Michigan Lawyers Weekly articles from May 2005

Michigan Lawyers Weekly archives from May 2005

Wayne County Circuit Court rules estate of patient cannot sue doctors in refusal-of-care case.
May 2, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Can the estate of a nursing home patient who died of renal failure sue her doctors for wrongful death arising from medical malpractice even though her choice to refuse food and water may have been a...

Major bankruptcy overhaul becomes law.
May 2, 2005... Byline: Reni Gertner (This article originally ran in Lawyers Weekly USA, Boston, MA, another Dolan Media publication.) A sweeping consumer bankruptcy bill that will make it more difficult for debtors to file for bankruptcy has been...

Michigan Lawyers in the News: May 2, 2005.
May 2, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Appointments Eric Schneidewind has been appointed executive volunteer for economic security and work for the AARP/Michigan Executive Council. Schneidewind, a partner in the Lansing office of...

Former MI lawmaker Joe Mack dies at 85.(Michigan )(Obituary)
May 2, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Former state lawmaker Joe Mack, an Ironwood Democrat who left office in 1990 after promoting and defending the Upper Peninsula for 30 years, has died. He was 85. Peter Burla, director of the...

Commentary: Changes keep Michigan's elder law attorneys on their toes.
May 2, 2005... Byline: Douglas G. Chalgian and Amy R. Tripp From changes to the Michigan patient advocate designation forms to Gov. Jennifer Granholm's ongoing campaign to promote estate recovery, the practice of elder law in Michigan remains interesting...

Verdicts & Settlements-May 2, 2005: $1.6M for botched thyroidectomy.
May 2, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff On Aug. 1, 2000, 38-year-old Jacquelin Bartolome checked into St. Mary's Mercy Medical Center with the intention of having a subtotal thyroidectomy to remove a benign goiter (enlarged thyroid gland)...

Verdicts & Settlements-May 2, 2005: Summary judgment for ERISA benefits.
May 2, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Douglas Durden (Durden), a DaimlerChrysler hourly employee, died in October 2003, leaving two women who claimed to be his surviving spouse. His first marriage occurred in Ohio in 1966, where he...

Verdicts & Settlements-May 2, 2005: Burn injuries result in 'no cause'.
May 2, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiff brought a used vehicle into defendant repair facility because it was overheating. The plaintiff declined the defendant's recommended corrections, proposing that the defendant install a...

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Case Summaries: May 9, 2005.
May 9, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Chapter 7 Vehicle Lien - Foreign State Title A credit company whose lien was noted on a State of Maryland vehicle title continues to have a perfected security interest in the vehicle even...

Michigan Supreme Court Case Summaries: May 9, 2005.
May 9, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff No-Fault Coordinated Benefits - Self- Funded Long-Term Disability Plan An employer's self-funded long-term disability plan is "other health and accident coverage" within the meaning of the...

Circuit Court Case Summaries: May 9, 2005.
May 9, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Procedure Discovery - Expert Witness A defense expert will not be allowed to testify about his test results purporting to show that a virus in a mother's placenta injured the minor...

Michigan Lawyers in the News: May 9, 2005.
May 9, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Elections Daniel K. DeWitt has been elected secretary and board member of the West Michigan Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council for a two-year term. DeWitt, a partner with Warner...

Commentary: Changes in intellectual property insurance.
May 9, 2005... Byline: Michael G. Vartanian and Anthony P. Ferman A self-proclaimed "pioneer in the field of corporate intellectual property insurance" now offers insurance coverage for the defense of patent infringement claims, even after describing such...

Commentary: Potential problems when insuring business risks.
May 9, 2005... Byline: Richard M. Mitchell The business world moves at a furious pace and risk is around every corner. Insurance is the primary mechanism by which to transfer that risk. Yet, while businesspeople and their lawyers painstakingly...

Verdicts & Settlements: May 9, 2005: $12.75M facilitation for sewage invasion suit.
May 9, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff On Sept. 11, 2000, thousands of homes in Allen Park, Dearborn Heights, Ecorse, Inkster, Lincoln Park, Southgate, Taylor, Wyandotte and River Rouge were flooded with untreated sewage, which caused damage...

Verdicts & Settlements: May 9, 2005: Guest's broken hip gets 'no cause'.
May 9, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff The defendant owned a home in Burton that was being leased to a friend of the plaintiff. Late one evening, the plaintiff visited the home. Access to the house was gained by stepping up to an...

