http://lawyersusaonline.com/benchmarks Just another Lawyer\'s USA Online weblog Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:07:51 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en     There's always some trepidation when new neighbors move in next door. You're never quite sure what you're going to get. Are you going to be dealing with Good Neighbor Sam or American Psycho? Me? I'm not that particular. Just keep the music down and otherwise leave me the heck alone. A friendly wave ... http://lawyersusaonline.com/benchmarks/2010/03/10/neighbors-from-hell-get-their-comeuppance/   With the explosion of text messaging in society, you'd think that by now the courts would have provided attorneys with some fairly clear guidance on getting text messages introduced as evidence.  Surprisingly, the case law is relatively sparse.  So let's all applaud this week's effort by the Arizona Court of Appeals to ... http://lawyersusaonline.com/benchmarks/2010/03/05/text-message-punctures-murderer%e2%80%99s-defense/ Here's one for personal injury attorneys.  The good news is that you have a statement to the effect that a standard of care has been breached. What's even better is that the statement was made by an employee for the defendant at the time of your client's accident.  The bad news is that you ... http://lawyersusaonline.com/benchmarks/2010/03/03/phantom-mcdonald%e2%80%99s-employee-sets-the-standard-of-care/   It’s pretty rare for a court to step in and actually raise a jury’s award of damages in a personal injury case.  If anything, courts tend to find that juries are too generous, subjecting cases to the microscope to ensure that each element of a damage award is supported by the ... http://lawyersusaonline.com/benchmarks/2010/03/01/rear-end-accident-victim-gets-a-bump-in-damages/   Of course! It all makes perfect sense now. The zombie vote. That explains how Al Franken was elected Minnesota’s newest U.S. senator.  I mean, you have the dead dead voting in Chicago. Why not the living dead voting in the Land of a Thousand Lakes?   What tipped me off to the truth ... http://lawyersusaonline.com/benchmarks/2010/02/25/zombies-on-the-march-in-minnesota/ There must be a special place in Hell reserved for airline executives. Any doubt about that was erased a few years ago when they started charging extra for checked-in luggage.  Yet, we can be thankful for those airline passengers who decide they just won’t take it anymore and battle the Darth Vaders ... http://lawyersusaonline.com/benchmarks/2010/02/24/airline-tries-to-%e2%80%98pick-off%e2%80%99-irate-customer/ When the federal government sells you a car, you’d think that it would be safe to assume that the vehicle doesn’t contain a secret stash of illegal drugs. Francisco Agredano found out the hard way that it’s best not to assume anything when dealing with the government. All Agredano wanted was a ... http://lawyersusaonline.com/benchmarks/2010/02/19/gov%e2%80%99t-car-auction-leads-to-stint-in-mexican-jail/ Who would ever dream that the back story for a cutting-edge case on computer crime would begin with a drunk driver answering the call of nature on the side of a road?  Somehow, we get from that dreary image to answering an important legal question: Does an employee commit a crime ... http://lawyersusaonline.com/benchmarks/2010/02/17/employee-beats-computer-crime-rap/   She said what? Yep, it’s time to be appalled by the fact that there are still jurors out there whose ugly beliefs can make a train wreck out of a perfectly good trial.  These are the sorry facts.   A Missouri jury slapped Pepose Vision Institute (PVI) with a $130,000 wrongful discharge verdict.   Michelle Fleshner ... http://lawyersusaonline.com/benchmarks/2010/02/12/stupid-juror-tricks-anti-semitic-slurs-give-employer-a-second-shot/     You gotta love car salesmen. Those wacky tricksters are always up to something.  Just ask Amos Partain. The South Carolinian claims he agreed to buy one particular Nissan truck from Upstate Auto Group and ended up with another Nissan truck that was not nearly as nice.   Here’s how one happy shopping experience ... http://lawyersusaonline.com/benchmarks/2010/02/10/%e2%80%98bait-and-switch%e2%80%99-victim-escapes-arbitration/