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Author: Paul Luvera

Luvera practiced plaintiff law 55 years. He is past President of the Inner Circle of Advocates & Washington State Trial Lawyers Association. Member ABOTA, American College of Trial Lawyers, International Academy, International Society of Barristers and the American Trial Lawyers Hall of Fame. Book Luvera on Advocacy available at Trial Guides Publishing Email paul@luvera.org
MY POLICY ABOUT CONFIDENTIALITY CLAUSES IN SETTLEMENTS

MY POLICY ABOUT CONFIDENTIALITY CLAUSES IN SETTLEMENTS

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It was my policy over my 50 years of representing plaintiffs to refuse to agree to any form of confidentiality as an imposed requirement of settlement  by a  defendant. My policy was that clients were free to keep the information personally confidential and from media or public disclosure if they wanted to do so, but the defendant could not require it as a condition of settlement. In addition, my policy for accepting a case for a client was that I…

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THE HAMBURGER PRICE WAR & THE IMPORTANCE OF FRAMING TRIAL ISSUES

THE HAMBURGER PRICE WAR & THE IMPORTANCE OF FRAMING TRIAL ISSUES

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A price war between McDonald’s and A & W fast food restaurants has a lesson for trial lawyers about the importance of describing trial issues or “framing.”  A&W was the first-ever chain restaurant  in America. By the 1970s, A&W  had more locations open than McDonald’s. It was  founded in 1919 in Kentucky and is the oldest chain restaurant in America In 1948 Maurice and Richard McDonald opened the first self-serve McDonald’s in San Bernardino, California. Six years later Ray Kroc, a…

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DEALING WITH THE “ERROR OF JUDGMENT” DEFENSE IN MEDICAL MALPRACTICE CASES

DEALING WITH THE “ERROR OF JUDGMENT” DEFENSE IN MEDICAL MALPRACTICE CASES

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A common defense in medical malpractice cases is to assert the cause of the injury was an unintended outcome following medical judgment regarding acceptable choices between alternative medical judgments. Some states, like Washington, approve a jury instruction on this concept. Washington Pattern Jury Instruction 105.08 “Exercise of Judgment” provides: “A physician is not liable for selecting one of two or more alternative [courses of treatment] [diagnoses], if, in arriving at the judgment to [follow the particular course of treatment] [make the particular diagnosis], the…

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