On Wednesday a Jackson County jury rendered a $1.5 million verdict in Warren v. Hernandez. This was a car/tractor trailer case. Ms. Warren alleged she was making a right turn off Highway 63 south of the intersection with I-10 to go to the Exxon station. She was stopped in the turn lane waiting for the light to turn.  She saw the defendant’s 18 wheeler approaching behind her in her rearview mirror when he attempted to…

In Crawford v. Hinds County the plaintiff sued the county over the Hinds County Courthouse not being accessible to the disabled. Plaintiff sought damages and injunctive relief requiring the county to make all seven courtrooms and all bathrooms accessible. Before trial, plaintiff rejected the county’s offer to renovate two courtrooms, one bathroom per floor and miscellaneous items. A bench trial was held before U.S. District Judge Tom Lee on February 12-13, 2019. The Court ruled…

Here is a preview of the October 2019 issue of the Miss. Jury Verdict Reporter: $2,107,351 verdict- Harrison County medical malpractice case covered here (9/6/19); $300,000 verdict- Harrison County underinsured motorist case (8/26/19); $30,000 verdict- DeSoto County real estate agent negligence case (9/6/19); directed verdict- Hinds County premises liability case (9/4/19); defense verdict- Jones County workplace negligence case (9/26/19); and defense verdict- Jackson County roadway negligence case (7/19/19). My Take: You see the filings. You…

On October 9, 2019 a Hinds County jury in Jackson rendered a $226,000 verdict in Lewis v. Blakeney. The case involved a 2016 car wreck in Clinton. Here is the Complaint. The two day trial before Circuit Judge Tomie Green began on October 8. The jury awarded $26,000 for past and future medical expenses and $200,000 for pain and suffering. Here is the Judgment. Word on the street is defendant’s pre-trial settlement offer was…

Adam Ganucheau’s article on Mississippi Today is the best I’ve read on the IHL board’s hiring of Glenn Boyce to be the next chancellor of Ole Miss. It captures a lot of my thoughts on the process. I have no opposition to Dr. Boyce, in theory. I like his story. He seems qualified on paper. It was fine to hire him. Just not like this. My biggest reservation about Boyce is that anyone who would…

The Nonsense Factory by Bruce Cannon Gibney is a scathing critique of the American Legal System. A venture capitalist and former big firm litigator, Gibney knows his subject. There is a lot to criticize in the legal system starting with law school, and Gibney touches on most of it. His criticism of law schools is pointed, but in a funny way: American law schools have settled for the worst of all worlds–an abstracted research faculty…

Courtesy of Bigger Pie Forum via Jackson Jambalaya, it seems Mississippi’s PERS system is getting reamed in management and investment fees. Here’s a list of how much area states paid in 2018 in PERS management fees: $103 million- Mississippi $5 million- Alabama $27 million- Arkansas My Take: Sounds about right. Read a book or two (Liar’s Poker, books on the 2008 financial crisis, etc.) on how Wall Street investment banks screw their ‘fish’ customers…