Who was Harry Blackmun? The short answer is that he was an Associate Justice of the United Supreme Court and the author of Roe v. Wade. The slightly longer answer can be found in the 2005 national bestseller Becoming Justice Blackmun: Harry Blackmun’s Supreme Court Journey. The book relies exclusively on the extensive collection of personal and official papers donated in Blackmun’s will to the Library of Congress. He left a long paper trail of his life that Linda Greenhouse weaves into a readable narrative and interesting introduction to Justice Blackmun.
Book Suggestion: Becoming Justice Blackmun
December 18th, 2009
New Report Raises Serious Concerns about Assisted Living Facilities in SC
November 9th, 2009
No one likes the thought of going to a nursing home, but assisted living facilities seem to provoke much less dread and concern. Nursing homes provide residents with 24/7 skilled nursing care while assisted living facilities provide housing, food, and care to individuals who are unable to live independently but who do not need institutional or skilled nursing care. However, a new report from Protection and Advocacy for People with Disabilities, Inc. (P&A) raises significant concerns about not only the care received at these assisted living facilities (referred to in the report as Community Residential Care Facilities or CRCF) but also the lack of systemic oversight.
Ten Proverbs for Litigators
September 19th, 2009
Trying cases is what I think I do best. There are some lessons that I have learned along the way. Twitter helped be shrink them down to 140 characters or less. Here are my top 10:
1. Cases are won as much by facts forgotten as facts remembered.
2 If truth is in the middle, then so will be the verdict.
3. Juries tend to make humble lawyers proud and arrogant lawyers humble.
4. The billable hour, whether your own or another’s, will dictate the course & length of litigation more times than not.
5. If you don’t pay attention to the trivial aspects of your case, the jury just might. Know thy case.
6. Don’t ask, if you don’t already know.
7. Jurors want to know you believe in your case before they believe in it.
8. If you don’t like your client, the jury surely will not.
9. Moderation in all things, except your passion for your case.
Workplace Defamation: Walking a Tight Rope
August 30th, 2009
I have tried two defamation cases to a jury verdict, although I have handled many defamation cases (and have a worthwhile defamation case I am currently handling). Almost all of the defamation cases I handle arise out of the workplace, whether a current employment situation or a former employment relationship. In my first jury trial of a defamation case, a pharmaceutical technician was accused by the pharmacist at her location of stealing Adderall, an addictive stimulant. As it turned out, Adderall had come up missing at the previous location the pharmacist had worked. After the pharmacy tech was fired under the accusation of theft, Adderall went missing again. Read the rest of this entry »
Defamation Basics: A good name is as good as gold, but some ain’t worth two cents.
August 9th, 2009
I had a jury trial a couple of weeks ago, in which I represented a small business being sued for defamation. There are two types of defamation: (1) Written defamation, which is called libel; and (2) spoken defamation, which is called slander. My case involved allegations of both libel and slander. In my case, a former employee accused my client, an employer of seven employees, of defaming him by giving him bad references to prospective employers with whom he had applied for truck driving positions. It took the jury less than hour to render a verdict for my client.
Why did we win? There are several reasons. Read the rest of this entry »
Departure Policies: What Happens if You Are Fired before Your Bonus/Commissions are Paid? Part II
July 7th, 2009
If you are an employee looking to get paid a commission after you have departed your former employer, then Rice v. Multimedia doesn’t help. However, in the 14 years since Rice, South Carolina courts have had a chance to revisit and refine an employee’s right to be paid commissions after the employee terminates employment. In Ross v. Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 371 S.C. 464, 639 S.E.2d 460 (S.C.App. 2006), the South Carolina Court of Appeals held that an departure policy that set “target dates” for payment of commissions violated the South Carolina Wage Payment Statute. The employee was awarded three times the amount of commissions owed ($12,000 x 3 = $36,000) plus attorney’s fees ($18,000).
Departure Policies: What Happens if You Are Fired before Your Bonus/Commissions are Paid?
June 11th, 2009
Simple questions deserve simple answers. Unfortunately, in the case of employee departure policies, the question stated above is not as simple as it appears. Like much in law, it depends on the facts, and different facts sometimes mandate different outcomes. And, when an employee who works in exchange for bonuses and/or commissions is terminated before payment, the cases answering the question “what happens?” offer different answers. The goal is to find a case which gives the answer you want to your questions and then argue that your situation is more like that case than the cases giving the opposite answer.
Getting Your (Wages) Due: South Carolina Law Protects Employees’ Right to Get Paid x 3
June 4th, 2009As the money pie shrinks, some companies decide to cut their employees pay. Less scrupulous companies actually try to cheat their employees by not paying them what they owe them. South Carolina law provides a way for employees to get paid the wages, salary, and/or commissions owed to them. South Carolina Code § 41-10-10 (and the sections which follow) requires employers to pay employees “wages due” on their regularly scheduled pay day. If an employer refuses to pay you what you are owed, the law provides a remedy. First, you are entitled to collect every penny you have earned. Second, the law provides that unless your employer had a “good faith” reason for not paying you then not only can you collect the amount owned, but the court may triple that amount (“treble damages.”) In addition, an employee can recover her reasonable attorney fees. Read the rest of this entry »
Book Review: The Great Decision: Jefferson, Adams, Marshall, and the Battle for the Supreme Court
May 31st, 2009Last weekend, I read The Great Decision: Jefferson, Adams, Marshall, and the Battle for the Supreme Court, which is a short account of the Supreme Court case, Marbury v. Madison. This book provides a good refresher about an important event in U.S. history as well as interesting factoids about the debates and personalities at the turn of the 19th Century. However, the subject of this book is not just about our past; the role of the Supreme Court continues to be a matter hotly debated. An intelligent discussion about the role of courts and judges in our democracy cannot take place without some understanding of Marbury v. Madison. Read the rest of this entry »
E-Mails Can Crack Cases
May 16th, 2009I have several cases that need cracking. A couple of employment cases that have employers who are inattentive to the case or who have bad memories. Either way, these defendants are not producing much information, and I know that there is more than has been produced, especially emails. Emails have become the primary internal means of communication; when you request information from a company and no emails come back, something is wrong. For what it’s worth: If you end up in a lawsuit, you should count on your emails being fair-game.
