Over 100 “5 Star Reviews”Dram Shop Cases: WHAT ARE THEY?
This is just a legal name for filing a lawsuit against a Bar or Restaurant for serving liquor to a person who was visibly intoxicated and that person then drives his or her car and injures another. The key term in a Dram Shop case is proving the Bar served the person when the person […]
HOW MANY DRINKS DID YOU HAVE?
I was at a preliminary hearing last week representing a fellow who was in a barroom fight. The “victim” admitted he was at the bar for several hours. I asked him how many drinks he had in those several hours and he said 1 or 2!! In the 30 years I have been in Court […]
Criminal Law and the Allegheny County Jail
Guess how many folks have been inmates in the new Allegheny County Jail since in opened less than 20 years ago? If you said over 170,000 people you would be correct. Imagine that: Over 170,000 people booked and housed there in that short a period of time! Do you support the movement afoot to decriminalize […]
NOTICE IN THE LAW
The concept of legal notice is hugely important in the law. If you slip on some ketchup at MCDONALD’S and are severely injured you cannot get any money from Mickey D’s unless you can show they were aware that the ketchup was on the ground at their store (notice) and didnt do anything to fix […]
ORIGINAL O HOT DOG SHOP SHOOTING AND LIABILITY
The shooting last week outside the Original O Hot Dog shop in Oakland raises an interesting issue whether the owners may be liable for the shooting. Legally they could be in the soup on this because they had notice of prior acts of violence there AND they cut the security duty police who worked there […]
What Does It Matter?
So whats the big deal whether a jury or an arbitrator decides the matter? Because arbitrators usually favor the nursing home in these matters!
Nursing Home Agreements
The courts have reasoned that a Wrongful Death claim is brought on behalf of the decendent so the estate isn’t bound by what mom may have signed when she went into the home! Chalk one up for the good guys. If your mom dies in a nursing home due to neglect are you bound by […]
WE ARE BACK!!!
OK- we took a little breather from our last blog (actually a few years) but we are back with a vengeance! We have a new format-1 or 2 paragraphs only per post! Hopefully it will be easier for you to read. We are going to focus on 2 areas- Personal Injury cases and Criminal Law. […]
GUNS FOLLOW DRUGS – PART 1
OK, let’s play a game. Let’s see if you can figure out how the Courts decided this complex legal issue. Assume police use a confidential informant to make a controlled drug buy outside a house. The drug dealer then goes inside the house. A few minutes later the task force arrests the drug dealer inside […]
INJURY CASES AND LOVE
I signed up a personal injury case referred to me by a prior client the other day. The client, Anne, has cancer and is only in her early 30’s. She was injured while being placed into an ambulance to go to the hospital. Instead of the ambulance service using a stretcher to lift her into […]