I was just having a conversation with a former colleague who defends against personal injury cases, mostly auto and truck collisions. We were discussing a trial he had recently finished, and he had remarked to me that he thought the plaintiff was poorly prepared for his testimony at trial. Basically,…
The best way to attack a defense medical witness’ testimony is to conduct an effective cross-examination. One of the ways we do this is by exposing the doctor’s financial interest in acting as a professional witness. Maryland law allows discovery of how much a professional witness earns from testifying, as…
Today the Court of Appeals of Maryland issued its opinion in Grady v. Brown. This is a case involving the application of the Boulevard Rule. The Boulevard Rule is the traffic rule that states that traffic traveling on the favored roadway (or boulevard) has the right-of-way over traffic entering the…
Here in Maryland, we have a procedure that allows a Plaintiff’s medical records and bills to be admitted into evidence without the testimony of a medical provider. This requires service of a list of the records to be offered at least sixty days before trial. This procedure is available in…
Last week I wrote about a car accident injury case we tried in the District Court of Maryland for Prince George’s County. We do not handle many district court cases anymore but we liked the client in this case. The crash was a rear-end collision with a soft-tissue injury. The…
The Baltimore City Circuit Court has recently announced that it has changed its scheduling and procedural requirements for motor tort cases, to require mediation in all such cases with claimed damages exceeding $20,000. Mediation will be required to be completed no later than 30 days after the discovery deadline, the…
I was thinking about this topic because Monday morning I found myself in a very unusual place for a personal injury lawyer- United States Bankruptcy Court. How did I end up there? I have an auto accident injury case pending in the Circuit Court for Charles County. I represent a…
We always have a few cases going on in the office involving car accident injuries caused by uninsured motorists. One of these cases had something interesting happen today. The defendant insurance company had identified two doctors as expert witnesses. They secured an order compelling plaintiff to submit to an “independent…
Regular readers, assuming there are some, may recall my July 30, 2008 post on an Uninsured Motorist injury case I tried in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County. Yesterday, I received a comment on that blog post from Mark Brown of H. Barritt Peterson & Associates, who was defense…
Today I had a trial in an auto accident injury case. My case was in Montgomery County District Court. It was what I call a “left turn” case. The defendant driver made a left turn across my client’s path, causing a pretty forceful collision. The crash was bad enough that…