Archive for the ‘Litigation’ Category

On September 10, 2010 the Honorable W. Bruce Watson granted preliminary approval to the settlement of the longest civil trial in Humboldt County history.   The settlement comes after the jury returned a $677 million dollar verdict in July.   Plaintiffs’ counsel Timothy Needham and Michael Crowley advised the Eureka Times-Standard that they were confident the settlement was in the best interest of the class given the threat of bankruptcy that faced the nursing home entity after the verdict was announced, and given that the court’s injunction order will guarantee adequate staffing in Skilled Health’s facilities.

(more…)

On August 27, 2010, the Honorable Judge W. Bruce Watson denied Skilled Healthcare’s Motion for Mistrial Based on Alleged Juror Misconduct.   After reviewing the declarations submitted by the defendants and the counter declarations submitted by plaintiffs the Court ruled that there was no juror misconduct and that “Defendants did not meet their burden of establishing misconduct, although the three affidavits presented constitute a prime facie showing of misconduct, they are rebutted in all important aspects by the counter declarations.”   Contrary to claims by defendants, the counter declarations revealed that the juror in question did not make any false statements, did not fail to disclose any information, and did not know one of the plaintiffs or have prior knowledge of an event regarding one of the defendants.

The Court’s Order preserves the largest jury verdict in the United States this year and the largest recorded jury verdict in Humboldt County.

Read the court’s entire ruling here.

While the lawyers in the Janssen Law firm aggressively prepare their cases for jury trial, there are other dispute resolution methods that may be suitable for a particular case.  In fact, most civil cases for money damages settle prior to trial, in recognition of the economic fact that trials are expensive and uncertain for both sides of a dispute.

(more…)

On July 6, 2010, the Janssen Law Firm and attorneys from two other firms received for their clients the largest jury verdict in the United States this year.  The case is Lavender v. Skilled Healthcare Group, Case No. DR060264, Superior Court of California, Humboldt County.  The plaintiff class is represented by W. Timothy Needham, Michael Crowley, Amelia Burroughs and Patrick Griego of the Janssen Law Firm from Eureka, by Michael Thamer from Callahan, and by Chris Healey and Aaron T. Winn of the Luce Forward firm from San Diego. This is the highest verdict ever achieved against a nursing home chain and one of the highest verdicts  in the United States this decade.

(more…)

Having recently finished a trial where videotaped depositions were used extensively, the following is some practical advice for both taking and defending videotaped depositions.

First, under California law, any deposition may be videotaped provided that the Notice of Deposition indicates the intent to videotape that deposition.  [CCP §2025.220(a)(5)].  Further, with any videotaped deposition, there are certain necessary practical requirements under CCP §2025.3430, including (a) the site for the deposition must be “suitably large, adequately lighted, and reasonably quiet”; (b) the operator of the recording of the recording equipment must be competent [CCP §2025.340(b)]; and the operator must not employ any special effects to distort the demeanor of the participants. [CCP §2025.340(g)]

From a practical standpoint make sure that your client is appropriately dressed.  Presume that the videotaped deposition will be shown to the jury and have the client dress for that purpose.  As an example, one of the witnesses in the recent case wore an orange short sleeve shirt to his deposition which was almost identical to the jump suits that prisoners wear when they are in the dock.  Not a good idea!

(more…)