Source: http://www.thehamiltonfirm.com/en/news/page/8/
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 06:40:31+00:00

Document:
In a significant case interpreting the 2005 tort reform laws, the Georgia Court of Appeals rejected the trial court’s limitation on the plaintiff’s expert testimony. In Lavelle v. Laboratory Corp. of America, No. A13A1722, 2014 Ga. App. LEXIS 260 (3/28/14), a husband sued a physician, his medical practice, and a lab, seeking damages for negligence in failing to diagnose and treat his deceased wife’s cervical cancer in a timely fashion. The trial court granted the lab’s motion to exclude the husband’s expert’s testimony and granted partial summary judgment for the lab as to breach of the standard of care, and the husband appealed. The Court of Appeals vacated the grant of the motion to exclude the expert testimony and the grant of partial summary judgment and remanded the case to the trial court for further proceedings.
The Court held that the trial court should have conducted a proper Daubert analysis of the methodology that the expert employed, the focused reviews. This case could have broad application beyond medical malpractice cases.
Tennessee Supreme Court confirms that a plaintiff can add a defendant under T.C.A. § 20-1-119 even when the plaintiff was aware of the added defendant’s fault before the statute of limitations expired.
In a unanimous opinion, Michael S. Becker et al v. Ford Motor Co., M2013-02546-SC-R23-CV, the Tennessee Supreme Court has held that T.C.A. § 20-1-119 allows a plaintiff to add a defendant whose involvement was raised by the original defendant, even when the plaintiff was aware of the new defendant before the statute of limitations expired.
The case involves Michael Becker, who was riding in a truck driven by his son when the truck hit a light pole. Mr. Becker was injured and filed a lawsuit in Hamilton County against Ford Motor Company, the manufacturer of the truck. Ford removed the case to federal court. Then, in its answer to Mr. Becker’s complaint, Ford named the son as the person who caused the accident.
Mr. Becker asked the federal court for permission to amend his complaint to add his son as an additional defendant. By this time, the legal deadline for filing the suit had passed. However, a state law allows plaintiffs to file suit against new defendants who are named by the original defendant, despite the expiration of the statute of limitations.
The federal court was unsure whether Mr. Becker could add his son as a defendant because Mr. Becker was previously aware of his son’s involvement in the accident. Accordingly, the federal court turned to the Tennessee Supreme Court, asking whether the state law only applied to defendants who were unknown to the plaintiff prior to the expiration of the statute of limitations.
Interpreting T.C.A. § 20-1-119, the Supreme Court held that the law’s plain language does not require that the new defendant be unknown to the plaintiff prior to the expiration of the statute of limitations. Mr. Becker was therefore permitted to file suit against the son. While suing one’s son is unusual, this case is important as a plaintiff may choose, for many reasons, not to name another person who might be at fault as a defendant in his or her original lawsuit.
The Annual Report of the Judiciary recently released data concerning the disposition of damage/tort cases in Tennessee for 2013. Of the more than 10,000 damage/tort cases concluded in 2013, only 4% went to trial, with 2% tried by a jury. The average monetary award decreased significantly last year, representing the second lowest average in over 20 years. Of the 438 cases that were tried last year, 151 of those cases resulted in no recovery for the plaintiff.
These numbers illustrate the importance of having experienced, aggressive counsel in personal injury cases. It is important to have the right attorney, one has the knowledge, expertise and resources to take the case to trial, if necessary, rather than having an attorney who is just is looking for a quick and easy settlement. Plucking low hanging fruit is easy – that is what the attorneys who advertise on TV do. On the other hand, preparing a serious injury case for trial is a serious undertaking, and it requires the highest levels of commitment, creativity and competence on the part of the trial lawyer. At The Hamilton Firm we strive to provide just such representation to our clients and their families. We prepare for trial, not just for settlement.
“These changes seem designed to tilt the playing in favor of defendants in personal injury cases. The proposed changes appear to ignore the fact that the plaintiff bears the burden of proof, and often starts a case at a substantial disadvantage, with little or no access to critical documents and records.
I have been a trial lawyer for over 37 years. While most of my cases are filed in various state courts, sometimes they are removed to Federal Court, and from time to time I do file suits in Federal Court. Plaintiffs bear the burden of proof so we generally need to send more written discovery, to seek production of more documents from the defendants than the defendants seek from the plaintiff, and we have to take more depositions. Imposing an arbitrarily low limit on written discovery and on the number of depositions only helps defendants.
In a case we recently settled four men were injured. The defendants had virtually all of the documents and records relevant to the cause of the fire. There were dozens of persons having knowledge of the cause of the fire, failure to warn and so forth. To find out what those persons knew and whether that knowledge was important was going to require us to take at least 10 to 15 discovery depositions, which is a typical number in such cases. Fortunately, the case was settled at mediation before proceeding with the first round of depositions. To identify all those persons, we had served more than 15 interrogatories, which were essential in determining who to depose. Arbitrarily limiting interrogatories to 15, and depositions to 5, would have severely handicapped us in the prosecution of the case.
