Maryland Lawyer Blog

This holiday season is a bonanza for those who do not want to go to work. The Thursday Christmas in the dream scenario in that regard. The Maryland state court system – district courts, circuit courts, the Court of Special Appeals and the Court of Appeals- were closed on Thursday and Friday and will be closed again this Thursday and Friday. If you had a court appearance on any of these days - which is possible because they were open dates during scheduling - you should have gotten notice. The only exception to this rule is district courts in Montgomery County and Baltimore City will conduct bail reviews via video. In other Maryland counties, the lesson is do not commit any crimes during the holiday season. It is a holdiay buzz kill for all of us and you might be waiting around for a while to get a bail review.

A part of the thinking with taking these days off was for the court system to take some of the burden of the Maryland's budget crisis which is why Maryland Court of Appeals Judge Robert Bell also ordered state courts to close on these successive Fridays during the holdiday season. But slowing down a already clogged court system does take its toll on the parties - and the lawyers - involved in the process.

Governor Martin O’Malley selected yesterday lawyer Christopher B. Kehoe, a partner at the Easton law firm Ewing, Dietz, Fountain & Kehoe P.A., to the Maryland Court of Special Appeals. Mr. Kehoe's appointment fills the vacancy created by when Judge Sally D. Adkins Governor O’Malley elevated her to the Maryland Court of Appeals. The Maryland Court of Appeals seat represents the First Appellate Judicial Circuit, which covers Caroline, Cecil, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s, Somerset, Talbot, Wicomico and Worcester counties.

This Week’s Sign of the Apocalypse: a court has approved the service of legal documents by Facebook in a foreclosure case. Alas, the Facebook account was closed before the lawyer could effectuate the service, thereby missing an opportunity to make legal history.

I hestitate to mention this point because it takes a little bit of the fun out of the story but this is a case in Australia.

If you are not scared off Facebook at this point, you can add me as a Facebook friend here or on Twitter here.

The Maryland Daily Record reports on the applicants for the Baltimore County Circuit Court post created by Judge Dana Levitz's retirement: Baltimore County Circuit Court District Court Judges Jan M. Alexander, Nancy M. Purpura, G. Darrell Russell Jr. and Philip N. Tirabassi; Administrative Law Judge Yvette N. Diamond; S. Ann Brobst, an assistant state’s attorney; public defenders Jennifer B. Aist and Sherrie R. Bailey; and lawyers John A. Austin, Mauricio E. Barreiro, Harold L. Burgin, John J. Condliffe, Emmet C. Davitt, Daniel J. Dregier Jr., Justin J. King, Robert W. Lazzaro; Robert C. Morgan, John J. Nagle III, Francis A. Pommett III, Paul D. Raschke, Paul W. Spence and Keith R. Truffer.

The winner gets an annual salary of $140,352, great benefits and the opportunity to be driven crazy on a daily basis by Maryland trial lawyers.

Is there anyone who does not enjoy a good "two lawyers are having a fist fight" story? I didn't think so. But is is also pretty depressing, too.

The National Law Journal reports that 25% of the reported electronic discovery opinions issued in the first 10 months of the year involved sanctions issues. Thirteen percent of the cases reviewed addressed preservation of evidence and spoliation issues. More statistics: 12% involved computer forensics protocols and experts, 11% addressed admissibility of evidence and 7% of cases involved privilege considerations and waivers.

If lawyers are taking up a quarter of our motions practice seeking sanctions, we are wasting way too much of the court's time with bad or obstructionist lawyers making everyone's jobs more difficult.

• Guide to Asserting Attorney-Client Privilege
  (Maryland Intellectual Property Lawyer Blog discussing U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge Paul W. Grimm's decision in Victor Stanley, Inc. v. Creative Pipe
• Spoliation Issues in Maryland
• Sample Discovery Motions
  (example motions addressing discovery issues)

The Maryland Assocation for Justice's Auto Negligence Section has its next dinner meeting on January 7, 2009. The speaker will be Miller & Zois' own Rod Gaston on the topic of defense medical examinations.

