Arizona hospitals frequently try to keep an injured patient from getting reports that document the hospital's mistakes that caused their injury. Longstanding Arizona law, however, requires hospitals to give patients these incident reports. Recently hospitals use a new federal law to try to block patients from getting these reports. This argument is wrong, however, because the new federal law was never intended to prevent a hospital from giving patients incident reports.
Schmidt, Sethi & Akmajian Blog
Civil Procedure: Discovery Abuse Sanctions
SCOTA RULES SANCTIONS FOR DISCOVERY ABUSE MUST BE LIMITED TO FEES INCURRED BECAUSE OF THE ABUSE By Ted Schmidt Today the United States Supreme Court announced an important ruling in Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. v. Haeger, No. 15-1406 (April 18, 2017) (J. Kagan) https://www.supremecourt.gov/op...
Evidence/Civil Procedure: New Trial Appropriate Based Upon Trial Counsel’s Misconduct
Varco, Inc. v. UNS Electric, Inc., 761 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 37 (App. Div. II, March 23, 2017) (J. Miller) WHERE COURT GRANTED MOTION IN LIMINE PRECLUDING EVIDENCE YET TRIAL COUNSEL REPEATEDLY ASKED WITNESSES ABOUT THE EVIDENCE NEW TRIAL ORDER WAS APPROPRIATE Plaintiff sued defendant for negligent ...
Contracts—Right to Attorneys’ Fees/”Prevailing Party"
American Power Products, Inc. v. CSK Auto, Inc., 761 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 33 (March 23, 2017) (J. Pelander) WHERE CONTRACT PROVIDES “PREVAILING PARTY” IN CONTRACT DISPUTE IS ENTITLED TO RECOVER ATTORNEYS' FEES BUT DOES NOT DEFINE “PREVAILING PARTY” ARS SEC. 12-341.01 CONTROLS/PARTY THAT OBTAINS JUDGM...
Torts—Duty of State Forestry Service to Protect Property While Fighting Wildfire
ACRI v. State of Arizona, 761 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 18 (App. Div. I, March 30, 2017) (J. Cattani) STATE FORESTRY DEPARTMENT HAS NO DUTY TO PROTECT PRIVATE PROPERTY WHEN FIGHTING WILDFIRE On June 30, 2013 a lightning caused wildfire burned out of control killing 19 firefighters and damaging private ...
The Affordable Care Act and the Burning House Dilemma. Why the Government is Having so Much Trouble Getting Rid of the ACA.
One Reason the Government is Having Trouble Getting Rid of the Affordable Care Act? The Pre-existing Condition (Popular) v. Mandate (Unpopular) Dilemma. By now, everyone has heard this line of thought from someone: “Insurance should still cover someone with a pre-existing condition, but get rid ...
Autism Explained--Part II
In 2016, the CDC released its newest numbers of autism among the nation's children. Based on those numbers, an estimated 1-1.2 million children have been diagnosed with autism, or 1 in 68 kids. Since the spectrum is so large many of the kids who are considered high functioning can blend in more ...
Autism Explained--Part I
Imagine living in a world where not many people understood you. Where everything seemed brighter, louder, smells stronger. Where people stereotyped you, didn't think you were capable of doing much, or, expected you to be the next “Rain Man”. Unfortunately, this is the life for the millions of p...
Torts—Medical Malpractice Preliminary Expert Affidavit
Boswell v. Fintelmann, 760 Ariz. Adv. Rep 19 (App. Div. I, March 9, 2019) (J. Thompson) FAILURE TO FILE PRELIMINARY EXPERT AFFIDAVIT ESTABLISHING MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE SUIT HAS MERIT REQUIRES DISMISSAL WITHOUT PREJUDICE Pro per plaintiff filed a medical malpractice claim certifying pursuant to A...
NEW RULES ON NEW DOCTOR WORK HOURS PLACE PATIENTS AND THE PUBLIC IN DANGER
New rules adopted by the entity that accredits medical schools allows new doctors to work up to 28 hours a shift. This is dangerous to patient safety and public health.
LSAT No More?
Remember the LSAT? To some attorneys, the Law School Admissions Test may be a faint memory; nothing more than their first step toward a legal career. For future attorneys, however, studying for months on end and cramming practice logic games in preparation for the LSAT may become nonexistent. La...
Long Term Opioid Use Contributed To By Liberal Prescribing Emergency Department Physicians
Some doctors prescribe narcotics three times as often as others, which increases the risk a patient will become a long term user of these dangerous drugs.
ARS §13-3620 Duty to Report Abuse of a Minor Explained
Arizona law requires that ALL adults responsible for the care or treatment of a minor IMMEDIATELY report any “reasonable belief or suspicion” that a child (anyone under 18 years of age) is the victim of sexual abuse, neglect or emotional abuse. This includes contact with a minor of a sexual natur...
