New Judge: Baltimore County Prosecutor Susan H. Hazlett Picked For Harford County District Court
Governor O'Malley has named Baltimore County prosecutor Susan H. Hazlett to the Harford County District Court bench.
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May 14, 2008
May 13, 2008
Judge Lamdin's Suspension by the Maryland Court of Appeals
In December, I wrote about concerns that had been raised regarding Baltimore County Bruce S. Lamdin’s conduct on the bench. Today, the Maryland Court of Appeals suspended Judge Lamdin for 30 days.
The court’s opinion provides over a dozen comments for which Judge Lamdin was disciplined. The comments seem to fall in one of five categories:
(1) Disparaging children - Judge Lamdin said that he does not like children and does not want them in his courtroom. You cannot tell from the transcript whether he is serious, half-serious or kidding. I have three kids but I really don’t take offense to someone saying they don’t like kids. His loss, but I don’t find such remarks offensive. Maryland Lawyer Blog Score: Who cares?
(2) Disparaging Pennsylvania – He said “What’s the big rush to get back to Pennsylvania. It’s an ugly state.” If you are offended by this, you need to get a life. Does anyone really take real umbrage over their entire state being called ugly? Maryland Lawyer Blog Score: Double who cares?
(3) Mocking Baltimore City’s Efforts to Control Prostitution – Judge Lamdin gave a long speech mocking Baltimore’s efforts to curb prostitution concluding that Baltimore “treats prostitution like spitting on the sidewalk.” I’m not sure he said anything that was factually incorrect. I love Baltimore, but we all saw The Wire, right? Maryland Lawyer Blog Score: Truth is an absolute defense (on this one).
(4) Mocking the Work Ethic of Baltimore County Circuit Court Judges Not Named Judge Cahill – Judge Lamdin made a few disparaging comments, the gist of which is that Baltimore County Circuit Court judges are having cocktails in the afternoons. When questioned about these comments, he admitted he should not have said what he said but that he believed that little was going on in Baltimore County Circuit Court in the afternoon, essentially saying: I should not have spoken the truth. My guess is that some Baltimore County Circuit Court judges would tell you some judges are hard-working and some are not. This is the case in just about every decent sized courthouse, law office, or any other workplace in America. Maryland Lawyer Blog Score: Inappropriate. But can we lighten up a bit?
(5) Treating Criminals with Contempt and Disrespect – Finally, you have gotten my attention. I have a problem with this. I think people with power have to treat other human beings with respect. This maxim has even greater force when the authority is vested in a governmental office. An element of most criminal offenses is contempt for society. When a judge representing the state of Maryland - all of us - returns that contempt, that evens out the score and just sends the wrong message. Moreover, if you do not have some compassion for the criminals in front of you, you should not be a judge. But this speech is easy for me to give sitting in my office, never having handled a criminal case. I do appreciate that criminals do wear on judges like they do on police, prosecutors and even criminal lawyers. Moreover, and again I don’t handle criminal cases, if we start pulling the transcripts of judges with respect to the respect they show criminals, I’m guessing Judge Lamdin may be in the minority, but he has a lot of company. Maryland Lawyer Blog Score: Awful, but I wonder if Judge Lamdin is not being singled out. I really don't know.
In the end, the larger problem is that Judge Lamdin has not appeared repentant for his conduct. He clearly argued with the Maryland Commission on Judicial Disabilities during the investigation of his conduct to the point where Judge Lamdin later argued that the Commission was motivated by their personal dislike for him. Worse still, when questioned about whether he has changed, he indicated that he now talks to people more in chambers. Arguably, this is code for “I’ll say what I want when the record is turned off. “
Maryland Lawyer Blog Final Score: I really don’t know.
You can find the entire opinion here.
