"The Beard Grows, But The Head Does Not Grow Wiser."
"Lawyers work hard and, like us, they're human, many of them."-Dick Cavett
“A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers.” - H. L. Mencken
"I tell you, I'll consult my lawyer. And if he advises me to do it, I'll get a new lawyer."-Groucho Marx 
"We are all here for a spell, get all the good laughs you can."
Dr. Donald Newman died on December 8, 2018, A true character in a business filled with them. And, though a character who had a definite pro-plaintiff bent, he was respected by both sides of the personal injury bar. I discovered this as I read the comments to Michael DePolo's FB post, which is how I learned about Dr. Don's death. I still feel bad that I learned of his passing after his funeral service, and so did not attend.
Dr. Don was a member of the legendary Newman clan: Dr. Max (father, an immortal in the medical legal biz), and sons Drs. Don and Steve.
This blog post will have 2 parts. Part 1 will be about some of my personal experiences with Dr. Don. In Part 2, I will share some other lawyers' stories, and end with a sad touch of irony.
I first met Don two weeks after I started at Bernstein & Bernstein. On the Friday afternoon of my second week at the firm, my boss, Harvey Howitt, gave me a red rope file and told me to take a look at it over the weekend. There was a settlement conference on Monday morning. I was to meet him and the client at 8:45am outside a courtroom in the Lafayette Building.
I looked at the file and showed up as directed. Harvey introduced me to the client as the attorney who would be handling her case. He then left, before the courtroom door opened. The case had mediated for 30K (Case evaluation was called mediation back then). Both sides had rejected. Defendant offered 5K. These were the the days of the "spin off" system (a topic for another day*),and I soon found myself walking my client over to the 17th floor of the City County Building, where Nick Shaheen, the Wayne County Assignment clerk, would see if there was a judge available to try the case. I prayed that there would not be one available, as I had discovered that none of my client's treaters had been deposed for trial.
No judges were immediately available, but we were "on call" for assignment, and the next day I received a call that we were to start trial the next day before Judge Lucile Watts. I remember that call very well. When it came in, I was interviewing a potential new auto injury client. She expressed to me her disappointment that our meeting wasn't like an LA Law episode (seriously). The fact that I just taken a call in her presence notifying me that I would be starting a jury trial in front of a hitherto unknown judge the next morning didn't impress her either. To be fair, her injury was a back strain, which didn't impress me much, truth be told.
Trial did start the next morning, and ultimately I did get a verdict and mediation sanctions against the other side. How did I pull that off with no medical testimony "in the can" for the jury? Well, sir, Dr. Donald Newman, who had done a one time evaluation of our client, at our request, during the litigation, came in and testified live, and charmed the jury. He talked about soft tissue damage (for that is all we had), muscle tearing, scar tissue, muscle shortening, and how that caused and demonstrated permanent injury, pain, restrictions etc. Dr. Don bailed out both the firm and the young attorney, and I was forever grateful.
I remember that the verdict came in at 12:30 on a Tuesday afternoon. I shook my client's hand, gathered up my trial files, took them to my car, and then walked 2 blocks to the B&B office in the First National Building where I met a client at 1pm to prep for a 2pm dep. Sic transit gloria mundi.
Even after Dr. Max Newman retired, he still kept an office at the Detroit Institute of Psychical Medicine and Rehabilitation on 12 Mile in Southfield. Dr. Don would often do his trial deps in Max's office. It certainly was tidier than Don's office and an impressive array of certificates and memorials adorned the walls.
During the defense attorney's cross exam at one of my trial deps, my attention wandered to those documents. One was a certificate of appreciation from the president, which, on inspection, turned out to be FDR (from early in his second term). My audible gasp came through on the dep's video.
At a Don Newman trial deposition, the exchange on the ultimate question followed the same script:
Me: "Dr. Newman, based on the history given you by Mr. X, your clinical examination and record review, do you have an opinion within a reasonable degree of medical probability as to whether your diagnosis was related to the accident of (blank)?"
Dr. Don: "I have an opinion."
Me: "And, Doctor, what is that opinion?"
That opinion always helped my client's cause.
By the way, I met Dr. Don just after it had been held that a Thermograph was not admissible as objective proof of an auto related injury. Those Thermograph depositions must have been a great deal of fun.
Dr. Don was a gentleman, a scholar and a good doctor. This is not just my opinion, as we will learn in Part 2.
*At the time of this story, Wayne County Circuit Judges did not have individual dockets. What the heck does that mean? You filed a case and were assigned a judge, who did hear pre-trial matters. But if the case made it as far as a trial, you would be randomly assigned after the settlement conference to whatever judge might be available. So, pre-trial judges and settlement conference judges had no incentive to control dockets. When I started, a newly filed case would have open discovery for 26 months (you read that right) before being assigned to mediation, what case evaluation was called back then. If after settlement conference, there was no judge available, your case might be adjourned for another settlement conference 6 months in the future. The Michigan Supreme Court now wants cases disposed of, by trial or otherwise, within one year of filing.
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