It’s up at Popehat (cross-posted from Point of Law).
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Missed this Volokh.com thread from a month ago on the subject. My explanation (summed up in a speech ten years ago) overlaps but does not exactly duplicate Orin Kerr’s; a wide variety of opinions get aired in the comments.
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Eugene Volokh recalls (with a followup) a groundbreaking 1973 case in which the Tenth Circuit ruled that it could be found negligent for a supermarket to have installed a silent alarm that summoned the police when a holdup was in practice; a hostage was killed in the resulting shootout. The case is consistent with others in which lawyers have advanced theories summed up in the phrase “negligent provocation”.
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Longtime reader P.W. writes:
I’ve been biting my fist while I read the recent series of guest posts on tort reform and medicine on andrewsullivan.com, such as this one. Lots of readers breezily asserting that there’s no problem, pretty much a fact-free debate. I’ve emailed them myself, but no luck so far….
P.S. More or less relatedly, Democratic strategist Bob Beckel sees medical liability reform as the possible pivot of a health care deal [Real Clear Politics]
P.P.S. Sullivan’s guestblogger Patrick Appel has now posted good emails from one reader dismantling some of the trial bar talking points that had figured prominently in earlier posts:
Easily disprovable lie #1: Texas malpractice insurance rates have declined every year since tort reform was enacted. Here’s a link to TMLT, the largest insurer in Texas…
[#3:] …the inflation-adjusted decrease in overall indemnity payments is due precisely to tort reform, primarily in the country’s largest economy, California, where MICRA was established in 1974. In non-tort reform states, indemnity payments have steadily increased. In Illinois, which only adopted tort reform in 2007, the average (pdf, page 15) indemnity payment increased from $70,000 in 1980 to $630,000 in 2008. If you adjust for inflation, those 1980 dollars would only be $182,943.81 in 2009. Clearly, this is not a decrease. …
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As readers may have noticed, I’m a big booster of Lenore Skenazy’s wonderful Free-Range Kids website (subtitle: “Giving our kids the freedom we had without going nuts with worry”), and yesterday she returned the favor with some more than kind words about this site (“great, nay mindblowing”) and a discussion of our recent post about a Staten Island mother’s suit against Little League and volunteer coaches. Interesting reader discussions ensue. (Also, more on her book here.)
While on the topic of that Little League suit, Rick Reilly of ESPN Magazine has a new column that a lot of people are talking about: “A tale of two Little Leaguers”
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Larry Ribstein and Alexandra Lahav comment favorably, as does the pseudonymous “Kat”, and Scott Greenfield semi-snarks about my new job.
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The two giant sites were among the many that linked to our Blawg Review #220, posted Monday.
Yes, I have much to answer for. Like him I’ve forgotten the exact words of our ten-year-old conversation, but his paraphrase sounds right.
Installments 3 and 4 of the ER doctor’s saga deal with his preparation for being deposed, and the deposition itself (earlier).
I share my views on the Edward Whelan/Obsidian Wings/”Publius” affair at Point of Law.
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Now it’s hit the big blogs: Boing Boing, Althouse, Volokh. RiskProf picks his favorite BoingBoing comments. And at our earlier post, Hal Hewell of Hewell Law Firm, which filed the suit, writes in comments that neither the plaintiff “nor her first amended complaint stated that she believed ‘crunchberries’ was a real fruit,” and I respond.
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White Coat’s trial is in fact concluded, so he’s not liveblogging it, but recounting it after the fact; posting while the trial was in progress was what got Boston pediatrician “Flea” into so much trouble a couple of years ago after the posts came to the attention of opposing lawyers. [first, second posts] Some reactions: Eric Turkewitz, MedicineThink.
