Michigan Lawyers Weekly articles from February 2005

Michigan Lawyers Weekly archives from February 2005

Michigan Supreme Court rules medical-malpractice filing did not trigger tolling provision.
February 7, 2005... Byline: Lynn Patrick Ingram, Esq. A medical-malpractice plaintiff who filed his complaint before the expiration of the notice period provided by MCL 600.2912b was not entitled to have the limitations period tolled, the Michigan Supreme...

Michigan Court of Appeals rules plaintiff's slip & fall claim can go to jury.
February 7, 2005... Byline: Karen M. Poole, Esq. A social guest who slipped and fell on "clear ice" in a parking lot can get his premises liability claim to the jury, even though the ice was open and obvious, the Michigan Court of Appeals has decided in an...

Michigan Lawyers in the News: February 7, 2005.
February 7, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Appointments Brian P. Morley, of Fraser Trebilcock Davis & Dunlap, P.C., in Lansing, has been appointed chairperson of the State Bar of Michigan District E Character & Fitness Committee. ...

Commentary: Advantages flow both ways when attorneys become mediators.
February 7, 2005... Byline: F. Peter Blake The right to a fair and expedient trial is one of the basic tenets on which our legal system is based. When it comes to the latter, however, the continuing backlog of cases under which our court system must continue...

Mary Beck, first woman on Detroit City Council, dies at 96.(Obituary)(Brief Article)(Obituary)
February 7, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Mary Beck, the first woman elected to the Detroit City Council, has died. She was 96. Beck, of Sterling Heights, died recently at St. Joseph's Mercy Hospital in Macomb County's Clinton Township....

Michigan Supreme Court Case Summaries: Feb. 7, 2005.
February 7, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Law Search And Seizure - Reasonable Suspicion Evidence of a gun in defendant's possession when he was arrested on an outstanding warrant was improperly suppressed on the basis that...

Michigan Court of Appeals Case Summaries: Feb. 7, 2005.
February 7, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Criminal Law Accident Shooting Claim - Jury Instruction Where defendant's primary defense was that he accidentally shot the victim, the trial court erred by refusing to give an accident...

Michigan Attorney General - Case Summaries: Feb. 7, 2005.
February 7, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Schools Funding - Fifth- Year Students A school district may receive state school aid funds for a student who is enrolled in high school for a fifth year and is attending classes at a...

Verdicts & Settlements February 7, 2005: Car dealership wins 'no cause'.
February 7, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiff worked installing bedliners in pick-up trucks for defendant Stark Hickey West, Inc.'s car dealership. The plaintiff claimed that he had slipped and fallen in the defendant's snow-plowed...

Verdicts & Settlements February 7, 2005: Elliott -Larsen Civil Rights Act claim nets $715K verdict.
February 7, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Plaintiff Jeff Fillmore was in charge of monitoring/supervising defendant Citizens Bank's "thumbprint signature" program, where non bank customers who wanted to cash checks had to be thumb-printed. The...

Verdicts & Settlements February 7, 2005: Doctor gets 'no cause' verdict in thumb case.
February 7, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff After cutting his thumb, the plaintiff called the defendant doctor and arranged to meet at the defendant's office at 11 p.m. The defendant cleansed and sutured the wound, and gave the plaintiff a...

Verdicts & Settlements February 7, 2005: Widow loses bid for property rights.
February 7, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff The surviving spouse petitioned the Oakland County Probate Court to determine whether her deceased husband's interest in title to 46 apartment and an office building projects valued at $89 million...

Governor wants ban on insurance credit scoring practice.(Jennifer Granholm )
February 7, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Sherry Luckett is encouraged. Walter Grygiel feels apprehensive. Both have home and auto insurance in Michigan, and both have insurers that use credit scores to help determine their premiums. The...

MI Capitol Highlights February 7, 2005.
February 7, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Highlights of recent action at the Capitol include: * Democrats in the Legislature formally announced they want to raise Michigan's $5.15 minimum wage to $7.15 over two years. It would be the first...

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Case Summaries: Feb. 7, 2005.
February 7, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Chapter 7 Mortgage - Preferential Transfer The "earmarking doctrine," which deems mortgages given by debtors within the 90-day preference period not to be preferential transfers if the...

