TLV Guest Blog

July 16, 2022

Kill Billables?

Q. In charging clients by the hour, aren’t we rewarded for inefficiency and penalized for expeditious resolutions? Is there a more ethical way to bill our clients for legal services? A. Though there is nothing unethical about …

July 5, 2022

Counselor At Law

Q. Rather than focus on charges that may be tough to beat, my client repeatedly insists that she wouldn’t be prosecuted at all if she were white. As a white woman, how can I get her off this racist rant? …

June 14, 2022

How Do You Prove Negligence in an Injury Case?

If you are injured by someone else and plan to file a personal injury case, it will likely involve negligence in some way. As an accident victim, it’s important to understand what negligence is. Negligence refers to the concept that the person who caused the accident you were in owed …

June 14, 2022

How Do You Prove Negligence in an Injury Case?

If you are injured by someone else and plan to file a personal injury case, it will likely involve negligence in some way. As an accident victim, it’s important to understand what negligence is. Negligence refers to the concept that the person who caused the accident you were in owed …

June 14, 2022

Can You Sue for Pain and Suffering After a Car Accident?

Minnesota is considered a no-fault insurance state. This means that if you are injured in a car accident, you receive coverage for medical costs up to your insurance policy limits without having to file a lawsuit or prove that someone else was to blame. Due to how no-fault insurance states …

June 14, 2022

Can You Sue for Pain and Suffering After a Car Accident?

Minnesota is considered a no-fault insurance state. This means that if you are injured in a car accident, you receive coverage for medical costs up to your insurance policy limits without having to file a lawsuit or prove that someone else was to blame. Due to how no-fault insurance states …

June 14, 2022

Prosthetic Limb Denials: What Happens if Your Insurer Refuses to Act in Good Faith?

Advances in prosthetic limbs have given amputees a chance at resuming a higher quality of life. However, some insurers have denied coverage for prosthetics for bad faith reasons. Losing a limb can be a devastating experience. However, modern medicine has advanced to the point where amputees can recover much of

June 14, 2022

Prosthetic Limb Denials: What Happens if Your Insurer Refuses to Act in Good Faith?

Advances in prosthetic limbs have given amputees a chance at resuming a higher quality of life. However, some insurers have denied coverage for prosthetics for bad faith reasons. Losing a limb can be a devastating experience. However, modern medicine has advanced to the point where amputees can recover much of …

May 31, 2022

Caring for Our Colleagues

Q. In a profession with a higher incidence of mental illness and addiction than society at large, are we doing enough to care for our colleagues? A. Like lawyers themselves, our profession places a low priority on wellness …

May 27, 2022

Removing Retainers

Q. If I don’t take retainers, I won’t need a trust account at all. Can’t I avoid this whole problem by billing for my work after it’s completed? A. You can—if you wish to trade one problem for a more …

May 23, 2022

Leveling the Playing Field

Q. I read that Maryland’s Bar Counsel tried to deprive accused lawyers of an equal right to discovery in disciplinary cases. Whatever happened to fundamental fairness? A. “Fundamental fairness” is a work in progress — progress that may only be achieved through vigilance in asserting the …

May 16, 2022

What We Don’t Know Can Hurt Us

There are “the known unknowns and the unknown unknowns” which is how former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld described some things we know that we don’t know, and other things that we don’t know that we don’t know.  In the general public, there are people who enjoy the challenge of learning new things, and others whose brains resist having to do the mental work of learning. It might be compared to those who engage in physical exercise, and those who are couch potatoes. Jurors who do not relish the work of learning will resort to so-called “common sense” which Einstein characterized as “nothing more than a deposit of prejudices.” Prejudice, in this sense, is to resort to that which is believed to be true, rather than arriving at the truth after thoughtful analysis. In other words, to pre-judge. These jurors do not know what they don’t know, and are typically not inclined to change their pre-judgments, even when skilled trial lawyers are trying mightily to educate them.

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