Baltimore Lead Paint Cases Restored
The Court of Appeals of Maryland has reinstated multiple lead paint cases, according to the MD Daily Record. The cases are both from Baltimore City.
Court cases often need to be proved through expert testimony. On one hand, if something is obvious, you don’t need an expert to say so. Let’s suppose a ceiling fell on someone. Now suppose there is a serious head injury involved. You do not need an expert to tell you a ceiling falling on someone’s head could cause a head injury. However, let’s also suppose there is serious brain injury involved and the injured person is also a boxer. The injured Ali claims the brain injury is from the ceiling, the landlord being sued claims the brain injury is from the boxing. That sounds like a battle of the experts to me.
The lead paint cases at issue here are about expert testimony. The Court of Appeals decision says the evidence about where lead paint exposure comes from can be proven without expert testimony. Kid eats stairs. Stairs are painted with lead paint. If you can prove these facts, you don’t need an expert to also say that’s where the exposure came from.
On an only somewhat related note, I have been hearing about lead paint cases for years. It almost always involved a kid eating a toy or the windowsill or a railing or something. I always thought: Who eats a railing? What kind of parents are these? Six months ago, I had a son. Now I understand. Kids put anything in their mouth. It’s disgusting and near impossible to fully stop. You don’t have to be a jury expert to know that lead paint lawyers need at least one parent on the jury.
Both cases here involve attorneys Peter T Nicholl and Bruce Powell, also of Peter Nicholl’s office. Sawyer v. Lebovits lists only them. The other case, Wallace, in addition to Nicholl and Powell, also lists Steve Lubar, David Owens, and Evan Goldman.
Not many lawyers in Maryland specialize in lead paint. We list less than 40 MD lawyers with cases listed as lead paint. See the full list of Maryland Lead Paint lawyers here.
Lead paint, of course, has largely been resolved moving forward. Paint with lead in it is now illegal. However, as always, litigation takes a long time to clean up.