That the opening statement is many times the most important stage of the trial. An effective opening statement can and will persuade the jury. In fact, every effort should be made to persuade the jury during that portion of the trial. Never assume that a juror will keep an open mind about your case during the entire course of the trial.

This paper discusses and reviews several important opinions from the year 2008 in Alabama law. Most of the cases included in this paper were highlighted in Alabama Law Weekly 2007-2008 weekly newsletters; Maynard, Cooper & Gale Weekly Law Report 2007-2008 editions; and “Recent Civil Decisions,” ALAJ Journal, Spring 2008, Summer 2008 and Fall 2008. The paper summarizes important civil tort law decisions from 2008, with a broad range of cases included.

Toxic tort cases are both famous and infamous. We are all familiar with them, or at least Hollywood's version of them. Erin Brockovich depicted a real estate case turned toxic tort that resulted in a $333M settlement, a famous case. A Civil Action depicted a lawyer turned crusader who refused a $20M settlement and eventually accepted an $8M offer, an infamous case. These two cases have something in common. Both attorneys faced bankruptcy due to the expense and time involved in litigating the cases. To intentionally misquote; with the promise of great reward comes great risk.

An annuity is a contract between an investor and an issuer whereby the investor agrees to give the issuer principal and, in return, the issuer guarantees the investor fixed or variable payments over time. While annuities are not insurance policies, they are typically issued by insurance companies. An annuity is similar to a retirement plan in that one can fund it in a lump sum or a little at a time, and all capital in an annuity grows and usually compounds tax-deferred until one begins making withdrawals. Unlike retirement plans, however, there is no limit as to how much one can invest in annuities. Annuities are marketed as instruments to protect investors' principal.

Since foreclosure filings continue to increase throughout the state, Alabama State Bar President Mark White of Birmingham recognized that we need more lawyers to assist consumers with foreclosure issues in these tough  economic times. I was asked to chair a six-member Mortgage Foreclosure Task Force to focus on ways lawyers could deliver pro bono assistance to distressed homeowners.