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May 9, 2008
Candidates for Maryland Appellate Court Vacancies
The Maryland Daily Record reports that the Maryland Appellate Judicial Nominating Commission has forwarded five of the six applicants to Governor O’Malley for his consideration in filling the Maryland Court of Special Appeals vacancy created by Judge J. Frederick Sharer’s retirement. Three of the applicants are judges: Frederick County Circuit Court Judge Julie Stevenson Solt; Washington County Circuit Court Judge Donald E. Beachley; and Howard County Judge Diane O. Leasure. The other two applicants are Karen L. Federman Henry, a division chief in the office of the Montgomery County Attorney General and Kathryn Grill Graeff, chief of criminal appeals in the Office of the Attorney General.
On Wednesday, the Maryland Appellate Judicial Nominating Commission forwarded three candidates to the Governor for the vacancy created by Judge Irma S. Raker’s Maryland Court of Appeals retirement: Court of Special Appeals Judges Mary Ellen Barbera and Patrick L. Woodward; and Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Michael D. Mason. Last month I analyzed these candidates and predicted who I thought Governor O’Malley might select after careful analysis and deliberation (read: wild guess). You can click here to read that post.
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April 14, 2008
Maryland Legislative Session's Impact on Personal Injury Lawyers
As most personal injury lawyers know, in Maryland the jurisdictional maximum is $30,000 in District Court, but if you request more than $10,000 in your complaint, the defendant can “bump the case up” to Circuit Court for a jury trial. Maryland personal injury lawyers were hoping to see an increase the jurisdictional minimum to $20,000 before defendants have the ability to bump up the case.
A bill introduced in the Maryland legislature this session would have done exactly that by increasing to $20,000 the minimum amount in controversy in which the District Court has exclusive jurisdiction. This is would be a real win to relatively small claims plaintiffs seeking between $10,000 and $20,000, who could be assured of a faster and more expedient trial as opposed to the risk of additional time and expenses that would be incurred in a Circuit Court trial.
It makes sense to allow plaintiffs to keep smaller claims in District Court because the cost benefit of smaller cases should not require Herculean efforts for a relatively small award. Of course, insurance companies opposed this bill for that very reason: they want to require injury victims who do not accept what they offer to have to wait longer and subject them to more inconvenience (deposition, more lengthy interrogatories, etc.). To make this argument, the insurance companies who are contemptuous of our jury system were required to bask in the rich irony of insurance companies defending right to a jury trial. But insurance companies embrace painfully contradictory positions like Trevor Immelman embraced that Masters green jacket yesterday: with joy and without hesitation.
Anyway, Maryland Senate Bill 404 was amended to reduce the District Court exclusive jurisdiction to $15,000 but it died on the floor of the Maryland Senate quietly and without any fanfare by one lousy vote.
Another great bill that was introduced was Maryland House Bill 404 which would have increased the minimum small claims from $5,000 to $10,000. Arguably, this bill would have hurt personal injury lawyers because it would allow people to bring their own small personal injury claims without a lawyer. Of course, this is why it would also be a good bill. Injury victims who did not accept the insurance company’s offer, but also could not or did not want to hire a lawyer, could bring a claim without any technical requirements, most notably the need to file a 10-104, which most victims do not know how to do. Again embracing paradox, this time of insurance companies wanting injury victims to have to hire a personal injury lawyer, the insurance company lobbyist were able to defeat the bill. Maryland House Bill 404 died in the House Judiciary Committee.
A couple of good things came out of this session for personal injury lawyers and their victims. First, Maryland House Bill 16 passed which changed the draconian 180 day statute of limitations in Local Government Tort Claims Act claims to a slightly less draconian 1 year statute of limitations. Second, Maryland Senate Bill 736 now allows for service of process on out-of-state defendants by serving the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration. Finally, as I wrote about in October, there was a new law creating additional hurdles for Maryland lawyers in getting police reports that was repealed in pertinent part, getting us back to the “you request a police report and you get it without too many hassles” days.