Verdicts & Settlements: May 9, 2005: 'No cause' for 'bizarre' lumber yard accident.
May 9, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiff was shopping in the defendant's lumber yard on an extremely windy day when he claimed to have been struck on the back of his right elbow by a piece of plywood dislodged by the wind. ...

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Case Summaries: May 16, 2005.
May 16, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Chapter 7 Housing Discrimination Claim - Mitigation Of Damages A debtor who was granted a bankruptcy discharge is not entitled to relief for a housing cooperative's alleged violation of the...

Michigan Supreme Court Orders: May 16, 2005.
May 16, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Miscellaneous Orders Detroit Edison v. Michigan Public Service Comm'n. SC: 125950; COA: 237872 ; MPSC: 00-012134. The motion for leave to file supplemental brief is GRANTED. On order of the Court,...

Michigan Court of Appeals Case Summaries: May 16, 2005.
May 16, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Law Trial Court - Funding Units Where the 46th Circuit trial court sued Kalkaska and Crawford counties after a funding dispute arose, the lower court properly found for the...

Commentary: How modern litigation support tools help make your case.
May 16, 2005... Byline: Chris Santella Not long ago, the phrase "litigation support software" conjured up images of a clumsy database residing on a monstrous mainframe somewhere in the law firm's basement. To search the database for evidentiary documents,...

MI Lawyers in the News: May 16, 2005.
May 16, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Appointment Scott Hill-Kennedy, formerly a lobbyist and legal officer with Ferris State University, has been appointed judge of the 49th Circuit Court in Mecosta and Osceola counties. Amanda...

Commentary: Prevention and detection of intellectual property theft.
May 16, 2005... Byline: Carole Longendyke It has become the standard lead-in for authors of articles such as this to quote statistics about the percentage of documents that are never printed to paper. Although the estimate varies, the simple undisputed...

Legal community comes together to take aim at 'Apsey' ruling by MI Court of Appeals.(Robert Apsey Jr. accused Memorial Hospital for medical malpractice)
May 23, 2005... Byline: Todd C. Berg, Esq. Practitioners tell Lawyers Weekly that Apsey v. Memorial Hospital, et al., has literally stopped the legal community dead in its tracks. In Apsey, the Court of Appeals ruled that, even though the plaintiffs...

Commentary: To blog or not to blog: Employee and employer guidelines.
May 23, 2005... Byline: Patricia Nemeth and Terry Bonnette To blog or not to blog? For today's employee, that is the question. But for today's employer, the question may still be: "What is a blog?" According to Webster's New Millennium Dictionary,...

Michigan Supreme Court Case Summaries: May 23, 2005.
May 23, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Rights Statute Of Limitations - Continuing Violations The continuing violations doctrine of Sumner v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., 427 Mich. 505 (1986), which allows consideration of...

Michigan Supreme Court Orders: May 23, 2005.
May 23, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Administrative Orders ADM File No. 2004-04 Administrative Order No. 2005-1 Adoption of Concurrent Jurisdiction Plans for the 41st Circuit Court, the 95B District Court, and the Iron County...

Michigan Court of Appeals Case Summaries: May 23, 2005.
May 23, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Procedure Sanctions - Frivolous Case A company, its president and its attorney were properly ordered to pay sanctions for filing a frivolous complaint because the record shows they...

Animal law becoming increasingly more popular.
May 23, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Practice Trend Animal law isn't a practice group per se, but it's an increasingly popular area of the legal landscape and it's growing more so every moment. Practitioners who love those pawed,...

Commentary: Letter to the Editor: MI Court of Appeals lost sight of law's purpose.(Letter to the Editor)
May 23, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff To The Editor: We are retired judges who have never publicly addressed a decision by the Michigan Appellate Courts. We feel compelled, however, to do so at this time. The purpose of the law is...

MI Lawyers in the News: May 23, 2005.
May 23, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Appointments Susan M. Sutton has been appointed to the board of directors of Jaffe Raitt Heuer & Weiss, P.C., for a two-year term. Sutton concentrates her practice on estate planning, wealth...

Commentary: Attorneys: How to ensure your financial portfolio is on track.
May 23, 2005... Byline: Jeff Gembis and James J. Murray Working out. Eating right. Calling your mother to "just check in" every now and then. There are certain things we all know we should do, but for some reason we have trouble getting around to them. ...

Verdicts & Settlements-May 23, 2005: City of Manistee to pay $900K for drowning death.
May 23, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Plaintiff Eugene Beck, 28, drowned on June 28, 1995, after falling into the Manistee River. Private divers qualified in underwater rescue attempted to start a rescue effort, but were prevented by a...

