Legal Developments and Risk Management Tips Impacting the Professional Liability Community.
Attention blog readers! This year, the ABA Journal is publishing their 10th Annual “Blawg 100” celebrating the best legal blogs around today. In order to be named, we’ll need your help! Since the start of our blog in October of 2015, Asbestos Case Tracker has reported on hundreds of asbestos decisions and has been hailed …
The Department of Labor recently announced its new Fiduciary Rule – aka the “conflicts of interest rule.” This new rule expands the definition of fiduciary and alters how investment advice is delivered in retirement accounts. It won’t go into effect for at least another year, but it’s not too early to start thinking about how the changes will affect the professionals who render this advice.
Hello, blog readers! We told you last month that Professional Liability Matters has been nominated in The Expert Institute’s “2015 Best Legal Blog Contest.” We have good news to share: We’ve made it to round 2!
A growing number of states have enacted some version of an “affidavit of merit” statute in professional malpractice matters. The intended purpose behind these laws is to reduce “unnecessary” or unsupported lawsuits against licensed professionals. In states such as Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and others, plaintiffs in malpractice litigation must certify through an impartial professional in the defendant’s field that there is a fundamental basis for the complaint. While the specifics of the particular statute in each state may differ in terms of scope and application, the importance of compliance cannot be overstated. At the request of many of our readers, we compiled a table of the requirements in each jurisdiction. This TABLE (click here) includes a 50-state survey of affidavit of merit statutes, includes a link to the applicable statute, if any, and summarizes the application of each law.
Goldberg Segalla founding partner Thomas F. Segalla led the team of lawyers who wrote the inaugural edition of the Reinsurance Professional’s Deskbook: A Practical Guide, a new treatise co-produced by leading legal publisher Thomson Reuters and DRI – The Voice of the Defense Bar, the largest organization of defense lawyers in the country.
We’ve reached a milestone! PL Matters is pleased to report that we recently passed our 50,000th hit. We are humbled that thousands of professionals and employers (and our family members) decided to spend a few minutes — maybe more — on our site. Over the next 50,000 hits, we will continue working toward our goal of providing relevant and insightful content regarding the trends, legal developments, decisions, and breaking news impacting the professional liability community. Thank you for your time and your interest.
Invariably, during the representation of a professional, defense counsel may be asked by his or her adversary: who hired you? For a variety of reasons, opposing counsel may be interested in whether you were retained directly by the professional or you were appointed as defense counsel by an insurance company. A perfectly reasonable and appropriate response to this question could be: it’s none of your business.
The ABA Journal is putting together its annual list of the 100 best legal blogs, based on reader votes. As publishers of Professional Liability Matters, we are proud to be considered for this prestigious list — and we would be honored if you would help. If you enjoy visiting Professional Liability Matters, and believe it is worthy of industry recognition, please click here to visit the ABA Blawg 100 Amici page and nominate us before the August 9 deadline. Thank you!
A financial advisor was recently named in a multi-million dollar malpractice matter in Texas arising from the alleged fraud of his brother. The financial advisor – the managing partner of DEW Wealth Strategies, LLC – allegedly allowed his brother to use the firm’s offices. Innocent enough, right? But according to the complaint, the brother and a company he owned, Gateway Special Opportunities Fund LLC, backed out of providing the plaintiff with millions in funding for a large condominium project in California. The brother ultimately agreed to pay the plaintiff $30 million after conceding he misrepresented the financial position of his company and the plaintiff secured a $30 million judgment. When the plaintiff could not collect on the judgment he found a new target: he is now pursuing fraud and related claims against the financial advisor.