Overlawyered » insurers

March 9 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 05:50:13 +0000

Roundup of James Q. Wilson appreciations [Michael Greve] The controversial book a 29-year-old Wilson never wrote [Helen Rittelmeyer]
“Secret Class Action Settlements” [Rhonda Wasserman (Pitt), SSRN, via Stier] “Classic scholarship: Class action cops” [Trask/Class Strategist] Where should class-action scholarship go next? [same, more]
So does this mean GOP’s overturn-Kelo bill would kill the Keystone pipeline? [Stoll]
Stossel on illegal lemonade stands and vague laws that make everyone guilty; guest star is Cato’s Harvey Silverglate [YouTube]
No Fluke? Linda Greenhouse’s recollection of Lilly Ledbetter case is fairly fictionalized [Ed Whelan, earlier]
Footsie with plaintiff-lawyer adversaries: “Allstate vs. former Allstate adjuster” [Ron Miller]
Benjamin Barton reviews the Winston-Crandall deregulate-lawyers book [MSLR/SSRN via Instapundit, earlier]

Tags: class action settlements, class actions, eminent domain, insurers, Lilly Ledbetter

March 9 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

U.K.: “Injury claim referral fees to be banned”

Walter Olson — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 05:02:37 +0000

Britain: “The government is to ban referral fees in personal injury claims in an attempt to curb the ‘compensation culture’. It says the current system in which personal injury details are sold on by insurance companies to lawyers has led to rising insurance costs.” [BBC]

Tags: chasing clients, insurers, United Kingdom

U.K.: “Injury claim referral fees to be banned” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

September 6 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 05:09:46 +0000

“For any value of x, ‘X’s Law’ is a bad idea.” [David Wagner on this Radley Balko post]
“Politicized hiring at DOJ” shoe is on the other foot now [Caroline May, Daily Caller; Hans Bader/CEI]
“THE FACTS: Nothing is unconstitutional until courts declare it to be so,” quoth AP. Whaaaa? [Taranto]
Pull back your town’s Section 8 program, get sued or investigated [James Bovard, WSJ]
New Jersey Turnpike Authority legal payouts include $150K in legal fees to ADA claimant [Press of Atlantic City]
NYT’s faux-criticism of Title IX enforcers: colleges aren’t cowed enough by them [Joshua Thompson, PLF Liberty Blog]
After silicosis-payout scandal, lawsuits aim at defrauded insurer among other parties [Brenda Sapino Jeffreys, Texas Lawyer, earlier]

Tags: constitutional law, disabled rights, fair housing, insurers, New Jersey, New York Times, Title IX

September 6 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Sebelius and health insurers: shut up, she explained

Walter Olson — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 05:07:24 +0000

Eugene Volokh, Michael Cannon and Ed Morrissey react to the Secretary’s announcement that her Department of Health and Human Services will show “zero tolerance” for regulated health insurers who inflict “misinformation” on the public in the course of blaming ObamaCare for rate increases. More: Monday WSJ editorial (“Zero tolerance for expressing an opinion, or offering an explanation to policyholders? They’re more subtle than this in Caracas.”) And Michael Cannon at Cato at Liberty has a further roundup post of reactions.

Tags: free speech, insurers, Kathleen Sebelius, medical

Sebelius and health insurers: shut up, she explained is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Subrogation without adult supervision

Walter Olson — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 17:10:36 +0000

How litigious can insurance companies be when they find themselves in the plaintiff’s seat during the process known as subrogation? This litigious, per Patrick at Popehat.

Tags: insurers, suicide

Subrogation without adult supervision is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Waxman, Stupak demand info from health insurers

Walter Olson — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:31:43 +0000

A compulsory subpoena could follow if they don’t fork over information on “compensation of highly paid employees” and “expenses stemming from any event held outside company facilities in the past 2 1/2 years”, among other topics. As AP notes, industries that vocally support, rather than oppose, health care reform aren’t targets of the investigation. More: Politico.

Tags: Henry Waxman, insurers, subpoenas, U.S. House of Representatives

Waxman, Stupak demand info from health insurers is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Mutual of Omaha vs. Oprah Winfrey

Walter Olson — Sun, 17 May 2009 22:36:36 +0000

Their lawyers are locked in a dispute over who gets to use the phrase “aha moment”. [L.A. Times, Omaha World-Herald, Yakima Herald-Republic]

Tags: insurers, Oprah Winfrey, trademarks

Mutual of Omaha vs. Oprah Winfrey is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

April 3 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:09:56 +0000

Those enviro-hazard warnings plastered all over because of Prop 65? They may be not merely pointless but untrue [California Civil Justice; a still-timely 2000 piece]
Is it somehow wrong for a public medical examiner to testify against cops — even when it’s in another county? [Radley Balko, Reason]
UCLA research scientists fight back against animal rights fanatics’ violence and intimidation [Orac/Respectful Insolence, "Pro-Test"]
Ezra Levant, himself a target of Canada’s official speech tribunals, has written a new book denouncing them, buy before they ban it [Amazon; Andrew Coyne, Maclean's] Has odious censorship-complaint-filer Richard Warman finally gotten his comeuppance? [Ken @ Popehat] More: another Warman case [Cit Media Law]
Roundup of recent sports/assumption of risk cases [John Hochfelder]
Already in trouble on charges of faking a will, Allentown, Pa. police-brutality attorney John Karoly now faces tax charges including alleged failure to report $5 million in income for 2002, 2004 and 2005 [TaxGirl]
Lawprof’s “Reparations, Reconciliation and Restorative Justice” seminar led to introduction of Maryland bill requiring insurers to disclose antebellum slaveholder policies [DelmarvaNow]
Judge tosses suit by Clarksville, Tennessee officials against activists who called them cozy with developers [Sullum, Reason "Hit and Run"]

Tags: animal rights, assumption of risk, California, expert witnesses, free speech in Canada, insurers, Maryland, Prop 65, reparations, Richard Warman, sports, Tennessee

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

Lawsuit: bailing out AIG unlawfully promotes Islam

Walter Olson — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 11:41:01 +0000

I discuss a silly new lawsuit at Secular Right; those who would like a more thorough treatment should check out what Eugene Volokh has to say.

Tags: First Amendment, insurers

Lawsuit: bailing out AIG unlawfully promotes Islam is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Obama transition on health care costs

Walter Olson — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 16:32:36 +0000

Coyote also points to this page, which magically promises simultaneously to reduce health premiums while requiring insurers to cover pre-existing conditions and doing lots of other generous stuff. Total discussion of medical liability issues consists of the following bullet point:

Prevent insurers from overcharging doctors for their malpractice insurance and invest in proven strategies to reduce preventable medical errors.

Yes, because suppressing current malpractice insurance rates by adopting artificially rosy premises as to future payouts worked out so well when tried in New York. Update Monday: transition yanks entire “Agenda”, this section and others.

Tags: Barack Obama, insurers, medical malpractice insurance, New York

Obama transition on health care costs is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system