The Association for Safe International Travel reports that 37,000 people die in car accidents per year in the United States while another 2.35 million are injured or disabled. An estimated 180,000 people are driving for Uber. That number continues to grow. So with this kind of volume and activity it is inevitable that the number of accidents involving this driving service will rise.
So if a personal injury attorney’s client was injured in a crash involving Uber, what should the lawyer consider when litigating that case?
That is the topic of discussion that will be lead by Haggard Law attorneys Jason Brenner and Todd Michaels during this month’s Florida Justice Association Masters of Justice CLE program.
Uber Duber Do…Your Client Was in an Accident with Uber, Now What Do You Do? is one of the sessions that will be offered to attendees of the program as part of the Auto Negligence Seminar to be conducted on Wednesday, September 28th. There are a few more spots available for this seminar. To learn more about it and register click here. The FJA Masters of Justice Program will be held in Orlando from September 28th through the 30th.
Attending this year’s FJA Masters of Justice program is a great way to renew the excitement and focus on your mission as a personal injury attorney. Make plans NOW to register to attend to ensure you have the strategies and techniques in your toolbox that have proven to work for other attorneys in civil litigation cases. You’ll be sure to take away valuable information and innovative ideas that can immediately aid you in your efforts to assist your clients in their cases.
The Haggard Law Firm’s Douglas McCarron will be a feature presenter during The 2016 National Crime Victim Bar Association’s National Conference. The Conference will be held in Philadelphia on September 19-21 in conjunction with the National Center for Victims of Crime’s 2016 National Training Institute. The Institute brings up to 1,001 civil attorneys, victim advocates, criminal justice professionals and law enforcement officers to share their knowledge and experience across disciplines.
The training institute emphasizes a multidisciplinary approach to sharing promising practices, current research, and effective programs and policies that are victim-centered, practice-based, and research-informed. The Institute’s forum allows for law enforcement, victim service professionals, allied practitioners, policymakers, and researchers to share current developments and build new collaborations.
McCarron’s presentation: Negligent Security Case Gameplan: “Blocking & Tackling Fundamentals Mixed with Razzle Dazzle.”
This highly demonstrative and interactive presentation will highlight what every Victim’s lawyers must know presenting their Negligent Security case. In addition, with using the results of over 30 Negligent Security case verdicts and one hundred Mock trials, the presentation will cover “ Cutting Edge Strategies” that the Defense never see coming.
Since 2007, The Haggard Law Firm has litigated more than 150 negligent security/premises liability cases which have resulted in more than $350,000,000 in verdicts and settlements to our clients in those cases.
Haggard Law Attorney Christopher Marlowe was interviewed and quoted in a just-released Bloomberg Businessweek article highlighting how Walmart’s cost-cutting measures may be directly related to an increased rate of crime at its stores nationwide. From rape to shoplifting, to kidnapping and murder, the article lays out how police are trying to corral the rampant crime in many of the nation’s number one retailer’s locations. A recent example in the last few weeks, police in Buffalo found a meth lab operating underground of a local Walmart store.
Marlowe fought Walmart for several years in a lawsuit he filed in 2010 on behalf of a woman who was abducted outside a store in DeFuniak Springs, Florida, and repeatedly raped. Marlowe discussed how Walmart made every legal maneuver to avoid releasing its in-house crime statistics.
From the article, Walmart’s Out-of-Control Crime Problem Is Driving Police Crazy By Shannon Pettypiece and David Voreacos:
Walmart’s lawyers typically argue that the company couldn’t have foreseen the crime in question and that it took reasonable steps to keep customers safe. It tries at every opportunity to keep its crime database secret. Even in litigation, when it must produce company records under court seal, its lawyers have wrangled for months or even years to limit access to its records, arguing the information is proprietary. “Nothing compares to the way Walmart litigates cases,” says attorney Christopher Marlowe. He fought Walmart for several years over a lawsuit he filed in 2010 on behalf of a woman who was abducted outside a store in DeFuniak Springs, Fla., and repeatedly raped. Marlowe said in a court filing that he learned only in 2013 of the database, which documented “precisely the sort of incidents” he sought for more than two years. Walmart’s lawyer, he said, “led everyone to believe that crime data retrieval was a great mystery—a query of inconceivable proportions.” Walmart denied liability in the case. The company eventually settled for an undisclosed sum.
Haggard Law Firm Attorney Todd Michaels was recently a guest on WEAA-FM 88.9 in Baltimore. Michaels was brought on the “Voice of the Community” to discuss his op-ed My Son’s Skin which was published in the Miami Herald. In the article Michaels discusses his concern as the father of a black child of what his child will face as he ages. The article was written following the shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland in November 2014.
To listen to Michaels interview click here. The interview begins at 29:07.
Here is the original article published in the Miami Herald in December 2015.
