Greedy Trial Lawyer
Right On!
Now Isiah Thomas Is In A Hostile Environment
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Some years ago I had the delightful experience of a jury note after 2 days of deliberation which asked the judge, "Do we fill out the amount of the damages if we agree the doctor was at fault?" Obviously, the doctor and his defense attorney were having far different feelings.
I recalled this incident when I read the following news account of the Isiah Thomas case.
Knicks coach Isiah Thomas isn't getting any love from the jury in his sensational sexual harassment case, a bombshell note from the panel revealed yesterday.As a second full day of deliberations drew to a close, the seven jurors sent out a message signaling they all agree Thomas and Madison Square Garden subjected Knicks executive Anucha Browne Sanders to a hostile work environment.
The note from the jury forewoman said the panel is unanimous on eight of the nine charges in the case, but divided over whether to make Thomas dig into his own pocket.
The note indicated that a lone holdout juror is blocking their decision on whether Thomas should be forced to pay punitive damages to Sanders.
From the New York Post
Whatever the environment was at Madison Square Garden, my guess is that Thomas created a hostile home environment later in the evening. Soon to be followed by a hostile law office environment after the verdict.
Throw The Uninsured In Jail!
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The solution to the 40 million plus Americans without health insurance may lie in our prison system.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1976 that inmates have a constitutional right to health care. (What a great country!) If we could criminalize failing to have health insurance and (this is important) impose prison sentences instead of handing out probation, we are home free.
We should parole the uninsured offenders when they turn 65, however, to avoid this pathetic scenario:
As prison inmates age, health costs rise
It's becoming a common sight: geriatric inmates spending their waning days behind bars. The soaring number of aging inmates is now outpacing the prison growth as a whole.Tough sentencing laws passed in the 1980s and 1990s are largely to blame. It's all fueling an explosion in inmate health costs.
"It keeps going up and up," said Alan Adams, director of Health Services for the Georgia Department of Corrections. "We've got some old guys who are too sick to get out of bed. And some of them, they're going to die inside. The courts say we have to provide care and we do. But that costs money."
The trend is particularly pronounced in the South, which has some of the nation's toughest sentencing laws. In 16 Southern states, the growth rate has escalated by an average of 145 percent since 1997, according to the Southern Legislative Conference.
Give This Man A Jury Of His Peers
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In Ohio, a man accused of murder is concerned about getting an impartial jury. I say let the man have a jury of his peers - police officers.
Attorneys Thinking About Jury Impartiality In High-Profile Case
CANTON- Lawyers considered Friday whether an impartial jury can be found in the northeast Ohio county where a police officer is accused of killing his pregnant girlfriend.Cutts could receive the death penalty if convicted of aggravated murder in the deaths of Jessie Davis and her unborn daughter. The body of Davis, 26, was found June 23 in a wooded area about 15 miles north of her home near North Canton.
Myron Watson, one of Cutts' attorneys, said after the hearing that he expects race will be a factor during jury selection. Cutts is black and Davis was white.
"In this case, ignoring the racial dynamic to it, I think, would be irresponsible," Watson said. "It is our hope to have a fair trial, but we have to do our homework and see if that can be accomplished here or in a different venue."
Florida Trial Lawyer Matthew Noyes May Need Medical Attention
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Would someone please check the temperature of Florida lawyer, Matthew Noyes. He may be incoherent. Matthew is upset because the Florida No-Fault Law is soon to expire.
Get Ready to Hire An Attorney After Every Car Accident
The Florida Legislative leaders decided to postpone the upcoming Special Session. They claim they need more time to work out the ground rules and reach a consensus. I say it is, at least partially, because they want the Florida No-Fault Insurance to expire before their special session.Come October 1st, the courtrooms around Florida will be full of you and me and everyone else who now needs to sue the at-fault driver for payment of the medical expenses caused by a car accident. You and me and everyone else will now have to sue the at-fault driver for lost wages incurred because of the negligence of an at-fault driver in a car accident.