Keep in mind that depositions are expensive and time consuming, so plaintiffs’ personal injury lawyers typically self-limit both the number and length of depositions. We work on a contingency fee and advance all the expenses. There is no need to impose arbitrarily low limits. The proposed limit of 5 depositions also ignores the fact that in a personal injury case the plaintiff often has to take the depositions of treating physicians for evidence at trial. So at least one, and perhaps more, of those 5 depositions could be taken up by deposing treating physicians for proof.
On a trucking case we recently filed, we requested a waiver of service under Rule 4(d). But, we are not sure the addresses provided on the police report are accurate. The defendants have a minimum of 30 days to return the waivers (Rule 4(d)(1)(F)). If they don’t return the waivers, or if the addresses turn out to be inaccurate, we would have less than 30 days to get service perfected under the proposed change to Rule 4(m). That would discourage us from using Rule 4(d). 60 days is way too short a period for perfecting service. Dismissing the case if service was not perfected in 60 days would just force a do-over, and impose additional burdens and expense on the plaintiff.
The proposed changes to Rule 26(b)(1) represent a fundamental shift away from the current standards for discovery and that shift will overwhelmingly favor defendants over plaintiffs in personal injury cases. Plaintiffs start at a disadvantage in litigation with trucking companies and other corporate defendants. Often we don’t know what we don’t know. We have to engage in the discovery process to discover relevant evidence. A critical piece of evidence can exist in the defendants’ records, but the plaintiff won’t know it until all the relevant records and documents are produced.
How can a court determine “the importance of the discovery in resolving the issue” (Factor 4) without knowing what is in the records and documents? The plaintiff cannot effectively argue that unproduced records and documents are important without knowing what they are. And the proposed rule change could actually open up new areas for discovery. Are the plaintiff and the court just supposed to take the defendant’s word about its “resources” (Factor 3)? Shouldn’t the plaintiff be able to conduct further discovery to test the defendant’s assertion that its resources are limited and it can’t afford to comply with the proposed discovery?
Certainly there are very complex document intensive cases where proportionality needs to be given consideration, and appropriate limits placed on the scope of discovery, considering the factors listed in the proposed rule change. But it would be much better to retain the traditional relevancy standard for discovery, while providing defendants some mechanism upon good cause shown in appropriate cases, to invoke a review by the court based on a proportionality standard. The proposed changes to Rule 26 will invite abuse and encourage delay, and just give defendants more excuses to avoid producing important documents and records.
Tennessee Supreme Court Eases One Pre-suit Procedural Requirement for Bringing Medical Malpractice Claims.
Although the plaintiff ultimately lost the appeal, the Tennessee Supreme Court has granted some small relief from the onerous pre-suit procedural requirements of Tennessee’s 2011 healthcare liability law holding that only substantial compliance with the provision directing a plaintiff to furnish potential defendants with a medical authorization will be required, Stevens v. Hickman Community Health Care Services, Inc. No. M2012-00582-SC-S09-CV (11/25/13). However the plaintiff, a widow in a wrongful death action, gave proper pre-suit notice, but failed to provide any authorization other than her own for release of the records, and therefore failed to even substantially comply.
Here, the 1979 Plan document and SPD are critical to Mrs. Hartman’s understanding of her rights and eligibility. These documents control not only whether the Plan required spousal consent to elect against a survivor annuity in 1979, but also what fiduciary duties the Plan owed to Mr. Hartman before he made his election.
We entrust the responsibility of resolving questions of disputed fact, including the assessment of damages, to the jury. An award of damages, which is intended to make a plaintiff whole, compensates the plaintiff for damage or injury caused by a defendant’s wrongful conduct. A plaintiff may be compensated for any economic or pecuniary losses that naturally result from the defendant’s wrongful conduct. Economic damages include out-of-pocket medical expenses, future medical expenses, lost wages, and lost earning potential. The plaintiff bears the burden of proving damages to such a degree that, while perhaps not mathematically precise, will allow the jury to make a reasoned assessment of the plaintiff’s injury and loss.
A plaintiff is also entitled to recover compensatory damages for non-economic loss or injury. “Non-economic damages include pain and suffering, permanent impairment and/or disfigurement, and loss of enjoyment of life.” Damages for pain and suffering are awarded for the physical and mental suffering that accompany an injury. Damages awarded for loss of enjoyment of life are intended to compensate a plaintiff for the impairment of the ability to enjoy the normal pleasures of living. Assigning a compensable, monetary value to non-economic damages can be difficult. The assessment of non-economic damages is not an exact science, nor is there a precise mathematical formula to apply in determining the amount of damages an injured party has incurred. Thus, a plaintiff is generally not required to prove the monetary value of non-economic damages.

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