My Son’s Skin
Op-ed by Todd Michaels
I’ve spent 38 years as a white boy and man in America. Actually, a Jewish man, but I’m not usually identified as a Jew, live in a place full of Jews, and I have never faced a minute of anti-Semitism. I can tell you that being a white man in America is good. It’s great. It’s all that it’s cracked up to be. The opportunity is limitless. The fear is minimal.
I’ve never spent one day as a Black boy or man.
I’ve spent 5 years and 4 months as the father of a Black boy. An amazing boy. A smart, funny, talented, cute, sweet boy who has significant opportunity and privilege and doesn’t know any bounds on what he can achieve. A boy that I’ve been able to protect thus far from the realities that a child like Tamir Rice has had to face. But I know I can’t protect him forever, and I know that at some point, and maybe at many points, he will face a different experience as a boy or man in America.
And I’ve spent a lot of those five years worrying. I never think about race. It’s never a conscious thought that the world sees me as white and my son as Black, or mixed, or whatever. I’m just his dad, and he’s just my son. But I think about it when things like Tamir Rice happen. And it makes me worry.
It makes me worry because I know that as Ashton grows, when he walks down the street, people won’t say, “There goes Todd Michaels’s son.” A lot of people will just see a Black guy walking down the street, with all that goes along with that. It’s only been five years and four months, and I’m exhausted of worrying. I can’t imagine the anger I would feel if I had to face that reality everyday.
So yes, all lives matter, but we don’t have to say that, because no one has ever questioned that white lives matter. But Black lives matter too. They matter equally. And until this country gets that in word and deed, America can never be what it claims to be.
Haggard Law’s James Blecke was selected for his exceptional appellant work.
Best Lawyers is the oldest and most highly-respected peer review guide to the legal profession worldwide. The methodology behind the per review process is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area
The article below from The Florida Times Union details the latest on a mass shooting at the Eureka Garden Apartment Complex in Jacksonville. The media reports that 7 people were shot by at least three gunmen.
Shots fired and people getting shot at the Eureka Garden Apartments is on ongoing problem. The complex has had multiple homicides and violent crimes over the past few years, including the murder of 22-year-old Christopher Cornelio (pictured above with his parents). Haggard Law Firm attorneys Douglas McCarron and Jason Brenner currently represent Cornelio’s family, including his young son, in a civil suit against the property’s owners. Cornelio was shot and killed at Eureka Garden in March of 2014. The ownership and management of the complex refuse to take the necessary steps to make the property even remotely safe.
Their indifference was also seen in a massive Code Enforcement sweep last October. The living conditions at the complex were deplorable. Sadly, this incident appears to be a result of wealthy corporation placing profits over the safety its residents.
From Jacksonville Times Union Article: 7 wounded in Eureka Garden attack; about 50 rounds fired, police say
….People were sitting or standing around a stairway to Unit 11 at Eureka Garden late Sunday when the gunfire began.
Gunmen opened up at 11:45 p.m., hitting seven people outside a building at the troubled Westside apartment complex as other bullets shattered and pierced the windows of a parked sport-utility vehicle nearby, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
Police said three gunmen walked up between the two apartment units across Altoona Court, just a few dozen feet off Plymouth Street at the west end of the subsidized apartment complex. They aimed at eight or 10 people “just hanging out” in front of Unit 11, leaving two in life-threatening condition, police said.
“They fired numerous rounds. It appears to be rifle rounds and from handguns, into the crowd,” said Sgt. Shawn Coursey, part of the Sheriff’s Violent Crime Impact team. “There was an infant in the crowd. Thankfully, the infant was not struck.”
The gunmen fired more than 50 rounds at the people before fleeing. Victims were taken to UF Health Jacksonville and Orange Park Medical Center, police said.
…to read entire article from Jacksonville Times Union, click here
The Haggard Law Firm’s Todd Michaels have been invited to speak at the 62nd Annual ASIS International Conference in Orlando next month. ASIS International is a global community of security practitioners, each of whom has a role in the protection of assets – people, property, and/or information. The upcoming conference is the organization’s largest event of the year.
Michaels will present a seminar titled How to Avoid a Million Dollar Verdict Against Your Business and another called Duty and Consequence.
ASIS members represent virtually every industry in the public and private sectors, and organizations of all sizes. From entry-level managers to CSOs to CEOs, from security veterans to consultants and those transitioning from law enforcement or the military, the ASIS community is global and diverse. More than 20,000 industry professionals are expected to attend the conference.
The Haggard Law Firm has litigated more than 155 negligent security cases since 2007, delivering more than $345 million in verdicts and settlements in those cases.
The Haggard Law Firm’s Todd Michaels is one of the featured speakers at today’s 2016 Al J. Cone Advocacy Institute being held through Saturday in Orlando. The Institute is three days of engaging presentations and interactive workshops designed specifically for new personal injury attorneys to advance their trial skills.
