The Washington Supreme Court has ruled that doctors in Vancouver, Wash. can’t be held liable for resuscitating a baby after he was born without a heartbeat. The parents said the medics had wrongly failed to ask their permission before saving the child’s life. The infant survived but with severe disabilities. (AP/Seattle Times, Nov. 8; “State high court: No liability for doctor who revived newborn”, AP/KOMO, Nov. 8; opinion with first and second concurrences, all PDF).
Archive for November, 2007
The Phelps verdict, free speech, and fighting words
Eugene Volokh has an extensive analysis up at the Conspiracy (see Nov. 2). For some flavor of the Phelps group’s extreme forays into picketing and public abuse of hapless Topeka residents, and intensive lawsuit-filing against countless defendants, see SPLC’s “A City Held Hostage” and “Halting Abusive Lawyers“.
“Solely interested in ripping the other to shreds”
A Nassau County, N.Y. judge rebukes two parents “engaged in a ‘vitriolic and venomous’ dispute over child custody and visitation.” Note that it’s not a case of divorce or its aftermath: “The couple never married.” (Vesselin Mitev, “Judge Blasts Parents for Using Court to Attack, Demean Each Other”, New York Law Journal, Oct. 24).
Kind Sirs, please Wire $44B to our Acct which will be split 70/30
Major tobacco companies have gotten one of those letters from the Federal Ministry of Finance in Lagos, Nigeria, proposing a gigantic and unlikely transfer of funds. Problem is, this time it’s authentic. Hans Bader has details (Nov. 7). Similar, earlier suits by foreign governments: Nov. 16, 2000 (Saudi Arabia); Feb. 1-3, 2002 (others).
November 8 roundup
- “What you will not see in the findings of this bill, where politicians typically describe the problem they intend to solve, is any evidence that arbitration harms consumers or anyone else.” [WSJ]
- You saw it first on Overlawyered (Jun. 9; Jul. 20; Sep. 14): “Plaintiffs Lawyers in ‘Blood Feud’ Over Fees From $2 Billion Settlement” [American Lawyer]
- Junk science verdict against Dole Pineapple and Dow Chemical over pesticide use. [Cal Biz Lit]
- Alabama Supreme Court points out that good-faith contract dispute does not merit multi-billion-dollar punitive damages. [Birmingham News; Marketwatch; Exxon v. Alabama via Alabama Appellate Watch via Bashman]
- Still more Montgomery Blair Sibley follies. [Legal Times]
- The latest farm follies. [Postrel; Mair; Rauch]
- Why Ron Paul is a crank [Frum]
Traffic-cams and road safety, cont’d
More damning evidence on a subject on which there’s been plenty already (Sept. 6, 2001, Sept. 24, 2006, etc.; Oct. 31, 2006): “a study by the Federal Highway Administration and the Virginia Department documented a 12 percent increase in rear-enders at Northern Virginia intersections where cameras enforced red-light violations. Although proponents of cameras contend the number of such accidents decreases as motorists become used to this new enforcement technology, the study says that isn’t so. Meanwhile, simply extending the time that the traffic light stays yellow helps reduce violations and accidents. However, that solution isn’t necessarily popular with towns that see red-light tickets as a revenue source, the [Miami] Herald says.” (Martha Neil, “Traffic Cameras Mean More Rear-Enders”, ABA Journal, Oct. 31; Larry Lebowitz, “Red-light cameras a signal for war”, Miami Herald, Oct. 29).
“The world’s weirdest cases”
Columnist Gary Slapper of the U.K. Times gives his nominations of odd ones from around the world. Among them is a Gilbert-and-Sullivanish 1874 proceeding in which a Winnipeg magistrate served as judge in his own case on a charge of public intoxication (Nov. 5).
November 7 roundup
- “I’ve always thought that promoting yourself as a ‘Super Lawyer’ or ‘Best Lawyer’ was pathetic, self-aggrandizing and meaningless.” [Larry Bodine; Karen Donovan, Portfolio (“cheesiest”); ABA Journal]
- That big campaign by bossy public health groups and tobacco-suit veterans for legal restrictions on fat in the American diet is still with us, even as its scientific credibility falters [Tierney, NYT]
- “1,700 Connecticut Attorneys Suspended Over $110 Bill” — now that sounds like a bargain [ABA Journal]
- Blackwater meets Elmer Gantry? John O’Sullivan shouldn’t plan on being invited to the Edwards inaugural [NRO Corner]
- Nor would it be prudent to invite Felix Salmon and Ben Stein to the same dinner party [Portfolio; more]
- Truly dreadful idea from feminist Northwestern lawprof Kimberly Yuracko: constitution obliges states to ban sexist homeschooling [SSRN via Prawfsblawg; Serious Learning, Ragamuffin Studies, TalkToAction, Marcy Muser]
- New at Point of Law: some results of Tuesday’s election; employers whipsawed on risk of fetal injury; signs of exhaustion at long jury trials; wanna become a law professor?; 9/11 dust injury, or ground-up pills in his bloodstream?; more on Chevron/Texaco and the Ecuador Indians; dept. of New York Times self-parody; and more;
- Lawyer who sued McDonald’s over cheese-allergic client served cheeseburger (Aug. 10, Sept. 1) asks to be released from case, says he’s quitting law practice [LegalNewsLine]
- Of seven leading White House aspirants, all but McCain have law degrees, and all the other six but Romney practiced as lawyers [Liptak, NYT]
- UK: “A lorry driver sentenced to 150 hours’ community service for a drunken racist assault has been let off after probation chiefs claimed the punishment could breach EU working hours limits.” [Daily Mail]
- Notation on Scruggs’s court file: to be “kept away from the press” [five years ago on Overlawyered]
Lawyers: no harm in botching suit since it had no merit anyway
“A New York judge has permitted a legal malpractice suit to proceed against a group of personal injury lawyers who tried to argue that the medical malpractice suit they allegedly botched had no merit in the first place.” Morelli Ratner (of Benedict Morelli fame) and Schapiro & Reich had filed a suit on behalf of Victoria Kremen alleging failure to diagnose cancer. The suit was thrown out on statute-of-limitations grounds, but in her later action against the lawyers Kremen argued that they might have avoided the usual time limits by invoking certain exceptions to the statute. The lawyers proceeded to argue that Kremen’s suit was doomed anyway, but Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Emily Goodman was not impressed: “[S]uch arguments fly in the face of the fact that Defendants represented Plaintiffs for almost three years, presumably because they believed that the lawsuit had merit.” (Anthony Lin, Legal Malpractice Suit Against Personal Injury Lawyers Permitted to Go Forward”, New York Law Journal, Oct. 31).
“Mississippi on Trial”
Jim Copland explains what’s at stake in elections today in Mississippi.
And Copland’s piece doesn’t even include the latest news, that incumbent AG Jim Hood has been sued by State Farm, which makes some explosive allegations. A judge has granted (and another judge has extended) a TRO against Hood’s harassment of the insurer.
Update: see also Forest Thigpen’s take.