Finally, in a note completely unrelated to personal injury cases, the Maryland House Judiciary Committee rejected HB378 which would have increased the penalties for abuse or neglect of animals and aggravated cruelty to animals. Under this proposed bill, a person convicted of abuse or neglect of animals or aggravated cruelty to animals would have to receive psychological counseling. The bill would also prohibit the court from suspending any part of a 1-year mandatory minimum sentence for aggravated cruelty to animals. If made law, this bill would have been a powerful message to those willing to impose needless cruelty on animals. Unfortunately, animal victims do not have a lot of lobbyist fighting on their behalf.
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April 8, 2008
New Child Seat Law in Maryland
A new child car seat law, Maryland Senate Bill 789, passed at the end of the Maryland legislative session last night at 9:10 p.m. Children in Maryland will now be required to remain in car seats until their 8th birthday unless they are over 65 lbs or over 4 feet, 9 inches tall.
This is a good development for child safety in Maryland. We are now a long way from bouncing up and down in the back of our parents station wagon.
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March 31, 2008
Practicing Law in Maryland or Mayberry?
I have never felt like practicing law in Maryland was like practicing in Mayberry. But the Maryland Daily Record reports today that the Maryland Judiciary is holding a contest to rename the title “master” that is given to those designated to assist and advise judges, typically in family law and juvenile cases. The Judicial Cabinet, the judiciary’s policy-making body, will determine the contest winner who will be treated to dinner.
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March 25, 2008
Maryland Court of Appeals: Filling Judge Raker's Vacancy
The Maryland Daily Record reports today that four judges and one lawyer have applied for the vacancy created on the Maryland Court of Appeals by Judge Irma S. Raker’s reaching retirement age.
Judge Raker sits from the 7th Appellate Circuit which covers Montgomery County. Accordingly, her replacement must also come from Montgomery County.
The judge applicants are Maryland Court of Special Appeals Judges Mary Ellen Barbera and Patrick L. Woodward, Montgomery County Circuit Court Judges Michael D. Mason and Chung K. Pak, a U.S. administrative patent judge and Maryland Higher Education Commissioner. William J. Chen, Jr. of Chen, Walsh, Tecler & McCabe in Rockville is the only lawyer on the list. I guess the correct term would be non-judge since every judge in Maryland is a lawyer. (Interestingly, I’m not sure what the Maryland Court of Appeals eligibility requirements are, but you do not need to be a lawyer to sit on the United States Supreme Court.)
Judge Raker will be the third Court of Appeals judge to reach retirement age. A long time ago, I wrote that the most lasting impact of the O’Malley-Ehrlich election might be the selection of Maryland Court of Appeals judges. Governor O’Malley’s last choice replaced a conservative judge - arguably the most conservative judge on the Court - Alan M. Wilner, with Judge Joseph F. Murphy, Jr. No one is really talking about it, but this alone is a major shift in the political bent that is going to impact the Court for the next seven years. Judge Raker’s replacement is going to be a little bit less of an impact because she is more moderate than Judge Wilner, but a moderate to liberal swing, coupled with Judge Murphy, could have a real impact. O’Malley will get yet another chance to make an imprint on the Court when he announces a replacement for Judge Dale R. Cathell, who retired last July.
For personal injury and medical malpractice lawyers in Maryland, a shift in the Court will probably not have a great impact. Under a best case scenario, the Court would eliminate caps on economic damages, perhaps evolving theories like the fact there is new evidence that caps on damages are sexually discriminative. But I do not think this is in store for the near future. Certainly, a more liberal Maryland court could abolish contributory negligence but this is also probably pie-in-the-sky given the Maryland legislature’s attention to the issue (even I don’t think it would be appropriate, honestly).
One of the weaknesses inherent in Judge Murphy’s selection (putting those nine words together will shock anyone who followed the lovefest after he was selected) is that as impressive a jurist as he is, he will only have seven years on the Court before mandatory retirement at seventy. Assuming greater wisdom does not prevail and seventy remains the mandatory retirement age, O’Malley might want more of a legacy selection a la George Bush in nominating John Roberts. In this case, he will likely go with Judge Barbera, who I think is the youngest of the candidates, probably by at least five years (although I don’t have much information on Judge Pak).
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March 5, 2008
Maryland Bar Exam Costs to Rise?
