Trial Lawyer Resource Center

We're getting everyone trained up. We're still working on getting some of the lawyers to post on a regular basis. Some are less net savvy. A number of them have been in trial. We have some great talent and we're going to work on getting them more used to the blog.

In the meantime, we're also bringing a few more lawyers on board. Tommy and Adam Malone from Atlanta, Georgia will be contributing and we are also very luck that Mitch Jackson will be a regular contributor.

Mitch had a great trial blog called 'MyTrialBlog'. He came out and did everything right out of the box, but found with his heavy trial schedule was not able to maintain a blog on a regular basis. We were able to talk him into being a contributor here on a semi-regular basis. He has generously pointed the url to his blog here and we will soon be posting the bulk of his content from MyTrialBlog.

So good things are in the works, but in the beginning of the year, we are looking forward to getting the lawyers more used to posting and providing great information to our readers.

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Another guest post from Howard Spiva of the Spiva Law Group. Howard is currently the President of the Southern Trial Lawyer's Assocation and a very talented and successful trial lawyer from Savannah, Georgia.

My favorite way of "adjusting" my own attitude is to refer to quotes. Often times who said the quote is as important as what is said. One of my favorite is by Christopher Reeves, who said, you can stay in the shallow end of the pool or choose to go out into the ocean. Below I have assembled some other examples.

A few years back, a dear friend of mine and I started assembling 1000s of quotes. We narrowed them down to 100s. We then ran a daily quote in the Savannah newspaper. Many people cut the quotes out and collected them.

This man was Kerry Randall. Kerry really touched my life. Kerry is no longer with us and I miss him dearly. Together Kerry and I also made up some quotes of our own. I invite you to read these quotes, share them, repeat them and please feel free to add to the list.

Attitude is everything! - Quotes Assembled by Howard E. Spiva

Don't wait. The time will never be just right.
- Napoleon Hill

You can stay in the shallow end of the pool, or choose to go out into the ocean.
-Christopher Reeves

Don't let the start stop you from being successful. It's often the start that stops people.
- Howard Spiva

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This is a guest post from Howard Spiva of the Spiva Law Group. Howard is currently the President of the Southern Trial Lawyer's Assocation and a very talented and successful trial lawyer from Savannah, Georgia.

A lawsuit, and the trial of a case, is a lot like a battle. The resources, experience, and strength of the attorneys are crucial. The outcome of a lawsuit over a catastrophic or serious injury will affect the rest of the client's life. Often, it's the little things that make big differences.

At my firm,  The War Wagon is one of the many "little things" we use in our "lawsuit battles." The War Wagon is a custom-outfitted, 40-foot motor home. Our War Wagon is always parked just a few minutes walk away from the courtroom. This provides our clients and witnesses comfort and convenience that can give us the edge over opposition, stuck sitting in the courtroom all day, or shuttling back and forth between hotel rooms and the courthouse.

The War Wagon gives us fourteen important advantages, strategic advantages that frequently make huge differences during trial.

Never get caught with your pants down!
The War Wagon is a great place for attorneys and clients to have a private lunch and discuss their case without the risk of being seen or heard by a juror or witness. Countless times, jurors see or hear things in restaurants, unbeknownst to clients or witnesses, that have made or lost trials.

When you look like a winner, you are a winner.
In a long trial, in many older courtrooms with inadequate air conditioning, we use the War Wagon to take a quick shower and change into a fresh shirt during the afternoon recess. When we walk back into a hot and sweaty courtroom, we look fresh and alive. While opposing council looks exhausted and bedraggled, we look like winners.

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Over the past 10 years, more and more innovative and expensive drugs have been pushed to market on what's called the "fast track" at the Federal Drug Administration.  What does the fast track achieve?  It allows big pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, Merck, Bayer, Wyeth, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Sanofi-Aventis, Hoffman-LaRoche, AstraZeneca, etc. to rush lightly tested and sometimes barely proven drugs to the general public.  Why is this important?  Because people are getting hurt, and even killed by these drugs that are rushed to market before they are proven safe or before sterner "Black Box" warnings can be put on the labels, and in some instances, before their efficacy is proven.

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When settling a case (mainly workers comp) with a MSAT' (Medicare Set Aside Trust), a number of allocators are calculating costs of prescription for a period of five years only, rather than lifetime. CMS will not approve the allocation if the prescriptions are going to be for a longer period of time.  Here's an example:

• Plaintiff lifecare plan shows about $200,000 in prescription medication
• Defense lifecare plan shows about $120,00 in prescription medication
• the MSA shows $22,000 in prescriptions (based on the first five years only)

CMS will not approve the prescription medications and the client will get caught in the middle. So carefully review the period of time that prescriptions are calculated for in MSA's and request a revision.

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