From the New York Personal Injury Law Blog, the week that was:
- We start with the truly bizarre, a post by Ben Glass (InjuryBoard:Northern Virginia) that discusses one of the more bizarre laws he has seen proposed, that would grant immunity in Virginia for space travel;
- There is a new “study” from right wing Pacific Research, that claims tort cases, in addition to a parade of other horrors, are killing people. The Blawgletter apparently disagrees and starts the road to debunking the “study,” TortDeform chips in early with a list of other debunkings on the subject.
- The Trumatic Brain Injury Blog reports that, according to the U.S. government, the number of serious head injuries is on the rise;
- Howard Bashman‘s How Appealing reports that the Connecticut high court adopted a far more plaintiff-friendly rule in negligence cases involving so-called self-service operations, whether they are big-box department stores or small cafes with salad bars. Story in the Hartford Courant;
- David Swanner at the Trial Lawyer Resource Center discusses why it seems it is so hard to move cases;
- The Total Injury blog gives an update on the results of a fatal 2005 train wreck in Mississippi and the report of the National Transportation Safety Board;
- Do doctors who work in administrative positions for health insurers break the Hippocratic oath when they work to deny coverage? So says a column in the Boston Globe, but David Williams at the Health Business Blog has a rebuttal;
- Merck wins the latest round in the “Judicial Hellhole” of Madison County, Ill (WSJ Health blog);
- Anyone who does personal injury must deal with the miserable subject of liens. Michael Stevens at the Kentucky Law Review does a great round up of posts and materials on Medicaid subrogation in light of Alhorn v. Arkansas;
- New York firm Napoli Bern Ripka found themselves in a story regarding possible ethics violations by apportioning the settlement in a manner designed to inflate the firm’s share of the funds, as Andrew Bluestone recounts at his New York Attorney Malpractice blog;
- Anthony Sebok at FindLaw discusses The Issues Raised by the Recent Proposal to Reopen the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund: (I can’t mention the VCF without tipping my hat in a very big way to Special Master Ken Feinberg, who I heard personally handled over 1,000 of these heartbreaking claims);
- Medical blogger Flea didn’t like one of my posts regarding the cross-examination of attractive physicians and responded with Meet the Turk, setting off a small doctor-attorney brouhaha that now encompasses posts and commentary on at least five blogs, the others being Simple Justice, Sui Generis, and Creating the Godcomplex. Decide for yourself who presents compelling logic and who presents snark.
- And just in case you want some additional reading, the Law Review of New York Law School has an edition all about the plaintiff’s bar, for which I’ve printed a small outake and links to the various articles: Plaintiffs Personal Injury Attorneys Get Analyzed.
Enjoy the weekend.