One might ask at this point in Matthew's vision of the future - what's the harm in that? After all, don't greedy trial lawyers make their living filing suits and clogging up courtrooms?
Here is the Noyes answer (and the reason we need to check for a serious brain infection):
As a personal injury attorney, I should be happy--it means more business for me. But, as a Floridian, it disgusts me how the insurance companies have the politicians in their pocket.
Matthew, you probably need to take two aspirin, drink plenty of liquids and go to bed until October 1. After that, I suspect you will need all of the energy you can muster to file the new lawsuits.
Do The Right Thing - It Will Be A Refreshing Change
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Open Letter to Doctors Who Screw Up
Dear Doctors:
Read this article, take two aspirin and try being honest with your patient and the patient's family - you might start a trend and put me out of business.
Greedy Trial Lawyer
Doctors Urged To Admit Fault In Medical Errors, Apologize
Hospitals increasingly are creating policies that encourage doctors who make medical mistakes to apologize to patients, the Chicago Tribune reports. In the past, physicians have been "too proud, too afraid of malpractice lawsuits and too worried about losing face" to make apologies, according to the Tribune."One of the biggest obstacles to disclosure is the fear of lawsuits," the Tribune reports. Although some contend that admission of errors will make it easier for patients to file suit, others say that an apology and compensation for injuries will reduce that likelihood.
Steven Kraman, who helped develop the disclosure program at the Lexington VA Medical Center in Kentucky, said that admitting errors is a way for hospitals to learn from mistakes and develop ways to ensure they do not happen again, outweighing the potential costs of apologies.
During the first year of its disclosure policy, the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center had one malpractice claim filed among 40 acknowledged errors, according to the Tribune. UIC CEO John DeNardo said, "The best way to approach this is to own up to the fact that an incident happened and ask what can we do to fix it and make the situation better" (Graham, Chicago Tribune, 8/19).
Medicare To Hospitals: No More Pay For Bad Medicine
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For the first time, hospitals and doctors will have a real incentive to eliminate errors in medical care. No more Mr. Nice Guy, says Medicare. Neither Medicare nor the patient will have to pay for the cost of medical mistakes.
Medicare Says It Won't Cover Hospital Errors
In a significant policy change, Bush administration officials say that Medicare will no longer pay the extra costs of treating preventable errors, injuries and infections that occur in hospitals, a move they say could save lives and millions of dollars.Private insurers are considering similar changes, which they said could multiply the savings and benefits for patients.
Under the new rules, to be published next week, Medicare will not pay hospitals for the costs of treating certain "conditions that could reasonably have been prevented."
Among the conditions that will be affected are bedsores, or pressure ulcers; injuries caused by falls; and infections resulting from the prolonged use of catheters in blood vessels or the bladder.
In addition, Medicare says it will not pay for the treatment of "serious preventable events" like leaving a sponge or other object in a patient during surgery and providing a patient with incompatible blood or blood products.
Lisa A. McGiffert, a health policy analyst at Consumers Union, hailed the rules.
"Hundreds of thousands of people suffer needlessly from preventable hospital infections and medical errors every year," Ms. McGiffert said. "Medicare is using its clout to improve care and keep patients safe. It's forcing hospitals to face this problem in a way they never have before."
Christine K. Cahill, a registered nurse who used to inspect hospitals for the California Department of Public Health, said: "This is a great start. Infection-control specialists have been screaming for 20 years that federal and state officials should pay more attention to this problem because hospital infections hurt patients and cost money."
The rules, first reported in The Star-Ledger of Newark, carry out a directive from Congress included in a 2006 law. When they were proposed in May, consumer advocates said they feared that some hospitals might charge patients for costs that Medicare refused to pay.
But that is forbidden. "The hospital cannot bill the beneficiary for any charges associated with the hospital-acquired complication," the final rules say.
