April 25, 2023 Insurance companies may often feel incentivized to seek early settlement with a person who has suffered a personal injury. However, in Idaho, there is a potential risk that insurers should be aware of before doing so. Under Idaho Code § 29-113, a person who enters into an agreement within 15 days after... View Post

March 21, 2023 Idaho Code § 41-1839 is a terrifying statute. Under that statute, any insurer who fails to pay someone amounts owed within 30 days after a proof of loss has been furnished (or within 60 days if the policy is for uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage) must pay attorney fees. This language seems... View Post

February 28, 2023 Few options for interlocutory review of trial court decisions exist in Idaho, and the options that are available are difficult to obtain. As a result, litigators are often stuck with non-final rulings from the trial court until an appeal as a matter of right is available. Of course, there are many good... View Post

January 26, 2023 In the most recent edition of Voir Dire, Erica Boyce, a researcher for The National Center for State Courts reviewed the empirical research conducted on jury size during the past 20 years. This research was prompted by the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) in the wake of the pandemic’s effects on... View Post

December 13, 2022 Courts and law firms around the United States had to adapt during the COVID-19 pandemic in more ways than one. The difficulty of social distancing, mask mandates, and emergency orders especially took a toll on litigators and their clients. Given these difficulties, a wide array of legal proceedings such as depositions, mediations,... View Post

December 8, 2022 It has been over a year since the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) suspended its amateurism rules allowing student-athletes across the country to profit from their name, image, and likeness (NIL). Since then, Congress has not passed federal legislation that would put all universities on an “even” playing field, leaving individual states... View Post

November 29, 2022 Idaho courts have recognized the concept that parents may recover for the loss of society and companionship of their minor children. Similarly, Idaho courts have recognized claims for loss of consortium when brought by a spouse. However, Idaho has not clearly recognized that a minor child may bring a claim for loss... View Post

November 1, 2022 Jurors in Buckelew, et al. v. Womack, et al., a Georgia case, weighed the evidence against multiple healthcare providers after Plaintiff Jonathan Bucklew suffered a stroke and was left with “locked-in syndrome” in the emergency room, a syndrome that leaves the body completely paralyzed other than eye and cognitive functions. Jurors handed... View Post

September 21, 2022 In the legal world, we often think in terms of precedent or stare decisis. This general rule requires that when the Supreme Court has decided on an issue, that ruling applies to all future cases on the same issue. “When there is controlling precedent on questions of Idaho law the rule of... View Post

August 3, 2022 The year 2020 (and the then-new pandemic) changed the global workforce in several major ways. Most notably, many employers who previously required all employees to work on-site were forced to experiment with remote and hybrid work. Through this experiment-of-circumstance, many employers have learned that it is possible to successfully manage employees from... View Post

Every July 1, the non-economic damages cap is adjusted to account for inflation and the average annual wage. As expected, this year we saw the largest increase in the past 19 years (7.84%) from $399,430.74 (2021) to $430,740.03. Please click here to view a chart with historical non-economic cap information. Idaho Statute Section 6-1603 is... View Post

July 6, 2022 RaDonda Vaught, a licensed nurse in the state of Tennessee, was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and gross neglect this spring after mistakenly giving a patient the paralyzing drug vecuronium rather than Versed. Prosecutors in the case did not allege that Vaught intended to hurt the patient or was impaired by... View Post