Clock is tickin’, so much I wanted to write about but didn’t have the time for…

Here’s some reasons not to make any representation as to what a case is worth when you take it in: Settle it Now, Negotiation Blog;

Sometimes the mistake gets made, but the damages aren’t there: New mom given wrong baby to nurse, wants settlement from hospital;

Baseball mascot flings hot dog. Said doggie hits fan in the eye. Did the fan assume the risk of having a mascot fling a hot dog at him during a game? And would John Hochfelder have taken the case?

Let me guess, the new client is overseas and they want you to collect an easy $400,000 or so for them, right? And you get a nice big piece? Uh huh. Law Firms Swindled Out of $500K in E-Mail Scam and a personal experience with the scammer;

How’s this for a quote regarding the Toyota scandal: “Yet for all the demonizing of trial lawyers, the reality is that product-liability litigation has become an ever more important means of keeping consumers safe.” It appeared on the WSJ OP-Ed page;

A post at Concurring Opinions on medical liability uses this graphic at left. But the image looks Photoshopped to me as the instrument seems too small to actually hold. Want to see what a retained surgical instrument really looks like?

Bob Dylan is dead. You didn’t know? Ann Althouse finds out due to a computer program that ambulance chases. When I wrote Attorney Solicitation 2.0 back in 2007, I never thought of that one;

TortsProf is still chugging along with the Personal Injury Law round-ups;

Blawg Review #252 is frightening;

My three posts on Justice Scalia’s letter to my brother regarding secession have had 40,000 page views as it roared around the web with thousands of forum comments, tweets and blog postings, finding a home at NYT, WSJ, WaPo, NBC, CBS and The Hollywood Reporter, among others. And if Eugene Volokh hadn’t put up this post, the letter would still be in a drawer as a fun, family curiosity. But no one has tackled my suggestion that Scalia flat out blew it on whether the court could ever hear such a case.

I’m going to bed, hope there aren’t too many typos and blown links.

A dramatic slip and fall caught on video. Too bad he was trying to throw a chair through a Burger King door at the time. Will he be dumb enough to sue?

Point of Law has AAJ’s agenda for protecting consumer rights. They don’t like the list. I do.

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals opines on champerty and maintenance in New York. You don’t know what that means? If you practice personal injury law, you better damn well find out at Blawgletter.

Is that really a stodgy, New York, government bureaucracy on Twitter?

How many auto accidents take place each year because of drivers distracted by cell phone use and texting? The answer is here;

OK, CareerBuilder has placed an ad on the web that I don’t think you will ever see on television. My wife is still laughing…

In honor of the 20th Anniversary of The Simpsons, that law-talking guy…

Scott Greenfield has an example of a good lawyer ad from one of the bastion of fine personal injury firms in New York, Trolman Glaser and Lichtman — even Walter Olson seems to like it! Too bad the firm also  is part of the wretched FindLaw system of using dreck-blogs for advertisements. Hey TGL, if you’re reading this, isn’t it time to get on the phone with your FindLaw rep and tell them to stop creating stuff that hurts our clients and our reputations? It’s already hard enough to find impartial jurors for personal injury cases, we don’t need them making things worse;

Finally, Blawg Review #246 at The Client Revolution, looking into the crystal ball at the future of law.

Medical researchers go hunting for a link between disease and lawyers, and Max Kennerly takes the “research” and rips it limb from limb;

The PopTort has become, over the last several months, a truly outstanding blog. They wrote recently how Katrina hospital victims were, literally, dead in the water, and how tort “reform” in Texas failed to bring docs back to rural areas;

Kevin, M.D. has a round-up of his most popular posts from 2009, many of which have a legal angle to them;

Avvo makes 8 predictions for the legal field for 2010;

The NY Court of Appeals hears oral argument on the issue of “sole proximate cause” of the worker as a defense to strict liability under our Labor Law;

Since when did cyber-stalking become a gender issue? Eugene Volokh starts the conversation. [Edit: Subsequent links removed 7/30/10 as they went dead]. (Previously here, Twitter Followers and Stalkers — Can You Tell the Difference?);

Am I my blogger’s keeper? Carolyn Elefant and Brian Tannebaum on ethical issues and lawyers‘ professional obligations regarding marketing;

And Blawg Review #245 comes at us from Charon QC with this exquisite theme:

I have no theme — other than to look at as many good blog posts and bloggers as I can under various quasi-random headings.

