January 7th, 2008

Brooklyn Supreme Court — 1/7/08 — Justice Steinhardt

I enjoyed doing the photo essay from the Queens courthouse in December so I did another. Today’s subject is the Brooklyn Supreme Court (aka Kings County), complete with religious and legal iconography, New York City signs and architecture, and Justice Marsha Steinhardt, who permitted the photograph from chambers. Click the images for much better views.

The courthouse stop on the subway is Court Street-Borough Hall, that serves seven subway lines. The first part of the station opened 100 years ago. The signs are mosaics. The ancient subway station contrasts with the 1958 courthouse.

Outside the courthouse is a Christmas creche, placed by the Catholic Lawyers Guild. Carved in relief on the facade of the courthouse is Moses with the Ten Commandments. Do these present legal issues?

Inside the courthouse, my preliminary conference (where initial discovery schedules are set) runs into a small issue for which we need a ruling, and we head upstairs to see Justice Steinhardt.

The case: Brain damage following hip replacement surgery.
The issue: Defendant’s request for a medical authorization for the medical insurer.
The objection: It would include items unrelated to the case.
The ruling: Request denied with leave to renew after depositions.

A day in the life of a courthouse and a trial attorney.

 

January 3rd, 2008

Brother v. Brother in Medical Malpractice Trial

An epic medical malpractice battle that is shaping up in West Virginia has two attorney brothers squaring off against each other. The case involves injury to over 100 patients due to the reckless hiring of Dr. John King without checking his credentials. The doctor, it seems, never actually finished his residency. A jury has already found against the nation’s largest for-profit hospital chain, HCA Inc. on liability.

The battling brothers are Tyler and Todd Thompson of Louisville, Kentucky. The story can be found at their local paper, the Courier-Journal. (hat tip: Kentucky Law Review)

Now here’s the kicker to this story: Dr. King — who falsely boasted that he had been director of spine surgery for the famed Cleveland Clinic and team doctor for the New York Yankees, operated on the limbs and spines of 500 patients in seven months and has 122 suits filed against him — has had his license stripped from him in ten different states. But he is still practicing medicine in Kentucky.

 

January 3rd, 2008

New York Bar Examiners Now Demand Liability Waivers


After a colossal screw-up with the July 2007 New York bar exam — in which some of the essay answers were lost for hundreds of people who had typed them into laptops — the New York Board of Law Examiners (BOLE) is taking action. Now they will demand a liability waiver that protects them from future screw-ups. This follows on the heels of the examiners claiming to have graded exams based on approximations, some of which have been called into question.

Why demand the waivers? Because getting liability waivers is apparently much easier than actually fixing the problem. This way, BOLE can hire a new software company and not worry about actually vetting the technology. If there is another screw-up, they can just waive the piece of paper around in the poor test-takers face and say, “Sorry!”

Now BOLE hasn’t been sued, mind you, but that doesn’t matter. They still want their liability waiver that will absolve them of any actual responsibility for doing their jobs.

The enforceability of such a waiver, I think, is probably pretty doubtful. I say that even though I haven’t seen it (only a small part is quoted in the article). First, it is against public policy in New York to enforce liability waivers regarding negligence. Second, it isn’t exactly as if the test-taker can go to a competing agency to be admitted to the New York bar. They are the only game in town, and I don’t see how they can use that leverage to coerce an agreement to waive their own liability. Public policy stands in the way, though the argument could be made that the test-taker can write the answer out by hand. Nevertheless, I see this as a problem for the BOLE to try to absolve themselves of liability when they run the show.

Now here’s a thought for the Bar Examiners: Maybe you folks should just make sure the software you use works?

 

January 2nd, 2008

Presidential Politics and the Iowa Caucus

I don’t understand why the whole country kowtows to Iowa. I mean really, they have just 1% of the nation’s population with 2.9 million people, of which 150,000 – 200,000 will likely turn out. Every four years we get this same nonsense with huge expenditures of time and money for a state with very few actual electoral votes.

Sorry for going off topic here, but this is a stupid system. Logic dictates a system of primaries that are grouped by region; New England, Mid-Atlantic, Southwest, you get the idea. Just divvy the country up into 10 or so regions and have regional primaries a few weeks apart. The candidates and staffs can then travel much more easily from place to place, see the most numbers of people, and financial resources can be pooled with the regional ad purchases. The order of the contests is chosen by simply picking the regions out of a hat. This isn’t rocket science.

America doesn’t benefit from all the sound and fury coming out of one small farm state. I’ve got nothing against corn and wheat, but the idiotic system skews the political promises to the detriment of all. Except, of course, Iowans, who benefit from the political tourism and the promises. But let’s face it, all urban areas, who have much different concerns and vastly larger populations, get the shaft.

There is no rationale reason for the politicians to continue this. The importance of Iowa (and New Hampshire after that) is merely a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s important because it is first, not because it is actually important. That is a dumb way to run a nominating process.

OK, so having now opened the political can of worms, which I avoid unless it deals directly with the issues of this blog, let me prognosticate on what we will see on election day 2008.

Reps: McCain/Romney
Dems: Obama/Biden
Indep: Bloomberg/ Gary Hart (who correctly predicted an attack like September 11 and tried to warn)

As much as this New Yorker would like to see Clinton v. Giuliani v. Bloomberg, neither Hillary nor Rudy will get their party nominations.