It may be worse than before class action lawyers got involved, argues Ted Frank [Point of Law]
Classic litigation headlines
Relating to not counting class members until they’re hatched: “Lawyer: 4 — not 3,000 — interns have joined class action suit against Hearst” [Andrew Beaujon, Poynter; Joe Lustig with more on court’s greenlighting of Hearst intern suit; more, Amy Traub and Desiree Busching at Wage Hour Law; lawyers trying similar action against Fox]
Law schools roundup
- Leaked editorial discussions at Harvard Human Rights Journal furnish potential pocket part for my book Schools For Misrule [Above the Law]
- ABA accreditation standards stand in way of law school reform [McEntee/Caron; see also pp. 38-39 of Schools for Misrule] Brian Tamanaha interview on that and other subjects [IHE; reviews of his book]
- More from Tamanaha on topics including broken law school rankings [Bloomberg Law video] Tamanaha v. Erwin Chemerinsky on public service and prestige-chasing at Irvine Law [Caron, Balkinization]
- Paul Horwitz paper-in-progress uses books critical of law schools, including SfM, as jumping-off point [SSRN, Prawfs and big discussion]
- “Arguing over answers in Scattergories is the closest thing on the planet to the experience of a law school class.” [Replevin for a Cow]
- “A comment called it an ad hominem attack on @walterolson, but it was nothing personal. I am just everything he abhors.” [Raja Raghunath, background]
- “Barrister’s Ball” results in dramshop action against law school [AtL]
Humpty Dumpty…
…had a great career in litigation after his fall [Pearls Before Swine cartoon, Sept. 23]
Watch Cato Constitution Day online
About that “GMO food causes rat tumors” report
Don’t miss multiple posts by BoingBoing’s Maggie Koerth-Baker on the shoddy science behind a recent alarmist report. It’s all the more noteworthy because one of her BB colleagues was at first taken in by the report, requiring an awkward rowback that developed into a crusade of its own against bad activist science. Earlier on Prop 37 and the California political angle here, etc.
Colorado: $7.2 million award in claim of “popcorn lung”
The lung disorder bronchiolitis obliterans has been diagnosed in food processing workers who regularly breathed in the flavoring chemical diacetyl, but this was a claim of consumer, not occupational, exposure; Wayne Watson’s physician testified that he suffered lung damage after years of regularly consuming microwave popcorn. The jury found the Kroger supermarket chain as well as the popcorn manufacturer liable for not warning of the potential problem. “An attorney for the defendants had told jurors that Watson’s health problems were from his years of using dangerous chemicals as a carpet cleaner.” [Reuters]
Great moments in hospital quality regulation (and age discrimination law)
Thousands die while waiting for kidneys, while thousands of sound donated kidneys are thrown out. Among culprits, per the New York Times: “an outdated computer matching program, stifling government oversight, the overreliance by doctors on inconclusive tests and even federal laws against age discrimination.” One federal initiative, for example, penalizes institutions whose transplant success rate is less than stellar. What could go wrong?
…dozens of transplant specialists said the threat of government penalties had made doctors far more selective about the organs and patients they accepted, leading to more discards … [Toledo transplant surgeon Michael] Rees still bristles at the trade-off. “Which serves America better?” he asked. “A program doing 100 kidneys and 88 percent of them are working, or a program that does 60 kidneys and 59 of them are working? It’s rationing health care under the guise of quality, and it’s a tragedy that we are throwing away perfectly good organs.”
Meanwhile, Europe has had success with the practice of matching donors with recipients within the same age bracket, but a similar proposal in the U.S. “died quickly after federal officials warned that discrimination laws would prohibit the use of age to determine outright who gets a transplant.”
Wheeled to the hospital exit
The site My OB Said WHAT?!? sums up a paradox that many hospital visitors have noticed:
“You’re not ready to leave until you can walk out of here.” – L&D Nurse to mom being wheeled out upon discharge.
Many hospitals do hold to a formal policy on the subject. Thus Methodist Hospital of Houston: “When your doctor has discharged you and you are ready to leave, you will be escorted out in a wheelchair by hospital staff.” Why necessarily in a wheelchair, when you may be perfectly capable of walking?
The Chamber-backed Southeast Texas Record has a theory. It’s the same theory endorsed at Yahoo Answers. As for whether patients actually fall and hurt themselves on the way out of the hospital, it appears from this Eastern District of Pennsylvania case (PDF) that, yes, it happens.
Rhode Island bans discrimination against homeless persons
Under first-in-the-nation legislation enacted by the legislature of Rhode Island this summer, it becomes illegal for landlords or employers, as well as many providers of public services, to “discriminate” against anyone because of their status as homeless. “Among other steps, the Rhode Island law would guarantee homeless people the right to use public sidewalks, parks and transportation as well as public buildings, like anyone else ‘without discrimination on the basis of his or her housing status.'” [Reuters] Churches and Brown University students took part in the campaign for the law, opening a soup kitchen within the statehouse building: “‘The whole idea was to put it in their face: this is homelessness,’ says Karen Jeffreys, Associate Director of the Coalition.” [Mother Jones] Rhode Island is the smallest U.S. state: “‘Now we’re a leader in something,’ said state Sen. John Tassoni, D-Smithfield.” [AP] In a sense, Rhode Island is already a leader in something: for the second year in a row, it holds the distinction of having the worst business climate in the country in CNBC’s annual survey, and it has ranked poorly in other business surveys as well. [Scott Cohn, CNBC; NFIB/Forbes; Tax Foundation] Also: Aaron Renn on the R.I. business and cultural climate.