Ignorantia Juris

Reform Warrior Ted Frank has a post up, about a case out of Missouri.  He uses it as parable about plaintiff’s lawyer’s dirty tactics and greed.  But there is something missing.
Wayne Davis, Jr., had a .203 blood-alcohol level, when he drove his pickup across the center line of a Camden County, Missouri, highway on March 24, 2000, and crashed head on into the compact car of Edward and Virginia Johnson.

You’ll be happy to hear that the Johnsons didn’t try to blame the beer company or the auto manufacturer, and simply sued Davis. Davis’s insurer, Allstate, contacted the Johnsons’ … Continue Reading

I’m still ensconced in the library, as my last final approaches with the inevitability of Haley’s Comet, but I saw this and though it worthy of note.  Regarding a decrease in the cost of liability in the long-term care industry.
Theresa W. Bourdon, managing director and actuary, credits tort reform for much of the progress, while adding: “Many other changes, including the withdrawal of some long term care facilities operators from expensive markets, more effective defense strategies, the use of arbitration for claims settlement and significant improvements in quality of care, have combined to help alleviate the liability crisis.”
Link.

So, first … Continue Reading

No, make that quote to live by.

“That our citizens have access to their civil courts is not an evil to be regretted; rather, it is an attribute of our system of justice in which we ought to take pride.”

Zauderer v. Office of Disciplinary Council, 471 U.S. 626 at 643 (1985).

Note the high quality blue-booking.  I’m just saying . . .

Oregon claims that their laws are copyrighted, so you best not publish them (BoingBoing).

Conservative judges seem to be the “activist,” disregarding precedent (Firedoglake).

Sneaking tort reform in (The Journal Record, via the PopTort).

Philly DA says new gun controls laws are probably void, Police Commisioner says “[W]e will act as if this whole conversation with the D.A. just didn’t take place[.]”

Net Neutrality is a load of bollocks, according to the head of Virgin Media (TorrentFreak via /.).  I’m sure this has everything to do with providing superior service, and nothing to do with ipayolla, where some companies pay extra to make sure that consumers are inconvenienced away from their competitors.

Problems filling the jury box (the Denver post).  I like this excuse from the article: “I’m too darn good looking to serve on the jury.”

Apparently, Alberto Gonzales is having a difficult time finding someone to hire him, (NY Times via … Continue Reading

Request for lawyers to surge to Iraq (WSJ Law Blog).  I like how the way to find the job posting is search for “rule of law.”

FISA news round up (EFF).

More on the calls to fire John Yoo (Law.com).  I agree with this, from the Dean of the Berkeley law school:
“Assuming one believes as I do that Professor Yoo offered bad ideas and even worse advice during his government service, that judgment alone would not warrant dismissal or even a potentially chilling inquiry[.]”
Now, this is a sad example of lawyering.  A science blogger, blogging … Continue Reading

Via Instapundit, UCLA Professor Stephen Bainbridge has a post where he advocates that those interested in serving the public interest should become corporate lawyers.
Help businesses grow, so that they can create jobs and provide goods and services that make people’s lives better.
I take a lot of shots at corporations but there is something to what he says.  People are well served when corporations do good work; Corporations have proven effective in producing goods and wealth and increasing the quality of life the world over.  But that only happens when they behave ethically.  Bainbridge’s assertion … Continue Reading

A post from The Huffington Post.
What do you do if you are a regular person injured by a product, or denied a job because of your age, or defrauded out of money, or any of things that can happen to people?
Hope that tort reform hasn’t driven every lawyer away from representing individuals.

The pro-business/tort-reform axis likes to push two memes, that 1) the current judicial system of America is a “lottery” that pays out disproportionately huge settlements, and 2) that any kind of restrictions on corporations push them to the brink of bankruptcy/collapse.  Combine those with a smattering of “trial lawyer” vilification and you have the basic argument for every tort reform effort.  In formula form: lots of money + imminent bankruptcy + lawyers making money = EVIL!

So the recent surge of FACTA related litigation is sure to anger them greatly.  In a nut shell, the cases have … Continue Reading