California’s Governor Gavin Newsom has signed into law S.B. 447, which was sponsored by the Consumer Attorneys of California (an organization of 3,000 plaintiffs lawyers), and overturns the longstanding legislation to allow for pain and suffering damages to be...
Luis A. Barba
California Proposed Trial Damages Change Threatens Businesses
S.B. 447, which has been sponsored by the Consumer Attorneys of California (an organization of 3,000 plaintiffs' lawyers), seeks to overturn longstanding legislation to allow for pain and suffering damages to be compensated in a survival action. Under California law,...
Trial Strategies To Combat The Reptile Theory
In 2009, jury consultant David Ball and plaintiff’s attorney Don C. Keenan published a book, Reptile: The 2009 Manual of the Plaintiff’s Revolution (“Reptile Manual”). The concept of the “Reptile Theory” is based upon the reptilian or primal portion of the human...
Issues Moving Forward with Complex Jury Trials During the Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has created significant issues for court systems across the country wishing to move forward with civil jury trials, namely the control of jurors. In this article, we seek to address some of the issues that courts are facing in trying to move...