Michigan Supreme Court Orders: Feb. 7. 2005.
February 7, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Court Rule Amendments ADM File No. 2003-65 Amendment of Rules 6.425, 7.210, and 8.119 of the Michigan Court Rules On order of the Court, notice of the proposed changes and an opportunity...

Michigan Capitol Highlights: February 14, 2005.
February 14, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Highlights of recent action at the Capitol include: * Republicans in the Senate renewed their efforts to boost Michigan's bio- and high-tech sectors by proposing a way for the state to get...

MIchigan Lawyers in the News: February 14, 2005.
February 14, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Appointments Dorothy Jones has been reappointed and Lyn Bankes has been appointed to the Board of State Canvassers for terms to expire Jan. 31, 2009. Cheryl Matthews has become a family...

Nanci S. Klein, exec. director of Oakland Mediation Center in Bloomfield Hills, passes away.(Obituary)
February 14, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Nanci S. Klein recently passed away. She was 62. Klein was a dynamic force as a peacemaker and since 1996 served as the executive director of Oakland Mediation Center in Bloomfield Hills. ...

Commentary: Open & Obvious: Considerations of 'Hindsight Bias'.
February 14, 2005... Byline: Terrence W. Campbell After a slip-and-fall episode, ascertaining if a hazard was open and obvious is subject to bias. In particular, the "hindsight bias" undermines judgmental accuracy about past events. A 1990 review defined...

Verdicts & Settlements February 14, 2005: Slip & fall plaintiff awarded $1.4M.
February 14, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff On a snowy winter day while the plaintiff was at the defendant's plant, he fell as he walked down a staircase made of poured cement painted with shiny concrete enamel. There were no handrails, no...

Verdicts & Settlements February 14, 2005: Auto-negligence settles pre-suit for $405K.
February 14, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff The 14-year-old plaintiff was a backseat passenger in an automobile operated by her 16-year-old male friend. The driver failed to yield the right of way at a stop sign at an intersection and a collision...

Verdicts & Settlements February 14, 2005: Child's med-malpractice suit nets $225K.
February 14, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff The six-month-old child went into defendant Hayes Green Beach Memorial Hospital for croup. A second IV was placed in the child's right wrist. Between midnight and 6:30 a.m., the IV became dislodged,...

Verdicts & Settlements February 14, 2005: $3.8M default judgment vs. school janitor.
February 14, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Eleven-year-old Jane Doe attended Cherry Hill School of Performing Arts as a sixth-grade student in the 2001-02 school year. In May 2002, she was raped by William Vaughn, a janitor working at Cherry...

U.S. District Court Eastern District Case Summaries: February 14, 2005.
February 14, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Rights Section 1983 - Search Without Warrant Where plaintiffs claim their civil rights were violated when the police entered their home without a search warrant after a neighbor...

U.S. District Court Western District Case Summaries: February 14, 2005.
February 14, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Arbitration Valid Agreement - Case Dismissed Where plaintiff claims that this court should hear the parties' dispute because the arbitration agreement she signed is unconscionable and was made...

Michigan Supreme Court Orders: February 14, 2005.
February 14, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Leave Granted Fisher v. W.A. Foote Memorial Hospital. SC: 126333; COA: 244678; Jackson CC: 97-081351-CZ. On order of the Court, the application for leave to appeal the May 4, 2004 judgment of the...

Michigan Court Of Appeals Case Summaries: February 14, 2005.
February 14, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Contract Statute Of Frauds - Writing Requirement Where a company orally proposed to extend a sales representative's (Kelly-Stehney) written agreement (the DLO agreement) for three years but at...

MIchigan Attorney General Case Summaries: February 14, 2005.
February 14, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Law Motor Vehicle Code - Accident Reports Section 622 of the Michigan Vehicle Code, MCL 257.622, requires a police officer who receives a report of an accident involving a motor...

Use of nonrefundable engagement fees withstands appellate court challenge.
February 21, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Practitioners tell Lawyers Weekly that questions about the legitimacy of using nonrefundable engagement fees were largely put to rest by a recent appellate decision denying a plaintiff's efforts to...

Michigan Lawyers in the News: February 21, 2005.
February 21, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff NewsMakers Appointments Oakland County Probate Judge Linda S. Hallmark and Chief Oakland County Probate Judge Eugene Arthur Moore have been appointed to the Governor's Task Force on Children's...

