Overlawyered » insurance

February 27 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 05:08:07 +0000

Department of Transportation cracks down on distraction from cars’ onboard information and entertainment systems; Mike Masnick suspects the measure won’t work as intended, as appears to have been the case with early texting bans [Techdirt; earlier here, etc.] “Feds Push New York Toward Full Ban On Electronic Devices In Cars” [Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit; Truth About Cars]
Oh no: Scott Greenfield says he’s ceasing to post at his exemplary criminal defense blog after five years [Simple Justice, Dave Hoffman]
California not entitled to pursue its own foreign policy, at least when in conflict with rest of nation’s: unanimous “blockbuster” decision by en banc 9th Circuit strikes down law enabling insurance suits by Armenian victims [AP, Alford/OJ, Recorder, related, Frank/PoL]
Playboy model’s $1.2M award against Gotham cops is a great day for the tabloids [NYDN]
To hear a pitch for fracking-royalty suits, visit the American Association for Justice convention, or just read the New York Times [Wood, PoL]
What the mortgage settlement did [John Cochrane, earlier]
Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978 blows up an adoption: “She’s a 2-year-old girl who got shoved in a truck and driven to Oklahoma with strangers.” [Reuters, SaveVeronica.org]

Tags: AAJ, adoption, autos, California, Indian tribes, insurance, legal blogs, mortgages, oil industry, reparations

February 27 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Medical roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 13:57:05 +0000

View from Massachusetts General Hospital: drug shortages getting “dire” [WBUR, earlier here, here, here, etc.]
Medical liability roundup: Sheriff arrives at Ohio doctor’s home to enforce $9.7 million award blaming lack of Caesarean section for cerebral palsy [TribToday] North Carolina legislature overrides Gov. Beverly Perdue’s veto of liability limits [News & Observer via White Coat] Trial-lawyer-friendly Florida Supreme Court could strike down malpractice award limits in pending case [Orlando Business Journal]
“Antitrust rules handcuff physician-led delivery models” [American Medical News]
Relatedly, who was it who imagined anonymous denunciation of doctors was going to be a good idea? [Jay Hopkinson via Larry Ribstein]
New Medicare paperwork threat to clinical trials? [Beck]
Study: Elected coroners less likely to label deaths as suicide than appointed counterparts, family’s access to insurance benefits may be factor [Kevin B. O'Reilly, American Medical News]
“Gee, why wouldn’t Obama administration want judges and “public interest” lawyers running its new health care law?” [Mickey Kaus on New Republic report]

Tags: antitrust, Florida, insurance, medical, Medicare, North Carolina, obstetrics

Medical roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

U.K. auto insurance rates soar

Walter Olson — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 11:42:57 +0000

A House of Commons select committee “identified the principal cause as ‘a rapid growth in the number of personal injury claims management firms, which are using direct cold-call marketing techniques to encourage people to make claims who otherwise would not have done so’”. [Philip Johnston, Telegraph]

Tags: chasing clients, contingent fee, insurance, United Kingdom

U.K. auto insurance rates soar is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Swiss sledders, skiers seldom sue

Walter Olson — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 12:33:51 +0000

“The tree trunks, exposed banks and other hazards whizzing past represent a cornucopia of potential tort suits under U.S. law, yet somehow the Swiss manage to operate these runs without being sued into oblivion.” Dan Fisher at Forbes has a go at explaining why. More: Bill Childs, TortsProf (many U.S. states relatively protective of winter sports providers).

Tags: contingent fee, Europe, insurance, juries, skiing, Switzerland

Swiss sledders, skiers seldom sue is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

March 3 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 05:08:06 +0000

EU imposes unisex insurance rates [BBC, Wright]
Law blog on the offense? TechnoLawyer asserts trademark claim against Lawyerist over “Small Law” [Lawyerist]
“Pro-business Supreme Court” meme strikes out yet again as SCOTUS backs “cat’s-paw” bias suit theory by 8-0-2 margin [Josh Blackman, Schwartz, Fox; Lithwick locus classicus]
Subprime CDO manager sues financial writer Michael Lewis over statements in his book The Big Short [AW, Salmon, Kennerly]
Police in Surrey, England, deny advising garden shed owners not to use wire mesh against burglars [Volokh, earlier]
Patterns of intimidation: protesters swarm Speaker Boehner’s private residence [Hollingsworth, Examiner] Unions fighting Wal-Mart in NYC plan actions at board members’ homes [Stoll] Report: GOP lawmakers in Wisconsin fear for personal safety [Nordlinger, NRO] White House pushing street protests [Welch, Nordlinger] Age of Civility short lived [Badger Blogger, Althouse, Sullivan]
In clash with trial lawyers, Cuomo proposes pain and suffering limits in med-mal suits [NYDN, more: NYT] “Bloomberg looks to Texas for ideas on changing medical malpractice laws” [City Hall News]
Hey, should we seize his drum set? Infuriating video on cop raids and forfeiture laws [Institute for Justice, Michigan]

