Articles Posted in Maryland Legal News

This post was originally written in 2008.  Goodness, things have changed in 2019, and they have also stayed very much the same in spite of a thriving economy.

Let’s see where we are now with attorney salaries and, specifically, first-year starting salaries for new lawyers in the Baltimore area. Keep in mind so much of this is based on conjecture and rumor so you have to take it all with a few ounces of salt.

• Robert Half tells us that the average starting salary nationwide is $68,000.  Baltimore gets a 3% location bump.  So, roughly, this tells us that the average starting salary in Baltimore in 2018 was approximately $70,040.  

Sometimes, I think we should be harder on lawyers who have bad intent. But this is a little over the top for me.

In Attorney Grievance Commission v. Kepple, a lawyer was given an indefinite suspension of at least 30 days because 13 years ago she hid her real state of residence so she could get in-state tuition. Basically, she pretended she lived in West Virginia to get in-state tuition.

How did she get caught? Her spiteful ex-husband ratted her out.

The Maryland Senate today took a big step forward on gun control today, approving legislation to require the training, licensing and fingerprinting of handgun purchasers and the banning of purchase of semi-automatic assault weapons.

The Sandy Hook tragedy continues to have long tentacles. Let’s see what the House of Delegates does.

The Maryland Court of Appeals overturned a jury’s verdict this week against Exxon Mobil for its role in the 2006 gasoline leak that contaminated the well water of homes in nearby Jacksonville. Two years ago, a jury awarded the homeowners $1 billion in punitive damages against Exxon.

The Court found that Exxon did not willfully defraud homeowners. According to retired Baltimore County Circuit Court Judge John Fader, “Punitive damages in Maryland can’t be awarded unless there is fraud proven.” The Court also struck down portions of separate verdicts totaling $650 million in compensatory damages.

This of course leaves the residents shocked and disappointed, many of which unknowingly drank the water and even made baby formula with the water. At this point, the homeowners’ only option is to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court – which is doubtful at best. Sad, but expected, outcome for these homeowners.

The U.S. Senate finally confirmed William Kayatta Jr. 1st Circuit after making him wait for a year. Kayatta is the first new circuit judge to take the bench since the summer. Kayatta is not a judge but an obviously very well thought of lawyer in Maine. It is full circle for him; Kayatta once clerked on the 1st Circuit.

You can learn more about his confirmation here.

Last Wednesday, the United States District Court for the District of Maryland decided Cornerstone Title & Escrow, Inc. v. Evanston Insurance Co.

This case dealt with an insurance dispute between Cornerstone Title, a title and closing company, and Evanston Insurance. Title companies always seem to be getting themselves into trouble.

In this case, Plaintiff purchased an insurance policy from Defendant obligating Defendant to indemnify Plaintiff for all damages, which was defined as “the monetary portion of any judgment, award or settlement . . . not [to] include . . . (b) the restitution of consideration or expenses paid to the insured for services or goods.” The policy also contained several exclusions from coverage, which included claims “based upon or arising out of any dishonest, deliberately fraudulent, malicious, willful or knowingly wrongful act or omission committed by or at the direction of the Insured . . . [or] based upon or arising out of the Insured gaining any profit or advantage to which the Insured is not legally entitled.” Take a breath and digest that for a second.

We welcome back to bar in Maryland a lawyer convicted of a felony after taking an active role to
conceal immigration fraud that permitted non-citizens to enter theU.S. illegally. To make this more palatable for us, he described this as “negligent” in his Petition for Reinstatement. I don’t know about you, but that makes me feel tons better. I hope Lance Armstrong tells us his doping scheme was negligent tomorrow.

CareFirst of Maryland fought off a lawsuit in federal court last week alleging that its denial of claims for a woman with Alzheimer in a nursing home during the last years of her life violated her health insurance contract with CareFirst.

There is some interesting commentary in the opinion about the deference due to a treating doctor and exceptions to be made to the deference that might be of interest to personal injury lawyers in Maryland.

You can find the court’s opinion in Carefirst of Maryland v. Wolfehere.

The Maryland Court of Appeals affirmed a P.G. County Circuit ruling that determined that convicted former delegate Tiffany Alston will not return to Annapolis. The governor will fill the vacancy.

The court did not offer a basis for the opinion. They wanted to get a ruling out because of the importance and immediacy of the case. Presumably a more detailed opinion will follow.

But, in sum: this mess – this utter mess – will be resolved in a way that does not make us all hate our politicians even more than we do now.

This is an interesting new case from the Maryland Court of Appeals that underscores the limits of the attorney client privilege: you can’t use it as a sword and a shield. Here, the defendant in

a breach of contract action hung his hat in his defense of a bad faith allegation by citing letters with his lawyers to show he was acting in good faith.

The court held that if you crack that door, you have to open the whole thing. This is a problem for the defendant if another correpondence to his lawyers is referred to by the court as the “stop the