From The New York Times
Welcome To The Drug Channel, 24 Hour Pill Pushing
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I am more convinced than ever that the time is right for The Drug Channel, 24 hours a day of nothing but commercials for prescription drugs. The scroll bar at the bottom of the screen can continuously run the necessary disclaimers and "ask your physician" nonsense. The ads could expand gradually into music videos, game and talk shows and even live athletic events [The Boston Restless Leg Marathon would be a winner].
Why am I so confident that all of this is just around the corner? Read on.
More Frequent Dose of Dollars for Drug Ads
Drugmakers' spending on consumer advertising is growing faster than their total spending on marketing, a new study finds.It has been a decade since new federal regulations allowed drug companies to start pitching prescription medications on TV. Yet despite the controversy that has arisen from this direct-to-consumer (DTC) promotion, spending on such ads continues to grow faster than spending on drug-industry marketing as a whole. So say the authors of a study set to be published in the Aug. 16 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.
DTC ad spending has grown on average 14% a year since 2002--to $4.2 billion a year--while total promotional spending is up about 9% a year to $30 billion, according to the study, which was a joint effort of the University of Pittsburgh and Harvard University.
The spike in spending comes just as the U.S. Food & Drug Administration seems to be easing up on its oversight of pharmaceutical company advertising. In 1997, the FDA sent 142 letters warning pharma companies that their ads violated federal laws governing how they communicate the balance between risks and benefits. In 2006, the agency sent just 22 such letters.
A Long Tradition - The Contingency Fee Predates The Constitution
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I am holding my head a little higher today. I have just learned contingency fee arrangements are older than the U.S.
Contingency Fees Don't Violate Separation of Powers, Says Columbia Prof Michael C. Dorf
We lead-paint watchers are accustomed to hearing and repeating the conventional arguments against contingency arrangement between government entities and private law firms. Maybe too accustomed. That could be lulling us into a false sense of optimism that the contingency agreement in Rhode Island will be struck down by that state's Supreme Court and that even if the ruling is appealed in County of Santa Clara, et al. v Atlantic Richfield Co., et al. our position will triumph.Columbia Law Professor Michael C. Dorf aggressively argues against what has become the party line - the separation of power notion - in contingency battles. In his blog Dorf on Law, Dorf states that contingency fee arrangements, for example, between state attorneys general and private lawyers do not violate the separation of powers. Period.
Dorf contends...the tradition of contingency arrangements is even older than the United States of America. Back then those private entities were called "relators" and they were able to file qui tam actions on the part of government entities. The relators got a cut of the action. Those sorts of arrangements still go on today, for instance, to enforce the False Claims Act.
From Law And More
It is a pity the founding fathers neglected to include the right to a contingency fee arrangement in the Bill of Rights.
Incoming Praise Of The Genius Of The Plaintiff Bar
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It is always heartening when a critic of plaintiff trial lawyers gives us even a back-handed compliment. In the middle of what feels like a slam on our civil justice system, Jane Genova, posting at Law And More, sees what she calls our genius.
The Marketing & Sale of American "Justice" - Creating Demand
The genius of the plaintiff bar has been its ability to embed in the national consciousness of America a whole new idea. That's the notion that lawsuits are the right way to resolve disputes, seek abstract or concrete justice (usually through an award of damages), and change society.
Jane may or may not be right. But, the notion, which seems perfectly reasonable to me, could not have taken hold in America without the monumental misconduct of corporations and other wrongdoers which continues to cause needless injuries, deaths and economic losses. Most rational victims do prefer the court system to duels, riots or fire bombing as a means of seeking justice and compensation.
Jane claims to remember a world before people thought of filing lawsuits:
And you never ever ever initiated a lawsuit. Somehow you worked it out another way. Not all of those ways were good, of course. In my Jersey City, NJ neighborhood, we were instructed by our elders to steal from stores which did us wrong. [At least they didn't use hit men.]
Then, Jane sees the benefit to litigation when meritorious.
Lawsuits with merit probably represent progress in a civilization.
