Dan calls Officer Woodson of the Bellvale Police to get his side of what happened. He doesn’t get through to Woodson but speaks with the desk sergeant, Fred Lawn, who is familiar with the case facts. Dan uses SJ’s simple telephone call entry form in the Communications – Opposing Party subfile to make a note of that call.
From his conversation with Sgt.Lawn Dan has learned a few things that spell more trouble. After Carson Romero hit her car Julie had a second car accident, a single car collision. Woodson responded and investigated this accident also. At the scene Julie appeared dazed and confused. Was this due to intoxication or her injuries? Dan can only surmise. The girl was taken to Bellvale hospital and treated for minor injuries, so the first choice — intoxication — is more likely.
The plot sickens. Pills were found on the front seat of the car which have been sent out to the police lab for testing. No way of knowing yet whether they were prescription or illegal. And in the same inebriated breath Julie tells Woodson that Carson had crashed into her earlier in the first accident.
What does Dan do after the call to the Bellvale police?
He makes a time slip for his telephone call to the police. Dan will not charge for the initial phone call from Joe Romero, and as a courtesy to Joe, a valued existing client, he will not charge for this phone call to the police if he does not get retained to represent Joe or Carson. But if he is hired he will bill for the second call. So he fills out a time slip using the simple entry form in the Time & Billing section of SJ, which automatically calculates the amount charged based on the time spent and Dan’s billing rate. When it comes time to bill Joe Romero the SJ Invoice template will pull down and add this time slip along with all the others that have been entered by Dan, as well as any expense slips for Out of Pocket Expenses incurred on the file; and it will deduct any slips for payments and credits to which Joe Romero is entitled; and then finally it will render an easy to read and understand professional bill that can be mailed directly out to the client; or the time & billing data can be exported to a full-featured accounting program like Quickbooks™ for accounting and billing there.
What is the lawyer thinking?
Julie was probably drunk or under the influence of drugs when the second accident (single car collision) occurred. Depending on how she got the alcohol and/or the drugs this may raise more trouble for Carson. Dan thinks briefly about the potential for Carson’s probable negligence in the first accident creating civil liability for Joe based on some theory of negligent parental supervision. But he reasons that the risks of that are small because Julie’s injuries appear to be minor and are likely covered by auto insurance, either under Carson’s bodily injury coverage, or under a policy owned by Joe Romero which applies to Carson’s vehicle as a member of Joe’s household who is listed as an insured on the policy as well as a driver. Nevertheless these insurance facts have to be pinned down and Dan will put them in his TO DO list. Regarding Julie’s second accident, it may be possible that there is a causal connection from her injuries in the first accident for which Carson may be held liable. But the same insurance considerations apply so Dan is not terribly concerned about that.
The pills found on the front seat of Julie’s car are another matter. Dan knows he has to speak directly to Woodson about where all of this may be heading.
[N.B. I recommend to my readers that they follow the parallel Romero case blog of Mark Bernstein (Eastgate Systems, Inc.), the developer of Tinderbox. The focus of Mark’s blog is on the mapping features and uses of Tinderbox (which are incorporated in Summary Judgment™) for analyzing complex fact patterns that are unfolding over time.]
Copyright © 2009 Stephen M. Winnick, Esq. All rights reserved.
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