Mississippi Litigation Review & Commentary : Mississippi Personal Injury Lawyer & Attorney : Phillip W. Thomas Law Firm : MS Litigation Review & Commentary

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On Friday June 17, 2011 at 2:00 p.m. I will be speaking about the use of blogging in a law practice at a Univ. of Miss. CLE program in Jackson. Here is a link to the program.

I will try to impart some of what I've learned from my now 2+ years of legal blogging. Topics will include the most frequent questions I get from lawyers about this blog: (1) how do I find time to blog; (2) do I get any business from blogging; and (3) who is Kingfish? I will also identify mistakes I've made and lessons that I've learned in blogging.

Before my presentation Will Manuel of Bradley Arant in Jackson will speak about using Facebook and the Twitter in your practice. I currently use neither, so maybe Will can get me fired up about those aspects of social media.

Following my presentation, Miss. Bar General Counsel Adam Kilgore will take the podium and identify the ethical pitfalls of following the advice given by me and Manuel.

I will also be speaking Friday morning at 10:00 a.m. to a Mississippi Bar Litigation Section meeting. Jimmy Wilkins of Watkins & Eager and I will talk about Social Media and Jurors.   

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On Thursday the Mississippi Supreme Court reversed a $2.5 million Hinds County jury verdict against Deviney Construction Company. I reported the verdict two years ago in this post.  Here is the Court's opinion.

Facts:

The plaintiff called two Deviney employees as witnesses early during plaintiff's case in chief. Circuit Judge Tommie Green ruled that the defendants cold not reserve questioning and call the witnesses during defendant's case. Defendants had to question the witnesses then or not question them at all. Defendants could not recall the witnesses to question them about the testimony of the eight plaintiff witnesses that followed.

The Ruling:

A restrained opinion stated that: “a defendant should not be required to present his or her evidence during the plaintiff's case.” The Court ruled that this was a major error and remanded the case for a new trial.

Justice Lamar wrote the unanimous opinion.Wayne Drinkwater with Bradley Arant in Jackson represented Deviney on the appeal.  

My Take:

This was a sensible decision. The trial judge's ruling is a real head scratcher.

I feel bad for the plaintiff and plaintiff's counsel Ashley Ogden. It does not appear from the record that plaintiff's counsel asked for the trial court's ruling. Nothing like getting your verdict reversed over something you didn't ask for.

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The Mississippi Bar sent an email to members on Friday warning about an internet scam directed at lawyers. Here is NMC's post on the scam, which includes a comment that large regional firm Bradley Arant fell for the scam to the tune of $400,000. There is also an ABA story on Bradley Arant getting victimized. Don't neglect to read the comments, which include:

What do you want to bet this firm only interviews (or interviewed, when anyone was actually hiring) law students in the top 10-15% with Law Journal experience?

Hate to sound like a bitter graduate, but although I may not be in the top 10% or have had the time to do Law Journal, I am certainly not enough of a sucker to have fallen for this trick.  Good grief.

lol i agree.  A C law school student from a 3rd tier law school wouldn’t have fallen for this scam.  It has to be a top 10 student from a top 10 law school. 

The best and brightest have no street smarts and are dumber than a box of rocks when it comes to commen sense. 

If it's any consolation, I bet the victim can spell better than the guy who wrote that last comment. The Bradley Arant incident did not involve any of the firm's Mississippi lawyers.

The scam sounded familiar, so I dug through my deleted emails and found the following email, which sounds a lot like the scam:

I  will be out of the office from April 30th through May 30th. I have asked my assistant Rachael to provide necessary information on a breach of contract case resulting to unpaid balance for goods supplied for your possible representation.

The creditor (Suneom Technology Co., Ltd., China), my client has requested for immediate action to proceed with collection of the outstanding balance valued at

$485,750.00.

You may contact Rachael on -- [redacted] for more information.

Treat with prompt attention.

Thank you.

[redacted]

Law Offices [redacted]

[redacted], White Plains, NY 10601

Toll free: [redacted]

[redacted]

****** CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE ******

This communication contains information which is legally privileged and confidential. It is for the exclusive use of the intended recipient(s).

 I redacted parts of the email because I do not want any of my lawyer readers stealing this potential lucrative client. Like many lawyers, I receive several emails a week that sound like a variety of this scam.