Bottom line for Jane, I suppose, is Meritorious Lawsuits Good but Frivolous Lawsuits Bad. (Does anyone have a handy-dandy guide that could substitute for a judicial determination of this issue?)
Thanks for the history of justice lesson, the key to good and bad lawsuits and the praise of the efforts of trial lawyers.
The Democratic Presidential Nominee Who Wins
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Memo from Peter D. Hart Research Associates, Inc. to the American Association for Justice:
Civil Justice Issues and the 2008 Election
From June 28 to July 3, 2007, Peter D. Hart Research Associates, Inc., conducted a national telephone survey for the American Association for Justice among 1,007 likely 2008 voters (margin of error equals ±3.2 percentage points). The survey explored voters' attitudes toward the civil justice system and the impact of civil justice issues on voting preferences.Americans are deeply worried about their nation's future, and concern about corporate misconduct is a major source of their anxiety. "Worried swing voters," who see corporate irresponsibility as a central problem, may play a pivotal role in the 2008 election.
On issues of civil justice, voters consider corporate misconduct to be a much more serious national problem today than alleged "lawsuit abuse."
Americans believe that the civil justice system provides essential safeguards for them at a time when corporate misconduct is such a serious problem.
In the electoral arena, the survey results provide strong evidence that voters will reward candidates and parties who support the civil justice system, and seek to hold corporations accountable for misconduct, over those who attack trial lawyers and favor policies that restrict access to the civil justice system.
I come away from the survey with an action plan for the 2008 election. The logic behind my ingenious plan is highlighted in this paragraph from the survey results:
Voters worry about their future currently vote Democratic (in a generic presidential ballot) by 32 percentage points, whereas those confident about their outlook favor a GOP candidate by 10 points.
My plan:
1. The Democrats must run a generic presidential candidate. If they foolishly identify a real person as a candidate the odds of winning will drop to zilch. Look what happened to Gore and Kerry.
2) I urge the Democrats to nominate a leader. Not a real person with leadership qualities. I am talking about A Leader, Someone We Can Trust To End Our Worries. This will avoid all the swift-boating. A Leader will be about the future, not the past. A Leader will not have to explain prior positions away.
Think of the money that will be saved for the general election by not wallowing through the primaries. Think how frustrated the Republicans would be without Hillary, Obama or Edwards to kick around.
Medical Airlifts - A Solution To Our Health Care Crisis
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"Honey, let's take the kids to India this summer and have my knee replaced."
Shopping For Healthcare Overseas
The exploding cost of healthcare in the United States has many Americans traveling overseas for treatment. With the aid of the Internet, patients can find international providers who will administer the healthcare they need at a fraction of the cost. Medical tourism, as this trend is called, has the potential to dramatically impact the economies of developing countries and has serious implications for healthcare around the globe.Medical Tourism in Developing Countries explores this international trade in medical services and discusses its potential as an economic growth strategy. The book, to be released on August 7, is co-authored by Saint Joseph's University Economist Milica Z. Bookman, Ph.D., and her daughter, an intellectual property attorney, Karla R. Bookman.
The United States is the only industrialized nation without free, universal healthcare. According to the Centers for Disease Control, there are currently 43.6 million people in the United States without health insurance. These individuals, however, are not the largest consumers of medical tourism.
"Not all uninsured individuals have the internet savvy and wherewithal to research something like medical tourism. Some do, and they would be good candidates for treatment abroad," explains Dr. Bookman. "It's more likely for the insured, facing huge deductibles, to take advantage of medical tourism."
Now, if we could only ship the indigent and uninsured overseas that would be the real trick.
Praise For The Tort System
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Unaccustomed as I am to dealing with praise of trial lawyers and their role in society, I am having trouble reacting to the love I am receiving from Jeffrey Pfeffer's article in Business 2.0.
Trial lawyer William A. "Bill" Daniels posts the entire article at the link below.
