The recent British decision of Jones v. Kaney points in that direction, and one expert in Canada says, “Bring it on” (via Erik Magraken):
I like Britain’s approach because everyone, including expert witnesses, should be responsible for their actions. … I make an error or I provide care that’s below standard, I should be held responsible and I am. I don’t see why that responsibility should disappear because I’m now acting as an expert on the witness stand in court.
Orac at Respectful Insolence picks apart a proposal by journalist Brian Deer that has sparked discussion in the United Kingdom.
Britain: “The government is to ban referral fees in personal injury claims in an attempt to curb the ‘compensation culture’. It says the current system in which personal injury details are sold on by insurance companies to lawyers has led to rising insurance costs.” [BBC]
“Overlawyered” is the name of a widely read blog on America’s legal system….
Thus begins an article in the new issue of The Economist, the London-based newsmagazine, discussing First Thing We Do, Let’s Deregulate All the Lawyers, a new book by Clifford Winston and Robert Crandall (Brookings) and Vikram Maheshri (University of Houston) on barriers to entry in the legal profession. Check it out here.
A dispatch from Britain makes David Frum’s jaw drop.
“A gipsy family accused of making life a misery is using legal aid to fund a human rights challenge in the European courts for being evicted – from a travellers’ camp.” [Telegraph]
From the United Kingdom: “Foreign squatters given legal aid to fight eviction from £1 million house… as its British owner has to represent himself in court” [Daily Mail, back in February]
My Cato colleague John Samples detects a perhaps intended consequence of the imposition of regulations that stifle political speech other than that conveyed by the institutional press. More: Paul Sherman, Make No Law (Institute for Justice blog).