Personal Injury & Medical Malpractice

Expert Analysis

• Lesser-Known Litigation Funding Best Practices For Attorneys

  

  Following the American Bar Association's recent publication of third-party litigation funding guidance, Jiamie Chen and Dai Wai Chin Feman at Parabellum Capital outline some additional considerations, including the ethical limitations on single-case funding and the futility of economic prenegotiations between attorneys and their clients.

• Cos. Can Sell Future Asbestos Liabilities To Avoid Bankruptcy

  

  Bankruptcy has become an increasingly common solution for asbestos defendants, but the sale of contingent liabilities to a third party may provide a less complex and costly resolution of asbestos claims, say Milan Ceppi and Charles Oswald at Financial Asset Recovery Analytics.

• Opinion

  ADA Protects Lawyers With Disabilities, But We Must Do More

  

  As an attorney with cerebral palsy, Danielle Liebl at Reed Smith says that while the 30-year-old Americans with Disabilities Act has protected her against discrimination, the legal industry must do more to accommodate lawyers with disabilities and make them more comfortable in self-identifying.

• Perspectives

  Legal Deserts Threaten Justice In Rural America

  

  Many small towns and rural counties have few lawyers or none at all, which threatens the notion of justice for all Americans and demands creative solutions from legislators, bar associations and law schools, says Patricia Refo, president of the American Bar Association.

• Analyzing Upward And Downward Trends In Legal Tech

  

  Advances in legal technology are often accompanied by bombastic overstatements, but it is important to separate the wheat from the chaff by looking at where various technologies stand on the hype curve, says Lance Eliot at Stanford Law School.

• Opinion

  ABA's New Guidance On Litigation Funding Misses The Mark

  

  The American Bar Association should revise its recently approved best practices on third-party litigation funding as they do not reflect how legal finance actually works and could create confusion among lawyers, says Andrew Cohen at Burford Capital.

• What Firms Should Ask Before Hiring Attorneys From Gov't

  

  In the final year of any presidential administration, there is an undeniable appetite on the part of large law firms for government-savvy legal talent, but firms need to first consider how they will actually utilize their new star hire, says Michael Ellenhorn at Decipher.

• The Ethics Of Using Chatbots For Legal Services

  

  Delegating legal work to robots involves several risks, including running afoul of statutes dictating unauthorized practice of law, but with the right precautions, law firms can lawfully employ artificially intelligent chatbots that can imitate human conversations, say attorneys at Haynes and Boone.

• COVID-19 Liability Considerations For Nonmedical Businesses

  

  While some businesses, especially in the health care sector, have been afforded protection from COVID-19 liability, others have not — so companies should carefully review the state of immunity legislation in their jurisdictions, and consider legal issues around causation, foreseeability, notice and nuisance claims, say Kathleen Carrington and Mitchell Morris at Butler Snow.

• Opinion

  ABA Must Seize Opportunity To Respond To Bar Exam Chaos

  

  The challenges of administering bar exams this year have put the future of the profession in jeopardy, but the American Bar Association at its ongoing annual meeting can adopt a resolution that would urge jurisdictions to take emergency actions with respect to licensure of new attorneys, says Nicholas Allard, former president of Brooklyn Law School.

• How Pandemic Is Affecting The Pace Of Judicial Opinions

  

  The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way judges work, but how has it impacted the volume of work product they generate? Ben Strawn and Omeed Azmoudeh at Davis Graham investigate using data from the PACER federal courts registry.

• COVID-19 And Design Defect Jurors' Risk Evaluations: Part 3

  

  With jurors in the COVID-19 era being constantly reminded of pandemic-related dangers, defense counsel in product liability design defect trials must effectively use voir dire and careful observation to gauge how juries are evaluating risk, say a jury consultant at Litigation Insights and attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

• COVID-19 And Design Defect Jurors' Risk Evaluations: Part 2

  

  Recent jury research shows that the COVID-19 pandemic is correlated with shifts in potential jurors' views on corporations and government regulators — and the virus itself may affect jury composition, as more risk-averse individuals seek to avoid jury duty, say a jury consultant at Litigation Insights and attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

• 6 Steps For Law Firms Looking To Improve Their Culture

  

  The COVID-19 crisis represents an inflection point for law firm culture, and smart firm leaders will take advantage of this moment to build innovation-welcoming environments that support partners, associates, business services teams and clients alike, say Jennifer Johnson at Calibrate Legal and Kathleen Pearson at Pillsbury.

• COVID-19 And Design Defect Jurors' Risk Evaluations: Part 1

  

  Risk assessment plays a key role in complex product liability design defect trials, but the COVID-19 pandemic may have altered how potential jurors assess risks, making this an important consideration in jury research, say a jury consultant at Litigation Insights and attorneys at Faegre Drinker.