Overlawyered » Good Samaritan http://overlawyered.com Chronicling the high cost of our legal system Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:11:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Good Samaritans sue woman they saved http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/good-samaritans-sue-woman-they-saved/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/good-samaritans-sue-woman-they-saved/#comments Tue, 02 Aug 2011 18:22:08 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24118 Ohio: Two men who stopped to save a woman’s life by pulling her from a flaming car are now suing her for compensation for the injuries sustained in doing so. Isn’t litigation inspiring? Doesn’t it just make you feel better about human nature? [Columbus Dispatch via Mystal/AtL]

Tags:

Related posts

]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/good-samaritans-sue-woman-they-saved/feed/ 12 “Tory blitz on compensation culture is revealed” http://overlawyered.com/2010/09/tory-blitz-on-compensation-culture-is-revealed/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/09/tory-blitz-on-compensation-culture-is-revealed/#comments Tue, 21 Sep 2010 05:24:38 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=19315 “Health and safety regulations which burden Britain and lead to good samaritans facing prosecution are to be swept away in a blitz on ‘compensation culture’”. Among the measures are rollbacks of liability for volunteers, emergency service responders and school recreation. “A coalition source said: ‘What we are determined to see is a great extension of personal freedom, at the same times as a rolling back both of the state and the power of the courts.’” [Telegraph]

Tags: , , , ,

Related posts

]]> http://overlawyered.com/2010/09/tory-blitz-on-compensation-culture-is-revealed/feed/ 1 Good Samaritans and a duty to rescue http://overlawyered.com/2009/05/good-samaritans-and-a-duty-to-rescue/ http://overlawyered.com/2009/05/good-samaritans-and-a-duty-to-rescue/#comments Tue, 05 May 2009 01:44:07 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=10936 David Hyman has started a discussion at Volokh Conspiracy.

Tags:

Related posts

]]> http://overlawyered.com/2009/05/good-samaritans-and-a-duty-to-rescue/feed/ 0 March 9 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2009/03/march-9-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2009/03/march-9-roundup/#comments Mon, 09 Mar 2009 04:09:29 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=9654
  • “Attack on Inflatable Easter Bunny Might Be a Hate Crime” [Obscure Store; Westchester County, N.Y. Journal-News]
  • Unclear on the concept? Judge resigns from Ethics Commission and backdates her letter doing so [Hartford Courant]
  • Stephen Spruiell, Health Care Is Not a “Right” [NRO "Corner"]
  • Christopher Fountain: Proud to have switched from lawyer to realtor, at least I escaped being in the same profession as those Seattle water class-action guys [For What It's Worth]
  • Why include Facebook as defendant in teenage “cyber-bullying” case? Ron Coleman has a theory [Likelihood of Confusion]
  • Bill protecting Good Samaritans from lawsuits passes California Assembly Judiciary committee [California Civil Justice]
  • Author/labor lawyer Tom Geoghegan had all the good writers on his side, so of course he lost big in replace-Rahm primary [Mickey Kaus, earlier]
  • Three pro wrestlers thrown out of court in employment suit against World Wrestling Entertainment [Daniel Schwartz, earlier]
    • Tags: , , ,

    Related posts

    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2009/03/march-9-roundup/feed/ 2     February 16 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2009/02/february-16-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2009/02/february-16-roundup/#comments Mon, 16 Feb 2009 16:02:11 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=9091
  • “Texas Judge Orders 178 Anonymous ‘John Does’ Who Posted on Topix Be Revealed” [Citizen Media Law]
  • $4 billion lawsuit over racially insensitive Miley Cyrus eye gestures [Michelle Malkin, TMZ.com]
  • Update: “Tulsa World drops lawsuit after writer apologizes” [Romenesko/Tulsa World, earlier]
  • Also update: “Seventh Circuit Affirms Dismissal of John Lott’s Libel Lawsuit Against Steven Levitt” [Volokh, earlier]
  • “M-I-C — Cease and desist! K-E-Y — Why? Because we caught you! M-O-U-S-E” [Ron Coleman]
  • California: “Another Step Toward Shielding Good Samaritans From Civil Damages” [Calif. Civil Justice Blog, more]
  • Montana lawmakers consider bill saying hazardous recreation goes on at your own risk [PoL]
  • Senior writer at Wired decides to go work for Wal-Mart, what he found departed from the Barbara Ehrenreich formula [BoingBoing]
    • Tags: , , , , , , ,

