{"id":5250,"date":"2016-12-19T19:04:27","date_gmt":"2016-12-19T23:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/?p=5250"},"modified":"2016-12-19T19:04:27","modified_gmt":"2016-12-19T23:04:27","slug":"a-rose-by-any-other-name-primers-for-lawyers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/2016\/12\/19\/a-rose-by-any-other-name-primers-for-lawyers\/","title":{"rendered":"“A rose by any other name…”; Primers for lawyers"},"content":{"rendered":"

“…Lot of preparation beforehand – a lawyer just doesn’t walk into a court<\/em>“.\u00a0 That comment by Ron Pizzo, Pink Larkin, resonated with me during his talk at\u00a0an APTLA conference in Halifax early last month.\u00a0 I thought, “…Lot of forensic investigation beforehand – an\u00a0expert just doesn’t render an opinion and write a report”<\/em>.\u00a0 The\u00a0line in Romeo and Juliet\u00a0came to mind, “A rose by any other name…” (Ref. 1)<\/p>\n

(APTLA: Atlantic Provinces Trial Lawyers Association)<\/p>\n

The title of Ron’s talk was\u00a0“Wrongful Dismissal Primer: What to Know When an Aggrieved Employee Walks into\u00a0your Office.”\u00a0 And the abstract: “What you need to know to quickly assess a case and the advice you should give a potential client during the initial meeting to set realistic expectations.” ”<\/p>\n

I’m not a lawyer but Ron’s talk seemed to be a good primer.\u00a0 He listed several tasks, issues and cases\u00a0to consider in assessing the merits of a case.\u00a0 I’m\u00a0sure he\u00a0was comprehensive\u00a0to the extent possible\u00a0in the time available.<\/p>\n

Ron’s talk might be broadened to embrace an assessment of the merits of civil litigation cases in general, including those involving an expert.\u00a0 Or his talk used as an inspiration.<\/p>\n

I posted a blog on the role of a\u00a0professional\u00a0engineer – any expert for that matter – in counsel’s\u00a0initial assessment of\u00a0a civil case.\u00a0(Ref. 2) \u00a0A “what you need to know” item from the technical point of view.\u00a0 Included was a list of\u00a018 tasks that an expert could do to\u00a0help\u00a0counsel assess merit.\u00a0 There was some emphasis on\u00a0identifying realistic expectations for\u00a0both counsel and the potential client, particularly\u00a0about the\u00a0cost of civil litigation involving an expert.<\/p>\n

In an initial meeting, a lawyer, in most areas of practice, is being asked by a person who feels wronged if they are\u00a0entitled to damages.\u00a0 For example, Ron’s aggrieved employee. Or\u00a0in the case of the built environment, by a person,\u00a0an owner, whose property\u00a0was damaged or by\u00a0a person\u00a0who\u00a0was injured in an accident.<\/p>\n

In the case of property, the difficulty is that awards are dependent on the cause<\/em> of the property damage or personal injury and the party (s) responsible<\/em>.\u00a0 For an aggrieved employee, Ron outlined\u00a0the issues and questions on which\u00a0a case is dependent –\u00a0what’s involved in\u00a0getting a “feel” for the merit of\u00a0the case.<\/p>\n

Experts also have experience, questions\u00a0to ask\u00a0and cases to go to, in their respective fields, that point to\u00a0possible causes allowing them to help lawyers get a feel for a case.<\/p>\n

For example<\/strong>, it’s well known in forensic engineering that many foundation failures are due to inadequate geotechnical investigation of the foundation soils before design and construction.\u00a0 As well, engineering societies and various authors have published on the different ways structures can fail – total collapse or component malfunction –\u00a0based on a review of the engineering literature.\u00a0(Refs\u00a03, 4\u00a0and 5)<\/p>\n

A general primer would be a valuable resource –\u00a0one co-authored by a\u00a0legal expert and a technical\u00a0expert, that helps civil litigation lawyers\u00a0get a “feel” for a case and set realistic expectations for a potential client.\u00a0 At the end of the day clients also need to know that a lawyer must prepare<\/em> and an expert must investigate<\/em>.<\/p>\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Shakespeare, William, Romeo and Juliet<\/em>, Act II Scene II<\/li>\n
  2. The role of a professional engineer in counsel’s decision to take a case<\/em>. Posted June 26, 2012.\u00a0 Updated May 21, 2014<\/li>\n
  3. Nicastro, David H., editor, Failure Mechanisms in Building Construction<\/em>, ASCE Press, American Society of Civil Engineers, 1997<\/li>\n
  4. Guidelines for Failure Investigation<\/em>, American Society of Civil Engineers, 1989<\/li>\n
  5. Janney, Jack R., Guide to Investigation of Structural Failures<\/em>, American Society of Civil Engineers, 1986<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

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    “…Lot of preparation beforehand – a lawyer just doesn’t walk into a court“.\u00a0 That comment by Ron Pizzo, Pink Larkin, resonated with me during his talk at\u00a0an APTLA conference in Halifax early last month.\u00a0 I thought, “…Lot of forensic investigation … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5250"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5250"}],"version-history":[{"count":54,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5309,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5250\/revisions\/5309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ericjorden.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}