In defense of lawyers (no joke)
With fewer regulators acting as watchdogs over business, attorneys - love 'em or hate 'em - are everyone's best defense, writes Business 2.0's Jeffrey Pfeffer:Tort-reform advocates love to rail against the skyrocketing costs of litigation and multimillion-dollar damage awards, yet one definitive study from Rand showed no increase in the percentage of tort cases won by plaintiffs and no statistically significant increase in the median award paid by businesses. Comparisons with other countries can also be misleading because they have more stringent regulatory regimes.
True, regulatory agencies cost billions, and so does our legal system. But I would argue it's a pretty good deal -- simply a necessary cost of running an economy in which people rely on the promises and products of strangers.
The next time you want to complain about "frivolous" lawsuits, picture doing business in a world where promises can't be relied on and you can only deal with people and organizations you already know well. There are undoubtedly abuses and problems in our current system, but the cost of punishing malfeasance is a necessary and small price to pay for running a modern economy.
Thank you, Bill, for tipping us to the Pfeffer article. And, thank you, Jeffrey, for getting it right.
Up Close And Personal In The Justice Department
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I think I have found a true public servant working in the U.S. Department of Justice. His name is John S. Koppel, and he has recently submitted an article to the Denver Post. Stand back as you read these excerpts. The heat and passion could ignite you.
Bush justice is a national disgrace
As a longtime attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, I can honestly say that I have never been as ashamed of the department and government that I serve as I am at this time.The public record now plainly demonstrates that both the DOJ and the government as a whole have been thoroughly politicized in a manner that is inappropriate, unethical and indeed unlawful. The unconscionable commutation of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's sentence, the misuse of warrantless investigative powers under the Patriot Act and the deplorable treatment of U.S. attorneys all point to an unmistakable pattern of abuse.
In more than a quarter of a century at the DOJ, I have never before seen such consistent and marked disrespect on the part of the highest ranking government policymakers for both law and ethics.
The public trust has been flagrantly violated, and meaningful accountability is long overdue. Officials who have brought into disrepute both the Department of Justice and the administration of justice as a whole should finally have to answer for it - and the misdeeds at issue involve not merely garden-variety misconduct, but multiple "high crimes and misdemeanors," including war crimes and crimes against humanity.
John S. Koppel has been a civil appellate attorney with the Department of Justice since 1981.
Thanks to Trial Ad Notes for blogging on this act of bravery.
National Association Of Manufacturers Promotes Trial Lawyer Convention
Category: Right On!
A special thanks today goes to the National Association of Manufacturers who are publicizing the upcoming national convention of trial lawyers in Chicago.
A List of Everyone You Can Sue
The City of Deep Pockets, er, Big Shoulders, is hosting the annual convention of the American Association for Justice, that is, the former Association of Trial Lawyers of America. The Chicago gathering, which starts Saturday, is the first convention since the organization gave itself the new, non-threatening title.Just what will these kitten fish be up to this week? Same old, same old, sharpening their teeth for the unsuspecting defendant. Take a look at page 12 of the convention's program (full program here in .pdf). It's a list of the meetings of AAJ Litigation Groups, the lawyers who specialize in suing various groups. They'll put their heads together, study the latest "groundbreaking legal theory," figure out how best to sue the next employer, the next shopkeeper, the next manufacturer. Workshops on finding the next victim.
And it's quite a list: 77 different categories, or rather, targets.
The members of NAM have reliably provided new targets of litigation for so many years now that NAM has agreed to provide marketing services for greedy trial lawyers and their organizations. (We can pardon the reference to the unsuspecting defendant - all manufacturers are suspects when their consumers are maimed and killed regularly.)
The 11 Grenades Tossed At Universal Heath Care
Category: Right On!
We can thank Joe Paduda at Managed Care Matters for providing us with a list of the most common criticisms of the concept of Universal Health Care. (You will need to visit his site to read them.)
The top ten reasons universal coverage is bad
Why is universal coverage so bad? Here, culled from the speeches, monographs, and policy papers are the consensus top ten reasons.
