Scott Kreppein with some useful New York legal links;

But Mr. Attorney sir, are you sure I don’t have a suit for this? (Legal Antics, citing Overheard in the Office);

“I regret that we did not include in White House ethics lectures a warning ‘do not lie under oath’…” (Bush White House Ethics Lawyer Richard Painter @ Volokh);

TortsProf with their 30th edition of the Personal Injury Law Round-Up;

A classic mug shot;

The Freedom Tower at the WTC site disappears;

And 14 years after two Hispanic youths were killed by an NYPD fusillade of 28 bullets — most of which entered their backs and sides and exited into floor boards — their families settle the case for $1.1M as the matter was about to go to the jury.

John Hochfelder is steamed. At our appellate judges. Who refuse to say why they are reducing jury verdicts. Regarding a Second Department verdict reduction Hochfelder wrote earlier this week:

“The appeals courts must stop refusing to explain their reasoning in cases that address an increase or decrease in jury verdict pain and suffering damage awards.”

And just two days after writing that, the First Department does the same thing, reducing an award without any discussion of the injuries and rationale. Says Hochfelder:

“…we are owed some guidance from the appeals courts, some justification for their decisions involving millions of dollars and we are more and more often getting no explanation at all. In my humble opinion, that’s got to change if the appeals courts want the bar and the public, as well as the parties before it, to be guided by their opinions and to act on them in a manner (i.e., settling cases for reasonable amounts) that will reduce the number of lawsuits brought to trial and appealed.”

John Day found a new cause of action: A driver, “operating said vehicle in a safe and prudent manner, lawfully and under conditions commensurate with road and weather conditions,” falls asleep at the wheel and crashes. And then sues.

Chris Robinette on apology immunity laws, and PA possibly becoming the 36th state to offer one up for tort cases;

The New York Times reports that public housing elevators are clobbering people left and right;

Shrink Rap on doctors protecting doctors by refusing to be critical in patient charts:

..we usually hold off on condemning people in a chart — it makes for messy liability issues, and it’s really just poor form to write “Can you believe that idiot prescribed this combo of meds” or “the last doctor never even listened to the patient’s complaints.”

TortsProf has their 29th iteration of the Personal Injury Law Round-Up; and

On the first day of spring here in New York, I woke up to snow.

Blawg Review #203 is not only up at Geeklawyer, but becomes the first ever Blawg Review that is clearly Not Safe For Work. I would use the well-known acronym of NSFW, but I wouldn’t want some newbie to find themselves in the middle of the debauchery when the boss walks in.

Last week’s Blawg Review #202 was, well, more lawyerly, with a distinctive international flair put up by Head of Legal;

The medical version of Blawg Review is Grand Rounds, and Doc Gurley did one with a live webcast, proving that one doesn’t need sex, drug and rock ‘n roll to be inventive.

TortsProf has the weekly edition of the Personal Injury Law Round-Up;

A plaintiff is called a whore, child abuser and drug user, sues for defamation, wins, and gets bupkus;

Scott Greenfield on the problems of going solo if your choices are limited;

Gerry Oginiski on video tips for lawyers, as a guest post at Grant Griffiths’ Blog for Profit;

And the world naked bike ride is coming to New York. We’ve got a few months to come up with a legal angle to justify continued coverage. Any thoughts?

Blawg Review #199 is up at Mark Bennett’s criminal law blog Defending People, and he does a great round-up based on the week in review, both this week and in history;

Bennett follows last week’s Blawg Review #198 at The East Central Illinois Criminal Law & DUI Weblog (and I thought my blog name was long) where Jeremy Richey takes on the Seven Deadly Sins;

The Blawg Review editor worries that Twitter will kill off Blawg Review, as people send tweets (or twits) instead of using their blogs for a little link love;

All the week’s news in personal injury law is at TortsProf;

Why does Nordstrom suck? Because they tried to crush a tiny business based on a trademark dispute, where the tiny business filed first (under the name Beckons, for some clothing) and the PTO screwed up and gave Nordstom’s a similar mark (for Beckon). Then, after getting clobbered in the blawgosphere (and Bennett tried to give some helpful advice) they “relented” by trying to give a crumb to the tiny business and keeping 99.9% for itself. Here’s what they should have done, according to Scott Greenfield, and that is why Nordstrom sucks.

And the Michael Phelps witch hunt proves that Richland County, South Carolina doesn’t need any of that federal money being doled out. They clearly have cash to burn, since they just arrested eight people on marijuana charges allegedly associated with the now-famous bong photo of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps. If that is how they spend taxpayer money down there, then please don’t send any of mine that way.