Kirtland & Packard's Personal Injury Law Blog

Some of the most devastating and severe injuries consist of those that involve damage to the spinal cord. Spinal cord injuries can be caused by almost any type of impact or crushing injury to the spinal cord. The impact can be to the buttocks, head, neck or back. The injuries are often immediate and may often result in permanent paralyzation, which can range from thoracic injuries, resulting in partial loss of function, mobility and feeling in the lower body (paraplegia) to more severe cases of upper spine involvement resulting in total paralysis of nearly the entire body (quadriplegia). Spinal injuries truly are Life Changing...

Expert witnesses are essential to most areas of litigation, yet many practitioners create a tactical advantage for the opposition through clumsy, careless or lackadaisical use of experts. While a judge or jury will usually treat any person who comes to court and proclaims themselves an “expert” with some degree of skepticism, an expert that is unprepared, confused, mistaken or not appropriately “dialed in” to the theme of your case may do more than not help; he/she may drive your client’s case off the tracks.

You will give your experts the best chance of convincing a judge or jury of the correctness of his/her position if you...

When Michael Louis Kelly takes on a case, he immediately starts thinking of how he might turn the case into a successful screenplay. Not because he wants to sell the movie rights, but because he feels that it is the most effective way to present a case to a jury. "Jurors want to resolve the conflict, they want the drama" says Kelly, "Determine what your most powerful or convincing fact is, and set up your case to build to its disclosure."

In the case of Doyle Baker v. PrivatAir, Inc, Los Angeles Superior Court Case No. BC322198, Kelly obtained a $63.9 million verdict in an age discrimination/defamation case by doing just that. He...