February 13, 2010 by Zale.

It’s an unfortunate truth, but appearance matters in court.  It may even be the small things of putting on a nice plain shirt and shaving that makes the difference.  Maybe its covering up some of the tattoos or having a natural hair color.  Whatever you can do to make your appearance better is helpful, regardless of whether you are in front of a judge, a jury, your probation officer, your adjuster or a DCS worker.  Check out this article for more details.

Posted in Child Advocacy, Litigation, Criminal Law, Injury Law | 1 Comment »

December 17, 2009 by Zale.

Since I was an insurance adjuster for over a decade, I enjoy dealing with insurance related disputes.  They don’t come up all the time, but when they do, they can be very stressful for the client.

Here is a recent Tennessee case dealing with such a dispute.  This appears to be what’s known as a “construction defect” claim where the insurer denied coverage.  I handled a few of these.  They’re pretty complex.

In this scenario, the proper way to get the court to determine coverage is known as a Declaratory Judgment Action.  In this case, the plaintiffs made other claims like “bad faith”, “Tennessee Consumer Protection Act” and that sort of thing, but for me, the heart of this case is that the court DID GIVE THEM INSURANCE COVERAGE at the end of the day.

Posted in Litigation, Insurance Practices, Insurance Law, Business Law | No Comments »

August 31, 2009 by Zale.

Tennessee is typically a pretty conservative state when it comes to people being injured on the premises of a business.  However, the case law in Tennessee does not let a business owner completely escape liability for the bad acts of an individual on the business property.  If it can be proven that the business had some culpability for the acts of that person, even if those acts are criminal, then the business can be held liable for the acts of that person.

Recently a plaintiff won $10 Million, yes Million, against Ruby Tuesday.  What did Ruby Tuesday do wrong?  It sold alcohol to an already intoxicated person, who then beat the stew out of the customer / plaintiff.  Wow!  That makes one wonder if Tennessee is as conservative at the insurance defense bar once thought it was.

Posted in Litigation, Injury Law, Insurance Law, Business Law | No Comments »

August 18, 2009 by Zale.

Some folks think that rear end automobile accidents are a “shoe in” to win.  Over my years as an adjuster, covering most of the southeast and even some of the southwest, I’ve seen them lost from time to time.  Attorneys and claimants alike would think I was crazy when I would bring it up, but it does happen.

Here’s the latest case of this nature that I’ve seen.  Apparently the plaintiff won the issue regarding the defendant being at fault, but the plaintiff lost on the issue of any of the injuries being related to the accident.  Why?  Well, it appears to have been a fairly minor accident and the plaintiff appears to have had a history of medical problems, which lead up to this accident.  In short, the jury didn’t believe the plaintiff.

At the end of the day, its still a popularity contest and you never can predict what a jury will do.

Posted in Litigation, Injury Law, Insurance Law | No Comments »

February 27, 2009 by Zale.

You don’t have to read this blog long to know that I am somewhat critical of slip and fall claims.  Why?  Because the courts are highly critical of them.   With that being said, there are valid slip and fall claims, even if they are few and far between.

Take this case for example.  When a business encourages the throwing of peanut shells on the floor as part of their image, they should not be surprised when someone falls on one of the shells.  Furthermore, a jury should get the opportunity to decide whether or not that business should be held liable for the person’s injuries.  Who knows, maybe the jury will see that the person who fell should have been more attentive.  But the case should still be allowed to go to the jury.

In this case, the trial court in Davidson County, Tennessee granted the restaurant Summary Judgment finding that the “restaurant did not owe a duty to patron because the presence of the peanut shells was not a latent or hidden condition and did not create a defective or dangerous condition which presented a foreseeable risk of serious injury.”  Fortunately, the Tennessee Court of Appeals did not agree with the trial court’s decision.

I think the Court of Appeals got this one right.  (I’m sure they can all breathe easier now.) They did not give the plaintiff a “pass” on her case.  She still has to convince a jury that the restaurant is liable for her injuries.  But at least now she will have the chance to present her case to the jury.

Posted in Litigation, Injury Law, Insurance Law, Business Law | No Comments »

January 3, 2009 by Zale.

The problem is lack of consistency.  In some instances, they will offer you money on cases that you never dreamed they would.  Those are good days.  In other instances, they make terrible offers or even denials on very viable cases.

