February 2, 2021

President’s Address:

Okay, I give. Let me back in the pool. I’ve followed all the rules, I got vaccinated, I got boosted, it’s time to let me back in the pool. The white flag goes up. I admit that I’m officially suffering from the COVID blues. 

I’m ready for things to get back to normal. But they don’t. It just goes on and on and on. The courts open and then just as quickly, the courts close. Scheduling orders issue, the parties comply, and then cases sit for a year or more if they don’t settle. What kind of existence is this anyway?

COVID has cost us almost a million souls. With the advent of vaccinations, people aren’t supposed to get so sick from COVID. But they do. The heartbreaking evidence is that such patients are on the rise, with the average number of Californians in COVID intensive care units more than doubling between December and January. That’s just California.

I admit that it is awfully easy to maintain a bleak outlook during these uncertain times. However, there are wonderful things to look forward to. Better days are truly ahead! And, I’m happy to say, ABPLA is getting active again, and we will strive to bring your brothers and sisters back into your lives.

While we have not fully mastered the transition from the pre-covid world of Board Certification to its current iteration, we are making great strides and are confident we will all emerge from this ordeal stronger and better than we were before.

Our plan is to have an in-person meeting in the Fall, provided there is not another variant on the horizon that would prevent us from meeting safely.   However, in order for this to happen we will need a commitment from you to attend.  Our plan is to have one or two outside speakers, and the rest would be you and your peers of the ABPLA.  We believe the depth of those who belong to this organization are absolutely the best in the business and have the most relevant knowledge for our practice.  

Whether we are able to meet in person or not, we are committed to providing programming that is relevant to you and your practice. But, before I tell you about our upcoming programs, please click on the below hyperlink and fill out the questionnaire. It is extremely important. 

Please take a couple moments to provide your feedback regarding this, as it would be most helpful.

While we cautiously assess the in person meeting opportunity, we are planning several programs in the upcoming months that will be of interest to you and your practice.  Our past  presentation with Dr. Geoff Manley was the most attended ABPLA event in history, and we hope to create a similar situation with our upcoming events.

Our current schedule is as follows; all will be 7 PM Eastern 4 Pacific.

• 2/15 John Blumberg discussing his new book  Persuasion Science for Trial Attorneys
• 3/15 Justin Kahn- Technology Inside and Outside the Courtroom
• 4/20 Jon Lomurro- Electronic Health Records- “The more you know”

In order to assure our organization thrives in the eyes of the consumers of legal services your participation and assistance is crucial.  We encourage you to invite your partners and colleagues to attend.  They need not be ABPLA board certified, but if they aren’t, why not?

Together, we can make this a great 2022. As always, I look forward to serving you through the fall meeting.

July 31, 2020

President’s Address:

We certainly live in difficult times.  Covid-19 has reshaped everything about us.  Our courts are, for all practical purposes, closed.  We will see no jury trials anytime this year, at least not here in Northern California.  Our social interaction is strangely altered, and our professional work is for the most part, remote.  Zoom depositions have become the norm.  (I didn’t even know what Zoom was before the pandemic, and yet now I spend hours on it each day). 

Just today, many states saw more Covid-19 cases than ever before.  Let that sink in – this disease is growing!!  The death count in the U.S. has breached 152,000, and continues to rise daily.  Total U.S. cases top 4.4M and continue to rise.  Predictions for the death cases in the U.S. now top 250,000.  Masks and medicine have become the latest political football. (How in the world did a pandemic become politicized?)    

Sharing time with the pandemic is widespread social unrest stemming from the George Floyd tragedy.  Peaceful demonstration (an invaluable First amendment right) has been met with disturbing response, including the deployment of federal forces, as never before seen.  And then there are those clearly out of line, looting, burning, and destroying.

Also sharing time with the pandemic, perhaps inextricably intertwined with the pandemic, is the onset of a depression-like economy.  The 3^rd quarter showed the GDP drop in excess of 30%.  Not since the depression have such drops been experienced.

So, there can be no question we live in difficult and strange times.  A plague, a depression, and social inequality rolled into one year – 2020!!  However, I am here to tell you that we at ABPLA are staying positive and looking forward to an eventual return to normalcy.

To that end we have started hosting a regular Zoom Happy Hour, with a little more substance than just a Happy Hour, as we have an introductory speaker address us on unique case issues. 

