面子”文化 “face culture” makes shaming a form of legal discipline with particularly Chinese characteristics. Susan Finder explains how it is being used to scold and discipline judges,
Month: April 2014
Work-product privilege – Lawyer must disclose documents to be used in cross exam
New Jersey Superior Court Judge Douglas Hague required plaintiff attorneys to produce deposition transcripts for medical malpractice defendant Tamburello’s expert and precluded use at trial of any deposition document not identified beforehand. But Hague said the defense was not entitled to information about how the plaintiff would use them at trial. The Appellate Division affirmed in part in Dalton v. Crawley. Although the transcripts are discoverable (because they were not “prepared” for trial – only gathered. But in requiring plaintiff to designate those which he intended to use at trial the order intruded on a lawyer’s “mental impressions”, “trial stratagy, etc.
Law Firm That Enabled Child Snatch Liable for Father’s Emotional Distress | New Jersey Law Journal
A New Jersey appellate court has found that aggravated circumstances permit the recovery of emotional distress damages in a legal malpractice case for breach of fiduciary duty. The court allowed counsel fees as proximately caused damages to the non-client plaintiff father.
The defendant lawyer turned over a child’s passport to the mother in violation of a parenting agreement between mother and father. The child has been separated from her father for ten years, living in Spain with her maternal grandparents who echo the mother’s unsubstantiated accusations of child abuse. The mother is serving a fourteen year sentence for child abduction. A jury awarded the father nearly $1 million in emotional distress damages. The Appellate Division upheld the award to the father but overturned the award to the child due to lack of evidence.
Disclosure: I testified for plaintiffs on breach of fiduciary duty. – gwc
Feinberg hired by GM to guide it through maze of lawsuits //Detroit Free Press
Feinberg hired by GM to guide it through maze of lawsuits //Detroit Free Press.
“Pride precedes a fall and that is what happened to Kenneth Feinberg in the BP cases,” said George Conk, a law professor at Fordham University. “He implausibly claimed to be a neutral rather than a lawyer for BP while his law firm received hundreds of thousands of dollars to carry out BP’s obligations to provide temporary and permanent compensation to those who suffered spill-related losses.”
Kenneth Feinberg’s ADR practice is an interesting cross between mediation and traditional full-throated defense. Hiring is a way of saying “we’re gonna pay”. But he is not a neutral and that fact led him to run afoul when working for BP. His varying roles area good topic for classroom discussion or term papers. – gwc
Professional Responsibility: A Contemporary Approach 