May 9, 2022 – Featuring Nick Rowley’s contributions for increasing medical malpractice limits in California.
LA Times: Column: Everyone wins in compromise to increase malpractice payouts — especially victims
LA Times: California’s malpractice payouts would rise under a deal to avoid a costly ballot fight
LA Times: California gets new rules covering medical malpractice payments. Here’s what will change
Above Photo: Charles Johnson, right, is surrounded by his legal team Chris Dolan, left, in blue, Courtney Rowley, center, and Nick Rowley, second from right, during a press conference announcing a lawsuit outside Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Wednesday, May 4, 2022, in Los Angeles. Johnson’s wife Kira died at the hospital in 2016 from complications after giving birth by cesarean section.(AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
News Links for this Case
THE WASHINGTON POST – LA hospital sued for racism in death of Black mother
FOX 11 LOS ANGELES – Surgical technologist at Cedars-Sinai gives deposition
THE ROOT – LA Hospital Sued for Death of Black Woman Shortly After Giving Birth
LEGAL READER – Widower files a wrongful death lawsuit against Los Angeles hospital.
THE DAILY BEAST – Husband Sues Hospital for Racism in Black Mom’s Death Hours After Giving Birth
LOS ANGELES TIMES – Cedars-Sinai faces civil rights lawsuit over Black mother’s 2016 death
CBS 8 – Medical malpractice deal could replace ballot measure, still raise monetary awards
MY NEWS LA – TV Judge’s Family Members Close to Settling Medical Malpractice Case
Season 2 / Episode 1:
We are kicking off Season 2 of the Elawvate podcast with a bang! In our first episode, Ben and Rahul host four of the country’s most respected trial lawyers and trial consultants, to discuss their forthcoming book, Damages Evolving. Those familiar with David Ball’s foundational work, Damages, will learn how his ideas have evolved, shaped through his long-time partnership with Artemis Malekpour and new collaboration with Nick and Courtney Rowley. They discuss how trial strategies have evolved over the past two decades and continue to evolve today.
Visit elawvate.fm to listen to the podcast!
Nick Rowley, Courtney Rowley and Daniel Bidegaray join Jonathan to talk about Loss of Consortium. Loss of consortium is a standalone claim for damages brought by the spouse (and sometimes children) of an individual who been injured or killed as a result of a defendant’s negligence.
Think loss of love and affection from your spouse because they were injured. Nick and Courtney tried a case in Bakersfield back in September of 2021 and obtained a multi-million dollar verdict for Loss of Consortium.
Nick goes as far as to do an actual role play of how you talk to potential jurors during Voir Dire (jury selection) about a Loss of Consortium claim.
Watch the podcast below, or click here to listen on anchor.fm
Watch Benjamin Novotny’s Television Interview on KWWL:
Link to KWWL Page (or click image above)
Jan 23, 2022
Television Coverage of this case at ABC’s KCRG https://www.kcrg.com/2022/01/23/family-sues-iowa-school-district-over-sexual-assault/
Attorneys are gathering information as they proceed with a lawsuit against Dubuque Community Schools, in which a family alleges that district negligence allowed a student to be sexually assaulted on campus.
The litigation, filed in Iowa District Court of Dubuque County, has a trial date set for May 2, 2023. Attorneys for the district deny the allegations.
The suit alleges that one of the plaintiffs, a Dubuque female who at the time attended Hempstead High School, was routinely bullied by a male student, incidents school officials were notified of “on multiple occasions.”
The female and her parents asked the district to transfer her to another school, but the request was denied.
Court documents state that the bullying continued into another school year, during which the family alleges that “Hempstead and the Dubuque Community School District failed to prevent further contact between (the two students).”
The male student would go on to sexually assault the female student on campus in 2019, documents state. The female student reported the incident to her mother, school officials and Dubuque police. Afterward, she was allowed to transfer to another school.
“The negligence of Dubuque Community School District was the direct and proximate cause of the injuries and damages sustained by plaintiffs,” court documents state.
The Telegraph Herald does not identify victims of alleged sexual crimes.
Dubuque Police Lt. Ted McClimon said police investigated the alleged incident but that no charges were filed. Authorities conferred with the Dubuque County attorney’s office, which declined to prosecute the case, McClimon said.
The litigation seeks compensation from the district on counts of negligence, harassment and retaliation and gender discrimination.
Benjamin Novotny, a Decorah-based attorney working with a Dubuque firm on the lawsuit, said the alleged assault could have been prevented if the district had listened to the student’s parents.
“Schools are there to protect students, schools should listen to students and families when they voice concerns, and schools should provide a safe learning environment for children,” Novotny said. “They failed on all three of those counts.”
In response to a request for comment, Dubuque district spokesman Mike Cyze wrote in a statement that there was an alleged incident in 2019 at Hempstead that immediately was turned over to police.
“Beyond that, it’s the district’s practice to not comment on ongoing litigation,” the statement reads.
In court documents, attorneys for the district deny the allegations. They acknowledge that the female student reported being sexually assaulted but deny “for lack of sufficient information” that the assault happened.
“Plaintiff’s alleged injuries and damages, if any, resulted from independent, superseding and/or intervening causes of other individuals, entities, or parties, and such intervening or superseding acts or omissions were the sole and proximate cause of any damages, unrelated to any conduct of defendant,” documents state.
#8 – Castillo v. Davignon
$9.5m award over child’s crosswalk death beats out $1.2m settlement offer
Plaintiff attorneys: Nicholas Rowley (pictured), Benjamin Novotny – Trial Lawyers For Justice, Charlotte Glinka, Karen Zahka – Keches Law Group
Link to video of the full trial:
https://cvn.com/proceedings/castillo-v-davignon-et-al-trial-2021-04-21
Why it made the list:
A Massachusetts state court jury awarded $9.5 million in damages on Friday to the two adult children of a woman struck and killed by a truck while walking her dog in 2017.
Attorneys for defendant Charles Davignon, who drove the truck that struck Rosenthal, conceded that he was liable for her death. That left the jury tasked solely with determining how much to compensate Rosenthal’s children for the death of their mother, a teacher who was 52 at the time of the accident.
“For the last three years, the defendant refused to take responsibility for their mother’s death,” plaintiff’s attorney Nicholas Rowley of Trial Lawyers for Justice said in a statement released after the verdict. “That changed during this trial. This trial was necessary because the insurance company acted irresponsibly and cheaply. Now they’ll have to face the consequences.”
Read the whole article here:
https://blog.cvn.com/cvns-top-10-most-impressive-plaintiff-verdicts-of-2021