Tags: Dahlia Lithwick, Europe, forfeiture, insurance, labor unions, legal blogs, libel slander and defamation, medical malpractice, mortgages, New York, sex discrimination, Supreme Court, trademarks

March 3 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Great moments in insurance law

Walter Olson — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 05:22:55 +0000

“Connecticut’s second-highest court ruled Monday that a man facing charges of arson of his East Lyme beach house can sue the home’s insurer for emotional distress because of the way the insurer investigated the fire.” [Hartford Courant]

Tags: Connecticut, insurance

Great moments in insurance law is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Deep pocket files: Highway 101 crash

Walter Olson — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 05:15:15 +0000

In 2007, on Highway 101 north of Ventura, Jeremy White plowed his pickup truck into a vehicle parked along the roadside, killing its driver and paralyzing a California highway patrolman who was standing alongside. White “pleaded guilty in September 2008 to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and selling and transporting marijuana. He was sentenced to 15 years.” While he had an insurance policy, its limit was a paltry $15,000. So which deep pockets will be left responsible for paying the nearly $50 million a jury has awarded in damages? The answer, apparently: 1) White’s insurance company, despite the policy limit, due to the magic of “insurance bad faith” law; 2) Bert’s Mega Mall in Covina, whose employees, according to the plaintiffs in the case, “didn’t properly strap down two dirt bikes in the back of White’s truck, which caused a distraction and contributed to the crash.”

After the trial ended Tuesday, the mall’s lawyer, Terrence Cranert, said they would appeal.

He said there was significant evidence the jury didn’t receive, including a statement from White’s passenger who told the CHP that he and White had stopped to smoke marijuana after leaving the mall. Cranert said they weren’t able to find White’s passenger for the trial, but felt the information should have been allowed.

The judge, however, disagreed.

White’s passenger also told the CHP that he and White went into the back of the truck and opened a tool box to get the marijuana, according to Cranert. “They would have to unstrap the motorcycles,” Cranert said.

[Ventura County Star reporting, liability and damages phases]

Tags: California, deep pocket, insurance, joint and several liability

Deep pocket files: Highway 101 crash is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

December 31 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 12:10:57 +0000

“No refusal” DUI checkpoints spread and can result in mandatory blood tests for drivers; MADD cheers infringement of liberty [WTSP]
Teleworking regulations: a new way to sue your (federal) boss? [welcome Mickey Kaus/Newsweek readers]
“The federal government has been in the business of micro-managing our kids’ lunches for 30 years” [David Gratzer/Examiner] St. Paul, Minn. schools ban sweets, even when brought from home [Star-Tribune] Michelle Obama, Sarah Palin, and the Happy Meal lawsuit [John Steele Gordon, Commentary]
Top ten insurance law decisions of 2010 [Randy Maniloff, Insurance Journal; also congrats on his new book (with Jeffrey Stempel)]
“Mitch Daniels and Criminal Sentencing Reform in Indiana” [Orin Kerr] Daniels isn’t backing down from call for truce on social issues [GOP12]
Happy 100th birthday, Ronald Coase [Gillespie, Reason]
Damage to Gulf from spill now looks much less than feared [Robert Nelson, Weekly Standard]
Saudi court decides that text message is valid method of divorce [Emirates 24/7]

Tags: BP Transocean oil spill, insurance, obesity, Saudi Arabia, schools, traffic laws, workplace

December 31 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Allstate advances “Toyota sudden acceleration” narrative

Walter Olson — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 05:05:27 +0000

We know some consumer reporters can be easy marks for overhyped scare stories. But what excuse does a giant insurance company has for trying to knock spare change out of an automaker by endorsing the scare theories in a subrogation suit? [Mary Anne Medina, Claims Magazine] See also: Laura Zois, Maryland Accident Lawyer.

Tags: insurance, sudden acceleration, Toyota

Allstate advances “Toyota sudden acceleration” narrative is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

August 21 roundup

Walter Olson — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 12:15:24 +0000

More criticism of $671 million California nursing home verdict [Tracy Leach/Examiner, California Civil Justice, earlier]
Community service as precondition for college tax credits? [Charlotte Allen/Minding the Campus, earlier]
Casket-making monks vs. Louisiana funeral regulators [Ken at Popehat]
Careful about repeating claims that bad stuff in the environment is causing children to go through puberty earlier [Sanghavi, Slate]
Grilled chicken: “California Restaurants Lose Appeal On Cancer Warnings” [Dan Fisher/Forbes, earlier]
Randy Maniloff on the uncertain foundations of insurance bad faith law [Mealey's, PDF]
“Why Imitation Is the Sincerest Form of Fashion” [Raustiala/Sprigman, NY Times, earlier on design "knockoff" legislation here, here, and here]
On a personal note, this week I completed my relocation from the New York to the Washington, D.C. vicinity. I look forward to seeing more of my friends both at the Cato Institute’s offices and elsewhere around D.C.

Tags: Design Piracy Prohibition Act, insurance, Louisiana, national service, nursing homes

August 21 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system