How to Succeed at a Mandatory Settlement Conference in San Francisco Superior Court
The mandatory settlement conference (MSC) is your next to last chance at a formal settlement negotiation (you might get ordered to a day of the trial settlement conference.) The Court usually schedules the MSC to occur about three weeks before trial. This means that sometimes costly expert depositions will still not have been taken, which is a smaller case that can make...
Continue ReadingShould your lawyer be your friend
I represent people severely injured in accidents. My core mission is to get them as much money as possible to help compensate for their loss. But along the way, I develop relationships with my clients. Sometimes the relationship remains very businesslike– “get my case settled for fair value as fast as possible.” I try to do this. Unfortunately, the...
Continue ReadingTort “Reform” Marches On at the Expense of Public Safety
I recently presented at a local law school about a great program run by the Diversity Committee of the San Francisco Trial Lawyers’ Association (SFTLA) aimed at bringing diverse young lawyers into the plaintiff bar. I was speaking to students who were mostly in the 22-26 age range. One of them asked me about the effect of “tort reform”...
Continue ReadingA Pro Bono Victory
It was just another Saturday at the Bar Association of San Francisco’s Lawyer Advice and Referral Clinic (LARC) in the Bayview neighborhood of San Francisco. I’ve been volunteering at LARC for 21 years. I call it “bite size pro bono” because you don’t take on clients for representation– you simply try to answer their questions or refer them to...
Continue ReadingDon’t get beaten up by an assault case
Plaintiff Magazine Article How To Decide Whether To Take On These Challenging Cases, And A Game Plan For When You Do If your practice is like mine, you get calls from prospective clients who have been assaulted by someone. If it’s simply a case of “some guy attacked me in the street,” the case probably has no recoverable damages. I do not spend much...
Continue ReadingCan I Sue for Assault?
By Chuck Geerhart One of the most common calls we receive at the Law Office of Chuck Geerhart is about assault. Often, a person has been suddenly assaulted in the street. Or by someone in the home. Or by a landlord, a bar bouncer, or another bar patron. Are these types of cases worth pursuing? The answer is, “It...
Continue ReadingSexual Assault in the Workplace = Sexual harassment
Most people have heard of the sex abuse cases against the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts of America. Those cases involve negligent failure by the organization to detect aberrant behavior by priests or scoutmasters. On a negligence theory, the plaintiff has to show facts that would place a reasonable employer on notice that it has a situation that...
Continue ReadingWhat Can You Do When An Insurance Carrier Lowballs You?
We see it all the time. A person is injured in a crash, makes a claim for damages with the other driver’s insurance carrier, and the carrier offers some piddling amount that doesn’t even cover medical bills. They are playing it like a good major league pitcher: they throw you curveballs in the dirt to see if you’ll swing....
Continue ReadingCitizens Against Lawsuit Abuse = A Front Group for the Far Right
You may have heard radio spots or seen billboards by a group calling itself “Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse” or CALA, in which the group talks about how lawsuits are driving business out of California. CALA is a “front group” for ultra-right conservative business groups. CALA has no problem misstating the facts about the number of lawsuits in California, because...
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