Who gets your ones and zeroes? (John Boudreau, “Pondering new puzzle: who inherits digital data”, San Jose Mercury News/Wichita Eagle, May 29)(via Denise Howell, Between Lawyers).
Archive for June, 2005
Aguilar v. Avis and Janice Rogers Brown
Following up on Monday’s post about the controversy over nominee Janice Brown’s dissent from Aguilar, a California Supreme Court decision which extended the reach of harassment law at the expense of free speech: James Taranto notes (May 31) that at the time the court handed down its decision in Aguilar, the San Francisco Chronicle described it as a “blockbuster” that “stunned constitutional experts”. He wonders: “How can dissent from a decision that ‘stunned constitutional experts’ turn in a few years into a view that’s totally ‘out of the mainstream’ [the New York Times’ words]?” And Eugene Volokh (Jun. 1, crediting Hans Bader) points out that while the AFL-CIO now blasts Brown for her “troubling and extreme” refusal to go along with the Aguilar majority, “the National Writers Union — a member union of the AFL-CIO — proudly filed an amicus brief urging the same result that Justice Brown endorsed.”
Grunow gun suit
Another big defeat for the gun-control-through-litigation movement: a Florida appeals court has upheld a trial court’s decision to throw out a $1.2 million jury award against gun wholesaler Valor Corp. over the murder of Lake Worth English teacher Barry Grunow, murdered by a student who had stolen a Raven-brand handgun distributed by Valor from his grandfather. See Dec. 13-15, 2002 and Feb. 4-5, 2003. (Sara Olkon, “Judges: Gun distributor not to blame in death of Lake Worth teacher”, Miami Herald, Jun. 1). More from Dave Kopel (Jun. 2) (Corrected Jun. 2 to fix erroneous description of relationship between gunmaker and wholesaler).
Vaccine autism theories
These seem to be popular among the opinionizers at the new Huffington Post, but medblogger Orac casts a deeply skeptical eye on them (Mar. 25)(via Grand Rounds). More on these theories and the very considerable litigation they have spawned: Dec. 29. 2003, earlier posts.
Latest newsletter
Our free periodic newsletter went out to subscribers this afternoon (in fact, they may accidentally have received two copies — we’re still getting the hang of the new interface). Each issue summarizes a few weeks’ worth of postings in terse yet wry style. To join the list, change your address, etc., visit this page (requires Google registration).
Arthur Andersen; blogospheric comings and goings
Pseudonymous blogger “Robert Musil” has resumed his financial and political blogging after a hiatus and is drawing pointed lessons (May 31, Jun. 1, Jun. 2) from yesterday’s unanimous Supreme Court decision overturning the conviction of Arthur Andersen in the Enron affair. For more on the Andersen case, see Point of Law’s coverage yesterday and today. Among other financial topics “Musil” has been commenting on lately: the Enron scandal itself (here and here), Sarbanes-Oxley (here and here), and the Supreme Court’s recent rebuke to the Ninth Circuit on the calculation of damages in securities cases, in the Dura case.
On a different note, alas, Tim Sandefur is suspending posting at his Freespace blog, which has been a valuable resource on law and libertarian philosophy and often the target of links from this page. Incidentally, the blogroll on Overlawyered’s front page (right-hand column) is deliberately kept short (and rotated fairly often), but the site’s General Links page offers a longer blogroll which readers may enjoy exploring, as does Point of Law (left column).
Defensive medicine? Lots of it
Doctors admit ordering unnecessary diagnostic tests or avoiding troublesome patients for fear of malpractice lawsuits, perhaps harming care in the process, a survey released on Tuesday said.
The survey of 824 Pennsylvania physicians [in six specialties considered susceptible to litigation] found 93 percent confessed to ordering unnecessary tests, while 42 percent said they referred patients elsewhere if they had complex problems or were perceived as litigious. Both practices are referred to as so-called defensive medicine.
“The most frequent form of defensive medicine, ordering costly imaging studies, seems merely wasteful, but other defensive behaviors may reduce access to care and even pose risks of physical harm,” wrote lead author David Studdert of the Harvard School of Public Health.
(Andrew Stern, “Doctors’ Fear of Lawsuits May Hurt Care”, Reuters/ABCNews.com, May 31). For more on defensive medicine, see, among others, Feb. 1, 2004, Jun. 5, 2002, Point of Law, Apr. 10, and this Peter Huber column on an earlier Daniel Kessler study. Plus: KevinMD has more links here and here on the new study.
“Stop beaming rays at my head”
Creatively resolving grievances without resort to legal process:
As time went on [at my first job after law school, at the federal courthouse in Kansas City, Mo.], I met all manner of people who had business for the court. We met several people who complained that some government department or other was beaming invisible rays at their heads. One of these poor souls came in on a quiet Friday afternoon, so another clerk and I took him over to the Lexis terminal, at that point an imposing stand-alone console about the size of a small desk. We turned it on, typed in “Stop beaming rays at John Doe’s head,” hit “enter” and turned it off. Doe left happily, the voices in his head now silent, and we returned to our duties, knowing that we had helped one American citizen obtain justice in an imperfect world.
(Tom Alleman, “Are Pro Se Suits Ridiculous, Per Se?”, Texas Lawyer, May 9).
Grand Rounds XXXVI
The weekly roundup of medical blog posts, hosted this week by Dr. Sanity, is kind enough to mention our post on disabled doctors and their legal rights.