Articles

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...

Subtitle: What is case management software (and why should I care)? Intro The receptionist buzzed. “A Mr. D____ is calling about a referral.” I ran my mental rolodex. Like many people, I’m terrible with names. But I remember details. Once things click, I remember you went to UCLA, you rowed in college, and you had a case involving the Dodgers....

Subtitle: Take the route less traveled to save your client money and be better prepared Ed Begley, Jr. I am not. He’s a prolific actor (271 roles according to IMDb) known more for eco-evangelism than any role he’s played. I own a car—a late-model gas-guzzling V-6. I’m not proud that it guzzles. But Teslas are too expensive and Priuses are,...

Subtitle: Giving a novice expert guidance can significantly improve the outcome A last-minute flurry of activity before expert disclosure. One of the experts had a conflict—couldn’t make the trial. She suggested a colleague, “He’s outstanding, brilliant.” A phone call, a chat, he seemed great. In the midst of preparing for his deposition, the replacement paused. “I did tell you this...