A Jury Verdict Research study found that the average personal injury verdict in California is 1,635,327. The median, which takes out huge verdicts like one in the study for over $100 million, is California.
California juries are tougher on liability: plaintiffs receive damages in 45 percent of cases that go to trial.
Last December, Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals agreed to stop selling Darvocet in the U.S. after the evidence of cardiac injuries from Darvocet reached critical mass. Darvocet lawsuits are now being filed in massive numbers. Yesterday, in San Francisco, Plaintiffs’ Darvocet lawyers argued that all the federal Darvocet cases should be centralized in an MDL which is sort of, but not really, a class action lawsuit.
These are the main points made in Darvocet lawsuits:
Another post about a sad case that has evolved into a lawsuit that has very little chance of success or even making it to a jury. A California man filed a lawsuit against the city of San Francisco after his mother was found dead and floating in a suitcase in the San Francisco Bay last year. The wrongful death lawsuit claims should have done more to prevent the woman’s death. After the tragedy, the woman’s boyfriend was charged with murder and awaits trial.
The crux of the lawsuit appears to be that the woman kept coming to the emergency room with injuries that reeked of domestic violence but never followed up with an investigation.
Why do I think this lawsuit fails? I don’t think the police have an obligation to investigate a crime that the victim does not report. Every wrongful death lawyer in California agrees with me: no attorney has taken the case.
In this tough legal economy, 4,364 applicants took the February California bar examination. Approximately 42% of the applicants passed the exam.
California has a tough bar. The pass rate has floated between 33 and 40 percent for the last 10 years.
The key to passing the California bar? Not having failed it before. The pass rate for the California bar was 53% for those taking the bar for the first time. Another leading indicator? Go to an accredited law school. Only 27% of those at non-ABA accredited law schools pass the exam which makes you question the wisdom of having law schools in California that are not ABA accredited.
I wrote on Sunday about the awful motorcycle accident in California that killed six people this weekend.
I predicted the hit-and-run driver who fled the scene would be found. But 72 hours later, no one has been taken into custody. How could that be? Apparently, there is one problem that we would not have in Maryland: the proximity to a safe haven in Mexico. It is now being reported that authorities plan to meet today with Mexican officials to look over border surveillance video to see if a 4-door Gold Honda Civic with California plates crossed over.
Hopefully, that haven will not be so safe, but it certainly complicates the efforts of law enforcement officers. If we find him, the driver will likely face felony hit and run and gross vehicular manslaughter charges in California.
In granting summary judgment in a defective beer bottle case (where the injuries seemed insignificant), a Maryland court provides a review of the res ipsa loquitur doctrine in California, including a review of what is usually the biggest battle ground in making a res ipsa case: whether the defendant had exclusive control.
You can find the opinion here.
The Merced Sun Star has a good editorial on the difficulties California has had in weeding out bad doctors. We are not talking about doctors who make a mistake and commit medical malpractice. Good doctors can commit malpractice. The most skilled of us can make mistakes that cause harm. We are talking about doctors who should not be treating patients in the first place either because their skills are below what is required to comply with the standard of care or because they are unethical. California, in its defense, has unbelievable budgetary problems that certainly don’t help their efforts to restrain bad doctors. But you might also think that California doctors could do a better job of policing their own.
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A San Mateo County jury ordered the California Department of Transportation to pay a 17-year-old girl injured in a pedestrian accident $12 million. As is the case in too many pedestrian accident cases, the plaintiff’s injuries were catastrophic: she sustained a brain injury that put her in a permanent vegetative state. No matter what the facts are, it is just an unbelievable tragedy that happens far too often.
Plaintiff’s attorneys’ case rested on the premise that uncontrolled intersections with designated crosswalks are more dangerous than unmarked crosswalks because they give pedestrians a false sense of confidence that they can cross.
These pedestrian cases against state entities are tough and few accident lawyers will take them. Plaintiff’s lawyers, in this case, deserve a lot of credit.
State Farm has the highest market share among California car insurance companies at 12.9 percent, according to 2008 statistics released by the California Department of Insurance. The Automobile Clubs came in second at 8.9% of the California market. Together, these companies collect over $4 billion in insurance premiums in California alone.
The California State Automobile Association garnered third place with 6.8% of the market, followed by Mercury and Allstate. Interesting, GEICO, which is a powerhouse in so many jurisdictions, including Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., has just over 1 percent of the California market.
If you have been injured in a car accident in California and need an accident lawyer, call 800-553-8082 or get a free consultation on line.
Doctors at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center committed medical malpractice when caring for a baby with meningitis, a Los Angeles jury found on Friday, causing the child a permanent brain injury. The jury awarded $7.3 million in damages. The award will pay for past and future medical care, the medical malpractice attorneys for the child told the Associated Press.
Lawsuit Information Center Blog