2011 Tort/Workers' Comp Conference for Alabama Attorneys

Friday, September 16, 2011
Birmingham Marriott – FREE PARKING
3590 Grandview Parkway
Birmingham, AL 35243

Brought to you by Alabama Law Weekly

7.5 hours of CLE: You’ll earn over half of your CLE credit for the year -- including your one hour of ethics.

Registration: $297 for program ($247 for additional attendees from the same firm)

Registration begins at 7:30 a.m. The conference begins at 8:00 a.m. and concludes at 5:15 p.m.

BONUS: CD containing summaries of recent cases in tort and workers’ compensation law.

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This seminar covers “hot” topics in the workers’ comp and tort arena and includes a review of recent case law and legislative developments in both areas brought to you by expert faculty.

Timely topics. Attendees will get the latest word from Alabama courts in the areas of tort and workers’ comp law, along with practical tips you can put to use immediately.

• Workers’ comp update: The latest from the Alabama appellate courts on the last injurious exposure rule, cumulative stress injuries, awards of benefits outside the schedule, and other issues
• Tort law update: The latest rulings in products liability, automobile accidents, the tort of outrage, and more
• Effective opening statements: Tips on how to persuade the jury and establish credibility for your client’s case
• Alabama statutory subrogation rights that come into play in tort and workers’ compensation cases
• Recent developments in workers’ compensation from the Department of Industrial Relations, the regulatory agency that is responsible for the administration of the Alabama Workers’ Compensation Law
• Navigating the treacherous triangle: The interplay between workers’ compensation law and the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act, including how the recent ADA changes impact workers’ comp law
• A trial judge's perspective: Ethical conduct and professionalism in the courtroom

Outstanding faculty. The faculty will include both plaintiff and defense attorneys who are seasoned speakers and are recognized as the best in their areas.

Joseph S. Ammons is the Assistant General Counsel in the Alabama Department of Industrial Relations. For the past 15 years he has been assigned as the General Counsel to the Workers’ Compensation Division. While Mr. Ammons continues to act as the primary legal counsel for all workers’ compensation matters, effective August 1, 2007 he was moved to the department’s legal division to handle additional DIR issues, to include unemployment compensation and tax. Prior to becoming employed with the State of Alabama, he was an attorney in private practice, engaging in multiple areas of the law. His primary focus in private practice was workers’ compensation and domestic relations. Mr. Ammons sits on the executive board of the Southern Association of Workers’ Compensation Administrators and is a graduate of the Workers’ Compensation International College at Arizona State University. Mr. Ammons is a frequent lecturer for workers’ compensation audiences around the state and is a past faculty member with the Alabama Bar Institute of Continuing Legal Education in the area of workers’ compensation.

Robert A. (Drew) Feeley joined Wilson & Berryhill PC as an Associate attorney in December, 2007. Mr. Feeley has gained considerable experience in handling cases within the firm’s practice areas, especially in construction defect, workers’ compensation, insurance coverage and appellate advocacy. He has successfully defended several cases as the primary handling attorney, obtaining dismissals through summary judgment. He has served as second chair in several trials, both jury and non-jury.

Christopher D. Glover, of Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles P.C., has dedicated his practice to protecting the rights of victims and survivors of catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death. He has represented injured individuals and their families in a wide range of serious injury and death claims, including those that were the result of defective products, car, commercial truck, and workplace accidents. He has litigated numerous cases that have resulted in verdicts or settlements in excess of one million dollars. A frequent lecturer, Mr. Glover has spoken across the country on issues concerning defective products, trial skills and effective leadership. He has authored 12 papers for publication on topics of litigation strategy, product liability, trucking litigation, leadership, and trial skills. Prior to joining Beasley, Allen, Mr. Glover practiced law in Birmingham for a number of years. He has been recognized by his peers as a leader by being elected officer to numerous professional associations, including the Chair of the 9000 member American Association for Justice New Lawyer’s Division, Chair of the Emerging Leader’s Division of the Alabama Association for Justice, and President of the Southern Trial Lawyer’s Association. He was chosen for inclusion into the 2009 Alabama Bar Association’s Leadership Forum.

Donald M. Harrison III is an attorney with the State of Alabama Department of Industrial Relations. Before joining the Department in April of 2011, Mr. Harrison was in private practice for nine years, most recently with Lehr Middlebrooks & Vreeland, P.C., where his practice focused on workers’ compensation, retaliatory discharge, OSHA, and related matters. During his years in private practice, Mr. Harrison represented clients from a wide spectrum of industries including construction, retail, utility, healthcare, mining, manufacturing, and government sector.