    Related posts

    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2009/02/february-16-roundup/feed/ 1     January 17 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2009/01/january-17-roundup-2/ http://overlawyered.com/2009/01/january-17-roundup-2/#comments Sat, 17 Jan 2009 20:10:39 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=8390
  • Tons and tons of favorable reaction to my Forbes piece on CPSIA: commenters there, Etsy thread, sampling of blogs: Polka Dot Patch, Heartkeeper’s Common Room, Colby Lane Designs, Baby Gardner’s (aw), Tristan Benz (double aw). Others who’ve gotten into the act: Iain Murray/Open Market, Jeff Nolan, Patrick @ Popehat (SSFC). New: Superblogger Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit, John Schwenkler, Carter Wood at ShopFloor, Ramesh Ponnuru at National Review “Corner”.
  • “California Lawmakers Rush to Rescue Good Samaritans in Wake of Court Ruling” [The Recorder, Calif. Civil Justice Blog, earlier]
  • “America needs a tax code simple enough for the Treasury secretary to figure out” [Taranto, WSJ]
  • “Federal judge might ax $2M legal fee in Seattle ‘pro bono’ case” [ABA Journal, earlier here and here]
  • Indictment of Long Island attorney Felix Vinluan dismissed; charged for advising nurses it was okay to quit their jobs [Cernovich, Volokh, Greenfield, Mitchell Rubinstein]
  • “Apartment owner sued for common area second hand smoke” [Womble Carlyle]
  • “Tulsa World sues alt-weekly over circulation story” [Romenesko and more, Shafer, BatesLine with many links] Update: drops suit against publication, leaving suit against columnist [Romenesko]
  • “No evidence of a causal link between restaurants and obesity”. Hey, that could derail some lawsuits [Pethokoukis, U.S. News, on Northwestern/Berkeley study]
    • Tags: , , , ,

    Related posts

    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2009/01/january-17-roundup-2/feed/ 4     January 6 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2009/01/january-6-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2009/01/january-6-roundup/#comments Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:51:29 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=8134

  • Griffin Bell, Carter AG dead at 90, was (among much else) respected Democratic voice for litigation reform [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

  • “700,000 squiggles”: historic NY high court crackdown on trial lawyers’ pothole map [NYT; D'Onofrio v. City of New York slip op h/t reader Andrew Barovick; way back, City Journal]

  • Judge gets off pretty easy after her drunken crash into cop car [Hartford Courant via ChicTrib] Connecticut’s wild-n-crazy judiciary [Courant]

  • Follow the rules and seat Burris: National Journal quotes me in its bloggers’ poll [Illinois Senate appointment]

  • Legal history moment: Statute of Anne, 1710, turned copyright law into force for liberty [Cathy Gellis]

  • Blind editorial squirrel finds acorn: NY Times editorial on Calif good-Samaritan liability not half bad [yes, NYT]

  • “Win yourself a $50,000 bounty by busting a patent” [Forbes]

  • Dental student dismissed from University of Michigan wins $1.7 million from four profs, argued that claimed academic deficiencies were just ruse [ABA Journal]

    • Tags: , , , , ,

    Related posts

    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2009/01/january-6-roundup/feed/ 6     California Good Samaritan ruling, cont’d http://overlawyered.com/2008/12/california-good-samaritan-ruling-contd/ http://overlawyered.com/2008/12/california-good-samaritan-ruling-contd/#comments Sun, 21 Dec 2008 05:04:58 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=8044 As mentioned yesterday, California’s Supreme Court has ruled 4-3 that the state’s “Good Samaritan” law providing tort immunity for rescuers applies only to medical personnel providing medical help at an emergency scene, and not to civilians. “Although the law does not distinguish between types of emergency care, the court majority said the context shows it was meant to be limited to medical care. The law was part of a package of legislation on emergency medical services, Justice Carlos Moreno said in the majority opinion.” (SF Chronicle). Unless you’ve got medical training, then, think twice about offering to help. Docbloggers have been discussing the decision since then, with GruntDoc siding with the dissent, SymTym countering on behalf of the majority, and Throckmorton reporting that even being on the right side of the law isn’t enough to provide reassurance nowadays: “Most of my colleagues are afraid to stop at the scene of an accident and render aid for fear of being sued. The Good Samaritan Law is supposed to prevent this fear of suits but no one seems to believe that it will offer any protection.”

    P.S. Gleeful Gecko: “Never put out a burning Californian.”

    Tags:

    Related posts

    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2008/12/california-good-samaritan-ruling-contd/feed/ 20     Microblog 2008-12-19 http://overlawyered.com/2008/12/microblog-2008-12-19/ http://overlawyered.com/2008/12/microblog-2008-12-19/#comments Sat, 20 Dec 2008 02:58:17 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=8043
  • Newest “Trial Lawyers Inc.” report is on Louisiana [Manhattan Institute, Point of Law]
  • Mel Weiss disbarred automatically w/strong language from judges [Matter of Weiss h/t @erwiest]
  • Pro se claimant: I wrote down cure for cancer and then the darn hospital stole it! [Above the Law]
  • “California Supreme Court Ruling May Deter Good Samaritans” [The Recorder; SF Chronicle with copious reader comments, GruntDoc, our coverage last year]
  • Due diligence on dodgy funds? Sometimes it seems everyone’s relying on someone else to do that [Bronte Capital] Madoff fraud may date to 1970s, maybe “recent laxity” angle has been overdone [Securities Docket] “Ponzi crawl” = pub crawl whereby new person is added at each location and has to buy a round [Re Risk]
  • Radley Balko on Julie Amero malware-prosecution story [Reason, earlier]
  • Join Paul Ehrlich in some of the world’s most famously refuted predictions, and you too may get to be Obama’s science adviser [John Tierney/NYT, John Holdren]
  • Wisconsin Minnesota pig-sitter trial set for March, claim is that defendant let star porker overfeed and gain a hundred pounds [LaCrosse Tribune h/t @kevinokeefe]
  • More on the Patent and Trademark Office “acceptable error” employment case [Venture Chronicles, Jeff Nolan; earlier]
  • Procter & Gamble “Satanism” case finally settles, soap giant got $19 million verdict against four Amway distributors who spread rumor [OnPoint News]
  • Once filing of a suit severs the channels of communication, attorneys and clients alike begin to make up “what really happened” narratives [Settle It Now]
  • Sometimes lawyers need to be formal. Don’t IM “Court denied your appeal u will b executed saturday thx” [Beck & Herrmann]
  • Bangladesh hoping to build replica of Taj Mahal despite copyright claims [Times Online h/t @mglickman]
  • Midnight regulations? “OMB Watch” vigilant (and with reason) during this R-2-D transition but sang different tune in 2000’s D-2-R [Gillespie, Reason]
    • Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

