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
Ahh Eric, may a I suggest instead of regurgitating ATLA tripe (or The American Association for Truth, Justice, and the American Way or whatever BS name ATLA calls itself now), try reading where the number 98 K came from. Those figures are extrapolated early-mid 1980’s to early 1990’s data from a couple of states (including NY) that Dr. Leape gold-mined to come up with his 1999 paper. Try reading medical journals from 1999-2002. Those numbers that are now quoted as biblical by the lay public and organizations with an axe to grind (ie ATLA) are far from universally accepted or agreed upon in the medical community that did the research. But of course two airliners worth of people dying each day due to doctor screw-ups sounds sexier and grab headlines so who care what the truth is right?
PS: I am not advocating minimizing the numbers. But wouldn’t you want the true numbers whatever they are?
I’m well aware that the 98K figure is both an estimate and an extrapolation, and that has been discussed previously.
But simply because the numbers are extrapolated doesn’t make them unsound.
I have no idea what you’re talking about. How am I supposed to know what you left here? You’re anonymous.
Anonymous happens to be a very popular writer.
FWIW, I publish things that are on point, without personal attacks and without vulgar language.
I can the spam.