Make the Best
Litigation Decisions

An expert's testimony follows them everywhere. Our knowledge should too. Plaintiff experts don't start over with each case. Their opinions, methods, and talking points travel from courtroom to courtroom, state to state. The defense's knowledge about those experts often doesn't. It stays in one lawyer's file, in one firm's storage room, in one jurisdiction. Then another defense lawyer, facing the same expert, starts from scratch.

When a resident falls, plaintiff's counsel asks one question: Why didn't the facility stop it? It's a powerful question. It's also the wrong one. The better question is: What was the facility allowed to do? Residents don't surrender their rights when they move into long-term care.

A resident falls. A pressure ulcer develops. An infection turns serious. To a grieving family — and to a jury primed by their own memories of aging parents — each of these can look like proof that someone failed.