Stephen D. Heninger, of Heninger Garrison Davis, LLC, is a frequent lecturer and teacher for the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. He has been listed in Woodward & White’s “Best Lawyers in America” for the past ten years, and he has tried 18 cases resulting in verdicts over seven figures. He recently was inducted into the Alabama Law Foundation, which limits its invitations to the top one percent of the Bar in Alabama. Mr. Heninger served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army for two years as a prosecutor before enrolling in law school at the completion of his tour of duty. After his graduation from law school, Mr. Heninger served as a law clerk to the Honorable James Hancock in the Northern District of Alabama before beginning his practice as a trial attorney. He has served as the President of the Birmingham Bar Association (1998), President of the Alabama Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates and as a member of the Alabama Supreme Court Advisory Committee on appellate practice for the past 15 years. He is a frequent lecturer and teacher for the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, teaching at such places as Harvard School of Law, Stanford, Georgetown, University of Wisconsin, University of Miami, and University of New Mexico.

Donald B. (Bo) Kirkpatrick II is a senior shareholder and a founding member of Carr Allison. Mr. Kirkpatrick has served as the Chair of the Workers’ Compensation Section of the Alabama State Bar, and currently sits as the Co-Chair of the Workers’ Compensation Section at Carr Allison. His practice focuses primarily on workers’ compensation and related litigation, including retaliatory discharge and other employment matters. He has handled litigation statewide for Fortune 500 Companies, and has extensive trial experience across the entire state of Alabama. He is one of two attorneys from the State of Alabama who regularly speak at the Judicial College, put on twice a year for the judges in the State of Alabama. He also lectures on recent developments in Workers’ Compensation Law. He also speaks at seminars nationwide dealing with workers’ compensation issues. He has served on the 10th Judicial Circuit of Alabama’s Workers’ Compensation and HIPAA committees, appointed by presiding judge, Judge J. Scott Vowell. Mr. Kirkpatrick regularly advises self-insured clients, third party administrators and insurance carriers with respect to workers’ compensation issues. He has been selected the last four years as an Alabama Super Lawyer, and is AV rated by Martindale Hubbell.

Michael L. Roberts, with Cusimano, Keener, Roberts, Knowles & Raley LLC, has maintained a general litigation practice since 1978, including tort, personal injury practice, commercial litigation, consumer litigation, business disputes, fraud/misrepresentation, negligence and contract litigation. He has written extensively on legal topics in treatises, articles and journals, and has authored the reference book Alabama Tort Law, published by Lexis Law Publishing, now in its fifth edition, a two-volume, 50-chapter treatise analyzing the historical background and current status of tort law in Alabama. Alabama Tort Law has been cited in various appellate decisions. Mr. Roberts has lectured extensively in continuing legal education programs on various legal topics, including tort law developments. He was awarded the Walter P. Gewin Award by the Alabama Bar Institute for Continuing Legal Education in 2003 and the Alabama Trial Lawyer Association Professionalism Award in 2001. Has been listed in “Best Lawyers in America” since 2001.

Jud C. Stanford joined Wilson & Berryhill PC as an Associate in 2001 and became a partner of the firm in 2008. His practice has been concentrated on defense of civil litigation, workers’ compensation defense, insurance coverage opinions and declaratory judgments, and advising businesses in a number of areas. Mr. Stanford previously worked as a sole practitioner for three years and during that time handled a wide variety of matters including criminal defense law, small business representation and civil matters.

Judge J. Scott Vowell has been a circuit judge since January 1995 and is currently the presiding judge in Jefferson County. Prior to his service on the Court, he practiced law with Beddow, Embry, & Beddow (1961-1987) and Vowell & Meelheim (1987-1994). He is active in the American Bar Association, the American Bar Institute, the Alabama Law Institute, the American Judicature Society, and the Birmingham Inn of Court.

