A slip-and-fall case is often assessed, informally, by how the fall looked. A same-level fall on a flat floor sounds minor. A fall down a full flight of stairs sounds serious. That intuition is a poor substitute for the medical and legal analysis a traumatic brain injury case actually requires, and it fails in both […]
A product recall is frequently treated, in ordinary conversation, as an admission: the company recalled it, so the company must have known it was dangerous. That inference does not survive contact with the evidence rules that actually govern this issue. A recall is not proof that a product was defective, and it is not proof […]
Air embolism during a medical procedure is an event, not, by itself, a legal conclusion. Certain procedures carry a recognized risk that air will enter the circulation, and that risk exists even when every step is performed correctly. Whether a particular case involving catastrophic neurological injury warrants disciplined litigation review depends on how air entered […]
Aircraft maintenance is governed by an extensive system of federal regulations intended to promote aviation safety. Typically, an aircraft undergoes rounds of inspections and maintenance to identify any issues that may impact the craft and its occupants. As such, when an aircraft has completed the inspections required by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), it may […]
Few doctrines in tort law generate more disagreement at trial than the eggshell plaintiff rule, also known as the thin skull rule. The principle is well established: a defendant whose negligence causes injury cannot avoid liability due to the plaintiff’s preexisting condition, even if that condition made the resulting harm substantially worse than what an […]