Defense Counsel Journal articles from April 1998

Defense Counsel Journal archives from April 1998

Toward a better discovery process.
April 1, 1998... HOW OFTEN in recent years have you experienced the distinct feeling that a plaintiff's discovery demands are directed more toward creating a claim of discovery abuse than toward establishing the plaintiff's lawsuit? Too often, no doubt. In...

1998 INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF DEFENSE COUNSEL 71ST ANNUAL MEETING.
April 1, 1998... The 71st Annual Meeting of the International Association of Defense Counsel will be held over the dates of July 4 to 12 at the Sheraton Grande Torrey Pines in La Jolla, California. There is an abundance of activities in La Jolla and San...

26th ANNUAL DEFENSE COUNSEL TRIAL ACADEMY.
April 1, 1998... July 25-August 1, 1998 College Inn Conference Center Boulder, Colorado The Academy is a program designed by the International Association of Defense Counsel to enhance the trial advocacy skills of younger lawyers who have been in...

International Association of Defense Counsel Tenets of Professionalism.
April 1, 1998... 1. We will conduct ourselves before the court in a manner which demonstrates respect for the law and preserves the decorum and integrity of the judicial process. 2. We recognize that professional courtesy is consistent with zealous...

IADC Adopts Amicus Curiae Guidelines.
April 1, 1998... In response to an increasing interest on the part of the International Association of Defense Counsel membership, the IADC Executive Committee has adopted guidelines to establish a procedure for the Association to consider requests for amicus...

Does crime pay? Insurance for criminal acts.(insurance coverage)
April 1, 1998... Sometimes yes, if you have insurance, and sometimes no. But the battle between policyholders and insurers continues ONE might fairly wonder why there ever should be a question of insurance coverage for criminal acts. After all, the purpose...

Waiver of attorney-client privilege via issue injection: a call for uniformity.
April 1, 1998... Practitioners are faced with uncertainties that should be settled as to when issue injection defeats the attorney-client privilege DURING the past two decades, the doctrine of implied waiver of the attorney-client privilege has been...

Electronic discovery issues: disclosure requirements in Britain, Canada, and Australia.
April 1, 1998... There is little authority on discovery of electronically stored material, but these countries have rules supporting the duty of broad disclosure AGAINST the backdrop of fast-developing information technology, the proliferation of...

Recoverability of pre-impact fear damages in aircraft disaster cases.
April 1, 1998... These damages are recoverable in both state-based and Warsaw Convention cases, but the proof must rise above speculation and pure conjecture CLAIMANTS are recovering pre-impact pain and suffering damages in domestic aviation accidents...

New Restatement of Suretyship and Guaranty raises some practical problems.
April 1, 1998... The new Restatement poses problems with respect to construction contracts by failing to delineate clearly the duties of obligees RESTATEMENTS of the law fashioned and promulgated by the American Law Institute are designed to state the basic...

Using quasi-in-rem jurisdiction to prevent pre-suit loss or alteration of evidence.
April 1, 1998... In almost every jurisdiction, this little-known remedy should be available to be used to preserve relevant, potential, tangible or physical evidence IN THE WAR of words of contemporary litigation, physical evidence usually determines the...

Mediation, or is it? Everything you thought you knew, but maybe didn't.
April 1, 1998... With alternative dispute resolution occupying an ever more prominent place in counsel's lives, it's time to examine it more closely MEDIATION. Why, sure, you know everything about that. Right? Don't be too sure. You may be wrong. At a...

How Medtronic v. Lohr has redefined medical device regulation and litigation.
April 1, 1998... State law tort claims will no longer be preempted by the Medical Devices Amendments, and manufacturers now are faced with state product liability MEDICAL devices have improved the lives of millions of people, as the medical device industry...

Doubling time: toward understanding an abstruse concept.(tumor growth; litigation concerning misdiagnosis)
April 1, 1998... A MAN is diagnosed with lung cancer. X-ray reveals a 6-cm tumor that is inoperable because it invades the trachea, the main airway from the mouth to the lungs. He tells his attorney that he was complaining of a cough two years earlier. He tried...

Discovery on wits "borrowed from the adversary": deposition of the trial attorney.
April 1, 1998... Discovery was hardly intended to enable a learned profession to perform its functions either without wits or on wits borrowed from the adversary. --Justice Jackson, Hickman v. Taylor, 329 U.S. 495, 510 (1947) (concurring). YOU ARE the...

Current Decisions.
April 1, 1998... BANKRUPTCY Medical Malpractice Judgment Dischargeable in Bankruptcy A garden-variety medical malpractice judgment based on negligent or reckless conduct is dischargeable in bankruptcy, the U.S. Supreme Court held. The question was...

Learned intermediary doctrine faces challenges.(pharmaceutical industry duty to warn)
April 1, 1998... Writing in the January newsletter of the Drug, Device and Biotech Committee, Michael J. Farrell of Farrell, Farrell, Farrell & Farrell, Huntington, West Virginia, describes recent learned intermediary cases: Challenges to the learned...

Reviewing the law reviews.(bibliography)(Bibliography)
April 1, 1998... This is a selective bibliography of current law review literature of interest to defense counsel. Main articles are identified by naming the author or authors. The designations "Note," "Comment," "Case Note," etc. are as listed in the...