Things I would write about if I only had the time…
Traffic deaths are at a stunning 60-year low. Can we blame the lawyers a little?
The New England Journal of Medicine on medical malpractice liability “reform;”
A New York appellate court upholds a multi-million dollar verdict for a man on the tracks that was hit by a subway;
Fantastical’ 9/11 Lawsuit Could Lead to Sanctions for Lawyer, 2nd Circuit Says; and a 9/11 wrongful death case goes to trial like a speed-chess match;
Twitter art. To Scott Greenfield. Part of Charon’s art series;
And Greenfield again on clients being referred to as “leads” by marketers. And he ain’t happy ’bout that;
From the “You learn something new every day Department,” my former lawyer Ted Frank was one of the people that vetted Sarah Palin for the Vice Presidency. And had I known that about Ted when I hired him, well, uhh, I would have hired him anyway (via Point of Law);
Today’s trial practice tip: Learn how to tell a story. A subject I visited four years (!) ago: Telling the story from the middle;
The press reported that Obama released his birth certificate. But they all seemed to blow the story. It was Hawaii that did;
Want to run a half-marathon trail race near New York City? What the hell, I’ll plug a race I created, which this year hopes to send 750 people racing across one of the great half-marathon race tracks in the northeast: Paine to Pain Opens Registration. And if you insist on some kind of legal angle, I wrote previously about how you meet real people and make real friends by doing this (as opposed to pseudo-follower-friends), and also about assumption of risk. But really, it’s mostly about running around in the woods like a kid.
You cite one New England Journal article on tort reform but not another important one: http://healthpolicyandreform.nejm.org/?p=14036
The second article casts doubt on the idea tort litigation gives enough information to nursing-home operators to increase safety. The study found that the homes with the best records were sued nearly as often as those with the worst, making it very hard for anybody to adjust their behavior to avoid liability.
The sixty year low for traffic deaths is probably more the responsibility of the insurance industry than any other single factor.
No doubt the trial bar has had some effect, although inceasing vehicle safety has forced the trial bar to focus attention to soft-tissue injuries and elevating the status of chiroquackters in civil litigation
Avenger,
Can you elaborate on your comment?:
“The sixty year low for traffic deaths is probably more the responsibility of the insurance industry than any other single factor.”