The Associated Press reports that the Maryland General Assembly is considering raising bar exam fees from $150 to as much as $400.
Certainly, there is a lot of inertia to raise taxes in Maryland without actually raising taxes. Maryland lawmakers are apparently learned well from former Governor Ehrlich who had the scheme of increasing fees instead of taxes down to an art form. I know my law students are often struggling to get the money to pay for overpriced textbooks and they do not have an extra $400 lying around. But Maryland needs to get its budget in order and a lot of people are going to be paying the price. The Maryland Senate may add struggling law students to that list of payees.
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February 25, 2008
Breast Feeding Mothers Jury Exemption
The Maryland Daily Record had a quick blurb about a bill introduced by Maryland State Senator Nancy Jacobs, a Republican from Hartford County, exempting nursing mothers from jury duty. Senator Jacobs claims that she knows of many instances in her district where breast feeding mothers were required to serve on juries.
Judges are quick to ignore a lot of excuses for serving on jury duty. But I don't think I have ever been in front of a judge who I think would not excuse a breast feeding mother.
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February 1, 2008
Baltimore Mega Law Firm Lawyer Salaries
The Maryland Daily Record's Blog reports that DLA Piper and Venable, the two Baltimore mega firms, have raised their associate starting salaries in Baltimore to $160,000.
I remember in 1995 when I was making $57,500 coming out of law school at a litigation defense firm in Baltimore that, at that time, was only a half notch below Piper and Venable in starting salary. Because other than being a law clerk, my next best paying job in life had been as a camp counselor making minimum wage, I thought I was a millionaire. (In a related story, I was still living at home.)
The Daily Record Blog asks if these young associates are worth 160K a year. The answer is clearly no. But three years from now, when they have quality experience and are billing out at $450 an hour while working approximately 28.7 hours a day, the answer becomes a resounding yes. It is not dissimilar to the Oakland Raiders signing JaMarcus Russell to a six-year, $68 million contract even when they did not think he would be an asset to them in the first year of his contract (they were right).
To collect this 160K a year, there is a catch. You actually have to show up and work there. I can honestly say that I would not take the job of a first year associate at one of these firms if they offered me $1,000,000 a year. If you can walk into some of these big firms - I'm not speaking to Venable and Piper specifically – you will see many of their lawyers are blinking t-o-r-t-u-r-e in Morse Code. These are tough places to work, especially if you have a family and other commitments. For a great fictional account of big firm life that is absolutely hysterical, check out the Anonymous Lawyer Blog.
If you read a lot of blogs, you might be rolling your eyes that another personal injury lawyer blog is bashing big (defense) firms. Well, you are, I guess. But there is a reason while DLA Piper has over three thousand lawyers: all things considered, including I’m guessing the money, it works for them. While the big firm life was certainly not an environment in which I thrived, I have a lot of friends who tolerate it quite well. My brother-in-law is a fantastic lawyer. I’m always running issues by him even though he does not do personal injury work. He is a partner for a mega firm in Arizona. He has tons of his own clients and bills out at roughly $10,000 an hour. Of course, I'm telling him, "Geez, take those clients and go start your own firm, you can retire (and I can retire off you)." But he enjoys that power, resources, support, and camaraderie with so many other lawyers that a big firm provides and would never consider anything else. (In a related story, one of his big hobbies is using vocabulary words I’ve never even seen before in emails.)
It is a Friday and I’m stalling getting back to work so I’ll make one other big firm comment. The jab every small firm trial lawyer loves to make about mega firm lawyers is that a first year lawyer after two weeks on the job as a district attorney usually has a great deal more trial experience than a large firm lawyer that has been practicing for 15 years. This drives big firm lawyers crazy because there is a lot of truth to it. But I started practicing law at a pretty big firm and we were national counsel for pharmaceutical companies, working with a lot of mega law firms around the country. A lot of those lawyers had little or no trial experience. But they were smart people who had given a lot of creative thought to how to prepare a case for trial. Sure, some of these lawyers would fare about as well as your cousin Elmo in front of a jury. But working with these lawyers – including the Elmos - I think was great experience as a young lawyer that served me well when I began preparing and trying cases. I also saw many the best plaintiffs' lawyers in the country and some that were not so good. I learned a great deal from both.