Chief commissioner of Michigan Supreme Court dies at 51.(Glen Bis )(Brief Article)(Obituary)
February 21, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Glen Bis died of complications of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. He was 51. Bis, previously district commissioner with the Court of Appeals, was appointed chief commissioner of the Michigan Supreme Court in...

Commentary: Regulatory law, case law to have impact on environmental due diligence.
February 21, 2005... Byline: Sharon Newlon Environmental due diligence is an essential element of any real estate development in Michigan. It is conducted for a number of reasons, including: * to determine whether the property condition is suitable for the...

Verdicts & Settlements February 21, 2005: Rear-end collision settles for $250K.
February 21, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff While stopped at a red light, the 42-year-old female plaintiff was struck from behind by an ambulance being driven at approximately 40 mph by the defendant. She was taken to a hospital where...

Verdicts & Settlements February 21, 2005: No-fault settles pre-suit for $800K.
February 21, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff This matter involved a 47-year-old woman whose vehicle was struck by a large truck that had failed to stop or make a proper observation of oncoming traffic entering a highway from a fuel station....

Verdicts & Settlements February 21, 2005: $300K settlement in UIM matter.
February 21, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff On Oct. 19, 1999, the 19-year-old plaintiff was driving his employer's pick-up truck on a country road after completing a kitchen countertop installation, when he was struck head-on by a vehicle driven...

Verdicts & Settlements February 21, 2005: $175K settlement for hit and run.
February 21, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff At the time of the accident, the plaintiff was an active 52-year-old wife and grandmother who worked as an owner/operator of her own hair salon earning $13,000 annually. While walking on the shoulder...

U.S. District Court Eastern District Case Summaries: Feb: 28, 2005.
February 28, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Real Property Proposed Subdivision - Amended Complaint The court disagrees with defendant-city that plaintiff-developer's complaint is for a regulatory taking and instead concludes that...

U.S. Magistrate: Motion to transfer denied.
February 28, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Procedure Motion To Transfer Venue - Denied Where defendant in this case for contract breach seeks to change venue from the Western District of Michigan to the Southern District of New...

Michigan Court Of Appeals Case Summaries: Feb. 28, 2005.
February 28, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Family Law Paternity - Suit To Establish Paternity A man claiming to be the father of defendant's child cannot sue to establish paternity under MCL 722.711 et seq. because, even though...

Michigan circuit court judge rules in favor of injured elderly woman.
February 28, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff No-Fault Serious Impairment Claim - Injury To Dominant Hand A 73-year-old woman who can no longer grip with her dominant hand as the result of an automobile accident has suffered a serious...

Medical-malpractice plaintiff awarded $2.5M in legal-malpractice matter.
February 28, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Verdicts and Settlements Plus Can a woman whose medical-malpractice claim was dismissed because her attorneys neglected to file their affidavit of merit successfully sue her former lawyers for...

Michigan Lawyers in the News: Feb. 28, 2005.
February 28, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff NewsMakers Appointments Richard Wygonik has been appointed judge of the 19th District Court in Dearborn. Curtis J. Bell has been appointed Kalamazoo County Probate Court judge. Alex...

Michigan legal community's Daniel Murphy, Jeannie Marie Prather die.(Obituary)
February 28, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Daniel Murphy, Oakland County's first county executive, died recently from complications of congestive heart failure and diabetes in a hospice in Tucson, Ariz. He was 81. Murphy, a Republican, was...

Verdicts & Settlements February 28, 2005: $730K verdict in rear-end collision.
February 28, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiff, a highway worker in the Upper Peninsula, was injured when the work truck he was a passenger in was rear-ended in a construction zone. The defendant, who was driving an auto-parts...

Verdicts & Settlements February 28, 2005: Breach of contract claim gets $150K.
February 28, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Plaintiff glass block window manufacturer contracted with defendant bulk mailer for exclusive advertising. The defendant revoked the agreement, claiming its sales representative had exceeded his...

Verdicts & Settlements February 28, 2005: Legal malpractice claim yields $2.5M.
February 28, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Plaintiff Mary Trice underwent knee replacement surgery due to complications from lupus erythmatosis. During the post-operative phase, she developed a hematoma in her groin and abdomen. Instead of...