They claim that this is due to every claim being different.  I think there are more subtle reasons like:

• How well the claims staff, including the manager and claims analyst, is trained. Many people would be amazed at how poorly and inconsistently claims operations are trained.
• How much the insurance company simply wants to close claims. Insurance company “sales” are a good thing for everyone.
• Whether or not the claimant or attorney has upset the adjuster. Don’t bite the hand that you want to feed you, if at all possible.  Sometimes its just unavoidable.
• The current trend of the company or industry regarding making fair offers or making a point.  Insurance companies watch and imitate each other.  Each one goes through trends of first, “look how much we are cutting claims costs” then “we need to reduce our number of claims”. Often, they never figure out that the two are related.
  
• Whether or not the company or adjuster is seeing every single claim as fraudulent.  Which was the culture at Allstate.  Everything to them seemed to be fraud.
• Or even matters as arbitrary as whether or not its the end of the month or the end of the year.  Often this is the best time to push for the closure of a claim, since insurance companies adjust their mandated reserves at the end of each month.

So what’s my point?  If you value your claim, you’ll talk to an attorney about it, before its too late.

Posted in Negotiations, Litigation, Injury Law, Insurance Practices, Insurance Law | No Comments »

November 16, 2008 by Zale.

It has been suggested to me that I should take just about any injury case that comes up, even if I don’t see merit in the case.  I disagree with this approach.  I only take cases that I believe have merit.  To do otherwise would support frivolous litigation.  It also does a disservice to the client.  If they have a bad case, the attorney should be the first to tell them.

Posted in Litigation, Injury Law, Insurance Law | No Comments »

November 10, 2008 by Zale.

I Corinthians 6:1-6 (NIV) states:

If any of you has a dispute with another, dare he take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, appoint as judges even men of little account in the church!  I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers? But instead, one brother goes to law against another—and this in front of unbelievers!  (Scripture thanks to Biblegateway)

Unfortunately, churches seem to forget about this scripture when money or property is involved.  The latest case of this is Avondale Church of Christ v. Merrill Lynch.  In this case the Court of Appeals found that this case deals with ecclesiastical (church) law and the trial court had no jurisdiction.

So, what do we learn from this?

1. If you are a church that claims to be an independent congregation, have some sort of written operating agreement.
2. Read the scripture.  There are plenty of us who are Christian attorneys who can mediate or arbitrate your church disputes.  Don’t take the matter to court.

Here’s another scripture:

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2 (NIV)

Posted in Litigation, General Law | No Comments »

October 14, 2008 by Zale.

Punitive damages are those that punish another party for fraudulent, intentional, reckless or malicious behavior.  Recently plaintiff Mohr received a verdict over $53M for the deaths of his family members as a result of a motor vehicle accident.  However, he, as the administrator of the estates of the deceased, will not be able to collect all of that.

The courts don’t like, what they consider, excessive punitive damage awards.  Ever since State Farm v. Campbell, the court likes to keep punitive damage awards under 9 times the compensatory damage award.

In Mr. Mohr’s instance, the Tennessee Court of Appeals said that a 4 times multiplier would be sufficient under the U.S. Constitution, so he loses $13.8M.  At the end of the day, Mohr’s attorneys did a good job of finding the issues with the design of the Mohr’s vehicle and enabling the estate to collect more than it would have, had this just been your average car wreck.  However, had Chrysler taken better care of designing the Caravan in question, maybe Mr. Mohr would not have had to fight this battle in court, and maybe he would still have his loved ones.

In case you want to read the whole case, here it is.

If you have lost a family member due to an automobile accident in Tennessee, contact our office to discuss your case.  Fatalities are never easy or comfortable to deal with, but after being an insurance adjuster for over 11 years,  I’ve dealt with many of them.

Posted in Litigation, Injury Law | 1 Comment »

October 13, 2008 by Zale.

I’m hoping that this will be a fun activity for all.  I have a pretty good number of subscribers to this blog, but I’ve not gotten many comments.  So, that tells me that I have a good number of passive readers.  Thank you to all.

Here’s where you get to participate.  What’s your question?  Surely you have to have some legal question you would like to  have addressed.  So here’s your chance.  I’ll address the questions in upcoming posts.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Posted in Criminal Law, Litigation, Negotiations, Diminished Value, Injury Law, Insurance Practices, Business Law, Right To Life, Insurance Law, General Law | No Comments »