Our next happy hour, will be Thursday, August 6, 2020 (7 PM EDT/4 PM PDT) and will feature Jon Lommuro discussing how to manage Audit Trails.  I strongly encourage you to participate in this relaxed informal happy hour if you are able.  I will have Reeve circulate the Zoom invite, but please go ahead and calendar.

Due to popular response, we will regularly hold these Zoom conferences on the first and third Thursday of each month.  We have speakers lined up for the next two months already, and they will include David Drexler, William McMurry, Grace Weatherly and Linley Jones, among others.  Please shoot me an e-mail if you are interested in presenting.  Also don’t forget to get on our list serve and start a discussion about topics you would like addressed. As always drinks of all kinds are encouraged – though it is BYOB!!  

Turning to a more difficult topic, after much consideration, we have decided to cancel the National Legal & Medical Malpractice Conference this year.  It is disappointing to cancel a meeting that I believe is one of the best conferences – ever!!  The CLE is by far the most engaging, but I will miss spending time with each of you most.  I truly believe those in ABPLA have gone beyond the call to demonstrate their expertise in professional liability.  I guess we will have to remotely gather until we can physically meet. 

However, even in the face of the pandemic, the state of the union for ABPLA remains strong.  As you may be aware, the ABA has accredited the ABPLA since it began accrediting specialization programs, providing validity with the state bars and ensuring confidence in the consumers of legal services.  The ABA, while navigating its business practices during the pandemic, has recently reassured the ABPLA, and all national certifying organizations, of the ABA’s commitment to specialization. Our hope is that the ABA can provide the same recognition for board certification that Texas, Florida and California have been able to provide. 

Lastly, I have directed Reeve to design an update of the ABPLA website.  One of the luxuries ABPLA board certification affords us, is our placement in search engines when searching for professional liability.  In most markets the first organic search result for “medical malpractice” is the ABPLA.  This is no small feat, I can assure you.   

We are hoping that with the website “overhaul” we will be able to gain the same top placement for the search term "legal malpractice' as well as we currently enjoy for “medical malpractice”.  In reworking the website, the goal is to have your personal profiles (and links to your website) appear in the organic search results top ranking along with the ABPLA.  As we make progress on this we will reach out to you with a request to update your profile, and provide you with keywords and phrases that you may want to put on your own current site to increase traffic. I expect the new version of the site to be fully functioning before the end of the year.

So I end with the new admonitions of 2020 – “Stay safe and stay strong.” 

February 27, 2020

President’s Address:

I owe each of you an apology. Here it is the end of February, and I am only now dictating my first Presidents Address of the year. My, how time flies when you're having fun!

My January was an absolute blur. Monday, January 6, 2020 was my first trial call. Although I did manage to spend some quality time with family through the holidays, I will remember this time most as trial preparation, though the case did not involve professional negligence.

 Billy was only 23 years old when the scooter he was operating was struck by a negligently driven car. Billy was catastrophically injured. Traumatic brain injury of the worst kind-axonal shearing throughout the brain. Not mild. Not moderate. Catastrophic.

The case necessitated eight damage experts alone. Physical medicine and rehabilitation, case management and life care planning, neurosurgery, orthopedics, neuropsychology, vocational, and economics.  And then there was liability...

After much work, on January 6, 2020, I appeared "Ready for the Plaintiff! " Then came the inevitable letdown. No trial courts available. Come back in six months.

Sometimes it is hard explaining to our families why we miss so many family events in the service of others. An inescapable reality that we all know much too well is that as trial lawyers we have little control over our own calendars. Sometimes unknown judges seem to control our very existence. And yet none of us would trade professions.  A trial lawyer is one of the noblest professions of them all. Sometimes we need remind ourselves of that.

I know just the place where we can do that! On October 15-17th, 2020 at the JW Marriott - Desert Ridge in Scottsdale, Arizona, we will be holding our National Legal & Medical Malpractice Conference. Put it in your calendar now. I repeat, put it in your calendar now. Plan to be there. Where else can you recharge your batteries with great friends and your ABPLA family?

John Romano, Adam Malone, Grace Weatherly, Bill McMurry, Les Weisbrod, Bill Callaham, and Jim Bostwick will "WOW” you, to say the least. Moreover, our program this year is heavily weighted on the medical negligence side with physicians and other medical specialists. The legal negligence side is broad-based with emphasis on ethics. So, to be blunt, this is a conference you will not want to miss. Bring your golf clubs, your swimsuit, your suntan lotion, your hiking boots, your tennis rackets, and whatever else suits your Arizona purposes. The point is-be there.

