Trial Lawyers v. Tort Reformers – the battle wages on

There’s an interesting post from the Tortellini today about trial lawyers and their inability to attack the tort reform movement with any skill whatsoever. As the post points out, trial lawyers are fantastic at getting 12 people in a jury to understand even the most complex issues, and to decide in thier favor. That’s what [...]

Virginia Tech murders and Workers Compensation

I’ve been following the Virgina Tech tragedy closely. Being an Iowa alum, I’m reminded of the Gang Lu murders at the University of Iowa in 1991.
The Gang Lu murders involved a graduate student who, upset at being passed over for an award, took revenge on faculty and students who he felt had done him wrong, [...]

Specialization – good or bad?

As I tell people all of the time, I’m a personal injury and workers compensation attorney in Rock Island, Illinois. Our firm does personal injury, workers compensation, and medical malpractice. That’s it. No wills, no divorces, no criminal law, etc.
Some people believe that specialization is bad. I guess this is the old-time view of the [...]

Medical Malpractice Lawyers Take Note: Juror Bias

I have always suspected that jurors in malpractice cases have a bias toward the defendant doctor. I never really had any statistics to back it up, but it just seemed that way.
Well now, thanks to the Deliberations blog, I have statistics to back me up. Apparently there was a study into juror biases in medical [...]

Lawyers have nightmares

I was talking to my boss the other day about having nightmares about cases. It’s common, I’ve heard for all lawyers to wake up during the night, worried about cases, statute dates, discovery, juries, etc.
And from what I’ve heard, it only gets worse.
I woke up in a sweat a few days ago, fearing that I [...]

Apparently losing an 11 year old girl is worth nothing

How much would a reasonable jury award for the wrongful death of an 11 year old girl?
 Apparently in Polk County, Iowa, the proper measure of damages is medical expenses plus interest on burial.
The Iowa Court of Appeals affirmed a Polk County judge’s denial of a new trial in Phelan-Ruden v. Suddreth. In the case, an 11 [...]

New legal theory in pet food cases

By now, I’m sure most readers have heard about pet deaths due to tainted pet food.
 Naturally, people want to sue. I can’t blame them at all… my dog is a part of my family and very important to me. The snag in these cases though, is that most courts only allow a pet owner to [...]

Colossus – as giant and evil as it sounds

Most injury lawyers need to know and understand Colossus. The settlement value of their cases depends on it.
 
What is Colossus? Colossus is a computer program many major insurance companies use to evaluate injury and accident claims. For the uninitiated, most accident attorneys will eventually write a demand letter to a negligent party’s insurance company [...]

Great websites for the injury attorney – Part 1

Every once in a while I find a website that just amazes me with how comprehensive/important/useful/cool it is. When one of them is helpful to an Illinois or Iowa personal injury attorney, I will post it.
The first website is the Internet Archive, aka the Wayback Machine. (Note that the name pays homage to the [...]

There is NO malpractice crisis

Talking heads all over the country have been complaining in recent years about a “malpractice crisis,” and how areas are having problems finding doctors because of high malpractice insurance costs. They blame this on the trial lawyers, who file suits on behalf of people who were seriously injured by a physician’s negligence. People call these lawsuits “frivilous,” these [...]