    Related posts

    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2008/12/microblog-2008-12-19/feed/ 4     “Running Doctors Out Of The Emergency Room” http://overlawyered.com/2007/06/running-doctors-out-of-the-emergency-room/ http://overlawyered.com/2007/06/running-doctors-out-of-the-emergency-room/#comments Wed, 13 Jun 2007 10:47:38 +0000 Ted Frank http://overlawyered.com/wpblog/?p=5000 Reader J.B. points us to Tampa physician David Lubin writing in the Tampa Tribune June 11 on the Lucia med-mal verdict we discussed in May. The column is must-read:

    I am writing this as a warning to readers who may at some time seek emergency medical care at one of our area hospitals. You may find that there are no doctors to treat your injuries from a car or motorcycle accident, a burn injury, head trauma or severe medical illness. Just as ‘video killed the radio star,’ plaintiffs’ lawsuits filed when there are bad outcomes, rather than true malpractice, will keep qualified specialists from taking ‘call’ in emergency rooms.

    My case in point is the recent decision by a jury to award Sally Lucia $30 million for the loss of her legs and fingers. Tragic, yes. A result of malpractice? I don’t think so. I admit that I don’t have all the facts presented by both sides, but I have spoken to Dr. George Haedicke, the surgeon on call, who was found to be 20 percent liable for a total of $6 million.

    Mrs. Lucia had a tummy tuck in early 2001 and had problems following surgery. Apparently, the plastic surgeon who did the original abdominal surgery told her to go to the emergency room if she had problems, which she did on Super Bowl Sunday in 2001. The surgeon also happened to be in South Florida at the time she went to the ER.

    Dr. Haedicke was on call for Memorial Hospital and came in to see her. He evaluated her, drained her abdomen, ordered antibiotics and consulted four other physicians (who were also sued) to evaluate her condition. Her own surgeon returned to Tampa later that afternoon to assume care. Dr. Haedicke had seen her for a total of five hours.

    Mrs. Lucia’s attorney, Steve Yerrid, is good. He recently won a case for more than $200 million against another hospital and group of emergency room physicians. He wins lofty awards for those who have been ‘wronged,’ but it never seems to be about ‘the money.’ He creates empathy that jurors feel for his client. He was quoted as saying that Mrs. Lucia and her husband were ‘righteous.’

    I’ve know Dr. Haedicke for more than 15 years. He is a religious man who tragically lost his 10-year-old son in a vehicular accident. When I spoke with him, he told me he’s been thinking about Mrs. Lucia’s case for the past six years. He says with conviction that if he had the opportunity to do it again, he would have treated her in the same manner.

    For the past 20 years, Dr. Haedicke has been one of the rare ‘go to’ surgeons in Tampa when there were patients with injuries so severe that no one else would take them. He’s done more than 50,000 operations, saving many lives, and has not been sued.

    We, of course, feel sorry for Mrs. Lucia, who had her legs amputated below the knees and her fingers removed because of lack of blood flow. The truth is that she came to Memorial Hospital in septic shock and multiple organ failure, a condition in which the death rate can be as high as 90 percent, but her life was saved. Now she can see her three children grow up. Had she died, I doubt this suit would have taken place, but because she survived and had an untoward outcome, she decided to sue.

    One of the plaintiff’s witnesses, a surgeon from Texas who was not certified in critical care, testified that Dr. Haedicke acted with ‘reckless disregard.’ Thankfully, the jury rejected that claim, and even though they found him at fault, said that he was not reckless. He may not have to pay the $6 million if Judge Gregory Holder upholds the Good Samaritan law in Florida.

    Let’s also hope that Judge Holder reduces the claim against Memorial Hospital, or else there might be a time when small private hospitals decide that really sick people cannot come to their emergency rooms. And doctors may not want to be ‘on call’ to see sick people either – with the possibility of being sued and having their lives and careers devastated for what is truly reasonable care.

    Tampa has lost a great surgeon; Dr. Haedicke is now living outside of Tallahassee. The administrator at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital was hoping he would be director of the Level Two trauma center that was opening. He declined.

    Can you blame him?

    Tags: , , , , ,

    Related posts

    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2007/06/running-doctors-out-of-the-emergency-room/feed/ 5