This week in Maryland Lawyer
December 22, 2008
Maryland’s cap on non-economic damages has put a damper on personal injury awards for more than two decades now. Soon, the Court of Appeals will decide if the cap passes constitutional muster and whether it applies to lead-paint lawsuits brought under the state’s Consumer Protection Act.
Mary Joel Davis, founder and executive director of Alternative Directions Inc., will retire at the end of the year. Soon to be 75, she wants to focus on a few specific projects involving women inmates instead of managing the nonprofit’s day-to-day operations.
In the News:
* As interest rates fall, so does IOLTA — the source of funding for legal services. “We are bracing for very tough times ahead,” said Susan M. Erlichman, executive director of Maryland Legal Services Corp.
* An error in jury selection was so severe that the judge should have declared a mistrial without being asked, the Court of Appeals held. The decision gives Steven Anthony Powell the right to a new trial on four counts of sex offenses involving a 14-year-old girl.
* Anne K. Pecora, who founded what is now UB Law’s clinical program, died last week at age 62.
* Marta Harting leaves DLA Piper for Venable.
* Think all MICPEL books look pretty much the same? Think again. For Paul Mark Sandler’s “Anatomy of a Trial: A Primer for Young Lawyers,” MICPEL went with a decidedly slick look and a bicoastal marketing campaign.
In Verdicts & Settlements, a woman who was awarded $53,000 for a workplace assault has filed a motion for a new trial on the issue of damages. The defense considered the verdict a win, too; it had offered to settle for $250,000 in October.
Coming out of college, Michael P. Smith chose education over the law and he’s never regretted it. After four years as a math teacher in Baltimore, though, he was ready to make the switch.
In the latest installment of Judge on the Jury, Judge Dennis M. Sweeney talks about handling communications from the jury; in Of Service, Bob Rhudy and Joe Surkiewicz wonder who will fill the gap in legal services caused by HERO’s closure.
PLUS: Letters to the Editor; News Briefs; On the Move; and our Law Digest, this week with opinions by the Court of Special Appeals, the 4th Circuit and Maryland’s federal court.
BARBARA GRZINCIC, Managing Editor/Law
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