Irrelevant, Inflammatory and Prejudicial Topics Excluded at Trial

What kinds of issues are that inflammatory ?  Examples of irrelevant topics Doug Landau of the Herndon law firm ABRAMS LANDAU has succeeded in getting excluded from a personal injury trial include:

• prior accidents (with no injury, affecting other body parts, causing only property damage, etc.),
• criminal record (no felonies or misdemeanors involving “moral turpitude” or juvenile convictions),
• other health problems (pre-existing conditions, psychiatric care, subsequent accidents affecting different parts of the body, psychological and other counseling, HIV, Hepatitis, etc.),
• Litigation History (divorce, custody disputes, landlord-tenant, will contest, property ownership, Workers Compensation, etc.)

If there are issues that would distract a jury such that the fact-finders would be prejudiced in your case, speak to an experienced personal injury lawyer about how best to either keep such irrelevant topics out of the trial, or to deal with them in an appropriate manner.  By getting a pre-trial ruling from the trial judge in a permanent injury case, both sides can know the “ground rules” and avoid a mis-trial.  If a mistrial is declared, and the parties have to come back to court and re-try the case.   The jurors’ and witnesses’ valuable time will have been wasted.  If the insurance defense lawyers caused the mistrial by running afoul of the injury trial judge’s pre-trial ruling “in limine,” then the plaintiff’s lawyer may be able to ask for costs and other sanctions.