We can do more than file a lawsuit when a bad driver hurts our clients. We owe it to society to get those drivers off the road.
State licensing departments have simple forms that can be filled out to trigger an investigation. They don't publicize these but they exist.
Here is the form for Washington State. dol.pdf
Next time someone runs down your client in a crosswalk, feel free to use it.
Outlines serve a purpose. They just shouldn't be relied upon to the exclusion of the rest of what is going on in a courtroom.
This general outline has been in my repertoire for 20 years. My former boss, Tom Chambers, developed it. I have barely changed it. I use it as a reminder. As a guide. Not as a script.
Sample. Outline direct examination treating health care provider (mix and match order)
Background
First visit
Course of care
Mechanics of injury and causation
Pre-existing condition
Medical expenses
Are you familiar with the costs of health care in this community
Show bills: Have you had a previous opportunity to review the medical expenses.
Were the health care services provided to plaintiff reasonable
Were they necessary
Were the health care bills charged for those services reasonable and customary in the medical community
In terms of reasonable medical probably, do you have an opinion as to whether or not the medical conditions and symptoms of plaintiff which you have testified about today were caused by the incident?
Wage loss
Future losses
Can you describe future limitations of plaintiff
Final opinion re causation
In terms of reasonable medical probability, do you have an opinion as to whether or not the plaintiff's medical conditions and symptoms were caused by the incident of DATE?
When plaintiffs file lawsuits, the defense insurance companies hunt them down on the internet like criminals.
The plaintiffs' fun, fellowship, and joy of connecting with others through Facebook and Twitter; is instantly smashed to pieces when they find out they are being spied on.
But many people don't know that their harmless wall posts, photos, and video clips, are being amassed into an arsenal to be used against them.
In one of our cases, a 20 year old woman was almost killed when a car crossed the center line and hit her car. She suffered a terrible brain injury and to this day must live in a nursing home. Her mother kept her Myspace page active. Even though her daughter couldn't use Myspace anymore, it was a way to keep in contact with her daughter's friends. The defense attorneys pretended to be friends to try to get into the site. When that didn't work they subpoenaed Myspace to get at the records. They were digging for dirt, even though the young woman was not at all responsible for the wreck.
My paralegal John Meyers and I developed this form letter for our clients. Please feel free to use and share it:
Social Networking Site Letter.pdf
— Anne FrankHow wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.
— Dalai LamaPeople take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost.
— Apache proverbIt is better to have less thunder in the mouth and more lightning in the hand.
— PythagorasA thought is an idea in transit.
— Martha GrahamThere is a vitality, a life-force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique.
— ConfuciusOf what use is eloquence?
He who engages in fluency of words to control men
often finds himself hated by them.
— Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.No generalization is wholly true, not even this one.
— Old Japanese proverbFall seven times, stand up eight.
— William ShakespeareMine honor is my life;
both grow in one;
Take honor from me,
and my life is done.
— Annie DillardHow we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.
— Desmond TutuIt is very easy to break down something. You can take a stone and throw it through that window; that is easy. Try fixing it, and that takes longer. It takes longer to help someone who has been broken. That’s the work you’re doing.
— Robert SchullerI had rather attempt something great and fail, than to attempt nothing at all and succeed.
— Martin Luther King Jr.The time is always right to do what is right.
— Bill CosbyI don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.
— Richard J. FosterLearn to laugh; it is a discipline to be mastered. Let go of the everlasting burden of always needing to sound profound.
— Helen KellerBelieve, when you are most unhappy, that there is something for you to do in the world. So long as you can sweeten another’s pain, life is not in vain.
— Albert EinsteinImagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.
— Elie WieselThe opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it’s indifference.
— Albert EinsteinIt is high time that the ideal of success should be replaced by the ideal of service.
— Alexander SolzhenitsynIt is not the level of prosperity that makes for happiness but the kinship of heart to heart and the way we look at the world.
— Simone WeilTo be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul.
— Jimmy CarterWe must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.
— Oliver Wendell Holmes JrLife is painting a picture, not doing a sum.
— Flannery O'ConnorThe truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it emotionally.
— Mahatma GhandiAn eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
— Howard ThurmanHe who keeps his eye on results cannot give himself wholeheartedly to his task, however simple or complex that task may be.
— Benjamin TuckerThe moment that justice must be paid for by the victim of injustice it becomes itself injustice.
— Maya AngelouYou may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefullness, But still, like air, I'll rise.
— Judge Learned HandWords are chameleons, which reflect the color of their environment.
— Erica JongAnd the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more.
— LudacrisI'd rather die on my feet than live on my knees.
— 7th Amendment of the U.S. ConstitutionThe right of trial by jury shall be preserved.
— Gertrude SteinEverybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense.
— Albert EinsteinIt is harder to crack a prejudice than an atom.
— Proverbs 24:10If thou faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small. ~ Proverbs 24:10
— Thomas รก KempisRemember that lost time does not return.
— BuddhaTo straighten the crooked you must first do a harder thing – straighten yourself.
