This ad campaign from the Donato’s Pizza chain spoofs lowbrow law-firm TV advertising.
Archive for 2006
“Driver sues families of crash victims”
Vermont: “The driver in a [one-car] fatal accident in Westmore two years ago has sued the families of the two [passenger] victims of the crash. Charles Meyer and his mother Julie Jensen, who had a summer home in the area, said they have been the subject of critical public sentiment and claim that the two other teenagers were partly responsible for their deaths.” The legal action appears to be in the nature of a counterclaim before the fact against the families, who are expected to sue Meyer over his role as driver and Jensen for having entrusted the car to the youths. “Meyer, 14, was driving without a license.” (AP/Boston Globe, May 28; Sam Hemingway, “Westmore double-fatal takes another odd turn”, Burlington Free Press, May 28).
Student’s death a mystery; family to sue college
The death in March of John Fiocco, Jr., at the College of New Jersey remains shrouded in mystery. He was last seen drunk in a dormitory at 3 a.m.; a month later his remains were found in a landfill among trash brought from dumpsters at the college. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, police “have said they do not know whether alcohol played a role in Fiocco’s death, or whether there was foul play.” Nonetheless, Fiocco’s family, represented by attorney Glenn A. Zeitz of Haddonfield, N.J., is planning to sue the college for more than $5 million, arguing that it should have hired more security, done more to enforce underage drinking laws, and kept students away from the trash system. (Jan Hefler, “Family to sue college over son’s death”, Jun. 6).
Lawyers’ ads, scaring patients
The reformist website Sick Of Lawsuits points out an unpleasant side-effect of the typical lawyers’ ad campaign seeking to drum up lawsuits over side effects of prescription drugs, namely that it may cause patients to go off medications that are a good bet for them:
“* Twenty-five percent of patients said they would immediately stop taking a prescribed drug if they saw an ad for a lawsuit involving that drug. (Pharmaceutical Liability Survey, Harris Interactive, July 15, 2003)
“* Nine mental health patients in South Mississippi stopped taking their prescribed medications after seeing personal injury lawyer advertising regarding Zyprexa and Risperdal – drugs used to treat patients with schizophrenia and bipolar mania. ‘People see these ads and they think that they’re bad for them, so they quit taking them,’ said Teri Breister, executive director of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill in Mississippi. ‘But these patients’ lives have come apart again. Every time they stop taking their medications, the episodes become worse.’ (‘Tort Advertisements Worry Some Health Advocates,’ Biloxi Sun Herald, March 21, 2004)”
More: Prof. Childs.
“Plead guilty or go to trial?”
Update: stadium beer-vending verdict
Bunco burrito
Headline of this Traverse City, Mich. tale says it all: “Man Who Put Dead Mouse in Burrito at Taco Bell Given Prison Time” (AP/FoxNews.com, Jun. 2). One word of advice: if you’re going to pull this kind of stunt, don’t use the kind of frozen mice that pet stores sell as food for snakes, at least not if anyone can testify to your having bought them.
David Giacalone on hiatus
“10 years in legal hell”
The tale of Dr. Lenard Rutkowski: plaintiff John Murphy was caught on the stand faking his injuries, but the jury was offended by the violation of privacy from the defense’s secret videotaping of the plaintiff lifting heavy file cabinets, and awarded $5.6 million in damages for a medical error, even though a second surgery didn’t fix the problem for which he blamed the first doctor. Murphy eventually settled for $3 million, and he and his lawyer suffer no consequence for his exaggerations. Illinois, however, lost a neurosurgeon; Rutkowski’s practice was disrupted for years, and he eventually found it was cheaper to practice in a state where insurance rates were nearly 80% lower. (Berkeley Rice, Medical Economics, Jun. 2) (via Kevin MD).
The fact that Rutkowski sued his insurance company for the difference between his policy limits and the verdict shows why the ability of plaintiffs to get jackpot-sized damages on noneconomic claims has an effect on insurers and insurance prices even beyond insurance policy limits.
“At least we should enforce the law”
Not a terribly useful meme, thinks Tyler Cowen (Jun. 5).