2011 Tort/Workers' Comp Conference for Alabama Attorneys

8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.
Donald B. (Bo) Kirkpatrick II
Carr Allison

Mr. Kirkpatrick will review workers’ compensation cases from Alabama’s appellate courts, dealing with such issues as:

• When will courts apply the last injurious exposure rule
• What is necessary to prove legal causation for a cumulative stress injury
• Whether a claim for retaliatory discharge survives the employee’s death
• What factors distinguish an employee and an independent contractor
• Whether an employee must demonstrate legal causation in order to recover benefits

Tort Law Update

9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.
Michael L. Roberts
Cusimano, Keener, Roberts, Knowles & Raley, LLC

Mr. Roberts will review tort cases from Alabama’s appellate courts, dealing with such issues as:

• Newly enacted “tort reform” bills affecting product liability, statute of limitations, and expert evidence
• Whether evidence  of wantonness was sufficient in a case where the plaintiff was injured by a wire attached to a utility pole
• Whether evidence in a products liability case was sufficient to support a charge on a mechanical failure defense
• Whether a passenger in an automobile is, as a matter of law, a guest in an automobile when the only service conferred by the passenger is companionship
• Whether a jury question was created as to whether the contributory negligence of the driver was imputed to a passenger in a car accident case
• Whether a plaintiff who was struck by a train while crossing a railroad track was contributorily negligent as a matter of law for failing to “stop, look and listen”

10:00 a.m. to 10:15 a.m.  MORNING BREAK

Ethical Conduct & Professionalism in the Courtroom – from a Trial Judge’s Perspective

10:15 a.m. to 11:15 a.m.
Judge J. Scott Vowell
10th Judicial Circuit

Judge Vowell, presiding judge in Jefferson County, will share insights from his years on the bench. Learn what a trial judge expects from an attorney from an ethical standpoint in regard to:

• Courtroom decorum -- displaying a courteous, dignified, and respectful attitude
• Trial conduct -- acting civilly toward other lawyers, not alluding to irrelevant or inadmissible evidence, and reporting client’s fraud
• Public statements about pending litigation

Medical Malpractice Cases vs. Trucking Accidents: Jurors’ Perceptions of the Defendants

11:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.
Stephen D. Heninger
Heninger Garrison Davis, LLC

Mr. Heninger draws intriguing contrasts in jurors’ perceptions toward a doctor who is being sued in a medical malpractice case and a truck driver who is being sued in a trucking accident case. It is more difficult to obtain a jury verdict against a physician than a truck driver or a trucking company. In the end, doctors generally “get off” in court, while truckers “get killed.”

12:15 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. LUNCH (on your own)
 

Recent Developments in Workers’ Compensation – from the Department of Industrial Relations

1:30 p.m. to 2:15 p.m.
Joseph Ammons & Donald M. Harrison, III
Alabama Department of Industrial Relations

• Drug-free workplace program
• Workers’ compensation mediation
• Group fund employers
• Self-insured employers

Overview of Subrogation Rights in Tort & Workers’ Comp Cases

2:15 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.
Jud C. Stanford
Wilson & Berryhill, P.C.

• Workers’ compensation subrogation
• Uninsured/underinsured insurance policies
• Medical malpractice cases
• Products liability cases
• Medicare compliance

3:15 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.  AFTERNOON BREAK

Walking the Tightrope Between Workers’ Comp, FMLA, and ADA

3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Robert A. (Drew) Feeley
Wilson & Berryhill, P.C.

•  How the recent ADA changes impact workers’ compensation
•  Triggering conditions which invoke the protections of each law
•  Confusing attendance and leave policy issues
•  Effect of return-to-work and accommodation issues
•  Terminating the injured employee

Dynamic Opening Statements: How to Establish Credibility and Persuade from the Beginning

4:30 p.m. to 5:15 p.m.
Christopher D. Glover
Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

• Two goals -- persuade and establish credibility
• Persuasion methods during framing phase
• Scrutiny phase -- organization and outline
• Nutshell -- incorporating the rule you believe will win the case, explaining what the case is about in a way that persuades (tell the story), and wrapping up

Materials

Materials include:

• Recent workers’ compensation cases from the Court of Civil Appeals and the Supreme Court of Alabama
• Recent tort cases from the Court of Civil Appeals and the Supreme Court of Alabama
• 2011 tort reform legislative package
• Making the comparison in court between physician liability and that of truck drivers
• Myths and misconceptions from the Department of Industrial Relations
• Subrogation in tort and workers’ compensation cases
• Interplay between ADAAA, FMLA and workers’ compensation
• 10 questions demonstrating differences and similarities between ADA, FMLA, and workers’ compensation
• 10 tips for an effective opening statement
• CD containing summaries of recent tort and workers’ comp cases from Alabama appellate courts