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January 28, 2008
Wright and Zarnoch Appointed to Court of Special Appeals
Governor O’Malley announced today that Judge Alexander Wright Jr. and Robert A. Zarnoch have been named to the Maryland Court of Special Appeals.
Judge Wright is a former district and circuit court judge who is an attorney with Miles & Stockbridge in Towson, focusing on mediation and alternative dispute resolution. Judge Wright has a broad background as a former assistant attorney general and as a public defender. Soon to be Judge Zarnoch has been the Attorney General’s Chief Counsel for Legislation and Counsel to the Maryland General Assembly since 1979. As chief counsel, Mr. Zarnoch has drafted legislation and authored scores of Attorney General’s opinions. I’m sure he is also no stranger to the other side of the bench of the Court of Special Appeals in his role as chief counsel. He is also an occasional contributor to the Maryland Daily Record.
Both of these judges have exceptionally broad levels of experience which should serve them well on the Court of Special Appeals. Of the two, I think Mr. Zarnoch’s selection is more of an upset just because there were so many well thought of judges who also applied, and as I have written before, I thought the hill would be hard to climb for the non-judicial applicants, even though there were a number of people with impressive credentials who were not judges. Well, apparently Mr. Zarnoch made the climb. Congratulations to both of these men who I’m sure will make excellent Maryland Court of Special Appeals judges.
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January 15, 2008
Maryland Court of Appeals/Court of Special Appeals Opinions in 2007
The Maryland Lawyer section of the Daily Record yesterday ranks Maryland’s appellate judges by the number of opinions that they wrote in 2007. I love data. But this is one of those things that appears interesting at first glance, particularly with the Daily Record’s glossy – okay not glossy, but color - two page, center of the paper layout. But once you start reading, it is really not interesting at all.
But I did find the total number of opinions generated by these two courts to be of some interest. The Maryland Court of Appeals published 154 opinions in 2007; the Maryland Court of Special Appeals wrote 1,245 opinions, of which 153 were reported. The courts produced a similar number of opinions the year before. I wish I had a count of how many of those opinions were personal injury cases.
One more thing I found of interest: of the 24 opinions Chief Judge Robert M. Bell wrote for the court, six involved attorney grievance opinions. I realize these cases are important because the career of a lawyer hangs in the balance. But this means 25% of Maryland’s highest judge’s opinions involve attorney grievances that are of little consequence to the citizen of Maryland. This is the highest percentage of any Maryland Court of Appeals judge. I’d rather have Chief Judge Bell writing opinions that impact the lives of more Marylanders. (After I wrote this, I realized they probably did not include dissenting opinions. I think Chief Judge Bell has more than his fair share of those.)
In the middle of writing this blog post yesterday, I was handed a Court of Special Appeals opinion in which I lost. Four – count ‘em, four – Baltimore City Circuit Court judges agreed with me but the Court of Special Appeals is the only opinion that matters if the Court of Appeals does not grant certiorari. I just called opposing counsel to congratulate him but he is just as depressed as I am about it because the court remanded the case down for further proceedings. Everyone, including the clients, was hoping one way or another this opinion would be the end to this case that was filed six years ago. Now we are just getting started again….
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January 4, 2008
Tom Cardaro to be Maryland State Bar President
Thomas C. Cardaro, a partner in the Baltimore medical malpractice law firm Cardaro & Peek, has been named President-Elect of the Maryland State Bar Association (MSBA). He will run unopposed for election this summer, along with Treasurer John Patrick Kudel, a solo practitioner in Rockville who is also of counsel to Karp, Frosh, Lapidus, Wigodsky & Norwind, P.A. in Rockville and Secretary-Elect Thomas D. Murphy, who is with the the Law Offices of Murphy & Mood, P.C.
