Final Adjudication

On May 13, 2014 the Mississippi Court of Appeals decided Newsome v. Newsome located here.  The Court ended up dismissing the appeal because there was not a final adjudication of all issues.  The chancellor at the trial court had left the record open to set attorney's fees on a contempt issue so it was not a final judgment.  If you read the opinion, the case reminds me of situations where the Court orders a report back on a case.  With that in mind, it appears from this case that a matter with a report back date is not a final judgment for appeal purposes.

Attorney's Fees

On Thursday of last week, the Mississippi Supreme Court decided Union Carbide Corporation v. Nix.  A copy of the opinion is located here.   This was a large scale personal injury claim.  The Mississippi Supreme Court ended up affirming the award of compensatory damages but reversed for a new trial on punitive damages and reversed the award of attorney's fees which was tied to the punitive damages award.  In Paragraph 50 of the opinion, the Court specifically stated though that on an award of attorney's fees, finding had to be made on the record to support it.  This to me is clarification regarding a whole string of cases that required no findings on the record.  As such, I believe the trial court has to do a little more now than rubber stamp a party's request on fees.   

Recovery of Deleted Items

With today's technology, except for setting something on fire, almost any data can be recovered.  (sometimes even if burned).  A colleague of mine has advised me that a company called Tenorshare has programs available to pull complete data from I-phones included deleted items at reasonable prices.  The website is located here.  This might be helpful in recovering deleted items in the course of a divorce case.

LLC Citizenship

I am working on a case to possibly file in federal court.  There is an interesting issue with LLCs and citizenship for diversity jurisdiction purposes I thought I would share.  In Harvey v. Grey Wolf Drilling Co., --- F.3d ----, 2008 WL 4194538 (5th Cir. Sept. 15, 2008), the 5th circuit joined the other circuits in ruling that the individual members of an LLC must be considered for diversity jurisdiction purposes.  Short version of this is that you need to know the home residence of each member in order to see if you have complete diversity of citizenship.  I have heard of at least one case in another circuit where no one caught this until the case was up on appeal.  Result, everything from trial court vacated due to lack of jurisdiction and sent to state court.  Did not hear if the statute of limitations had run.  That would not be a pleasant conversation with either the Plaintiff or the insurance adjuster dealing with the defense attorney.  

Recent Award

I found out recently I have received one of the Top Forty Under Forty awards from The National Trial Lawyers Association.  A link to the profile is on the left side of the page.  Thanks to the attorneys and clients who nominated me.

Alimony Labels

Labels can be very important in alimony.  The main reason is for modification purposes.  Lump sum alimony is not modifiable in Mississippi while periodic and rehabilitative may be under the right circumstances.  A party can spend a lot of money defending a claim to increase alimony when they allege some new change in their health.  However, if the alimony is nonmodifiable, it runs both ways for the payor and payee.  I was able have a claim summarily dismissed under these circumstances a while back.  This is something to think about when the property settlements are being drafted.

Witness Fee Statute Change Part II

I previously talked about the witness fee statute changes here.   As I promised, I went to talk with the Circuit Court Clerk's office in DeSoto County for any of the local attorneys who read this.  The clerk's office told me the daily rate for jurors is $40.00.  This is going to create a lot more cost for getting witnesses unless the witness is willing to sign a waiver of their fee.