The CBS show takes a look at the Jade Fields case from New Jersey, which we covered last July (Jul. 1-2, 2002; Aug. 22-23, 2001 and links from there). The show interviews an ultrasound specialist who “has testified as an expert witness in many wrongful birth cases for both doctors and patients” and who appears to doubt that the doctors’ supposed inattention to danger signs was in fact malpractice. Also on camera is the girl’s mother who insists that “Jade is the best thing that could have ever happened to us” but also says in the lawsuit that she would have aborted the girl in a moment had the extent of her disabilities been clear. The show gives the plaintiff’s lawyer the last word (CBS News, “Is ‘Wrongful Birth’ Malpractice?”, Jun. 23).
Souvenir-ball wrangle
A baseball story: “Alex Popov and Patrick Hayashi scrambled in the stands for Barry Bonds’ No. 73 home run ball, fought in court over it, and walked away after its auction for $450,000 Wednesday with nothing but bittersweet memories. … A couple hundred grand for each side’s lawyers, a cut for Uncle Sam and sundry expenses. What’s left for Popov and Hayashi? ‘In the end it’s probably going to be a wash,’ Hayashi said.” (Steve Wilstein, “Bonds No. 73 ball: a story of greed”, AP/San Francisco Chronicle, Jun. 26). (& see Jul. 12: lawyer sues Popov for fees). Update Jan. 3: Hayashi’s lawyers waive part of fees.
Guest blogger opening(s)
Among the advantages of our new Movable Type system is to make it relatively easy to bring in co-conspirators and guest bloggers to add signed content of their own on a temporary or continuing basis. For examples of how this can work as an ongoing matter, see The Volokh Conspiracy (currently 13 members), Asymmetrical Information (a Movable Type two-member blog) and Max Power (four contributors).
Of more immediate interest, this feature allows for short-term guest blogging perfect for times when, for example, our regular editor heads off on vacation (as is about to happen momentarily). Would you make a good guest host(s) during his absence? Realistically, we’re most likely to experiment along these lines with volunteers who 1) are already personally known to our editor; 2) have already written about or worked on the kinds of issues we cover; and 3) have some rudimentary familiarity with blogging. (Maybe two of the three…) If this sounds fun to you, email editor – [at] – [our domain name].
More on Weiss Ratings study
Sydney Smith, writing for TechCentralStation.com, throws more doubt on that odd Weiss Ratings study of a couple of weeks ago which so impressed Time (see “Juggling the Stats”, Jun. 4-5) and U.S. News, and which purported to find no connection between curbs on medical liability payouts and trends in malpractice insurance costs (“Bad Medicine”, Jun. 26). See Christopher H. Schmitt, “A medical mistake”, U.S. News, Jun. 30; Charles E. Boyle, “Weiss Ratings Drops a Bomb on the Med-Mal Debate”, Insurance Journal, Jun. 20.
More on the litigious valedictorian
At the Weekly Standard, writer Jonathan Last has much more on the saga of Blair Hornstine of Moorestown, N.J., who sued for the valedictorianship of her graduating class. It isn’t pretty, even aside from the plagiarism scandal (Jonathan V. Last, “First in Her Class”, Weekly Standard, Jul. 7-Jul. 14)(Harvard Crimson coverage). Plus: Joanne Jacobs has more (Jun. 29) including a link to a website by Adam Tow entitled The Blair Hornstine Project, with illuminating reader comments, and commentary by Kimberly Swygert (Jun. 28), with yet more reader comments. Update Jul. 12: Harvard withdraws offer.
“Spitzer’s nuisance”
Today’s New York Sun runs an op-ed by our editor discussing last week’s decision by a state appeals court upholding the dismissal of Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s ill-conceived lawsuit against the gun industry. (Walter Olson, “Spitzer’s nuisance”, New York Sun, Jun. 30)
Font darkness
Thanks again to readers who wrote in on the question of how to make the font darker. The most elegant solution was the “stylesheet switching” reader option suggested by Plogs.net, but since we aren’t confident of our technical capability to implement that option smoothly, we’re falling back on what everyone else suggested, which is just to darken the font for everyone by adjusting the “blogbody” color value in Cascading Style Sheets.
Speaking of light and darkness, Virginia Postrel has a wonderful article newly online at D Monthly (“Spaces: Technocrats and Glowing Panties”, not dated; via her Dynamist blog) on how Texas regulations prescribing fluorescent rather than incandescent lighting in new commercial buildings, billed as “cost-free” by environmentalist and technocratic advocates, are in fact anything but cost-free as an aesthetic and commercial matter.
Philip Howard reviews The Rule of Lawyers
The author of The Death of Common Sense and The Lost Art of Drawing the Line reviewed our editor’s latest book in the Los Angeles Times this Sunday. (Philip K. Howard, “Tipping the Scales”, L.A. Times, Jun. 29 (alternate link)(another alternate link, at Philip Howard’s Common Good organization)).
U.K. prosecutor: top cops didn’t warn that roofs are dangerous
Workplace health and safety dept.: “A High Court judge criticised the Health and Safety Executive yesterday for wasting public time and money in prosecuting the Metropolitan Police Commissioner and his predecessor for failing to warn officers about the danger of climbing on roofs.” Following separate incidents in which one police officer died and another was injured after falling through roofs while on duty, top police brass faced criminal charges of failure to warn, which ended most recently in acquittal on some charges and a hung jury on others after “?1 million in lawyers’ fees and a further ?2 million in investigations”. “Had the HSE succeeded, the Met had planned to instruct its officers not to climb above head height. ‘It would have been a veritable burglars’ charter, a victory for criminals and would have encouraged suspects to use roofs to escape,’ said one senior officer.” (Sue Clough, “Safety case against Met police chiefs a ‘waste’ of public’s ?3m”, Daily Telegraph (U.K.), Jun. 28; “‘We fall off horses. Do they want us to use Shetland ponies?'”. Jun. 28). See also Dec. 22-25, 2000 (“risk aversion” in British armed forces).
“Flood of Fees Draining Enron Funds”
Fees in the Enron bankruptcy, which include accountants’ and advisers’ as well as lawyers’ fees, total $496 million through May, the richest in history (see Dec. 27-29, 2002). “Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, whose state is a major creditor, complains that attorneys in the case are ‘lining their pockets. There is a lot of money sloshing around, and the participants are taking it away from the people who really deserve it,’ he said in an interview. John W. Toothman, president of the Devil’s Advocate, a Northern Virginia company that scrutinizes legal fees, and co-author of a textbook on fees, calls it a ‘feeding frenzy.’ Enron ‘has turned its pockets inside out, and everybody who can get in line gets a piece. The lawyers have been first in line.'” (Peter Behr, Washington Post, Jun. 28).