Though I have been remiss in getting at least my January Address out to you, we have been very busy working with various accrediting organizations and board certifying organizations around the country, including the American Bar Association.  We are working to assure your board certification remains not only relevant to the accrediting organization(s), but also ensuring board certification is on the path to be the gold standard for the consumer of legal services when seeking representation. 

There have been many discussions regarding fees and outreach to the public regarding certification, during the ABA’s restructuring of the Center for Professional Responsibility (which used to house the ABA Section on Specialization).  We do know the ABA is dedicated to Board Certification and in ensuring it remains a prominent achievement for attorneys around the country.  Due to the lobbying of the ABPLA and other organizations, there will be no new fee increases this year with the ABA, which is great news for all Board Certifying Organizations and Board Certified Specialists.

The ABPLA has recently been reaccredited by California, South Carolina, and currently have conditional approval in Florida.  The conditional approval in Florida is that any attorney in Florida seeking NEW certification in Medical Malpractice or Legal Malpractice by the ABPLA must already be Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by the Florida Bar of Legal Specialization.  While not ideal, for seeking new Certifications, this allows the ABPLA to specifically target attorneys who are familiar with and understand the significance of Board Certification. We will keep you posted on any progress in this arena.

Bill McMurry, past President, will be representing the ABPLA at the American Civil Trial Bar Roundtable in Washington D.C. hosted by ABOTA in March.  The ABPLA is the only national certifying organization in the country who has a seat at this roundtable, which brings together leaders of the major civil trial bar organizations and the ABA to work together in the continuation and preservation of the civil trial justice system. The Roundtable remains active in developing a well-reasoned and balanced approach to civil trial justice issues and is a voice in preserving and promoting the civil jury trial right and an independent and impartial judiciary. Mary Alexander of San Francisco's Mary Alexander & Associates leads the Roundtable for ABOTA, and at a recent dinner expressed interest in working closely with ABPLA.

So, in closing, ABPLA continues to strongly represent your interests moving forward in your practice. I hope to see you in Scottsdale!

December 16, 2019

President’s Address:

First of all, let me wish all of you happy holidays! I write you from New York City which is as decked out as I imagine any place in the world.

The tree is lit, and the store windows are decorated and beautifully alluring. It is truly a magical time of year to be in New York, save the traffic.

They say that patience is a virtue, and I say there must be a lot of very virtuous people in New York this time of year. When calling for an Uber, or a cab, we quickly learned that the drive time through Manhattan was often much, much, longer than the walking time. When it wasn’t raining, or snowing, we walked.  Given all the meals we have enjoyed, it was probably for the best.

As 2019 comes to an end, I am proud to look back on an excellent year with ABPLA.  We are on track to welcome between 8 to 10 new board-certified members, and while that is just shy of the 12 new members our Membership Committee aspired to, it nonetheless reflects ongoing growth to the organization.

The ABPLA website, which lists all of our board-certified lawyers, both legal and medical, is now number one throughout the country when one searches “medical malpractice attorneys”.

Our Conference Planning Committee has been hard at work planning our Conference for next year.  On the “you spoke and we listened category” please calendar October 15-17, 2020, and join us in Scottsdale, Arizona for next year’s Conference. Reeve is in the process of finalizing our resort reservations, so plan to bring your golf clubs, tennis rackets, hiking shoes, and swimsuits.

The medical negligence portion of the Conference will place heavy emphasis on the medical sciences. While speakers are currently being lined up, expect to hear from physicians as well as lawyers. On the legal malpractice side, expect cutting edge information regarding professional negligence cases with emphasis on the ethical practice of law.  It will truly be a conference you will want to attend.

Both Reeve and I worked extensively with ABPLA‘s “sister certifying organizations“, and with the ABA.  While we faced some challenges with the ABA this year, I am happy to report that our relationship with the ABA is promising, though somewhat dynamic. Our next meeting with the ABA will take place in February, 2020. I will certainly have more to report at that time.

The month of December started with a bang for the Scarlett family. I am happy to announce that my son, Randy, passed the California Bar Exam, and was sworn in by his grandfather - Judge Claude Perasso. I couldn’t be prouder, and look forward to practicing law with him.

In closing, I want you all to know how proud I am of the ABPLA, and each of you, our Board Certified lawyers. What you have done in taking that extra step to become board-certified is a value add to each of your clients. So with these thoughts in mind, let me wish each of you happy holidays and a wonderful New Year