Articles

Something came up for opposing counsel at the last minute. He didn’t show. That left us – the court reporter, videographer, and me – sitting in the conference room with the treating doctor deponent. The one who had been too busy, according to his office (disinterested, I suspected) to meet me face to face. “Doctor, while you’re here,” I began…...

The defense was putting on its case. The lawyer, a trial veteran, was good. But not great with time estimates. Adding to the pressure: a trial judge who made it clear that there must be a ready witness waiting to take the stand – no delays – or there would be dire consequences. An example? The judge’s statement on the...

At some point, you’ll realize it is time. Time for a change in your practice. The reasons can be varied – bigger firm, smaller firm, crossing the v, perhaps even leaving the law entirely. People change jobs several times during a career. There’s no stigma associated with it. The reasons don’t matter. What does is how you approach it. Know...

The voice on the phone asked, “Are you Miles Cooper the lawyer?” (Yep, I am.) “Not Miles Cooper the financial advisor?” (That would be my father.) The caller was a social worker calling from a hospital. She tracked me down on behalf of a long-lost relative. His legal problem, surprise surprise, was not how to add me to the will….

You have the product liability case of a lifetime. The Complaint’s been filed. The Answer is in. Discovery time. You sit down and craft a discovery plan. Fine-tuned. Perfection. You send it out and receive – blanket objections. The litigation world’s joyous middle finger equivalent. Steaming, you decide you will crush them. You begin banging out a meet and confer...

Coming soon to a courtroom near you: “Mr. Expert, can you tell us what upcoding is and whether you found it in Dr. Smith’s billing for treating the plaintiff?” the defense lawyer asked her medical coding expert. “Upcoding is an industry term. We sometimes see doctors use more expensive billing codes, known as ICD codes. Billing can be nuanced. Many...

Subtitle: Caring for your clients—the blessings and the burdens Recently, I lost three former clients. They passed in separate ways, unrelated to their cases. One, stabbed in an alley, lay moaning for hours before he died. The neighbors ignored him, thinking he was a homeless drunk. Another stood at a bus stop with his girlfriend. A car drove by and...

Subtitle: Keep current with pop culture to keep current with your jury Growing up, my parents limited me to one hour of television a day. On PBS. This had unintended consequences. To this day, if a television is on in a room, I cannot pay attention to anything else. I have a penchant for Sesame Street-style puns. You’ll get blank...

Subtitle: Give people what they need to see the case as you do A little girl rode her bike along a bike path. The path approached a two-lane vehicle bridge and ran alongside it, like a sidewalk. Her family rode behind her. Her younger brother, new to his two-wheeler, bumped her bike. The bike’s front tire went off the curb....

Subtitle: Open up the policy limits and collect them from the insurance company In the dead zone between Christmas and New Year’s, a formal policy-limit settlement demand expired. Later that year, the verdict came in, two and a half times over the insurance policy limit. The lawyer had not granted an extension to the defense to evaluate the demand. The...