For the first time in 6 1/2 years of practicing law, I didn’t take an outline with me to a deposition. It wasn’t intentional, mind you. I had my accordion folder with all my exhibits and the documents I’d taken notes on. I just forgot to print my deposition outline before heading out the door. When I got to the office of plaintiff’s counsel and began unloading the contents of my folder onto the conference table, I realized I was without my deposition outline. I was immediately flustered by this. But I took a minute and sorted myself out, and...
Sometimes at trial, the only way to get certain facts or statements into evidence is through the emails that contain them. But this situation occurs infrequently enough that most of us don’t know off-hand how to go about authenticating emails for use as admissible evidence. Fortunately, a path has been paved for this in Alabama that makes it clear how we need to authenticate emails. Authentication under Alabama Rule of Evidence 901 Alabama Rule of Evidence 901 provides the requirements for authenticating evidence. The purpose of authentication is to enable the court to be “satisfied by evidence sufficient to support...
Every year, changes are made to the Federal Rules of Evidence and Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. In 2017, the Supreme Court approved substantive changes to Federal Rule of Evidence 807. This year, the committee proposed and the Supreme Court adopted changes to Federal Rules of Evidence 803 and 902. These changes will go into effect on December 1, 2018. Changes to Federal Rule of Evidence 803 FRE 803(16) currently reads … Rule 803. Exceptions to the Rule Against Hearsay—Regardless of Whether the Declarant Is Available as a Witness The following are not excluded by the rule against hearsay, regardless of...
ML Healthcare Services, LLC v. Publix Super Markets, Inc. [No. 15-13851 Feb. 7, 2018] ___ F.3d ___ (11th Cir. 2018): Evidence of collateral source payments may be admissible to show a doctor’s bias as to his causation testimony about the treatment he provided. (download the opinion) Robin Houston sued Publix arising from an alleged slip-and-fall at a Publix Super Market in McDonough, Georgia. The alleged incident occurred on July 24, 2012, after which Houston treated with a medical doctor who sold the medical debt for Houston’s treatment to a litigation investment company, ML Healthcare. ML Healthcare purchases medical debt at...
I am prefacing this article by saying that I am a resident of Gardendale, Alabama. This article is not a commentary on Gardendale’s efforts to secede its schools system from Jefferson County, nor am I expressing any opinion about the rulings of either the 11th Circuit or Judge Haikala in the United State District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. My purpose here is to illustrate the long teeth of social media content and how Facebook posts can be used to show intent (fairly or not), and thereby impute motives to the actors involved in litigation. Spoiler: It can be...
When you’re defending a case, I expect you are likely issuing discovery requests to the plaintiff (hopefully, immediately after filing an answer). I expect there is also a high probability those discovery requests include social media discovery requests. If your experience has been anything like mine, those social media discovery requests draw objections more often than not. Here are some things to consider: Are your Interrogatories and Requests for Production narrowly tailored enough to be proper? Was the objection appropriate or just a shot in the dark assuming that you won’t notice or be bothered to make a fuss over it?...
The Value of Written Statements Several months ago, I witnessed a multi-vehicle accident. To be more accurate, I narrowly avoided being smashed to bits by a tanker truck. After the accident, I hung around to give a written statement to the State Trooper who was investigating the accident. I think I probably gave him the best written statement of his career. For one thing, as I am all the time handling accidents, I knew exactly what I would want to read in a witness statement and the specificity that would be helpful later. For another, with three commercial vehicles involved...
![[Appearance] The Value of Aggressively Pursuing Information](https://www.jeremywrichter.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/20100108-JR040_edited-1-80x80.jpg)
Lawyers provide a valuable service to their clients when they aggressively obtain information that enables them to evaluate claims for early resolution. This aggressive pursuit of information may result in higher up-front case expenses, but it frequently enables the client to close out his file more quickly, and often with better results. My thoughts on this topic, as illustrated through two cases that I handled, can be read at the ABA Journal website: The Value of Aggressively Pursuing Information.
I was recently involved in a car wreck case in which plaintiff’s counsel firmly believed that my client was using her phone at the time of the accident. The only problem was … the facts didn’t support his assertion. There wasn’t even one tiny, little fact that he could present to the jury to support his belief. But never one to let facts get in the way of a theory, he had a plan. A plan that involved him impeaching the defendant by asking her irrelevant questions and then using immaterial evidence to impeach her with. Getting Snared in the...
Ever year on December 1, adopted changes that govern various rules of the profession go into effect. In 2015, the Advisory Committee on Rules of Civil Procedure made significant changes to discovery rules of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. In 2016, lesser changes were made to FRCP 4, 6, and 82. This year, the comment period is still open for proposed changes to Federal Rule of Evidence 807 (“FRE 807”) , which addresses the residual exception to hearsay rules. Federal Rule of Evidence 807 (Currently) In its present form, FRE 807 reads as follows: (a) In General. Under the following circumstances,...
