually have a real question. Going to have to edit the shit out of it but I think it’s going to be super strong for us on the merits and the jury is going to hate this guy. The doc didnt have clinic that day and was just doing it from home but did say like 50 times how long the depo was going but they pissed him off so bad I think he wanted to finish it and crush them which he did
Last night when I got back home I sent an email to the court reporter and her husband the videographer for hanging in there for 7.5 hours yesterday and doing the court reporting and videography. I just got an email back from the court reporter "... It is not my place to comment, so I won’t elaborate, but I’ve never seen anything like it in 40 years."
By the way I told a med mal expert like 10 months prior to trial when the trial date was. She told me she had a conference or a meeting or something for one of her medical groups she was in. How much bullshit is it to tell me you can't come to a jury trial because you have a meeting for some extracurricular group that you are in? I would love to hear other peoples systems for making sure all pain and suffering witnesses and expert witnesses are notified of trial date and confirm their availability. Getting all the lay witnesses to block off their calendar and then remind them is like herding cats. It's a full time job. My paralegal and legal assistant do all of it but it's a lot of work.
No idea where to ask this question but this seems like a good start. I was involved in an accident about a month ago. No injuries only vehicle damage. The car we rear ended was able to drive away but later took the car to a shop and had 21,000 worth of damage. Her vehicle is valued at $35,000. We just received a letter demanding $65,000. Our insurance has stopped communication with her. I am going to contact the insurance company tomorrow letting them know I received this. I’m sure this is all nothing in the long run I just anticipate we get sued if this continues to play out. Any advice or thoughts would be great.
Even though you said there were no injuries I'm guessing based on the fact that the value of the vehicle is $35k and they are demanding $65k, that they are claiming injuries. If you get sued your carrier will appoint defense counsel. There's a very low likelihood of a jury trial. You may have to do some written discovery and sit for a deposition. Just cooperate with your insurance carrier and do what they tell you to do.
Thank you She mentioned in the written letter I and the insurance received from this person that stated very clearly that there were no injuries to any party in their vehicle.
Ppl say all the time they aren’t immediately injured at the scene. Sometimes the initial treatment isn’t until days or weeks later. Not sure how you get to $65k on the claim if the vehicle is only worth $35k if there are no injuries.
we were told no injuries on Friday and the crash took place a month ago. It sounds like this lady is add cost to fix the damaged vehicle while also claiming total loss for a new vehicle at 35 and then adding them together. None of it makes sense to me as to how she arrived at the $65,000 number
have a pretty good dram shop case. Looks like the night club might not have insurance. Looks like I might be able to cut some deals on anyone who wants bottle service in houston next year.
spoke with them and she finally made a claim with her insurance company and looks like we may be done with it.
I have a potentially good dram shop case that is being derailed by the decendents now divorced parents fighting over who gets to be personal representative of the estate. Its a fucking miserable situation.
Mom has a felony drug conviction from 20 years ago. Mom tried to get grandmother appointed PR. Dad successfully objected, then lost his attorney to a conflict. The dad wouldnt get any extra share of the settlement in FL by being PR. Theres no benefit to anyone being the PR. Dad allegedly has hired a new lawyer but neither him nor his lawyer will return my calls.
looks like they've been sued 4 times and have never filed an answer in any of them. it's like a pretty successful night club. how do you just straight up not have insurance. crazy.
I hate to be a koolaid drinker but maybe you need to file an enormous default against them so they stop putting drunk drivers on our roads.
I have two cases right now where two different carriers have (a) confirmed coverage and (b) denied liability. We file on both cases. Courtesy copy of complaint to carrier, crickets. No NOA or anything. Timeline runs, we move for and get default entered in both cases. Provide both carriers with courtesy copy of Judge's signed order of default. More crickets. Like, thanks I guess? One is a small carrier out of Oregon, the other is State Farm. Weird, but I'll take it.
I had the single best depo of my life today off of one hour of sleep with a newborn. maybe I just blacked out.
My wife had to report for jury duty yesterday. She's been freaking out about it for weeks, asking lots of lawyer friends what she can do to get out. Even talked to an assistant DA about it this past weekend. She was just selected to be a juror on an attempted murder trial.
“What color is the defendant?” will get you excused every time. But it might create other issues for her.
looks like the club owner got a 20k PPP loan at an address where they have a rental house. this is going to be a circus.
I served on a jury for speeding ticket once. For a young lawyer it was the best of all worlds. Got to serve and see how a jury works and only lost a day being down at the court in a low impact case.
Client was in accident with uninsured motorist. UIM carrier denied coverage (long story), so we file IFCA (insurance bad faith in WA) and UIM claim against carrier, do not name uninsured tortfeasor. Carrier is out-of-state, removes the case. If we add the tortfeasor, it destroys diversity and case would be remanded back to state court. Question - would it be as simple as filing an Amended Complaint adding tortfeasor? Would we re-file in Fed Court, then move to remand? I haven't looked at FRCP in like 2-3 years.
I'd amend the complaint to add the party and then file a remand stating the court no longer has jurisdiction.
There are some funky rules about SOL and relating back , fictitious parties, and amending vs substituting for a fictitious party. You may want to amend and substitute especially if SOL and relationship back is a thing. Not sure if that's applicable. Are they going to say fraudulent joinder and that you knew about the tortfeasor prior and the only reason you're bringing him in is to destroy diversity?
We're well within the SOL, it doesn't run for more than a year. WA and OR don't have fictitious party practice, thankfully. We didn't want to name him because he's uninsured and likely uncollectable. But we have a colorable claim and I don't see any way they could argue fraudulent joinder. In talking to my partner, hopefully he just ignores it, we can get a default and then go after carrier for the full $100K UIM policy under j&s.
Do you think a medical summary that you provided a doctor is discoverable or can you rely upon attorney work product? I'm leaning towards discoverable since the doctor reviewed it and in part based some of his opinions at least somewhat on it.
I produced it to the doc and it has copy pasted wording directly from medical records with the bate range to the side to spare him from reading 8 million records. I don’t think it’s a big deal. I’m just gonna give it to OC per his request.
I’ve been called to jury duty five times and dismissed four. Sat on a unanimous acquittal on a DUI. The guy was hit by another, at fault drunk driver while he was turning into his own driveway. He refused the breathalyzer, but did his other sobriety tests okay, probably 6-7 beers into his night. The female cop on the sobriety test video was a complete ass. The jury hated her.
What's the going rate for appellate lawyers. Have a buddy from law school that is going to work on the table of authroities, table of contents, do citation checking, and write up the procedural history and other small portions of an appellate brief. I already wrote the argument section. Would this kind of stuff typically be a flat fee or hourly work. If hourly work I was thinking like $150 an hour which is low compared to most hourly rates but it's pretty easy stuff. Idk. Thoughts on pricing?