Stephanie Mencimer says no, but I suspect wishful thinking. The only tv ad I saw in a close Senate race that raised the liability reform issue was Bob Corker’s ad raising Harold Ford’s multiple votes against malpractice reform—and Corker was the only Republican Senate candidate that won a close race.
ATLA sure doesn’t seem to think that liability reform is a good issue for it: none of the television ads it bought mentioned the subject.
New Jersey’s “solution”: a $75/year tax on doctors and lawyers to subsidize malpractice insurance for the highest-risk professionals. Attorneys are unhappy, but the courts aren’t intervening. (“Industry Insider: Jersey’s top court won’t hear lawyers group’s $75 fee appeal”, Star-Ledger, Nov. 10 (via Kevin MD)).
A sardonic congratulations to the Washington DC lawyers who won a $1.4 million federal jury verdict against the Kroger subsidiary “King Soopers”, a Colorado grocery store that dared to give a 7-cents/gallon gasoline discount to customers who purchased $100 in groceries. Because of the “unfair trade” verdict, Colorado Safeway stores have announced that they will stop offering 10-cent/gallon discounts to customers who purchase $50 in groceries. Consumers everywhere will rest happy knowing that they have to pay more for gasoline and that lawyers profited from the experience. (Greg Griffin, “Safeway, too, caps customers’ gas savings”, Denver Post, Nov. 8). At least the Rocky Mountain News was sufficiently disgusted that it called for a repeal of the perverse 1937 law.
Teachers are being warned to watch what they write and say about students because of the risk of being sued for defamation. …
The advice comes as anger has exploded in schools over new student reports which grade students on a scale of A to E for academic performance. …
Teachers’ Federation vice-president Angelo Gavrielatos said threats to sue meant Australia was “importing the worst of American culture”.
“It reflects, regrettably, that we do live in an increasingly litigious society and that is sad,” he said.
“All too often we hear threats of litigation . . . and what we are seeing imported into Australia and into our schools is that litigious environment or mindset that is so prevalent in the United States.”
(Bruce McDougall, “Teachers warned off criticism”, News.com.au, Nov. 6 (via Jacobs via Tongue Tied)).
The Metafilter folks aren’t especially impressed with a mother’s complaint that her son’s rubbing “Magic Eraser” on himself caused a rash and that more warnings are needed on the package:
“Also, don’t let your kids drink Round Up. Or put Tide in their eyes.”
“It seems to me that if a product is known for scouring markings off of nearly any surface, some degree of it not being like Oil of Olay moisture rich foaming face wash should be assumed.”
“I just checked my box of SOS steel wool soap pads and they don’t have any warning either! Won’t somebody think of the children?”
“The kid didn’t rub his face with the eraser, Mom did. She cleaned his face with sandpaper that didn’t look like sandpaper to her, and his face got all red, and she freaked out that he was “burned”, because she still doesn’t believe the erasers are sandpaper. Not a chemical burn. A friction burn. Caused by Mom.”
“Things I have learned today on Metafilter: 1. Do not rub your kid’s face with a cleaning pad that can take permanent marker off a hard surface with only a couple of mild scrubs.”
To the mother’s credit, she says she isn’t interested in suing. (h/t Slim.)
Too much liberty of expression survives in that country for the government’s liking:
New laws to clamp down on racism are being prepared by the Government after the leader of the far-right British National Party was cleared of stirring up racial hatred by attacking Islam.
Gordon Brown swiftly pledged to bring in tougher powers to raise the chance of convictions in similar cases, calling the BNP’s statements offensive.
His intervention came after an all-white jury decided that Nick Griffin, the BNP chairman, broke no law when he condemned Islam as “a wicked, vicious faith” at a secretly filmed meeting.
Plans for an offence of incitement to religious hatred were thrown out in a rare Commons defeat for the Government in February after a campaign led by the comedian Rowan Atkinson.
(Andrew Norfolk and Greg Hurst, “Race-hate laws to be changed after BNP case fails”, Times Online, Nov. 11). More: Feb. 4, etc. Comment: Rod Liddle.
Not including defense attorney costs. Jorge Arvelo served spaghetti with a dog food sauce to Tennie Pierce at his firehouse as a prank, and alleged racial discrimination. The three firefighters behind the joke said it was just firehouse tomfoolery, but Pierce’s attorney found a professor willing to say otherwise: “The association of a black man and dog food resonates with the deep historical roots of slavery and the corresponding dehumanization,” said sociologist David Wellman, who further opined that “[Blacks] have a gyroscope that picks up hostile stuff that somebody else would not see as hostile.” The City Council voted 11-1 to settle for $2.7 million; it’s not their money, after all. Pierce also gets to take a year off on fully paid administrative leave, and then collect a full pension. The LA Fire Department is 47% minority. (Sandy Banks, “Black firefighter settles suit over racial prank”, Los Angeles Times, Nov. 9).
Note to Los Angeles residents: I’ll eat dog food and let firefighters laugh at me for doing so for a tenth that price.
Update, November 22: Mayor vetoes settlement in response to taxpayer outrage.
The Kittery, Me.-based Gentle Wind Project “has agreed to drop a defamation lawsuit against two former members who wrote articles comparing the self-styled spiritual healing group to a ‘mind control cult.'” (see Aug. 30, 2004). Last year a federal court threw out the group’s lawsuit against Jim Bergin and Judy Garvey, a married couple from Blue Hill, Me. (see Jan. 19, 2006), but the family of project director John Miller refiled the action in state court. Miller “claimed that he could communicate with the ‘spirit world’ [and] said he received designs for ‘healing instruments’ that resembled cards and hockey pucks, and could cure physical and emotional damage caused by illnesses ranging from alcoholism to paralysis.” (Gregory D. Kesich, Portland Press-Herald, Nov. 10).
That’s restaurant bad boy Anthony Bourdain (Kitchen Confidential), on Chicago’s foie gras ban. Bourdain told interviewer Baylen Linnekin that if America does turn into a Singapore-style nanny state, “I can only hope we’ll have food as good as they do.” Asked about fast food: “People should be teased and humiliated for eating at McDonald’s,” he says. “I don’t think we should legislate them out of business.” (“Anthony Bourdain, Just Like Me: Is the Kitchen Confidential author-turned-television star a libertarian?”, AFF DoubleThink, Oct. 29).