I'll explore each of them in turn this week.
My expectation is that Joe will do a thorough job discussing them.
I feel I should point out, however, the one, rarely spoken, reason: the likely loss of substantial income and profits by health care providers and insurance companies. Few of the other reasons carry the motivational force as this reason to oppose Universal Health Care.
Should Trial Lawyers Discount Fees For America's Heroes?
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Minnesota may soon become the Land of 10,000 Free Wills.
Minnesota lawyers launch "Wills for Heroes" program
Members of the Minnesota State Bar Association launch an unusual program to help those who risk their lives to keep society safe. Lawyers are donating their time to draft wills and health care directives for firefighters, police, paramedics, emergency medical technicians and corrections officers.
Should personal injury lawyers discount their fees for these same front-line protectors?
Trial Lawyer's Perverse Argument Obtains Compensation For Dog Bite Victim
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I rarely agree with the posts at Overlawyered, but David Nieporent today has gotten something almost exactly right.
In 2002, a couple of Rottweilers attacked and seriously injured Marguene St. Juste, a woman in Delray Beach, Florida. Last week, the jury awarded this woman $3.76 million for her injuries. Routine -- if expensive -- dog bite case, right? The patented Overlawyered twist? The jury decided that the owner of the Rottweilers, who had allegedly repeatedly allowed the dogs to run free, was only 40% responsible for this tragedy. The other 60% of the blame -- no, not the dogs, or the victim, or the doctors who treated her, or anybody obvious like that. Rather, the majority of the responsibility was assigned to the city of Delray Beach, Florida....More importantly, why should it make the city liable at all? It doesn't in other contexts; you can't sue the police for failing to arrest a dangerous criminal, for instance. (It's well-established that the police do not have a legal duty to protect you, absent special circumstances.) Once again, we see trial lawyers perversely arguing that an inconsistently-followed safety rule should make a defendant more liable than not having a safety rule at all. [And, perversely prevailing, I guess.] If Delray Beach had no animal control ordinance, it could not have been sued under these circumstances. But because it had one, taxpayers are on the hook for up to $2.2 million. Now, we don't expect trial lawyers to care about the incentives that their lawsuits create; after all, they're just in this game for the money. But shouldn't our legal system factor in these public policy considerations?
While I would take exception to David's use of the word "game" (if he is referring to the civil justice system) it is true that trial lawyers focus in individual cases on the monetary compensation of each victim of wrongdoing. We are not legislators nor judges, only advocates. The process of seeking justice for each victim probably moves the common law and, in some instances, legislative bodies in one direction or another. Public policy is not the reason most victims seek redress for a civil wrong. And, public policy is not the guiding light for most trial lawyers.
Thank you, David for recognizing our role in the civil justice system.
Now, about the City's liability. I am perversely willing to trust the judicial system to determine if the verdict against the City is legally correct.
Scooter's Judge May Write For The Daily Show
Category: Right On!
Scooter Libby probably does not find much to laugh about these days. But, a tongue-in-cheek footnote to his judge's order is causing some chuckles in cyberspace.
Twelve extremely eminent law professors -- Vikram Amar, Randy Barnett, Robert Bork, Alan Dershowitz, Viet Dinh, Douglas Kmiec, Gary Lawson, Earl Maltz, Thomas Merrill, Robert Nagel, Richard Parker, and Robert Pushaw -- have submitted an amicus brief in defense of Scooter Libby. The judge's order granting the request contained this footnote:It is an impressive show of public service when twelve prominent and distinguished current and former law professors of well-respected schools are able to amass their collective wisdom in the course of only several days to provide their legal expertise to the Court on behalf of a criminal defendant. The Court trusts that this is a reflection of these eminent academics' willingness in the future to step to the plate and provide like assistance in cases involving any of the numerous litigants, both in this Court and throughout the courts of our nation, who lack the financial means to fully and properly articulate the merits of their legal positions even in instances where failure to do so could result in monetary penalties, incarceration, or worse. The Court will certainly not hesitate to call for such assistance from these luminaries, as necessary in the interests of justice and equity, whenever similar questions arise in the cases that come before it.