Let’s clear out the old in-box of things I’d like to blog about but never found the time for (because Martindale–Hubbell, Yahoo and FindLaw sucked out my recent time here).

And so, without any attempt to organize by subject or in any other rational way:

If you pay the cost of medical care, should you (or someone else?) get the benefits? (Walter Olson @ Point of Law);

Which is better for a law professor, a PhD or actual experience as a lawyer? Both Marc Randazza and Scott Greenfield have sharp opinions, with dozens of comments that follow;

Opinions on lawyers ethics and honesty dropped 5% in one year. Why? And does it matter? (Tannebaum @ My Law License);

Personal injury cases are not funny. People get hurt. But when a moose head falls on someone in a bar, it’s hard for some to wonder how the moose got loose…Did anyone blame Sarah Palin? And was it Woody Allen’s moose? (Kevin Underhill @ Lowering the Bar, the Gothamist, and NY Mag);

It was nice to be included in the ABA Blawg 100, as I previously noted, but now it seems some are so desperate to win that votes are for sale (@ Simple Justice)

What value is Twitter to a personal injury lawyer? Is it zero, or just close to zero? (Mark Zamora @ A Georgia Lawyer)

Someone in Florida gets steamed at lousy treatment from Route 60 Hyundai, they send a cease and desist letter, and then get a sharp lesson in the Streisand Effect and some brilliant legal writing from Marc Randazza (@ Overlaywered)

Criminal defense lawyer Norm Pattis writes about Another Year in the Trenches, and man, can this guy write. Just one small piece:

Summoning fight is usually not hard for me. I was born on the other side of the tracks and know firsthand how thin the line that separates me from the folks I represent. And for all my bold irreverence, I know a truth Christians know: All have sinned, and fallen well short of the glory of God.

But I am having a hard time summoning fight just now. I am tired, discouraged and filled with misgivings about the law and my role as a lawyer…

Grrr. Bark. Woof. Good dog. (Wise Law Blog);

Blawg Review # 241 came on Pearl Harbor Day from Infamy and Praise;

Blawg Review #242 at Liklihood of Confusion, inspired by the Festival of Lights, was a joy;

Blawg Review #243 from Silverman Sherliker came out of London;

A round-up of the Blawg Reviews of the past year, and a time to vote for the best one.

And now, since Mrs. NY PI Blog is yelling at me to get off the damned computer and come have a drink, best wishes to all for a happy and healthy new year. (Except you, FindLaw, I’ll see you Monday morning.)

New York gets a new blogger, doing his thing at Lou and The Law. Lou has been an occasional commenter here, and comes from the defense side of the aisle having worked as senior trial attorney for Liberty Mutual Insurance for almost 30 years. Worth reading for New York practitioners is Late Expert Disclosure Affidavits, and it is worth it because the statute governing expert affidavits doesn’t actually have a time frame in it.

John Hochfelder rants against New York’s appellate judges who knock down jury awards, but fail to explain why;

Mark Bennett has 16 Rules for Lawyers Who (Think They) Want to Market Online. Proceed with caution.

But Bennett missed this one: Don’t use the names of your competitors as keywords for Google ads, as the Milwaukee personal injury firm of Cannon & Dunphy now learns as their name turns to mud;

And more from the attorney advertising department: Florida settles a case that now allows lawyers to use sites like Avvo and LinkedIn.

Carolyn Elefant on Google’s new research tool, Google Scholar, and what it means for lawyers. I know what it means for me, as I discovered that I’ve been cited in a couple of law reviews, a litigation reporter, and a medical journal.

Mickey Mouse sued Donald Duck;

Is there a cause of action for Goth Discrimination?

What happens if you dress up like a suspect?

The family of a dead man — who it turns out wasn’t quite dead yet — wants to sue the medical examiner;

As tort “reform” comes up in the debate over the health care bill — along with screams of excess litigation and frivolous suits — a reminder from Public Citizen that the actual data on tort trials is that they have decreased in number over the years;

Scott Greenfield shreds New York’s new drunk-driver law;

The Personal Injury Law Round-Up is up at TortsProf; and

Blawg Review #238 is up at the Twin Cities Carry Journal, authored by Joel Rosenberg, prolific novelist, non lawyer and Jew With a Gun. His theme? Tolerance (and the lack thereof), with an introduction by one of the all time great political-humor songs.