Articles Posted in Civil Litigation

Insurance defense lawyers have a tough job when the value of a plaintiff’s case exceeds the amount of liability insurance coverage. The tripartite relationship between insurer, insured and defense counsel is unique in the legal profession, variously described as “deeply and unavoidably vexing” and presenting an ethical dilemma that would “tax Socrates.”  See Charles Silver,…

The Fulton County Daily Report today reports on a rule change to allow assignment of cases to the Business Case Division without consent of all parties.  Having had a small role in this, I can’t resist the temptation to write about it. The “Business Court” idea developed several years ago when the big banks took…

The nut case administrative law judge in Washington, DC, who sued a dry cleaner for $65 million for a lost pair of pants has lowered his price to $54 million.  Roy L. Pearson  — who turned down an offer of $15,000 for his precious pants — is proving the maxim that he who represents himself…

The Georgia Supreme Court has held that OCGA 9-11-68 is unconstitutional, at least with regard to cases that arose before the effective date of the statute. See the full opinion in Fowler Properties Inc. v. Dowland here. The opinion is a bit enigmatic in that the Court stated “Our conclusion that OCGA § 9-11-68 is…

The Court of Appeals last week restricted the use of medical narrative reports in injury cases, holding it was reversible error to admit a neurologist’s unedited notes from the patient’s medical visits. The notes did not comply with O.C.G.A. § 24-3-18’s requirements for medical narratives, because they contained unexplained medical terms and test results and…

A good, well trained court interpreter is essential when a witness is not fluent in English.  However, it is not enough to be merely bilingual. While we can usually get trained, certified court interpreters in the more common languages, that is often impossible when dealing with more obscure tongues.  I had a vivid example today,…

It’s always a good day when you pick up a fi fa in the amount of $2,245,940.17, and at the same time get an order for the defendant to submit an appeal bond to cover that plus a year’s post-judgment interest.  The Shigley Law Firm  represents plaintiffs in wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases statewide…

My youngest child graduates from high school next week, and a couple of weeks later I will celebrate the 30th anniversary of my admission to the Georgia Bar.  With one child in line for a “full ride” at RIT in New York, and the other child going off to play football in California with hopes…

Occasionally we get requests for free advice from lawyers who are younger, or whose practices focus in another field of law, and who are struggling to figure out how to handle a complex personal injury or wrongful death case.  Eventually I sometimes ask if they have considered referring the case to someone who handles such…

The American Association for Justice (formerly Association of Trial Lawyers of America) has  filed an ethics complaint against Washington, D.C., administrative law judge Roy Pearson Jr., the guy who made news with a  $65 million lawsuit against a local dry cleaner for losing a pair of his pants.  Clearly we lawyers need to do something…