November 16th, 2007

The End of My Rookie Year: Thoughts, Metrics and Changes

Tomorrow is this blog’s first anniversary. So I wanted to share some visitor metrics, upcoming changes, and general thoughts:

1. Metrics:
This tiny corner of cyberspace attracted significantly more visitors than I had imagined a year ago. Weekday readership the last six months has been about 700 unique visitors per day. Roughly 20,000 per month. Here is the data for the year, starting from scratch, as of yesterday:

  • Unique visitors: 158,860
  • Most unique visitors in one day: 2,485
  • Unique Visitors this month: Nov 1 – 15: 11,862 (790/day)
  • Visitors: 291,612
  • Page views: 524,139
  • Number of Posts: 367 (too many)
  • Number of blogs that linked to me: Over 200 (waaaaay more than I imagined)
  • Largest blog sources of referrals: Above the Law, Overlawyered, Kevin, M.D
  • Number of legal threats against me: 2 (one published, one not)

2. Changes:
OK, the blog was a success. So let’s change it…

  • The Personal Injury Round-Up that I have been doing is now kaput. It was fun while it lasted, but very time consuming to do on a regular basis.
  • I hope to spend more time on individual stories and, hopefully, occasionally write stories that are not yet in the press.
  • I hope to bring in guest bloggers. Interested parties can contact me.

Will the blog improve or will I get hit with the sophomore jinx? Beats me.

3. Blogging Tips:
Since the blog is a success (at least to me), my next entry will be my tips on blogging, for whatever it may be worth to others (perhaps not much).

4. Thoughts on Blogging:
This has been a real hoot, but it has also taken a great deal of time. The one oddity that stood out was that I was placed on the blogroll of Overlaywered while at the same time being a guest contributor to its arch nemesis, Tort Deform. I’m not 100% certain what it means, but I think that has to be good, especially for a beginner.

I’ve listed some of the most popular posts are here, but my personal favorite was the marathon Blawg Review #134 that I put up earlier this week, essentially the culmination of my rookie year. It was long, not just because marathons are long but, because I had so much fun conceptualizing, researching and writing it. I started making notes in a separate file six months ago on ideas and situations, much the way I make notes on trial themes and tactics from the day a case comes in.

The streets and crowds of New York provided unlimited opportunities to raise different subjects and allowed me to weave a fabric using both fact and fiction that included bloggers, the race and the city. The post got goofier and goofier as the race wore on because that is one thing that happens with exhaustion. A tip of the hat to the people that made it to the finish line.

And a big thank you to all who have visited and commented over the past year. Except, of course, to the two lawyers that threatened me.

Links to this post:

blawg review marathon
blawg review #134 is being run this week by eric turkewitz at the new york personal injury law blog. you won’t want to miss this one — it’s a marathon, not a sprint. eric turkewitz tells me that the inspiration for his new york …
posted by Editor @ November 12, 2007 1:56 AM

 

November 16th, 2007

Personal Injury Law Round-Up – Final Edition

The New York Personal Injury Law Blog presents the final edition of the Personal Injury Law Round-Up, as a couple of changes are being made as I hit my first year anniversary…

We’ll start with the issue of tort “reform”:

In a resounding victory for patients, an Illinois court found that a tort “reform” damages cap is an unconstitutional violation of due process and equal protection by artificially limiting what medical malpractice victims can receive for their pain and suffering. Mark McKenna has more with a link to the decision; And Justinian Lane at TortDeform explains that the failure of this “reform” made no difference for an insurer’s decision to stay in the state;

[Edit – 11/19/07: In an email to me, Robert Peck of the Center for Constitutional Litigation, who argued the case, alerted me that the decision was ruled unconstitutional based solely on separation of powers issues. It was therefore unnecessary to reach the other issues.]

John Day gives some statistics from Tennessee on medical malpractice suits, settlements and more, in the context of why further tort “reform” is not necessary;

Ron Miller discusses how non-economic damage caps may be considered discriminatory toward women;

Justinian Lane at TortDeform follows the Texas story of tort “reform,” to find out who benefited, and who didn’t;

At TortsProf, guest blogger Chris Robinette discusses the efforts in Arizona to kill off as many emergency room negligence cases as they can by raising the standard of proof to “clear and convincing evidence;”

Kanye West’s mother died during cosmetic surgery in California, and Hans Poppe wants to know if he would be able to find a medical malpractice lawyer to investigate if he wanted to because, you guessed it, tort “reform” that caps damages;

Also at TortsProf, Robinette finds a notebook from a student of William Prosser (Prosser on Torts) has surfaced, with some of the legendary professor’s thoughts.

