Plaintiffs who received metal-on-metal hip implants, suffered complications, and required revision surgery, received jury verdict of $502 million against the manufacturer and its parent company. The District Court applied Texas’ statutory exemplary-damages cap, which reduced the $360 million punitive award to $9.6 million. On appeal, the U.S. Fifth Circuit held that: (i) metal-on-plastic hip implants were viable alternative design, (ii) …
ABA Issues Formal Opinion Regarding an Attorney’s Duty to Inform the Client of a Material Error in Representation
Recognizing that errors occur along a continuum, an error is material if a disinterested lawyer would conclude that it is (a) reasonably likely to harm or prejudice a client; or (b) of such a nature that it would reasonably cause a client to consider terminating the representation even in the absence of harm or prejudice. More fully: “A lawyer’s responsibility …
Superior Court Judge in Arizona Grants Center for Auto Safety’s Motion to Unseal Records from Goodyear G159 Tire Cases
The Center for Auto Safety (CAS) intervened into a wrongful death suit against Goodyear arising from defects in its G159 tire. The Court granted CAS’s motion to unseal a large portion of the records that had been previously subject to a protective order, in that case and in several other similar cases. “In the course of the ruling adopting the Protective Order, …
Attorneys Sanctioned by Texas State Court for Collusive Settlement involving Minors Competing for Limited Insurance Coverage
The victim of a trucking accident was survived by two different sets of children with two different mothers. Each instituted a separate wrongful death action, which were consolidated, on motion of the defendant, in Webb County. The defendant’s insurer was willing to settle for policy limits, and initally proposed mediation or arbitration to apportion the insurance proceeds between and among …
ABA Clarifies the “Generally Known” Exception Allowing the Use of Information Obtained in Connection with a Former Client’s Representation
Under both the ABA Model Rule and Louisiana Rule of Professional Conduct 1.9(c)(1), a lawyer may not use information relating to the representation of a former client to the former client’s disadvantage without informed consent, (or except as otherwise permitted or required by the Rules of Professional Conduct), unless the information has become “generally known”. The ABA’s Standing Committee on Ethics and …
N.Y. State Bar Prohibits Marketing Fees to Avvo
A lawyer who wished to participate in Avvo Legal Services sought an Ethics Opinion from the New York State Bar Association. Legal services would be offered through Avvo’s website, based on marketing fees that Avvo charges. “Because” the Committee said, “Avvo’s method of operation is crucial to our response, we will devote several paragraphs to describing the Avvo Legal Services …
Duties Owed by Appointed Counsel to MDL Litigants Whom They Do Not Formally Represent
Stemming from my experience in the BP Oil Spill Litigation, I started to think about the specific duties owed by Lead Counsel to other litigants in an MDL whom they do not formally represent. Which questions, among others, were raised in a series of speeches and papers that have evolved over time, Ethical Questions Raised by the BP Oil Spill …
ABA Issues Formal Opinion re Securing Communication of Protected Client Information over the Internet
In sum, the Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility advised as follows: “A lawyer generally may transmit information relating to the representation of a client over the internet without violating the Model Rules of Professional Conduct where the lawyer has undertaken reasonable efforts to prevent inadvertent or unauthorized access. However, a lawyer may be required to take special security …
U.S. Fifth Circuit Finds Attorney’s Promissory Note to Former Client Non-Dischargeable Where Attorney Violated Rule 1.8(h)
Mr. Selenberg, an attorney, filed for Bankruptcy, and sought to discharge, among other things, a promissory note that was provided to a former client whose case Mr. Selenberg allowed to prescribe. He argued that the debt should be discharged, as he did not make any “false representations” to his former client, Mrs. Bates. “For one, he notes that he accurately …
U.S. Supreme Court Reverses $2.7 Million Discovery Sanction Against GM Where Not Causally Related to the Misconduct
Plaintiffs sued Goodyear, alleging that the failure of a G159 tire caused the family’s motorhome to swerve off the road and flip over. After several years of contentious discovery, marked by Goodyear’s slow response to repeated requests for internal G159 test results, the parties settled the case. Some months later, the plaintiffs’ lawyer learned that, in another lawsuit involving the …