Don’t Show Up Empty-Handed When Using the “Empty Chair” Defense
The “empty chair” defense, in which the defendant denies responsibility for the plaintiff’s injuries and blames a person absent from trial (i.e., the “empty chair”), can be extremely effective in tort actions. Maryland’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, has rightly observed that “[t]he more the jury hears that the negligence of a third party caused the injury, the less likely the jury may be to find that the named defendant was negligent in causing the injury.” Am. Radiology Servs., LLC v. Reiss, 470 Md. 555, 589 (2020).
Click here to read the full article written by Joshua Kahn and Daniel Adamson published in the American Bar Association's Mass Torts Litigation Newsletter. Login may be required.
Click here to read a MSLaw blog post published about the same topic.
