New York’s legislature overwhelmingly passed new laws that stop most insurers from jamming their feet into personal injury settlements seeking repayment of funds they used for medical care. (Plaintiffs were not entitled to receive these monies in verdicts, but that didn’t stop insurers from trying to grab it anyway.) The bill awaits Gov. Paterson’s signature. This is one bill that I’ve lobbied for in the past with the New York State Trial Lawyer’s Association and hope to blog on in more depth in the future. For now, see Roy Mura’s New York State Legislature Passes New Anti-Subrogation Law;

The number and amount of medical malpractice payments is down. Justinian Lane asks, What Medical Malpractice Crisis?

Of course, doctor’s still want more immunity from law suits (Walter Olson @ Point of Law);

Perhaps reducing medical errors would be a better idea;

And maybe putting video cameras in the OR would be one way to do that, since this hospital seems to have problems with things like wrong site surgery;

You can find a ton of statistics on personal injury litigation at Ron Miller’s blog. Do those stats conform to your notions of what is really happening? Like, for instance, who decides cases more favorably for plaintiffs? Judges or juries?

Blawg Review #237 is up at Christian Metcalfe’s property law blog, with its theme of The Putney Debates. No, I won’t explain then, he will.

Some other web carnivals to explore that often have legal links: Health Wonk Review; Grand Rounds from the world of medicine; and Cavalcade of Risk from the world of insurance.

Here are 50 great blogs by and for law professors. But precious few seem to be written by actual legal practitioners. Maybe the real world isn’t all that important?

Another list of 50…free resources to create your own website;

Lastly, MarineTraffic.com is one really cool site (via Volokh). You can track tankers, cruise ships and the Staten Island Ferry.

Links to this post:

Around the web, December 3
All-New York edition: New York “ranks dead last in 18 of 28 legal categories” on litigation cost, per new Pacific Research Institute report [Lawrence McQuillan, “An Empire Disaster: Why New York’s Tort System is Broken and How to Fix …

posted by Walter Olson @ December 03, 2009 12:09 AM

I’ve been too busy to post much, but a few links that are interesting:

Lawyer of the Day award goes to George Lobb, who crashed the most unusual party of all: One to break ground on a new courthouse;

Blawg Review #229 is up at Blawgletter;

This may not come as a shock to most, but prostitutes are not a tax deduction;

The PopTort on malpractice liability schemes;

A federal judge quits because the salary isn’t high enough. New York’s judges, of course, still remain underpaid as well;

Best of luck to my friends running the 200-mile Reach the Beach Relay in New Hampshire, which I ran last year but couldn’t make this year;

And Shana Tova to those celebrating the Jewish New Year this weekend.

Ron Miller with a round-up of personal injury law links;

It was supposed to be surgery on the other kidney;

The Consumerist gets sued by Cash4Gold for posting a note from a whistleblower, “in an attempt to force us to take the information down;”

TortsProf with the Personal Injury Law Round-Up;

Blawg Review #228 is up at Law is Cool with a law school student’s perspective.

Links to this post:

a personal injury that is linkworthy
eric turkewitz of the new york personal injury law blog links to blawg review 228.

posted by Admin @ September 10, 2009 1:37 PM

Comedian turned law student Jeremy Schacter (Cardozo, 2L) has been robbed. He thinks Mars candy stole one of his best jokes for a Twix commercial, and now he’s thinking of suing;

Even Lamborghinis, at $240,000 a pop, can be lemons;

Ron Miller has thoughts on the different reasons that lawyers blog; and Beck/Herrmann discuss the life expectancy of many of them;

Mark Bennett has been writing tips on jury selection. His fifth one is called MacCarthy’s Bar Rule, which is different than The Turkewitz Beer Test;

Ted Kennedy was the first US Senator to have a web site, you can see a screen shot here, and read four other non-mainstream tidbits here;

What killed Michael Jackson? Kevin M.D. wonders, was it really Conrad Murray?

Blawg Review #226 comes from overseas at Pink Tape;

TortsProf has this week’s personal injury law round-up; and

And how long does it take you to walk 20 feet? Why so fast? Via Minor Wisdom, a video essay on how you learn a lot, just by watching:

Oprah sues over 50 companies and people for falsely claiming she endorsed various products. But I’m not one of them, and my experience with Oprah’s lawyers may be one reason why;

A Swedish newspaper claims that Israelis are kidnapping Palestinians and harvesting their organs. Really. They said that. David Bernstein at Volokh covers the latest version of blood libel;

Scott Greenfield has been wondering why law profs such as Dan Solove at Concurring Opinions tend to ignore the law blogs of practicing attorneys. And Greenfield isn’t exactly subtle about it;

Research by Bonnie Shucha in Wisconsin identifies the top 5 ways that legal malpractice occurs. Can you guess the top one before looking? (via Bluestone)

A rare case of a pharmacist going to jail over a botched prescription;

I love these stories: Tort “reform” advocate Fred Hiestand, general counsel of the Civil Justice Association of California, decides to bring a class action suit because his car was towed. All of a sudden, when he’s the victim, class actions become a good idea. What a surprise. You can read about more tort reform hypocrites at the bottom of this Texas tort “reform” piece I wrote in April;

Roy Mura tackles an interesting question that pops up every so often, suits between family members. So, can an unemancipated child be held legally responsible to a parent for crashing mom’s car into the garage?

New York’s Central Park, perhaps the greatest urban park on the planet, was devastated in a freak storm, losing 500 trees;

Model Liskula Cohen won her court battle to learn the identity of a now shuttered website called Skanks in NYC where she’d apparently been slimed as “a psychotic, lying, whoring . . . skank,” among other charming things. The author of the site, now revealed to the world, is Rosemary Port, and she responded with this gem as per today’s New York Post: “I’m shocked that my right to privacy has been tampered with.” Two lessons here: Don’t write anything, even under cover of anonymity, that you are afraid to see in the local newspaper (see Flea). And don’t pretend to be the victim if you are the villain. You only make matters worse.

And the Seattle Trademark Lawyer hosts Blawg Review #225 from an unlikely spot: The Pikes Place Market in, where else, Seattle.

———————

More:

TortsProf with the Personal Injury Law round -up; and with a call to New York practitioners if they would like to submit for publication in the Pace Law Review;

John Hochefelder has been guest blogging at Point of Law. (A PI guy guest blogging at ground zero for tort “reform?” Who’d a thunk it? Walter Olson, that’s who’d a thunk it.) Hochfelder has this piece on baseball and assumption of risk;

Andrew Sullivan on Tort Reform Won’t Fix Healthcare; (related stories from my joint can be found by clicking this tort reform link); More at the Washington Independent and Lexington Heraald-Leader;

New York Gov. David Paterson plays the race card, saying New Yorkers don’t like him because he’s black;

And Sarah Palin tries to jump into the medical malpractice fray and gets destroyed by the Pop Tort.

Links to this post:

stem client roundup for august ’09
summer was no reason for stem clients to slow down. here’s a quick list of what they were up to in the month of august: in his second post about legal in-sourcing, mcclanahan myers espey llp attorney randy mcclanahan called for an end …

posted by Steve Matthews @ August 31, 2009 8:25 PM