Verdicts & Settlements-May 23, 2005: No cause for rotator cuff tear.
May 23, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff The defendant was an independent contractor who was on the plaintiff's property to reinstall windows that had been installed improperly. The defendant had been on the property for several days...

Verdicts & Settlements-May 23, 2005: Tenant wins $925K for moldy apartment.
May 23, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiff lived in an apartment that had a mold problem in the bathroom, which was progressively making her sick. Her apartment then experienced a flood of toilet/sewer water from the bathroom...

Verdicts & Settlements-May 23, 2005: Summary judgment granted, FMLA claims denied.
May 23, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff This case involved a long-tem ACO employee whose work performance and attendance in recent years had slipped dramatically. After thorough documentation, ACO planned to meet with the plaintiff to...

U.S. Court of Appeals 6th Circuit Case Summaries: May 30, 2005.
May 30, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Bankruptcy Chapter 13 - Mobile Home The bankruptcy court properly denied confirmation of a Chapter 13 plan that included the "cramdown" of a mobile home mortgage because the mobile home was...

Dedication to justice powered Michigan jurist's career.(Interview)
May 30, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Judicial Profile Judge Robert M. Ransom, Genesee County Circuit Court Education Adrian College, Doctor of Law (2003); Detroit College of Law (1962); Adrian College (1959); Mott Community...

Michigan Lawyers in the News: May 30, 2005.
May 30, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Appointments Kiffi Y. Ford has been appointed commissioner-at-large of the State Bar of Michigan. Ford is with the Lansing office of Dykema Gossett, PLLC. Robert Donoghue had been...

Commentary: Examination of the need for preliminary examinations.
May 30, 2005... Byline: Lloyd E. Powell There is currently a movement afoot to do away with preliminary examinations in the majority of felony cases (except when desired by only the prosecutor) in the hope that it will reduce jail overcrowding while also...

Commentary: Courts should recognize 'open and obvious' scientific data.
May 30, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff To the editor: I read the article, "Open and obvious doctrine: status quo or state of flux?" with considerable interest. (See, Michigan Lawyers Weekly, May 16, 2005.) As a psychologist, I...

Out-of-court problem solving and restructuring -- guide to a successful outcome.
May 30, 2005... Byline: James V. McTevia For those attorneys consulting with their business clients on the various options available to resolve financial difficulties, this article presents an overview of the step-by-step process of the out-of-court...

Verdicts & Settlements May 30, 2005: 'No cause' in first-party no-fault case.
May 30, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiff filed a claim with defendant/counter-plaintiff Auto Club Insurance Association (ACIA) that she had been involved in a hit-and-run motor vehicle accident on Feb. 23, 2002. The plaintiff...

Verdicts & Settlements May 30, 2005: Voters settle intimidation case for $150K.
May 30, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiffs Bangladesh- and Yemen-born U.S. citizens filed a lawsuit against the city of Hamtramck and the Hamtramck city clerk after they were made to swear oaths and had their citizenship...

Verdicts & Settlements May 30, 2005: $100K for UM, bodily injury claim.
May 30, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff The plaintiff was stuck by a stolen vehicle fleeing the Detroit Police, thereby demolishing his vehicle and causing him bodily injury. Disc surgery was suggested, but the plaintiff preferred to be...

Michigan Supreme Court Decisions: May 30, 2005.
May 30, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Contract Covenant Not To Sue - Release A covenant not to sue and a release are not equivalent a release immediately discharges an existing claim or right while a covenant not to sue is merely...

Michigan Supreme Court Orders: May 30, 2005.
May 30, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Proposed Court Rule Amendments ADM File No. 2001-10 Proposed Amendment of Rule 8.123 of the Michigan Court Rules On order of the Court, this is to advise that the Court is considering an...

Michigan Court of Appeals Case Summaries: May 30, 2005.
May 30, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Civil Procedure Case Evaluation Sanctions - 'Interests Of Justice' Exception Where both parties rejected the case evaluation and defendant ultimately prevailed in this premises liability...

Michigan Court of Appeals (Unpublished Criminal) Case Summaries: May 30, 2005.
May 30, 2005... Byline: Michigan Lawyers Weekly Staff Affirmed Convictions Assault With Intent To Do Great Bodily Harm Less Than Murder. Directed Verdict Properly Denied. "Evidence presented at trial indicated that Seed and his partner, Officer...