In Jerymaine Beasley v. GEICO, 508 P.3d. 212, 2022 WL 1151426 (Wash App. Apr. 19, 2022, published in part), Division II of the court of appeals held “actual damages” under the Insurance Fair Conduct Act (“IFCA”) specifically include noneconomic damages (a component of which is emotional distress damages), a ruling completely at odds with and likely the death knell of Schreib v. Am. Family Mutual, 129 F. Supp. 3d 1129 (W.D. Wash. 2015).

While using a kitten filter is still not generally acceptable for a legal proceeding, the Zoom platform does offer substantial advantages which cannot be replicated in a courtroom.

New WDTL members as of March 24, 2022, to the present.

Court Dismisses Defamation Action with Prejudice - In Jesse Robbins v. Vietnamese Today News, LLC, Joy Lee from Smith Freed Eberhard represented a local Vietnamese newspaper in Seattle, Washington.

With the increase in Americans holding digital assets, the likelihood that insurers who write homeowners’ policies will encounter property claims involving them is ever increasing.

We faced challenges at each step of trial as we moved through the process of figuring out how to keep trials going during the pandemic. Fortunately, we have had terrific partnerships with the members of the bar and our staff.

Court Dismisses Negligence Action Against a General Contractor in a Post-Vargas World - In Liborio Vallin v. Rush Commercial Construction, Inc., Melody Retallack of Clement & Drotz, PLLC and Joy Lee of Smith Freed Eberhard jointly represented the general contractor in a construction site accident case where the Plaintiff fell from a height of just under 10 feet resulting in paraplegia.

The nurse reviewer in the following case study observed a pair of patterns in the medical records for a Motor Vehicle Accident (MVA) that helped to serve as mitigate points in favor for the insurance adjuster. This article will cover the key details of the case and the patterns noticed by the nurse review and will discuss pre-DOL history of the patient, multiple large gaps in the medical records, inconsistent pain complaints, and objective clinical findings from the fact pattern.