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Could “excitability” be a plus? [Patrick @ Popehat, and see comments]
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- U.K.: Disciplinary complaints against lawyers may be thrown open to public and press [Times Online]
- U.S. Chamber adds three new stories to its “Faces of Lawsuit Abuse” series, among them the 7-year-old sued over a ski accident, and the family-owned California restaurant sued for putting a mirror two inches too high. [Chamber mag, Yankee Philip]
- Real estate agent couple: producers of CSI show defamed us in pre-final script [Los Angeles Times]
- Idea of “suburban general store” walkable from homes would require zoning law fix in many localities [Metropolis]
- Gov. Schwarzenegger these days is scourge of violent entertainment, at least when in videogame form [Elizabeth Jacobson, OpenMarket]
- Critique of federal hate crimes bill [Gail Heriot for the Federalist Society]
- Many prosecutors resist potentially exculpatory DNA test matches [NYT, Greenfield, Balko/Reason "Hit and Run"]
- Blogger “Evil HR Lady” is unmasked! (and names some of her favorite health blogs) [linking to Blogs.com]
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- Probate court in Connecticut: bad enough when they hold you improperly in conservatorship, but worse when they bill you for the favor [Hartford Courant]
- Does “Patent Troll” in World of Warcraft count as a character type or a monster type? [Broken Toys]
- 102-year-old Italian woman wins decade-long legal dispute, but is told appeal could take 10 years more [Telegraph]
- “This Cartoon Could Be Illegal, If Two Iowa Legislators Have Their Way” [Eugene Volokh]
- David Giacalone, nonpareil commentator on attorneys’ fee ethics (and haiku), has decided to end his blog f/k/a. He signs off with a four-part series on lawyer billing and fairness to consumers/clients: parts one, two, three, four, plus a final “Understanding and Reducing Attorney Fees“. He’s keeping the site as archives, though, and let’s hope that as such it goes on shedding its light for as long as there are lawyers and vulnerable clients. More: Scott Greenfield.
- Even they can’t manage to comply? Politically active union SEIU faces unfair labor practice charges from its own employees [WaPo]
- Judge in Austin awards $3 million from couple’s estate to their divorce lawyers [Austin American-Statesman]
- “Keywords With Highest Cost Per Click”, lawyers and financial services dominate [SpyFu]
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Links and angles that didn’t fit anywhere else:
- Just in time to be too late? Per activist Kathleen Fasanella, NPR “Marketplace” is said to be planning a show on CPSIA for Feb. 6, by which time shelves will be emptying;
- Community of independent artists squabble amid anguish of “discovering piece by piece they can’t comply” [Electric Boogaloo, strong language]
- Obama’s decorator better hurry and furnish girls’ rooms before Feb. 10 [Vicki Piippo, Calico Closet]
- Consumer Reports sticks to its profoundly benighted view that there’s nothing wrong with the law, and gets an earful from visiting readers. Relatedly, the once-independent blog Consumerist was recently bought by CR’s parent Consumers’ Union, and likewise parrots the organization’s misleading line on thrift shops and other applications of the law;
- My call for past bloggers to revisit CPSIA today was even more successful than I hoped. Posts from Amy Alkon at Advice Goddess, Patrick at Popehat, John Schwenkler, Mark Thompson at the wonderfully named League of Ordinary Gentlemen, and Eve Tushnet at Ladyblog.
Also, I contributed two posts at my other site, Point of Law, on the law’s testing costs and its impact on the amusement park/attractions business. And excellent business/econ blogger Marc Hodak (Hodak Value) posted today as well.
- Darn. This place had some cute stuff, too.
- In today’s New York Post, Jeff Stier (American Council on Science and Health) points out that the law will deal a blow to NYC’s garment trade. Help, Mayor Bloomberg!
- Canadian web-based book seller: we’ll have to decide whether to go on shipping kids’ books to U.S. customers;
- Resources: A great big assemblage of videos on the cause; nice collection of resources on the law from Karen Clark; info and action kit from Etsy (PDF), print it out for reference.
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Among the bloggers who’ve done excellent posts on the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, but who don’t primarily blog on this or nearby topics, are BeliefNet’s Rod Dreher (who was onto the thrift store angle very early), John Schwenkler of Upturned Earth, Mark Thompson @ Publius Endures, economist Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution, Advice Goddess columnist Amy Alkon, Iain Murray at CEI “Open Market”, Jeff Nolan at Venture Chronicles, Patrick @ Popehat, Eve Tushnet (scroll a lot to Jan. 15), and leading education blogger Joanne Jacobs.
Do all of them know that today is CPSIA Blog Day, in which hundreds of bloggers will be calling attention to the law’s terrible effects? I hope so, because it would be great to hear their voices again as part of today’s chorus.
P.S. Great response! Posts from Amy Alkon at Advice Goddess, Patrick at Popehat, John Schwenkler, Mark Thompson at the wonderfully named League of Ordinary Gentlemen, and Eve Tushnet at Ladyblog.
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