Posted on Alas! under the banner (Legal Funnies!)
Jon Stewart of The Daily Show could use the judge's talent for sarcasm in his writing pool.
Another Jailhouse Conversion
Category: Right On!
There are times when I stand in awe of the American system of criminal justice.
How can anyone not be impressed by its impact on Paris Hilton?
Hilton Says She'll No Longer `act Dumb'
Associated PressParis Hilton says she will no longer "act dumb."
The reality TV star and relentless publicity-seeker spoke with Barbara Walters by phone Sunday, a day after releasing a statement saying she hoped the media would focus on "more important things" than her 45-day jail sentence, according to ABC News' Web site.
"I used to act dumb. ... That act is no longer cute," ABC quoted Hilton as saying.
Hilton has been saying that she is changed by her jailhouse experience, and she repeated that theme with Walters: "Now, I would like to make a difference. ... God has given me this new chance."
God and the judge, apparently.
The Yale Club Is Borked
Category: Right On!
Why take note of a fall by an 80 year old man who files a personal injury lawsuit over the incident?
Robert Bork , the one-time U.S. Supreme Court nominee, has sued the Yale Club for negligence. He is seeking $1 million in damages for injuries he sustained from a fall at the club last year. [...]Bork was at the Yale Club last June to speak at an event sponsored by The New Criterion, a monthly review of the arts and intellectual life. According to the suit filed in federal court in Manhattan, the club failed to provide steps and a handrail to climb onto the dais. Mr. Bork fell backward as he was attempting to climb the dais, striking his leg on the stage and his head on a heat register, the suit says.
Bork, 80 years old, suffered a large hematoma, or swelling of blood, in his lower left leg as a result of the fall and the hematoma eventually burst, according to the lawsuit. The injury required surgery and months of physical therapy, according to the complaint. He claims to have suffered "excruciating pain" as a result of the injury and continues to walk with a limp, according to the complaint.
Robert Bork, tort-reform advocate, files slip-and-fall lawsuit
Of course, what makes this precious is that Bork is a long-time advocate of "tort reform," which would limit the right of injured people to file exactly these kinds of suits.It's also a reminder that the key to social progress in the United States is to get conservatives to have more life experiences. They're against gay rights, until someone close to them is gay. They're against separation of church and state, until they feel like the minority faith. They're against rights for the accused, until they're charged with a crime. They're against personal-injury lawsuits, until they get hurt in an accident. They're against....
Thanks to The Carpetbagger Report for bringing this to our attention and for the observations on the nature of conservative philosophy.
Is the medical malpractice action soon to follow?
Speaking Humor To Power, Judicial Version
Category: Right On!
Some people take themselves too seriously. Judges may be among the most sensitive to criticism or what they perceive as as even slight disrespect. Yet, they hand both out almost daily. How many times has a judge cut off a legal argument in mid-sentence? How often has an appellate court made an appellate lawyer dance for 15 to 20 minutes, never letting the attorney fully present his thoughts? What about the imperial hand waive from the bench coupled with the dismissive, "Move on, Counsel."
Maybe William P. Smith, Esq., had endured similar grief for too many years. Maybe he had just experienced the 1,000th nonsensical ruling of his career. Who knows exactly what caused him to toss a comical and harmless verbal grenade at a bankruptcy judge? No matter. Judge Sensitivo [I believe that was his nickname] was not amused. Well, I think the grenade was incredibly funny and deserved sustained laughter not disciplinary action.
If you ever find yourself addressing a judge, you're trying to influence that person. Perhaps influenced by "Judge Judy" and other media depictions of "tough judges," real judges don't want to hear your jokes and especially don't want to hear your putdowns.In that regard, when lawyer William P. Smith told a bankruptcy judge in Florida that the judge was "a few french fries short of a Happy Meal," he might have anticipated a less-than-enthusiastic response. And he got it.
