My baptism in the blogosphere came at the hands of a doctor. A doctor who called himself Flea. Flea was the defendant in a medical malpractice case in which I represented the family of a young boy who had died of undiagnosed diabetes. In addition to being a doctor, Flea was a prolific and–some might say–incorrigible blogger. Long before Flea and I crossed paths, Flea blogged on a variety of interesting topics. He was irreverent, provocative, and sometimes brutally honest about his patients and his profession. If he’d stuck to writing about medicine, he might still be blogging.
Unfortunately, shortly before the malpractice trial started, Flea began blogging about his trial preparation sessions with his lawyers. He moved on to me, and then to the judge and the jurors, all in quite unflattering tones. Someone dropped an electronic dime on Flea, and I found his blog. It was fascinating reading! I won’t rehash all the details of the denouement, which have been well-chronicled by bloggers like Eric Turkewitz, Kevin MD, and Overlawyered, and even in The Boston Globe, with varying degrees of accuracy. But in the course of combing Flea’s blog for statements that contradicted his trial testimony (there were several), and in reading commentary by various bloggers who followed the saga, I learned a lot about the blogosphere. An endless array of people commenting on an infinite variety of topics. I’d simply had no idea that all this existed.
And somewhere in those days, another blogger was born–or at least conceived. The urge to add my observations nagged at me like an itch I just couldn’t scratch. There is just so much going on, in medical malpractice, in personal injury, in trial practice. So finally, with the launching of our new website, I have a platform.
This blog is intended to be informative, thought-provoking, and, I hope, an accurate source of news and information for our clients and other lawyers. But there is a little fine print:
1. Unfortunately, the law can be complicated, is subject to frequent changes, and may vary according to the jurisdiction and the particular facts of a situation. This blog cannot provide legal advice. Individuals who have legal questions should consult their own lawyers. TRANSLATION: We hope you find this helpful, but you may not rely on what’s written here as legal advice. If you are a lawyer, we hope you find this helpful, but you’ll need to do your own research and reach your own conclusions about the law that applies to your case.
2. On occasion, this blog may give examples from past cases handled by my firm or other firms. These cases are intended as illustrations, and should not be used as a basis for predicting results or outcomes in other cases. It is tempting to try to compare one case to another, but without a detailed understanding of the facts and the law in each case, these comparisons can be very misleading. TRANSLATION: Just because your neighbor or your Aunt Tillie tells you what happened in her case doesn’t mean that your case will result in the same outcome.
3. I have been privileged to work with some wonderful people on various committees, particularly my friends and colleagues on the Executive Committee of the Massachusetts Guide to Evidence and the Supreme Judicial Court’s Standing Advisory Committee on the Rules of Professional Conduct. Any positions or opinions expressed here are my own individual thoughts and not official statements of any group or organization. TRANSLATION: Please don’t blame anyone else for what I write.
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