Posting lull

Postings from me will likely be sparse over the next few days as I’m on the road: the International Association of Defense Counsel has invited me to speak at their midyear meeting in Orlando. Next week there’ll be more travel, including a speech next Wednesday at a conference put on by the Center for Constructive Alternatives at Hillsdale College in Michigan. There’s more ahead, including two New York City events later this month (details to come); I’ve also agreed to be a participant in the University of Colorado at Boulder’s 56th Conference on World Affairs this Apr. 5-9. If you’re an event sponsor interested in booking an appearance, you can email me directly through this site or contact the Manhattan Institute at 212-599-7000.

HIPAA and the clergy

Among the many other effects of the new federal medical privacy law (see Oct. 23, Nov. 9, Jan. 21): clergy “now can look in on only those patients who have requested visits”. Result: if a longtime parishioner is admitted to the hospital unconscious, or just doesn’t realize that an affirmative request is required, the clergyman may be barred from entering the room to pray with or for them. “Before HIPAA, [Father Casey] Mahone said he could look at a list of Catholic patients and visit the ones he knew. ”People kind of had the mentality that they were going to be “discovered” by their priest in the hospital,’ he said. ‘If we didn’t find them, they were disappointed.'” “[Rev. Jack] Flint said he wanted to pray with a woman before she died from injuries suffered in an automobile accident. ”But because (the hospital) couldn’t release her name, I was lost,’ he lamented. ‘I didn’t get to do that.’ Instead of his calling her family to pray at her bedside, her family called him to pray at her funeral.” (“Health privacy law hinders clergy visits at hospital”, AP/Morgantown, W.V. Dominion Post, Feb. 3). More: GruntDoc, Feb. 5 (and see reader comments).

Lerach to Forbes: just go away

Cover story in Forbes examines fissiparous but still pre-eminent class-action firm Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach, with details about the investigations of the firm under way for the past two years before federal grand juries in Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Among topics explored in the article: the firm’s relationships with repeat plaintiffs, with unions and with short sellers. Name partner Melvyn Weiss gets the cover photo; meanwhile, his West Coast counterpart William Lerach, “after initially responding to some questions from FORBES, refused to be interviewed and instructed in a terse e-mail: ‘Please don’t call, write or stop by ever again.'” (Robert Lenzner and Emily Lambert, “Mr. Class Action”, Forbes, Feb. 16)

Whiz, crash, sue

State police said 17-year-old Stephen Pappadake was doing 80 mph in a 30 mph zone one morning last April in Somers, N.Y. when he illegally passed several cars in a no-passing zone, lost control of his car, swerved to avoid another vehicle, and was killed in the resulting crash of his Honda sedan. “But a lawsuit filed this month in Putnam County Court seeks to place the blame for Pappadake’s death on the driver of one of the vehicles he passed. The suit, filed on behalf of Pappadake’s estate and his parents, Robert P. and Nancy Pappadake, names a Putnam Valley woman who allegedly drove a Jeep Cherokee that Pappadake passed as the cause of the fatal crash. The lawsuit, filed by attorney Mitchel H. Ashley of the Manhattan firm of Shandell, Blitz, Blitz and Bookson, makes no mention of the police finding that Pappadake was speeding and passing cars illegally before the fatal crash. Instead, it blames Putnam Valley residents Christina Swartzwelder, who was driving the Jeep, and John Swartzwelder, who owns it.” (Terry Corcoran, “Fatal crash prompts lawsuit”, New York Journal News (Westchester County, N.Y.), Feb. 1)

And the answer is, “Goldman Sachs”

The question is, “Which is the odd name out in a list of John Edwards’ top ten contributors?” The other nine names on the list are all in the attorney line of work, but one of them — Hartford’s Robinson & Cole — could also be considered an odd name out, since it doesn’t specialize in plaintiff’s litigation (Greg Gordon, “Lawyers top Edwards’ list of supporters”, Sacramento Bee, Feb. 1).

The Chicago Sun-Times, meanwhile, finds that Edwards isn’t the only candidate drawing heavy backing from Chicago’s personal-injury bar. While big-league tort lawyers Phil Corboy and Tom Demetrio are backing Edwards, for example, Robert Clifford is supporting Kerry. “I have maxed out [donating] to Kerry, Edwards, Gephardt — those are the three I really favored,” said Gene Pavalon. “Kerry and Edwards are my two friends, and they’re friends, and it’s going well for both of them,” said Joe Power. “They’re both consumer-oriented individuals who many trial lawyers have helped.” (Abdon Pallasch, “Edwards among top lawyers, but not all elite attorneys here back him”, Feb. 3)(more on Edwards’ fund-raising: Jan. 23 and links from there, Jan. 27)

Dad-blamed paternity laws

“When the government accuses you of fathering a child, no matter how flimsy the evidence, you are one month away from having your life wrecked.” What if you’ve got DNA evidence conclusively proving you aren’t the dad? Sorry, but that won’t necessarily help. “The system aimed at catching ‘deadbeat dads’ illustrates how a noble-sounding effort to help children and taxpayers can trample the rights of innocent people.” (Matt Welch, “Injustice by Default”, Feb.)(see Aug. 7-8, 2001; May 22, 2000).