Summer time and the weekends are long, which has left precious little time for blogging. But if I did have time, these are some of the things I would write about:

On a list of the Top Ten Worst Insurance Companies, compiled by the American Association for Justice, the winner is Allstate. And here’s an extra anecdote for you: In the trial I just completed, where the plaintiff had a broken hip and pelvis that required 16 weeks of hospitalization and in-house rehab, where liability was determined by summary judgment motion 20 months before trial and interest was accumulating at 9% per annum, Allstate was the insurer for the driver. Despite only having a 100K policy, they didn’t even bother to tender it until a pre-trial conference. (Since there was also a leasing company involved as owner, and therefore ample coverage, Allstate was saved from a bad faith action.)

Anne Skove at Court-o-Rama has a post on medical malpractice and a change in standards that is (theoretically) coming to hospitals to cure this little problem:

Nurses don’t speak up when doctors screw up. Whether this is due to gender roles, status, tradition (or probably all of the above), one thing is certain: mistakes could be avoided if health care providers felt that they could confront doctors.

The problem will be, when the changes are put into effect, that entrenched interests may not be so interested in changing. See, for example, these posts on How Medical Malpractice Gets Covered Up and the White Coat of Silence.

Ron Miller has a piece on Medical Justice, a company that is apparently fear-mongering its way through the medical community about all those medical malpractice verdicts for frivolous cases. They don’t tell the docs that they don’t actually exist, of course, since they would be tossed out if they were frivolous. And they certainly don’t tell doctors that they already have a defense to frivolous cases, known as the defense lawyer. But then, as Miller points out, this is a for-profit business.

Brooks Schuelke cooks up Personal Injury Law Round-Up #69 to help any vacationing blogger play catch up on recent events in our little neck of the law.

And the West Virginia Business Litigation Blog does its best to celebrate Bastille Day with Blawg Review #168, to cover all other areas of the law.

Brooks Schuelke has Personal Injury Law Round-Up #68 (in case you’re wondering, I did the first 36, which is to say, Brooks will blow past me next month if he doesn’t burn out);

Blawg Review #166 is up at GeekLawyer, and if you’re offended by the content, you’re probably in good company, since he appears to be an equal opportunity offender. Let’s just say this is one time I was pleased to be ignored. According to Colin Samuels, “Those of you who are just discovering him now will . . . not be bored. Scandalized perhaps, but not bored.” Ed. at Blawg Review does a supplement.

Jason Boog at Judicial Reports on the deep psychological stress some judges undergo;

It appears that the Mississippi Supreme Court is bending over backwards to favor corporations. Kia Franklin at TortDeform has the story. Interestingly, the only response so far is commenters that attack the messenger instead of the data.

And Scott Greenfield on why so many law profs rarely link to the blogs of practicing lawyers.

I’ve been scanning some of the 2,000 posts that accumulated in my RSS feed reader while on trial and these jumped out of interest:

So that’s how tort “reform” gets done (Justinian Lane @ TortDeform): regarding the very wide disparity in money spent by big business and consumer groups for lobbying efforts. Coverage of a NYT article on the subject at TortBurger;

New York Chief Justice Judith Kaye to be leaving? (Scott Greenfield @ Simple Justice);

Clifford Shoemaker gets sanctioned (Seidel@ Neurodiversity). He is the attorney that issued an extraordinarily abusive subpoena to Kathleen Seidel, and she fought back and won. The court wasn’t kind to him. (Previously here: Abuse of Process: Blogger, Unrelated to Action, Hit With Subpoena; and Subponea on Blogger Seidel Quashed; Attorney Shoemaker May Be Sanctioned);

George Carlin is dead. He didn’t pass away (Randazza @ The Legal Satyricon);

The first ever thong lawsuit? (Day @ Day on Torts);

New York’s medical disciplinary system makes the news (Scheurman @ TortsProf);

In voir dire, does a bumper sticker tell you anything? (Reed @ Deliberations);

So that’s what happened in the world of personal injury law while I was on trial (Schuelke, Personal Injury Law Round-Up, #67)

So that’s what happened in the world of law while I was on trial (Blawg Review #165 at French-law.net)

What impact do medical malpractice caps have? (Miller @ Maryland Injury Law);

And that is one hell of a hailstorm (Coffield @ Health Care Law Blog)

I’ve little time to post regularly and have a trial coming up. But these were all interesting bits I would have loved to write on this week, or are simply worth reading:

A new book is out from Albany Law prof Timothy Lytton (Harvard Univesity Press): Holding Bishops Accountable: How Lawsuits Helped the Catholic Church Confront Clergy Sexual Abuse. A snippet is here (h/t Steiger):

The prevalence of clergy sexual abuse and its shocking cover-up by church officials have obscured the largely untold story of the tort system’s remarkable success in bringing the scandal to light, focusing attention on the need for institutional reform, and spurring church leaders and public officials into action.

…the lessons of clergy sexual abuse litigation give us reason to reconsider the case for tort reform and to look more closely at how tort litigation can enhance the performance of public and private policymaking institutions.

For those who have emailed me about going out on your own: Solo lawyer guru and author Carolyn Elefant is running a workshop on setting up your own practice on June 30th in Washington DC;

The China Law Blog has modest hopes for Blawg Review #162, hoping merely to achieve world peace;

Do the recent crane collapses demonstrate the dangers of federal preemption? Justinian Lane at TortDeform thinks so; He also debates Ted Frank regarding an amicus brief Frank submitted in Wyeth;

A major insurance company has apparently been reading 1984, as they reportedly changed the titles of Claims Reps to Counselors (Shigley);

More on how medical apologies work at Overlawyered. If defense lawyers start telling the docs and hospitals to act like actual humans when the screw up, instead of denying, obfuscating, running away and scaring patients in the waiting roooms, I’m going to have to change careers (see also: How to Put Medical Malpractice Attorneys Out of Business);

Want to know what it’s like inside a tornado? This bank surveillance video captures it — keep your eye on the glass doors and the action outside.

And a judge orders a deposition right on the state line after the parties couldn’t agree where it should take place (Lowering the Bar). Gotta love that one.

That picture of Hillary Clinton to the right was shot by my photojournalist niece, with a story at the link. Will someone tell the Pulitzer people?
(More here.)

A surgeon writes of seeing his father try a case, and the Perry Mason Moment (Surgeonsblog);

Blawg Review #161 is up at Patent Baristas with a Memorial Day edition;

From Justinian Lane at TortDeform, discussing whether stiffer penalties could have avoided a hepatitis outbreak :

It amazes me that so many conservatives think that the death penalty is an effective deterrent to crime, but don’t think that large financial penalties won’t deter misconduct among corporations or medical professions;

Most lawyers think they write well. Mister Thorne has a short post on convoluted legal writing likely to make you think otherwise (Set in Style);

Here’s a disclaimer you won’t see often (NY Times):

Warning: The body parts you are about to see may have come from Chinese people who were tortured and executed;

And American Lawyer falls for someone’s April Fools Day hoax regarding Fantasy Baseball (Ted Frank @ Overlawyered).