Twelve years have passed since two 20-something sisters died in a rented PT Cruiser that had an open recall for a defective power-steering hose. At the time, the Budgets, Enterprises and Hertzes of the United States were not...more
The party receiving discovery requests in litigation has the job of trying to understand the locations of potentially responsive data and documents; determining the identity of key custodians; and determining the most...more
You have seen it.
You have dodged it and…
You have been nearly injured by it.
Dangerous road debris on I95 and other major roadways. It is dangerous to drivers and as 22-year-old Holden Armory has learned the...more
Recently, the Second District Court of Appeals decided the case of Gina Marie Bove, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Anthony Bove, deceased v Naples HMA, LLC d/b/a Physicians Regional Medical Center-Pine Ridge;...more
What is the “Daubert” standard supposed to test? Daubert v Merrill Dow Pharmaceuticals, 509 US 579 (1993).
Daubert and the Federal Rule of Evidence 702 are intended to allow the court to act as a gatekeeper in keeping...more
Just imagine the courtroom scene…
The negligent party is in the courtroom being examined by plaintiff’s counsel...more
Dontrell Stephens was shot four times by a deputy of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Department soon after he got off his bike because a deputy stopped him for riding across a roadway.
- He was told to stop by the...more
Trying to make the best of rules open to highly subjective interpretation…
Discovery in litigation is the heart of the process. It is the system by which parties can obtain evidence from other parties and refine...more
In Florida, do we citizens who live here comprise “the State”?
The attorney general in Florida has launched another one of her battles; which I would guess she characterizes as “defending the best interests of Florida,...more
In a lawsuit the discovery process should allow each party to explore evidence in the possession of opposing parties, which may assist in proving their respective claims. The defendant is at an advantage in this process,...more
If you ask an opposing party about the details of their document collection; the custodians interviewed; the keywords searched; or the culling approaches used; you are likely to get one response, a quickly erected brick wall....more
Florida is sunny and a great place to live or work; but we can be a little slow to except new things.
Florida Rules of Civil Procedure were amended a couple of years ago to include at least the mention of electronic...more
I attended LegalTech 2015 this year in New York. It was a great seminar and another well done project by ALM.
One wrinkle, though....more
We do not sue them.
They will run up millions in costs for just one lawsuit, regardless of the actual damages .
They will conduct a scorched earth defense and try to simply wait until the plaintiff dies....more
How do you hire an excellent attorney and pay for the services in a personal injury case?
Like any other professional, the hourly fee for lawyers is largely driven by market forces, but in the case of attorneys a...more
If you went to bed without snow on the ground; slept soundly all night and awoke to a snow covered ground all around you, what could you reasonable say?
It snowed. You did not have to actually see the activity of snow...more
Sometimes three red groupers are a “tangible object”, but mostly they are just, well, uh, fish.
In the summer of 2007, boat owner and Captain, John Yates was leading a fishing trip on his boat, the “Miss Katie”....more
“Warning: The Internet advertising market is dangerous, unregulated and crawling with bots, scammers and questionable traffic. There’s a serious risk a quarter of your ads will never be seen by a real person. And even the...more
Two disturbing cases for different, but similar reasons.
When did parties jump from collection and culling of documents to simply turning over all possible evidence blindly and relying on a claw back agreement to...more
I have lost count now of how many times GM has issued a recall and the total number of vehicles recalled in the past several months by GM; I know it is in the area of over 20 million vehicles. Tragically, years of delay in...more
“We are reformed and vow never to be evil, devious, conspiratorial, deceitful, designing, tricky, conniving, underhanded or murderous ever again!”
So goes the paraphrased prostrations of lawyer Jeff Furr, representing...more
Where’s the beef?
A huge recall is underway of beef distributed by Wolverine Packing Company of Detroit Michigan.
Eleven cases of E. coli infection have been reported in four states; none so far in Florida. The FDA...more
In any document search allowing defendants’ custodians to conduct their own searches is much like allowing the fox to guard the henhouse. Even focused and disciplined custodial collections can be fraught with problems....more
Why is GM in so much trouble? Is it just about bad switches or improperly operating air bags; recalls of millions of vehicles? Isn’t about more than that? Isn’t it really about corporate attitude, corporate responsibility and...more
GM is in a fix.
The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration has ordered them to respond to 107 questions concerning defects in GM cars and trucks. Although GM’s CEO promised transparency in the...more