After insulting bankruptcy judge Laurel Myerson Isicoff, Smith may lose the ability to practice in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida. He's already lost his client--Miami Beach's Mount Sinai Medical Center & Miami Heart Institute.
Source: Mark Nestmann, Preserving Your Privacy and More
Your Honor, Is Juror Number 3 Blogging?
Category: Right On!
I feel it is necessary for me to announce that I am not a defendant in any legal malpractice case. And, I have not accused any jurors of sleeping during any trial. (But, I did have a Federal District Court Judge doze off once during my case in chief - he was not pleased when I awakened him.)
Why am I providing this information? Well, it happens that at least one medical doctor/blogger has been commenting on his experiences during his medical malpractice trial. Talk about getting the inside view of the litigation process!
The story is from Real Lawyers Have Blogs. Obviously, Real Malpractice Defendants Have Blogs, too.
Blogging malpractice defendant exposed : Case settled
As Ivy League-educated pediatrician Robert P. Lindeman sat on the stand in Suffolk Superior Court this month, defending himself in a malpractice suit involving the death of a 12-year-old patient, the opposing counsel startled him with a question. Was Lindeman Flea?Flea, jurors in the case didn't know, was the screen name for a blogger who had written often and at length about a trial remarkably similar to the one that was going on in the courtroom that day.
In his blog, Flea had ridiculed the plaintiff's case and the plaintiff's lawyer. He had revealed the defense strategy. He had accused members of the jury of dozing.
Lindeman admitted that he was, in fact, Flea.
The next morning, on May 15, he agreed to pay what members of Boston's tight-knit legal community describe as a substantial settlement -- case closed.
Will we soon have blogging judges, jurors, criminal defendants and district attorneys?
The VA's Medical Records System Has Much Going For It
Category: Right On!
The New York Times Opinion section is probably not where the medical profession turns for records management advice, but it should.
Physician, Upgrade Thyself, written by Thomas Goetz, informs us of a very low cost software program that has vastly improved the VA's records system and can do the same for medical facilities throughout the country.
GO into almost any medical office, hospital or clinic in the United States and your records will still be handled the old-fashioned way -- on paper. You can use a computer to pay your taxes, to program your TiVo or to read a message from your great-aunt, but your doctor has to practically level a forest just to examine your medical files. The cost, however, isn't calculated in trees but in human lives: Electronic medical records would reduce the risk of medical errors and spare hospitals the expense of missing records and unnecessary treatment.Health care providers have been dreaming about electronic records for so long that the idea has begun to seem like vaporware, a never-to-be-realized fantasy similar to flying cars and jetpacks. But there is already a clear software standard, an open-source system that's low-cost, easy to use and readily available. It could be the key to the health care system we ought to have already.
The program, WorldVistA, is based on the Veterans Affairs Department's electronic-records system, called VistA (short for Veterans Health Information Systems and Technology Architecture -- and yes, they beat Bill Gates to the name). VistA stands as perhaps the greatest success story for government-developed information technology since the Internet itself.
...in 2002, a group of former Veterans Affairs programmers and open-source advocates formed WorldVistA. They set about making a version of VistA that was simple for health care providers to use, and the fruit of their effort is now ready for market. Like VistA, WorldVistA is robust and fast. In April, the software was approved by the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology. The certification means that WorldVistA is ready for broad adoption.
WorldVistA isn't perfect. It isn't as customizable as some proprietary systems, and its graphical interface isn't as intuitive or as polished. Worse, its back-office functions -- staffing and billing -- aren't all that strong. Major hospitals and health maintenance organizations in search of a Cadillac are free to spend the dollars to buy one.
But for the vast majority of health care providers, WorldVistA is what they've been waiting for: a low-cost, simple-to-use system that makes it easier to provide quality health care.
Even a greedy trial lawyer can appreciate the benefits of an electronic medical records system.