In the comments section of our Thursday post, attorney Daniel Callahan provides his side of the story.
Archive for 2007
State Farm withdraws from Mississippi
Others have mentioned or anticipated State Farm’s withdrawal from the Mississippi homeowners’ and commercial insurance markets in the wake of the Jim Hood/Dickie Scruggs campaign against them (Krauss; Olson; Wallace; Adams; Rossmiller). But how many tie in Hurricane Katrina, Dickie Scruggs, Jim Hood, Trent Lott, and William Wordsworth? I provide a historical perspective in today’s American.
Dickie Scruggs and Jim Hood have a proposed solution to the State Farm withdrawal: tell them they can’t write auto insurance, either. That will make Mississippians better off!
What Lincoln said
Abraham Lincoln, as we’re sometimes reminded around this time of year, made a living as a practicing lawyer, much of it in trial practice. For some reason this website has never gotten around to citing Lincoln’s Notes for a Law Lecture, possibly his best-known pronouncement on the ethics and practicalities of law practice. Some highlights:
“Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser — in fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a peacemaker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.”
“Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this. Who can be more nearly a fiend than he who habitually overhauls the register of deeds in search of defects in titles, whereon to stir up strife, and put money in his pocket? A moral tone ought to be infused into the profession which should drive such men out of it.”
“There is a vague popular belief that lawyers are necessarily dishonest. I say vague, because when we consider to what extent confidence and honors are reposed in and conferred upon lawyers by the people, it appears improbable that their impression of dishonesty is very distinct and vivid. Yet the impression is common, almost universal. Let no young man choosing the law for a calling for a moment yield to the popular belief — resolve to be honest at all events; and if in your own judgment you cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a lawyer. Choose some other occupation, rather than one in the choosing of which you do, in advance, consent to be a knave.”
Among those calling attention to Lincoln’s comments on lawyering this week are David Giacalone (Feb. 12; see also here and here) and Daniel E. Cummins in Pennsylvania Law Weekly (“Lincoln Logs of Wisdom”, Feb. 12), both of whom offer additional quotations of interest.
Cathy Young on the Marcotte affair
“Plavix, lawyers and externalities”
Trial lawyers are advertising for cases against the anti-clotting drug Plavix, which worries DB at MedRants (Jan. 31):
Plavix is an important drug for the proper indications. Having stents placed is a proper indication. Like many drugs, Plavix has side effects. Because it inhibits platelet aggregation patients taking Plavix are more susceptible to bleeding. We know that side effect, and must balance the side effect against the benefits that accrue to preventing stent clotting.
We all see the despicable ads from trial lawyers. Whenever a drug has a side effect they see a pot of gold. Obviously these ads scare patients. The externality here comes from these ads. These ads are meant to attract lawsuits, but they additionally scare patients from taking beneficial drugs. We see this phenomenon often.
Moral: don’t treat the morbidly obese
The eggshell-skull rule, as applied to a self-inflicted injury: Whately, MA selectman Charles Olanyk weighed 460 pounds in 2001 at the age of 51. That sort of obesity leads to health problems, and Olanyk had several: high-blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes. Olanyk stubbed his toe, treated himself with a heating pad, managed to give himself third-degree burns because he didn’t have full sensation in his outer limbs, and went to Doctor John Bookwalter, who had been treating him for leg ulcers; Bookwalter gave him a topical cream and antibiotics. Nevertheless, the burn became gangrenous because of diabetic and lymphedema complications, and Olanyk ended up losing his left leg below the knee. A jury awarded $1.16 million against Bookwalter on grounds that he should have immediately referred Olanyk to a burn doctor. “In the end, everybody’s health care costs go up because this guy couldn’t take care of himself,” said Bookwalter. (Patrick J. Crowley, “Local doctor loses $1.1M malpractice lawsuit”, Brattleboro Reformer, Feb. 14; “After scary bout, months of recovery”, Daily Hampshire Gazette, Mar. 19, 2002).
(Update: eagle-eyed reader F.R. points us to this Telegraph story discussing the UK’s single-payer health service consideration of banning surgery on smokers and the obese to save costs.)
February 15 roundup
- MySpace wins sexual abuse suit (Jan. 19 and links therein) in federal court; no matter to the trial lawyer, who said he’d just
forum-shoprefile in state court with new plaintiffs. [Forbes.com; Bashman link roundup] - Dunder Mifflin, defendant (via Lattman). Earlier: Bruce Wayne, defendant.
- More links on the teacher facing jail over class computer porn case. [Bashman]
- Court: Insurance firm doesn’t have to pay for arsonist’s damage to his own home [Times and Democrat]
- Fla. appeals court upholds asbestos medical criteria law [Insurance Journal]
- Louisiana Supreme Court reverses appellate court’s bogus dismantling of med-mal cap, but only on a technicality [Legal Newsline; The Advocate; earlier at POL]
- Trial lawyers prove they’re humorless. [Cowgill via Schaeffer]
- “I’ve finally admitted to myself that I am afraid of my own lawyer.” Hollywood’s legal evils. [Peter Bart @ Variety]
- The Class Action Fairness Act two years later [Federalist Society MP3]
Waxman hearing = weapon in litigation?
Nice tactic, if you can get away with it: after filing suit, get a House committee to conduct a hostile investigation of your opponent with your clients appearing as friendly witnesses. That’s what appears to have happened in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s hearings last week on alleged shortcomings in the work of Iraq contractor Blackwater USA. The friendly witnesses in this case, called by committee chairman Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), were family members of several Blackwater consultants killed in Iraq, who are suing the company for damages. According to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the hearing followed upon the sending of a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi by Orange County, Calif., plaintiffs’ lawyer Daniel Callahan of Callahan & Blaine, who’s representing the families. The letter urged a “fruitful and meaningful” investigation of “these extremely Republican companies, such as Blackwater, who have been uncooperative to date”. (S. A. Miller, “Iraq contractor focus of hearing”, Washington Times, Feb. 8; Lattman, WSJ law blog, Feb. 9; Larry Margasak, “Blackwater E-Mail Outlines Gear Shortage”, AP/Washington Post, Feb. 7; Chaos in Motion, Feb. 8).
More: in the comments section, attorney Daniel J. Callahan responds.
Wild parrots of Telegraph Hill
A beloved San Francisco tourist attraction, the birds roost in two ancient 
cypress trees whose owner says he can no longer afford the liability risk should they topple or shed branches on spectators. The city is stepping in to spare the axe by taking responsibility for the chance of injury. (Charlie Goodyear, “Preserving perches for wild parrots”, San Francisco Chronicle, Feb. 14; “Buzz saws threaten home of Telegraph Hill parrots”, CBC, Nov. 3, 2005). A 2004 film about the parrots is available here on DVD.
Prison rape
“We spend a fair amount of time talking about detainee treatment and Guantanamo. But there is no greater, or more common, human rights abuses in America than those occurring in our overcrowded, constantly expanding, jails.” – Ezra Klein on the new Human Rights Watch report on prison rape. Also: Glenn Reynolds; Tom Kirkendall; Stop Prison Rape; 2002 Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing.