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This Week's Feature
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Preparing for Discovery Depositions: Researching Expert Witnesses
By Lisa Frye Garrison and Allyson Jones Labban
Smith Moore Leatherwood LLP, Greensboro, North Carolina
Thanks to the Internet, a wealth of information about expert witnesses is available and easily accessible to anyone with Internet access and a little time. You can gather a great deal of information about an expert on your own, the moment you learn the expert’s name and location. The amount of information available can be staggering, but with practice you and your support staff can learn how to winnow out the wheat from the chaff.
[FULL STORY]
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DRI News
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DRI Awards — Nominations due August 1
DRI’s Annual Professional Achievement and Service Awards celebrate and honor outstanding performance by SLDOs, DRI law firms and individual members. Brochures detailing the awards and nomination criteria have been emailed to all members, and you may also view the brochure online. We encourage you to recognize the accomplishments of your peers and submit entries for each of the awards. The call for nominations deadline is August 1, 2009. The awards will be presented at the Awards Luncheon, Thursday, October 8, with Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of Illinois Joseph H. Hartzler, the government’s lead counsel in the Oklahoma City bombing case, as guest speaker. To register for the luncheon and other events at the Annual Meeting, click here.
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Punitive Damages: A State-by-State Compendium
The newest publication in the Defense Library Series covers the law of each state (plus the District of Columbia and Canada) governing punitive damages. Each chapter is authored by experienced practitioners who are members of the DRI Product Liability Committee. The following topics are addressed in detail: background and basics; pleading; discovery; proof; defenses; jury instructions; amounts recoverable; who recovers; insurance/indemnity issues; appeals; miscellaneous considerations. Click here to pre-order your copy today and for more information on this new release!
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Member Benefits — More Ways to Save
• Did you know that DRI members (except officers and board members) who recruit new “full dues paying” members receive a $100 fully transferable discount coupon for each such member recruited? Coupons are redeemable at DRI seminars and the Annual Meeting. Coupons may be combined for a given seminar or the Annual Meeting. Individual discount coupons are valid for two years from the date of issue. There is no limit to the number of coupons an advocate can accumulate. The advocate’s name must appear on the “referred by” space provided on the application.
• Are you a "young lawyer"? Have you been admitted to the bar five years or less? If you answered "yes" to these questions, you may qualify for a certificate that is good to attend a free seminar. This young lawyer certificate is valid for the entire time that you are a member of the Young Lawyers Committee. Call 312.795.1101 to claim your young lawyer certificate today.
Click here for more information.
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Nursing Home/ALF Litigation Seminar
September 10-11, 2009
The Westin Kierland
Scottsdale, Arizona
DRI’s Nursing Home/ALF seminar is the preeminent seminar for those defending long-term care claims (LTC) across the country. We will again host numerous industry counsel meetings, making this seminar one of the few opportunities for providers, insurers, risk managers and counsel to meet in a fantastic venue to exchange practice-relevant ideas and information, network and obtain CLE credit. The content of the seminar has once again been carefully chosen based on attendee feedback. We are pleased to feature a number of nationally recognized medical professionals who will focus on the central medical issues in most long-term cases filed today, identifying and developing the liability and causation defenses presented by those medical issues. Be sure to register now to ensure your place at this cutting-edge seminar in Scottsdale, Arizona. Visit www.DRI.org or call 312.795.1101 for more information.
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And The Defense Wins!
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DRI member J.K. Leonard of Ball & Weed, P.C. in San Antonio, Texas, teamed with his appellate partner to successfully defend Electrolux Home Products Inc., the manufacturer of a Frigidaire home refrigerator, in a recent product liability trial. The plaintiffs alleged that a manufacturing defect in the refrigerator’s wiring caused a fire during the early morning hours of February 4, 2007, resulting in the death of one individual and seriously injuring another.
[FULL STORY]
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DRI member Kathleen McCaffrey Baynes of Carter, Conboy, Case, Blackmore, Maloney & Laird, P.C., in Albany, New York, obtained a defense verdict in a medical malpractice trial in the Supreme Court in Ulster County, New York. Attorney Baynes represented the board-certified general surgeon who had been asked by the plaintiff’s treating gynecologist to serve as a consultant. The gynecologist performed a laparoscopic tubal ligation on the plaintiff three days earlier.
[FULL STORY]
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DRI member Michael McCormack of Hinckley, Allen & Snyder, LLP in Hartford, Connecticut, successfully defended an appeal before the Connecticut Appellate Court in the matter of Piteo v. Gottier et al., 112 Conn. App., 441, 963 A.2d 83 (2009), after obtaining summary judgment on two counts of plaintiff's complaint and judgment on the third count of a complaint following trial in the Connecticut Superior Court.
[FULL STORY]
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Long-time DRI member R. Thomas Bodkin, a partner with Bamberger, Foreman, Oswald and Hahn, LLP in Evansville, Indiana, successfully represented a surgeon in a medical malpractice case tried in the Duboise County Circuit Court, Jasper, Indiana. The jury trial ended May 20, 2009.
[FULL STORY]
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On April 21, 2009, after a five-day trial, Rhodes, Hieronymus, Jones, Tucker & Gable, PLLC in Tulsa, Oklahoma, obtained a defense verdict in a product liability wrongful death case for Deere & Company.Jo Anne Deaton, lead trial counsel, was assisted at trial by Lindsay McDowell. Amanda Sanchez, senior attorney for Deere & Company in Moline, Illinois, served as co-counsel for Deere.
[FULL STORY]
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On July 9, 2009, the Wisconsin Supreme Court in Behrendt v. Gulf Underwriters Ins. Co. et al, 2009 WI 71, affirmed the trial court's grant of summary judgment to the defendant manufacturer on negligence and vicarious liability grounds. DRI members Jack Laffey, Michael Rosenberg and Sarah Thomas Pagels of the Milwaukee office of Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek, SC collaborated on the brief and attorney Laffey successfully argued the case before the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The firm of Habush, Habush & Rottier represented the plaintiff.
[FULL STORY]
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Keep those defense wins coming! Send a short summary and recent photo of yourself to Barb Lowery by email (blowery@dri.org).
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Leader Spotlight
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This week’s leader spotlight shines on Lana Alcorn Olson, a partner in the Birmingham, Alabama firm of Lightfoot, Franklin & White, LLC. A DRI member since 2000, she has been active since her first year. Ms. Olson is currently serving as program vice chair of next year’s DRI Sharing Success—A Seminar for Women Lawyers and the marketing chair for the 2010 DRI Toxic Torts and Environmental Law Seminar. She has also served as the membership chair for the Toxic Torts and Environmental Law Committee.
[FULL STORY]
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Legislative Tracking
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NEW YORK (Contributor: Carrie Pottker-Fishel, Harris Beach PLLC)
BUSINESS LAW
• S3333 - Establishes the "New York state consumers' right to repair act of 2009"
• This is an act to amend the general business law, in relation to mandating automobile manufacturers to release vehicle repair information to vehicle owners. In many instances, vehicle access codes prevent owners from making, or having made, the necessary diagnosis, service, and repair of their motor vehicles in a timely, convenient, reliable and affordable manner. These access codes or special equipment retained by the manufacturer shall now be provided to the motor vehicle owners.
• 3/16/09 Referred to Consumer Protection
MEDICAL LIABILITY
• A4627 - Alters the statute of limitations for medical, dental or podiatric malpractice.
• This amendment would keep the timeline available to sue under the statute of limitations at two years and six months but change when time begins to accrue. Under the current law starts, the statue of limitations begins to accrue from the date of the act, omission or failure complained of or last treatment where there is continuous treatment. The proposed law would begin the accrual from the time when a person knows or reasonably should have known of the alleged negligent act or omission and knows or reasonably should have known that such negligent act or omission has caused an injury. The purpose of this amendment is to assist patients by allowing more time before the statute begins to run and also to clarify when the statute of limitations begins.
• 2/5/09 – Referred to Codes
• 6/22/09 – Reported referred to Rules.
(The Young Lawyers Legislative Subcommittee is led by co-chairs Emily Turner Landry of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC in Memphis, Tennessee and Sean W. Shirley of Balch & Bingham LLP in Birmingham, Alabama, plus vice chair Paul A. Wilhelm of Dykema Gossett PLLC in Detroit, Michigan. Special thanks to these leaders, along with the other state contributors.)
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Quote of the Week
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We are all faced with a series of great opportunities — brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.
—John W. Gardner
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DRI CLE Calendar
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DRI's National Workers' Compensation Review
August 17-18, 2009
Orlando World Center Marriott, Orlando, Florida
Construction Law
September 10-11, 2009
The Palace Hotel, San Francisco, California
Nursing Home/ALF Litigation
September 10-11, 2009
The Westin Kierland, Scottsdale, Arizona
Strictly Automotive
September 24-25, 2009
Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines, La Jolla, California
Appellate Advocacy
November 5-6, 2009
Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines, La Jolla, California
Asbestos Medicine
November 12-13, 2009
Fontainebleau Miami Beach, Miami, Florida
For all other seminars, webconferences and webcasts, click here.
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Current Issues in Medical Liability and Health Care Law
Defending Damages Claims in Business Tort Cases
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