trial
trial

trial

LAW

Changes to personal injury law rules mean firms must be strategic: innovation forum webinar panel

Increasing use of in-house counsel by insurance firms

In the past, personal injury lawyers and insurance defense lawyers (often external) would look at how much it costs to settle claims and compare it with the costs of going to trial, said Sutton, who used to practice insurance defense law before switching sides. However, the trend he has noticed since at least 2015 has been for insurance companies to rely more on in-house counsel to deal with claims, “and that has really changed the dynamics.”

Insurance companies have also started adopting a more standardized approach to how they would deal with files, “and some of them have decided to really play hard,” Sutton told the forum webinars, saying many are taking cases to trial with in-house lawyers. One reason is the use of paid counsel; the other is a desire to take stronger stands “in uncertain cases they feel they are defensible.” In some cases, they may choose to resolve faster. Others want to see “how long can you keep you and your client going.”

Yoni Silberman, a partner with Bogoroch and Associates in Toronto, added that she feels that in the past, there was more room to negotiate in mediation or pre-trial sessions. “You’d feel as if you were . . . debating issues of law with counsel,” she said, and the opportunity to persuade.

Moving more cases in-house “has really empowered the insurance adjusters,” she said, “because they are relying on a strategy,” making them more willing to take a rigid stand. Often, it’s the insurance claims representative making the final decisions, she said, begging the question, “Why did you come here with a lawyer in the first place? . . if you are not going to hear from people who are spending their time in

… Read the rest
LAW

Bannon’s Lawyer Seeks to Exit Jan. 6 Contempt Case Before Trial

(Bloomberg) — The lawyer defending Steve Bannon against contempt charges over his refusal to cooperate with the Congressional Jan. 6 committee asked to withdraw from the case because he may be called as a trial witness.

Robert Costello made his request to US District Judge Carl Nichols in a motion filed Friday in federal court in Washington. The lawyer’s move comes just before Bannon’s trial is set to begin on July 18, but Costello noted that Nichols had yet to rule on an earlier request that he be allowed to testify for the defense about his interactions with the Jan. 6 panels and prosecutors.

“If the Court decides to prevent me from testing, there will be no pathway to inform the Jury about the communications with the Select Committee or the three prosecutors in this case,” Costello said. He accused them of interfering with his attorney-client relationship with Bannon by trying to access his phone records.

Bannon, a longtime Donald Trump adviser, was indicted in November on two counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with subpoenas from the House Jan. 6 committee seeking his testimony and production of documents.

He has previously argued that he relied in good faith on Costello’s advice concerning the subpoenas, but Nichols ruled in April that he could not make that case to the jury. Bannon has more recently sought to delay his trial, arguing that the ongoing televised Jan. 6 committee hearings could prevent him from getting a fair trial.

©2022 Bloomberg LP

… Read the rest

LAW

Amber Heard’s lawyers want her defamation trial verdict dropped. They claim a juror hadn’t been vetted properly and that the sum awarded to Johnny Depp was

Amber Heard.

Amber Heard’s lawyers wrote that the identity of one of the Depp v. Heard trial’s jurors had not been properly established going into the trial.EVELYN HOCKSTEIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

  • Amber Heard’s lawyers have asked that the verdict in her defamation trial be tossed.

  • Heard’s team cited a lack of evidence and an “excessive” amount of damages among their reasons.

  • Heard’s team also alleged that one of the jurors had not been properly vetted going into the trial.

Amber Heard’s lawyers filed a 53-page document on Friday, asking that the jury’s verdict against her in the high-profile defamation lawsuit with her ex-husband, Johnny Depp, be tossed.

The memorandum requests that the jury’s verdict to be set aside on all three counts that Heard was found liable for, to dismiss Depp’s complaint, and for claims that a juror assumed a false identity to be investigated.

In the document, Heard’s lawyers Elaine Bredehoft and Ben Rottenborn, argue that there was insufficient evidence to support Depp’s claims that Heard had defamed him. They also asserted that the “jury’s compensatory and punitive damage award were excessive as a matter of law,” saying that Depp only deserved “reputational damages.”

Heard and Depp were found to have defamed each other in June. The jury awarded Heard $2 million in damages and awarded Depp $15 million — $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. The heard-will-owe-johnny-depp-less-verdict-defamation-trial-2022-6?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=yahoo.com” data-ylk=”slk:judge later lessened the punitive damages to $350,000″ class=”link “judge later lessened the punitive damages to $350,000citing limits set by state law.

Following the trial, Heard’s lawyer said in June that the actor wouldn’t be able to pay the monetary penalty awarded to Depp.

Also included in Friday’s memo was an allegation that the identity of a jury member —

… Read the rest