The dinner is at:

That’s Amore Restaurant
10400 Little Patuxent Pkwy.
Columbia, MD 21044

If you are a MAJ member (formerly Maryland Trial Lawyers Association) handling car accident cases in Maryland, it is worthwhile to join the Auto Negligence Section.

Continue reading " Maryland Assocation for Justice Auto Negligence Meeting " »

The Maryland Daily Record has an article today on a Baltimore County jury which has awarded $44,000 for attorney’s fees to a Hunt Valley lawyer from his former client, a home builder.

Except for the expert witness fees I receive when I’m acting as an expert witness in legal malpractice cases, our firm does not bill by the hour. So I found nothing about the specific fact pattern of this case that I think is interesting to personal injury lawyers or their clients.

What I did find interesting was the plaintiff’s lawyer’s conversation with the jurors after the trial with respect to an 18 percent interest rate on outstanding invoices as outlined in the lawyer’s retainer agreement. The jurors apparently said they did not think 18% was appropriate given the current economy.

The case almost does not seem serious enough to use the words “jury nullification.” But that is exactly what it is, right? The jury ignored the law because it thought justice in today’s economy mandated a different result.

It is going to be interesting to see the impact the recession will have on personal injury verdicts. Because good data on verdicts usually has a one year lag time, we are not going have an empirical idea of any change in verdicts for quite some time. For now, we are just trying to read the tea leaves. This verdict is an interesting leaf but I’m not really sure whether this kind of thinking has any application to personal injury cases.

Maryland Court of Appeals Chief Judge Robert M. Bell has created an Access to Justice Commission to oversee and ensure that all Maryland citizens have access to Maryland's justice system. Led by the Judge Irma S. Raker, this commission intends to enhance the quality of justice for all, with respect to civil rights matters, and oversee the protection and rights the law provides to Marylanders. It is expected to examine all aspects of the present court system and its working relationship with all of its partners and ultimately craft a realistic vision of access to civil justice in Maryland today.

Joining Judge Raker on the Commission are a lot of A-list folks, including Honorable Ben Clyburn, Chief Judge of the District Court of Maryland, as Vice Chair and Senator Benjamin Cardin, Governor Martin O’Malley and Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler as members. Maryland State Bar Association will be represented by President Katherine Kelly Howard and MSBA Past President Herbert S. Garten.

The Maryland Daily Record reports DLA Piper is eliminating its two-tiered partnership structure in favor of a new arrangement where all partners are equity owners of the law firm with as many as 18 tiers on the equity partner ladder. DLA Piper says it made the unusual decision in order to reduce Piper’s outside borrowing and give income partners an ownership interest in the firm, according to joint CEO Frank Burch. “From now on, you’re a partner or you’re not a partner,” Burch said.

Burch said DLA Piper did not make the change because it is has financial problems or having trouble obtaining credit. “The firm has excellent, excellent relationships with our banks and very, very favorable credit facility, almost too favorable,” Burch said. No explanation was given as to what “almost too favorable” means. Burch also expressed a concern that he was too good looking and too charming. (Okay, I made that part up.)

The first chapter of Malcolm Gladwell’s amazing new book Outliers talks about the town of Roseto, Pennsylvania and what an incredible impact the town’s strong sense of community had in dramatically decreasing the rate of heart disease in Roseto. Eighteen partner tiers sounds like the ultimate, never ending rat race. There has always been a de facto demarcation among partners because they are paid differently. But formalizing that with a 18 tier ladder just has to add stress to many lawyers who are already feeling plenty of stress. This may lead to an anti Roseto effect: my detailed statistical analysis predicts that this system will take 1.8 years off the life of the average DLA Piper partner. (Of course, I made that up too. But you get the point.)

Related Posts

• Lawyer Salaries in Baltimore


• Impact of Economic Downturn on Maryland Lawyers


• Defense of Big Firm Life


• Why Personal Injury Firms are Rarely Big


• Up to 20 DLA Piper Lawyers and Staff in UK May Lose Their Jobs (December 2, 2008 article in the ABA Journal)


• Starting Your Own Law Firm (Carolyn Elefant’s blog on starting your own law firm)


• DLA Piper Cuts 180 Jobs (no word yet on how this impacts Baltimore)