And into litigation:

Not in suit yet, but…Nine children were hospitalized after eating Aqua Dots that used a toxic glue, according to The Consumerist. The product came from China, naturally.

John Day and on the discoverability of insurance policy limits (which is standard disclosure in New York);

Bill Childs on a suit against the KKK for the beating of a man, with the announced purpose of putting the Klan out of business;

Bill Marler discusses the lame excuses Cargill is giving for distributing contaminated beef;

From the land of settlements: Drug and Device Law has more on the Vioxx settlement and expands upon a subject I mentioned in my marathon Blawg Review #134 (discussed just after the 21 mile point), that being the impact of those that choose not to settle, which are likely to be the more substantial cases. And as Ed Silverman points out at Pharmalot, the settlement is only for U.S. claimants. Ted Frank has a good round up of analysis on the potential problems spots at Point of Law; And Howard Erichson reports on a plaintiffs-only conference to discuss the settlement;

From the miscellaneous category: New York State practitioners should take note of a reversal in Raffellini v. State Farm regarding the issue of whether a “serious injury” threshold applies to supplemental insurance. No Fault Paradise has the scoop;

And finally:

(Eric Turkewitz is a personal injury attorney in New York)

Links to this post:

turkewitz rounds up tort “reform”
eric turkewitz’s weekly round-up on ny personal injury law blog includes the latest on tort “reform” on the web. check it out. browse the links to the other blog posts–they’re worth it–as i’m certain you’ve already read and thoroughly …
posted by Kia Franklin @ November 16, 2007 12:03 PM

 

November 15th, 2007

NYS Bar Examiners Do Grade Approximation For Missing Exam Answers

The New York Bar Examiners reported grades today for the July 2007 bar exam that included a scandal whereby essay answers that had been submitted on laptops for 47 students had disappeared. The Board of Law Examiners did a grade approximation for 15 of those students and failed six of them based on an approximation of grades. The other 32 students either passed or failed based on the rest of the exam. The information was disclosed as part of this press release on the passing grades and the availability of exam results.

The release had this to say about questions regarding the missing essay answers, which I had covered previously (New York Bar Examiners Still Can’t Find Complete Essay Answers):

…one or more of the essay answers for 47 candidates could not be recovered. Fifteen of these candidates passed the examination based on their performance on the balance of the examination, with no credit being given for any missing essay. Seventeen candidates failed the examination even when attributed a perfect score on any missing essays. The remaining 15 candidates were given estimated scores based upon their performance on the balance of the examination, and their probability of passing was computed. The Board worked with researchers at the National Conference of Bar Examiners to develop and apply this methodology, which resulted in nine of the remaining 15 candidates passing and six failing the examination. Candidates with missing essays who were unsuccessful on the examination have been notified by the Board as to how their results were determined.

As to the exam results for the rest: The 15 New York law schools had a record pass rate for first time test-takers in the July 2007 exam, with 88.2%. According to the press release:

Not only did this group achieve a historically high passing rate, they also surpassed the passing rate of their counterparts from American Bar Association-approved law schools outside of New York. The passing rate for graduates of such law schools who took the bar examination for the first time in New York this July was 85.7%

When accounting for foreign students taking the exam and their 45.6% rate, the total pass rate was 70.6%

Exam results can be found at this link.

Addendum: 11/26/07: How, Exactly, did New York Grade That Bar Exam?

 

November 14th, 2007

Reviewing the Marathon Blawg Review

If Blawg Review #134 was a bit daunting due to its marathon length and you were waiting to see what others wrote before lacing up your sneakers for the event, then here are some of the first reviews to check out:

Other links:

If additional reviews come in, I will supplement this list with more links. But, of course, only if they’re good.

Links to this post:

blawg review marathon
blawg review #134 is being run this week by eric turkewitz at the new york personal injury law blog. you won’t want to miss this one — it’s a marathon, not a sprint. eric turkewitz tells me that the inspiration for his new york …
posted by Editor @ November 12, 2007 1:56 AM

 

November 14th, 2007

How Many Lawyers Showed Up In New York?

According to an AP report, there were 200 lawyers at the rally yesterday to support Pakistani lawyers who have been manning the barricades for restoration of the rule of law.

But according to the New York Law Journal, the number was 700.

What’s going on? Now it’s true that inflating and deflating crowd numbers is a time-honored tradition among those that support/oppose any particular rally. But those are news organizations, not advocates, and estimating in the hundreds is not nearly as difficult as estimating in the tens of thousands.

My own estimate, based on many years of playing “guess the attendance today” at Shea Stadium was 300-400, which I stand by. And as I mentioned yesterday, a number much higher than I had expected.

See also: