Overlawyered » nursing homes

May 31 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 31 May 2011 05:16:45 +0000

Reforms billed as loser-pays advance in Texas, but they’re very scaled-down [WSJ, WLF and more, Legal Blog Watch, Wood/PoL, Cary Gray/Houston Chronicle, WSJ Law Blog, earlier]
“Refutation of Toyota sudden acceleration hysteria doesn’t stop Toyota sudden acceleration litigation” [Ted at PoL]
“Five Questions With Legal Scholar Richard Epstein” [Jamie Weinstein, Daily Caller; his views on Title IX]
Employers glad for small favors: “Refusing to Hire Applicant Who Fails Drug Test Not an ADA Violation” [Robin Weideman, California Labor and Employment Law Blog; Ninth Circuit]
“Study Shows Litigation Doesn’t Improve Nursing Home Safety” [Studdert et al, NEJM via Daniel Fisher]
Risperdal? No thanks: “Mother battles Michigan over daughter’s medication” [AP]
Personal-injury litigation plummets in Australia following enactment of state-level reforms [seven years ago on Overlawyered]

Tags: disabled rights, illegal drugs, loser pays, nursing homes, psychiatry, Richard Epstein, sudden acceleration, Texas, Title IX, Toyota

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

April 4 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 13:40:04 +0000

Verbal fireworks from Judge Kozinski in Ninth Circuit “stolen valor” case [Above the Law]
Measure of artificially contrived scarcity: “NYC Taxi Medallions Approach $1 Million.” Would officials in Washington, D.C. really consider introducing such a destructive system? [Perry, more]
Workers’ comp OK’d in case where simulated chicken head blamed for subsequent emotional disability [Lowering the Bar]
“NBA referee sues sports writer over tweet” [Siouxsie Law] “Lessons from Dan Snyder’s Libel Suit” [Paul Alan Levy/CL&P, earlier]
Litigation rates similar for poor and good nursing homes, researchers find [US News] Effects of medical liability reform in Texas [White Coat, scroll] New York’s Cuomo caves on medical liability plan [Heritage] Sued if you do, sued if you don’t in the emergency room [same]
“Federal Government Wants to Bully School Bullies, and Demands School Help” [Doherty, Bader, Popehat, Bernstein] New York law firm launches school-bullying practice [Constitutional Daily]
Mass tort settlements: “The market for specious claims” [S. Todd Brown, Buffalo, SSRN]
Could Gene McCarthy’s candidacy have survived Arizona elections law? [Trevor Burrus, HuffPo]

Tags: Alex Kozinski, bullying, campaign regulation, emergency medicine, libel slander and defamation, mass tort fraud, nursing homes, NYC, sports, sued if you do, Texas, Twitter, workers' compensation

April 4 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

September 13 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 13:31:51 +0000

“Court Vacates $99,000 Fee to Counsel for Plaintiff Who Won $650″ [NJLJ]
Libel-suit target: “Author Simon Singh Puts Up a Fight in the War on Science” [Wired]
No, they weren’t “worst”: RIP injury lawyer who hyped “10 Worst Toys” list each Christmas [WSJ Law Blog]
New credit card regulations squeeze small business [John Berlau letter in Washington Post]
District attorney’s case intake desk should screen out many unjust prosecutions, but often doesn’t [Greenfield]
AGs’ campaign to drive sex pros off Craigslist has failure built in [William Saletan, Slate; LNL; Declan McCullagh]
“Nursing Home Company Settles $677 Million Lawsuit for $50 Million” [AP]
“Judge accused of sexual harassment once helped women sue” [Orlando Sentinel]

Tags: attorneys' fees, CPSIA and toys, Craigslist, harassment law, nursing homes, prosecution, United Kingdom

September 13 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

September 7 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 10:31:17 +0000

“If someone wants to sue you, they can. Easily, too.” Amy Wallace on being sued over her vaccine story [Reporting on Health, earlier]
Jury tells Ford to pay $131 million after minor league ballplayer crashes Explorer at 80 mph+ [WaPo]
Winnipeg judge scandal has sex, race, coercion and most riveting of all a legal ethics angle [Alice Woolley, LEF]
“$667M Nursing Home Verdict Surprised Even the Plaintiffs’ Lawyers” [ABA Journal, earlier]
“Maryland Woman Sues After Being Banned by Facebook” [Kashmir Hill/Forbes, MSNBC "Technolog"]
The trouble with (some) defense-side trial lawyers [Ted Frank, CCAF] And: defense bar briefing prosecutorial agencies on ins and outs of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Ethics/loyalty problem in that, or no? [Koehler]
Bow-tied troll? Patent-marking suits hit the big time [WSJ Law Blog and more, ABA Journal, Glenn Lammi/Forbes]
“A girl named Sue who sues and sues and sues” [SE Tex Record]

Tags: autos, damages, defense lawyers, Facebook, libel slander and defamation, nursing homes, patent marking, serial litigants

September 7 roundup 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

August 2 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 12:39:01 +0000

“Why Do Employers Use FICO Scores?” Maybe one reason is that government places off limits so many of the other ways they might evaluate job applicants [McArdle, Coyote]
Michael Fumento on $671 million verdict against nursing home in California [Forbes]
Ted Frank is looking for a pro bono economics expert [CCAF]
Lester Brickman, “Anatomy of an Aggregate Settlement: The Triumph of Temptation Over Ethics” [Phillips Petroleum explosion; SSRN via Legal Ethics Forum]
Ice cream trucks return to Niskayuna, N.Y. 34 years after a panic-occasioned ban [Free-Range Kids, Mangu-Ward]
Galloping trend toward “whistleblower” enactments: this time lawmakers are rushing one on oil workers [Smith/ShopFloor, more, earlier]
Class action lawsuit filed against Trident Xtra Care gum, marketed as good for one’s teeth [Hoffman/ConcurOp; compare Russell Jackson on Wrigley's settlement of a class action over Eclipse chewing gum]
EEOC officials urge employers to ban foul language and swearing in workplace [seven years ago at Overlawyered]

Tags: class actions, Lester Brickman, nursing homes, settlement, whistleblowers, workplace

August 2 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Filial responsibility” laws and nursing home bills

Walter Olson — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 04:10:00 +0000

A number of states have what are sometimes known as filial responsibility laws which obligate adult children to pay for their parents’ medical and nursing-home care. In Pennsylvania, nursing home lawyers have been known to pursue lawsuits against out-of-state children who are estranged from the parents in question. (Monica Yant Kinney, “If mom can’t pay, adult child must”, Philadelphia Inquirer, Jul. 12).

More on these laws: Jane Gross, NYT; Everyday Simplicity; Do Ask Do Tell.

Tags: debtor-creditor law, nursing homes, Pennsylvania

“Filial responsibility” laws and nursing home bills is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Evicted — by his own class action lawyers

Walter Olson — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 15:29:30 +0000

The Center for Public Representation, a Massachusetts “public interest law” group that specializes in disability-related lawsuits, filed a civil-rights class action in the name of 640 profoundly mentally disabled residents of nursing facilities demanding that the state Department of Mental Retardation move them into group homes, the better to be part of the “community”, as the catch-phrase has it. A judge agreed and ordered the transfer. Among the 640 patients was Eric Voss, who is severely disabled and has been living for seven years at a Groton pediatric nursing facility called Seven Hills. Now Eric’s parents, Frank and Barbara Voss, are fighting the order, saying that their son never had any choice about joining the action and that forcing him out would endanger the quality of his care and deprive him of surroundings and staff that have become like home. “U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, has filed legislation that requires parents and guardians to be notified about class-action suits, and to allow them to opt out.”

“Our children can’t speak for themselves, so we will fight for them,” Voss said. “If individuals like Eric are moved, they won’t live long. They shouldn’t have to give their lives for a lawsuit that has nothing to do with them.”

(Rita Savard, “‘We’re prepared to fight’”, Lowell Sun, Oct. 12; alternate version; Rolland v. Patrick settlement agreement, PDF; AvertRollandTragedy.org, advocacy site).

Tags: class action settlements, disabled rights, Massachusetts, nursing homes

Evicted — by his own class action lawyers is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

L.A.: Hospitals can’t discharge homeless patients

Walter Olson — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:23:45 +0000

Thanks to a new city ordinance, they get to provide some of the world’s most expensive free hotel service to patients who are well enough to leave but refuse. (WSJ health blog, Aug. 4).

More: Numerous interesting comments from readers including this from Throckmorton:

This is not just in L.A. but happens all around the country as well. Our area saw this increase with the rise in nursing home suits. Nursing homes are now very reluctant to accept patients who are at risk for decubitus ulcers, etc. This combined with the declining revenue has led to the situation where there are no places that will accept transfers from the hospital. As more and more patients fill the wards awaiting placement, the hospital has no choice but to divert those that need urgent care.

You may not be able to get a nursing home patient out of the hospital, but at least you will not have a problem finding them an attorney.

Tags: hospitals, Los Angeles, never events, nursing homes

L.A.: Hospitals can’t discharge homeless patients is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Wilkes & McHugh sued over alleged Tenn. fee grab

Walter Olson — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 00:14:56 +0000

Tampa-based Wilkes & McHugh, which has enjoyed much success filing suits against nursing homes in many states, “is now on the defense end of a suit that contends the firm knowingly violated Tennessee law regarding contingency fees.” Former client Debbie Howard, who hired the firm to sue a Memphis nursing home, says it “engaged in an unlawful scheme to collect 40 percent or 45 percent in contingency fees of settlement amounts, although Tennessee law caps fees to 33 and 1/3 percent in medical malpractice cases. The complaint says the law firm charged the higher and unlawful contingency fee to hundreds of clients in Tennessee.” In its response, the law firm says the complaint is “scurrilous” and based on falsehoods, and says Howard never appealed a Tennessee court order approving the fees. (Liz Freeman, “Tampa law firm faces contingency fees lawsuit”, Naples (Fla.) News, Jan. 14; Scott Barancik, “Firm gets a taste of dish it serves”, St. Petersburg Times, Feb. 17). For more on the law firm, see Mar. 13-14, 2001, Jul. 6, 2005, and Jun. 22, 2006, as well as Scott Barancik, “Law firm’s success against nursing homes has a price”, St. Petersburg Times, Jul. 24, 2004.

Tags: contingent fee, ethics, feeing frenzy, nursing home, nursing homes, Tennessee, Wilkes & McHugh

Wilkes & McHugh sued over alleged Tenn. fee grab is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system