Tom Cardaro is slated to be president of the MSBA in 2009-2010. Tom and his partner Jeff Peek are two of the best medical malpractice lawyers in Maryland and are both great friends of our firm. I'm sure he will will do an outstanding job as our MSBA president.
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December 10, 2007
Judge Murphy's Selection to the Maryland Court of Appeals
Maryland Court of Special Appeals Judge Joseph F. Murphy Jr. has been selected to the Maryland Court of Appeals. There have been a lot articles on the choice of Judge Murphy so I won’t bother to analyze the selection here except to say that Governor O’Malley’s choice has been universally lauded by pretty much everyone.
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December 3, 2007
New Circuit Court Judges
Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley announced eight new Circuit Court judicial appointments for Baltimore City, Harford County, Howard County, Prince George’s County, Anne Arundel County, and Talbot County.
As reported on the Maryland Lawyer Blog earlier today, District Court Judge Michael Wachs has been elevated to the Anne Arundel County Circuit Court. Governor O'Malley also named the following individuals:
Baltimore City - District Court Judge Emanuel Brown
Harford County - District Court Judge Angela Michelle Eaves
Howard County - Timothy McCrone (current State’s Attorney for Howard County).
Prince George’s County - District Court Judge Crystal Mittelstaedt, District Court Judge Beverly Woodard, and Nicholas Rattal (P.G. County Public Defender's Office).
Talbot County - Broughton Miller Earnest (Managing Partner of the Easton office of DLA Piper).
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December 3, 2007
Maryland Court of Appeals Reviews Conduct of Baltimore County Judge
(You can find the Maryland Lawyer Blog's May 13, 2008 update on this case here.)
The Baltimore Sun reports today on the Maryland Court of Appeals consideration of whether Baltimore County District Judge Bruce S. Lamdin should be removed from the bench for inappropriate comments that he made on the record in a number of cases. At issue are Judge Lamdin's negative comments about drug treatment programs and the correctional officers at Maryland prisons, a joke that Baltimore County Circuit Court judges spend their afternoons sipping cocktails rather than working (which might be a harmless joke although I don't know the context), and complaints about Judge Lamdin's cursing.
I'm not defending Judge Lamdin but I suspect that a number of judges - particularly in District Court - would whither under similar scrutiny which leads to some concern that he is being unfairly singled out. Judges typically get a lot of latitude on this kind of stuff which likely means he ruffled the wrong persons feathers either because they had access to power or were tenacious in demanding that the allegations be fully explored.
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December 3, 2007
J. Michael Wachs: New Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Judge:
Honorable J. Michael Wachs has been appointed to fill the Anne Arundel Circuit Court vacancy resulting from the retirement of the Honorable Joseph P. Manck.
I have only been in front of Judge Wachs once but he has a great judicial temperament and is very well thought of in Anne Arundel County. He should be a great addition to the Anne Arundel County Circuit Court bench.
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November 1, 2007
Anne Arundel County Circuit Court Vacancy
More judicial vacancy news....the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County has a vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Joseph Manck. There are seven candidates (listed below) as well as five "pool candidates" who are persons whose names were submitted to the Governor O'Malley for previous positions.
Philip A. Dales III, a general practice attorney in Annapolis, MD
Kathleen Marie Elmore
Mark W. Howes, a civil and criminal attorney in Annapolis, MD
Joseph Robert Laumann, a family law attorney in Annapolis, MD
Milissa Ann Murray
Kathleen E. Rogers, an Assistant State's Attorney in Anne Arundel County
Hon. J. Michael Wachs, (District Court for Anne Arundel County)
The pool candidates are:
Hon. David Shelton Bruce (formerly Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County)
Ronald Howard Jarashow, a civil attorney in Annapolis, MD
James A. Johnson, from the defense firm Semmes, Bowen & Semmes in Baltimore
Charles J. Muskin (a domestic Master in Anne Arundel County)
Frank J. Ragione, Sr., Anne Arundel County Assistant State's Attorney
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