10 Things Every Trial Lawyer Could Learn from Vincent La Guardia Gambini
The American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) is celebrating the 25 year anniversary of the 1992 Joe Pesci/Marissa Tomei film, My Cousin Vinny. Judge Joseph F. Anderson, Jr. wrote an excellent retrospective on the film titled '10 Things Every Trial Lawyer Could Learn from Vincent La G...
Smart Devices Can Track Your All Activity In Your Home For The Government, Do You Really Want That?
Smart home assistants potentially track all the activities in your home. Today, Amazon agreed to turn this information over to the government in a murder investigation. This removes a significant barrier of privacy from your home.
Emergency Department Care of Critically Ill Patients Loses Out To Corporate Marketing
Modern corporate hospitals put unrealistic time goals on their doctors, which results in doctors being forced to lessen the time they spent with their most needy, sick patients.
The Funeral Rule Explained
Our firm regularly works with families who are grieving the loss of a loved one. During this period of sadness, one consistent thing that comes up is trying to find any semblance of clarity, from the mountain of paperwork required to go through and the complex questions being asked to deeper, em...
Torts: Unconscionability of Arbitration Clause in Nursing Home Contract
Gullett v. Kindred Nursing Centers West, LLC, 758 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 12 (App. Div. II, February 15, 2017) (J. Staring) AGREEMENT TO ARBITRATE NOT SUBSTANTIVELY UNCONSCIONABLE WHERE REASONABLE THOUGH LIMITED DISCOVERY ALLOWED AND WHERE BOTH PARTY'S ARE ALLOWED INPUT ON WHO WILL ARBITRATE; LIMITED DI...
ARE MANUFACTURERS OF OPIOID MEDICATIONS ATTEMPTING TO BLOCK COMMON SENSE LIMITS ON PAIN MEDICATIONS?
Opioid overuse is a national tragedy, with increasing deaths and destruction caused by these potentially dangerous medications. The CDC's 2016 guidelines attempted to curb their use. In response, many medical organizations paid by opioid drug manufacturers were critical of this effort, and their payment sources were not disclosed. This raises serous ethical questions about opioid manufacturer's efforts to address this national problem.
Sexual Abuse on a TUSD School Bus
This is a tragic and stomach churning case. We represent a 6 year old boy who was sexually abused by a 12 year old boy on board their Tucson Unified School District bus. The boys were the only two passengers aboard an afternoon elementary school bus. In violation of TUSD policy, they were allow...
Key Points From the 9th Circuit's Ruling, Which Puts a Temporary Freeze on Trump's Immigration Order
Last week the 9th Circuit kept in place a nationwide Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) on President Trump's controversial Executive Order on immigration, a broad order that in part includes banned travel from seven Muslim-majority countries and that would significantly affect certain families, st...
KSS in the News -- Brian Lynch and the Scott Roofing Fatality
I represent the family of a Santa Fe bicyclist who came to Tucson with a group of fellow riders to enjoy several days of friendship and bike rides in our beautiful community. Unfortunately, a roofer named Brian Lynch crashed his work truck into their group at the intersection of La Canada and Ha...
Evidence: Application of Rule of Exclusion to Expert Witnesses
Spring v. Bradford, __Ariz. Adv. Rep. __, 1 CA-CV 15-0505 (App. Div. I, January 12, 2017) (J. Cattani) WHERE PARTIES AGREE TO APPLY RULE OF EXCLUDING WITNESSES DURING TRIAL IT IS IMPROPER TO ALLOW EXPERT WITNESSES TO READ TRIAL TRANSCRIPT OF OTHER WITNESSES WITHOUT FIRST GETTING COURT'S PERMISS...
CFSD 2017 Teacher of the Year on the Power of Kindness
Manzanita Elementary School has a pretty big role in the lives of the folks at our firm. It educated one of our lawyers - Matt Schmidt - along with five firm kids. Two youngsters are on deck, and will they start kindergarten there in the blink of an eye. We proudly support Manzanita, and we we...
Trial: Scope of Voir Dire & Curative Instruction
Zuluaga v. Bashas'Inc., 757 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 12 (App. Div. I, February 3, 2017) (J. Vasquez) ABSENT PROOF OF PREJUDICE BY JURY TRIAL JUDGE'S ABUSE OF DISCRETION IN LIMITING SCOPE OF VOIR DIRE IS NOT REVERSIBLE/CURATIVE INSTRUCTION WITHIN BROAD DISCRETION OF TRIAL COURT WHERE POTENTIAL MISLEADING ...