Michaels will be part of several workshop panels discussing different elements of the trial process. Attendees go through the entire trial process from the defense and plaintiff perspective using a case fact pattern.
The event is hosted by the Florida Justice Association is dedicated to strengthening and upholding Florida’s civil justice system and protecting the rights of Florida’s citizens and consumers. FJA works in the legislative, political and public arenas to ensure that Floridians know and understand the importance of their rights to justice and to make certain that these rights, which are at the very core of what it means to be American, are safeguarded and protected.
Preparing to exceed the burden of proof and maximizing damages begins at client signup. The defense counsel has a head start. From the moment of loss, the defendant has secured or destroyed evidence, interviewed witnesses, researched the client, developed theories of defense, comparative fault, and otherwise played five or six key chess moves before plaintiff counsel even knew they were in the game.
Assuming the defendant is tireless and meticulous in its work is the only safe and essential assumption plaintiff counsel should make when preparing a case. Regardless of the cause of action, assume that the plaintiff and every friendly known witness has a history that, if known, will adversely affect the ultimate outcome. Until proven otherwise through the use of public records and interviews, all of which should occur pre-suit outside of formal discovery, remain vigilant in learning everything to know about the client and witnesses that may be called on throughout the litigation. Background checks, civil, criminal and family court files all will either confirm a cautiously optimistic impression of the plaintiff, or prepare to deal with the collateral—usually irrelevant, but always distracting—attacks upon the person of your client when the time comes. The same exercise is performed upon all anticipated defendants.
This pregame ritual requires an attorney/client relationship that exceeds the formality of the client contract. As advocates, attorneys should remain focused on the end game, but along the way, the attorney-client relationship must be a candidly safe space. Building the trust necessary to avoid surprises down the line involves introducing other staff upon initiation of the attorney-client relationship. My assistant regularly phones witnesses and clients, even when no information is needed and when no deadlines are looming. This process signals to the client the reality that we are working hard for them, and increases the probability that we will learn in advance of any issues that may prove troublesome down the road.
Once in suit, the rules of discovery and formal deadlines begin to take hold of an attorney’s case building efforts, which makes the “informal” pre-suit information gathering process all the more important. As such, guard against rushing into suit. The time to mercilessly press for a special set trial begins after committing to the case armed with all reasonably available information and background materials on everyone involved.
Attorneys know in advance those materials that will be asked of the clients in standard discovery requests, but shouldn’t attorneys have learned as much as possible about the defendant and possible witnesses before filing suit? Filing suit is the moment in which we regain the tactical edge, because together with the complaint, targeted discovery requests based on information and materials we learned pre-suit ensure the defendant is responding to us rather than the other way around. And when the inevitable discovery is propounded upon the client, staff and attorney time is not wasted gathering materials and information that should have been in their possession from the beginning.
Whether an automobile accident, premises liability, medical negligence or product liability case, pre-suit research should inform attorneys of obstacles to success, and tools available to address those challenges as they arise. The internet is a tremendous resource, which should be used to identify the original source materials available for more detailed exploration. For example, in a premises liability case at a shopping mall, an attorney may not have pre-suit access to the leases between the various merchants and the management company or landowner. But if applicable to the facts of the case, the county record department will have any relevant easements pertaining to the property on file, often with supporting materials that one would not expect to find in a clerk’s office, including correspondence between landlords and tenants. In a dram shop case, the state licensing board for alcohol permits will have submissions from the applicant in order to have obtained the license to serve alcohol. The documents may include extensive correspondence by the soon-to-be defendant regarding the scale and scope of the intended use of that license, prior negative incidents, and attorneys may be surprised by the detailed photographs or schematic drawings of the establishment.
This pre-suit effort likely will not deliver a case on a silver platter. It may not ultimately provide the silver bullet at the first key deposition, where information obtained outside of discovery truly has the ability to surprise opposing counsel. But those attorneys who have dug as deeply as possible into all foreseeable issues and contingencies pre-suit will more efficiently prosecute the case and be ready to confidently select a jury the first time the case is up at calendar call. And, if an attorney by chance does find that silver bullet before the case is even filed, all the better.
Managing Partner Michael Haggard has been named to the 2016 Florida Trend Magazine Legal Elite list. Attorneys selected to the list are chosen for recognition by their peers.
Florida Trend invited all in-state members of the Florida Bar to participate. Lawyers were asked to name attorneys whom they hold in the highest regard or would recommend to others.
Haggard is also a member of the Legal Elite Hall of Fame which is comprised of a distinguished group of attorneys who have consistently earned high rankings from their peers in the annual Legal Elite voting.
rs represent virtually every industry in the public and private sectors, and organizations of all sizes. From entry-level managers to CSOs to CEOs, from security veterans to consultants and those transitioning from law enforcement or the military, the ASIS community is global and diverse. More than 20,000 industry professionals are expected to attend the conference.
