Life Insurance Litigation Update
Life Insurance class actions have been prevalent over the past years. These class actions have included the theories of improper market conduct (vanishing premium, replacement, and retirement/investment cases), race based premiums and modal fees. Several life insurance companies have agreed to settle class actions under these theories, including New York Life Insurance Company, Franklin Life Insurance Company, American General Life Insurance Company, Principal Mutual Life Insurance Company, Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, Jefferson-Pilot Life Insurance Company and Life of Virginia. Beasley Allen has been involved in these class actions in that we represented individuals who chose to exclude themselves from the class action settlement, commonly referred to as “opt-outs.” In fact, our firm represented a majority of the opt-outs in several of the aforementioned class action settlements. However, we expect these “market conduct” class action settlements to decline in the future because most life insurance companies, with the exception of Guardian Life Insurance Company and Mutual of New York Life Insurance Company for instance, have settled the vanishing premium type class actions and individual opt-outs, thereby effectively putting an end to these cases.
Insurance Law Update 11-5-94
Prior to May 13, 1994, those who practiced in the area of insurance fraud law found the law to be in a state of flux. There was a line of cases in Alabama that stated in the insurance fraud case when fraudulent conduct had been discovered by a Plaintiff, but between the time of purchase and the time of discovery no claims were made on the insurance policy in question, no cause of action for fraud would arise because the period of time had past without the Plaintiff having made a claim. These cases stood for the principle that you must have made a claim and have incurred damages in order for a fraud case to exist.
Fraud Law Update 8-10-96
Prior to May 13, 1994, those who practiced in the area of insurance fraud law found the law to be in a state of flux. There was a line of cases in Alabama that stated in the insurance fraud case when fraudulent conduct had been discovered by a plaintiff, but between the time of purchase and the time of discovery no claims were made on the insurance policy in question, no cause of action for fraud would arise because the period of time had past without the plaintiff having made a claim. These cases stood for the principle that you must have made a claim and have incurred damages in order for a fraud case to exist.
Pharmaceutical Drug Litigation
From asbestos to tobacco to pharmaceutical products, mass tort litigation has become a powerful form of litigation in both state and federal courts. Mass tort litigation is a growing area of the law, which shows no signs of slowing down in the near future. Mass tort claims find their origins barely twenty-five years ago.1 Some scholars trace true mass tort cases back even further to the late 1960′s and early 1970′s. In the 60′s lawyers began to represent passengers in plane crashes on a structured basis. They represented a multitude of plaintiffs and victims against a myriad of defendants including manufacturers, suppliers and the airline companies themselves. These cases, referred to as “mass accident” claims, where a catastrophic event results in a number of serious and fatal injuries, are usually followed by mass litigation.2 In mass accident litigation, injuries generally occur at a central location and usually manifest themselves immediately.
Seminar Paper 12-29-03
“What is truth?” Isn’t that the most important question to have answered in evaluating your chances of winning a case or settling it? No matter whether you are a lawyer, doctor, engineer or a scientist, if you’re going to be successful, you seek the answer to that question. If you are going to understand what your chances are in civil litigation, you have got to be involved in a truth-finding mission. As a lawyer, your primary mission in life could well be put in terms of: I am a seeker of truth.
Mutual Fund Scandals
The past 20 or so years saw tremendous growth in the mutual fund industry. This growth resulted from investor confidence, which in turn resulted from the high standards associated with the industry – standards that included putting the investor first. Unfortunately, putting the investor first has fallen by the wayside in many funds’ operating procedures and trouble has begun to brew. Two practices at the heart of these troubles are abusive market-timing, also called rapid trading, and late trading, which is illegal.
Environmental and Toxic Tort Primer
The terms Environmental Law and Toxic Torts are often used interchangeably. For purposes of this review Environmental Law refers to property damage caused by toxic substances and/or contamination. While Toxic Torts involve injury to people from pollution. While environmental law is often broken down into the three categories of air, water, and land, discussing the different offending industries and/or chemicals along with the prevailing causes of action in this state will allow for a more practical guide.
Preparing Witnesses for Trial Nursing Home
As everyone knows, witness preparation is vital in every case, and possibly even more so in a nursing home case. The nursing home resident will most likely be "introduced" by way of their personal representative or guardian. By calling as witnesses, the nursing home administrator, director of nursing and other current nursing home employees (all of which will be defendants to the lawsuit or adverse witnesses), plaintiff's counsel will seek to get admissions directly from the nursing home personnel that various standards of care were breached. Ex-employees (often disgruntled by their treatment while employed by the nursing home) will be able to provide pattern and practice testimony, to the extent it is discoverable, and may have personal knowledge pertaining to how the nursing home resident was treated while they were employed at the nursing home.
Nursing Home Cases
Not so long ago, insurance companies would offer several thousand dollars or "nuisance value" to get rid of a nursing home case. Many attorneys were reluctant to pursue these types of cases because a large majority of nursing home residents are in poor health, suffer from pre-existing conditions, have no earnings capacity, have a limited life expectancy, and have what some consider to be a poor quality of life. However, in the past few years, nursing home litigation has changed dramatically.
Nuts and Bolts of a Wheels Case
This paper does not purport to be an all encompassing paper on preparing a wheels case for trial, but is a limited overview of issues you may come across during the course of litigating a wheels case that you may find useful in your practice.
