We hear that as many as 95% of all civil cases settle or are otherwise resolved without a trial. A civil trial lawyer’s job is to be ready, willing, and able to handle the 5% of cases that do go to trial. We read appellate cases that decide issues in those cases that go to trial. We sell our legal abilities by emphasizing our trial experience. But our ability to negotiate a favorable settlement for our clients can be just as valuable.
We negotiate settlements all of the time. We each approach a particular settlement differently. We negotiate in our own way. Our negotiation styles reflect our ...
Recently, the Illinois Supreme Court held that the City of Danville, Illinois, was not entitled to immunity from a negligence lawsuit brought by a citizen who tripped and fell on a crack in a city sidewalk. The court essentially held that in order for a city or public entity to be immune under the discretionary immunity statute, it must specifically analyze the sidewalk at issue and decide that the crack at issue was not a big enough problem to warrant fixing.
Stepping on a crack in a sidewalk is a common occurrence and lawsuits to recover injuries that result from it are not rare. In Barbara ...
On January 19, 2018, the Illinois Supreme Court issued its opinion in Bogenberger v. Pi Kappa Alpha Corp., et. al., 2018 IL 120951. The tragic case arose from the alcohol-related death of David Bogenberger, a Pi Kappa Alpha pledge at Northern Illinois University, who died from alcohol intoxication at a fraternity party in November 2012. The Bogenberger decision established, for the first time, a cause of action in negligence for victims of alcohol-related hazing. In so doing, the Supreme Court affirmed the dismissal of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity national organization. It also ...
Practitioners usually face cases where they reasonably expect the health of a party to remain the same throughout the pendency of a lawsuit. An important, and sometimes overlooked, aspect of a litigation strategy is the long-term health of a party, or a key witness, which is a significant factor when considering both discovery and trial strategies.
The first strategic aspect to consider is the type of claim filed and how it may change moving forward, as it may affect the applicable statute of limitations or the damages available. A cause of action that begins as a claim for medical ...
The Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) establishes safeguards and procedures relating to the retention, collection, disclosure, and destruction of biometric data. Passed in October 2008, BIPA is intended to protect a person’s unique biological traits – the data encompassed in a person’s fingerprint, voice print, retinal scan, or facial geometry. This information is the most sensitive data belonging to an individual. Unlike a PIN code or a social security number, once biometric data is compromised, “the individual has no recourse, is at [a] heightened risk for ...
In recent years, Missouri courts, and St. Louis City courts in particular, have been getting attention for their large toxic tort verdicts. The legislature is responding. While Missouri’s official nickname is the “Show Me State,” some legislators have been referring to it as the “Sue Me State” to promote new tort reform measures. One such reform measure is Missouri’s Asbestos Bankruptcy Transparency Act, introduced in the 2018 session as House Bill 1645. Similar bills were introduced in 2017 and 2016 but did not become law.
Missouri is not the first state to seek ...
The Missouri Court of Appeals for the Eastern District recently handed down the case of Spencer v. American Airlines, Inc., et al., ED105809, limiting the duty owed by an airline to its passengers while in flight. The Honorable Robert M. Clayton authored the opinion affirming summary judgment to American Airlines, with the Honorable Gary M. Gaertner and the Honorable Angela T. Quigless concurring.
According to the opinion, Plaintiff, Karen Spencer, and her husband, Larry Spencer, intended to fly American Airlines from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport to Lambert-St ...
Are you at home in the jurisdiction where you are being sued? Did the cause of action arise from your contacts in that jurisdiction? If you are a corporate defendant in a lawsuit and neither applies to your company, you should probably at least raise an objection to Personal Jurisdiction in your initial response to preserve it, if for no other reason. Once you have done that, there is a decent chance the other side will serve you with discovery relating to Personal Jurisdiction. That discovery may be directly related to whether you are “at home” in the forum state, it may contain requests ...
Pop Quiz
Question 1 - Who is the manufacturer of your router? (If you don't know, don't feel bad. You're not alone.)
Question 2 - What is your router’s “name”? (This one may be easier. Maybe it is “No Wi-Fi No Cry.”)
Question 3 - What is the admin login username to your router? (Is your answer, “See answer to Question 2?”)
Okay, okay. If you're like a lot of my recent test subjects (mostly against their will), you may not know the answers to those questions. That's okay. I'm sure you're still a good person. But, I thought I would take a minute to try to demystify how to ensure ...
When was the last time you had to create a new password and faced criteria such as, “Your password must be eight characters or longer and must contain characters from three of these four categories: a) uppercase (A-Z); b) lowercase (a-z); c) numeric (0-9); and d) nonalphabetic (e.g., !, $, #, %)? After you have digested the rule and created your brilliant password, how many times do you still get an error that your password does not meet the criteria and you have to start all over? It conjures up scenes from Office Space.
I think that we have all come to understand how passwords play a role in ...