At least a little bit of the way: you can now watch the game in church. (“NFL Reverses Call On Church Parties”, Washington Post, Feb. 21; earlier).
Author Archive
A blogger’s disclaimer
Kevin Underhill at Lowering the Bar has put a lot of effort into it.
Med-mal in the Upper Midwest
The lowest medical malpractice insurance rates are found in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and the Dakotas. Why is that? Probably not because doctors there have managed to achieve anything resembling error-free practice; and probably not because the five states, taken as a whole, are distinguished by any unusually pro-defendant set of tort laws. MedInnovationBlog takes up the question here and here, and speaks with a mutual insurer executive in search of explanations, which may include (among others) a “culture of collegiality among doctors and society as a whole”, a hard line against doubtful claims, and a paucity of giant verdicts of the John Edwards variety. (cross-posted from Point of Law).
Mississippi’s other legal scandal
Prosecutors’ bite-marks forensics. (Radley Balko, Slate, Feb. 20).
“38 lacrosse players sue Duke University”
Inevitably so? Maybe not. As longterm readers will recall, we were early and vocal among those calling attention to the legal travesty that was the Nifong prosecution, but it’s quite a jump from there to the proposition that the taxpayers of Durham, the university and its president Richard Brodhead personally should fork over money for emotional distress damages to, say, students never prosecuted at all and family members, who comprise the plaintiffs in this new case. (Kristen M. Daum, Newsday, Feb. 21; Bob Van Voris, “Duke Lacrosse Players to Sue School Over Rape Probe”, Bloomberg, Feb. 21; Malkin). The plaintiffs have a website here. (Corrected to fix misstatement on identity of plaintiffs. And broken link now fixed).
More: James Taranto at the WSJ quotes the Raleigh News & Observer under the heading “Yoo Hoo! Over Here! Ignore Us Please!”:
*** QUOTE ***The latest Duke lacrosse suit got off to a big start Thursday with publicists, lawyers of national renown, a media blitz at the National Press Club and a lawsuit with its own Web site.
The 38 members of the 2006 Duke lacrosse team who filed the suit in federal court say their reputations were damaged by their association to an escort service dancer’s phony gang-rape allegations.
The players chose not to appear at the news conference, said Bob Bork Jr., the group’s hired publicist, because they don’t want to attract attention.
*** END QUOTE ***
If they didn’t want to attract attention, it might have made more sense not to call a press conference. Or, if they had already called it and felt they had no choice but to go through with it, maybe they could have created a diversion by having a stripper show up or something.
The News & Observer also notes at the end of its article:
Only three members of the 2006 team have not filed suit — Matt Zash, a former captain; Matt Danowski, the current coach’s son, and Kevin Mayer.
And more: Bob Bork, Jr. writes to say he was misquoted in the News & Observer report, and says the following is a transcript of what he did say about the players’ absence:
One final comment before we start. None of the 38 players who are filing this lawsuit are here today. They considered participating, but many have jobs and some are still students and lacrosse team members at Duke. One is in Army Ranger school preparing to deploy to Iraq.
Know this — the players are united behind this lawsuit. At the same time that they are understandably concerned about retribution and slanderous media coverage. Who can blame them after what they endured for 13 months in 2006 and 2007. They are walking a fine line between trying to live normal lives in the wake of an unspeakable trauma and at the same time trying to get answers to questions that remain unanswered by their university.
New at Point of Law
Ted Frank and Michael Krauss are covering the new Supreme Court decision in Riegel v. Medtronic — one of the biggest wins for the product liability defense side in memory. We’ve also got plenty of coverage of the mortgage/foreclosure situation: Providence’s dumb idea for a punitive tax on vacant properties, the role of the Comptroller’s office, bond insurers’ woes, and some bad ideas from Hillarymandias. Plus off-label prescribing, suicidality, and Ted on Trasylol; and Obama comedown syndrome.
Scruggs: government releases wiretap transcripts
Big news day in the Scruggs scandals: a judge has turned down defense motions to throw out the charges and to suppress the evidence, a hearing on those motions has showcased the testimony of government informant Tim Balducci, and the government in responding to the motions has released extensive and often quite damning transcripts of the wiretap conversations among the principals. Folo as usual provides the most in-depth coverage, with posts on the judge’s rulings here and here, on the hearing and Balducci’s testimony here and in numerous preceding posts, and on the wiretap transcripts here and in numerous preceding posts. David Rossmiller is on the judge’s ruling here, and on the hearing and transcripts here. More: Patsy Brumfield, NEMDJ, was at the courthouse.
Picking through the rich contents of the transcripts and Balducci’s testimony is going to keep Scruggsians busy for a good long time. In the meanwhile, some odds and ends:
* Want to review all the major events of the central alleged bribery case, skillfully narrated in chronological sequence? Of course you do. Folo’s NMC has it in six parts beginning here and ending here (follow links to find those in between).
* John Grisham’s “Too Dumb for Dickie” theory encounters some serious strain [Rossmiller and again]
* Mississippi legislature won’t give AG Jim Hood authority to wiretap his enemies suspected white-collar criminals. Gee, wonder why that might be? [WLBT via Lange] Plus: description of Hood as a Pez dispenser coughing out multi-million-dollar cases for his chums [Rossmiller]
* More unpretty details surface on Scruggs’s (and other lawyers) use of informants in Katrina litigation [Rossmiller] and tobacco [Lange]
* More Hood: prosecuting the accused judge-bribers “would be like prosecuting a relative” [Salter, Clarion-Ledger, Rossmiller, Folo]. Give back tainted money? “That’s up to DAGA [Democratic Attorneys General Association]” [Lange]
* Former Louisiana attorney general Richard Ieyoub gets a mention, as does Sen. Trent Lott [Folo, same] Update: feds investigating what Sen. Lott knew [WSJ]
* Small world, Mississippi: member of arbitration panel that awarded Scruggs huge fees was later hired by the tort potentate for legal work [Lange]
* Blogosphere has been a major source for breaking news on the scandal [LegalNewsLine]
* Liberal columnist Bill Minor recalls when a certain Sen. McCain let Dickie Scruggs and Mike Moore run their tobacco lobbying campaign out of his Hill office [NEMDJ via Folo; more at PBS “Frontline” and NY Times]
Jessica Simpson fitness video
The entertainer and her father/manager are being sued by video maker Speedfit over her refusal to give approval for the release of a tape in which she starred in a multi-million contract. Speedfit owner Alex Astilean says that by blocking the video’s distribution, “They are hurting millions of fat people in America.” (“Page Six”, New York Post, Feb. 19).
Early termination cell phone fees
Lawyers purporting to act on behalf of Verizon Wireless customers are seeking $1 billion, and an arbitrator says the claim can go forward as a class action. Wait a minute, aren’t we always hearing that arbitration is set up so this sort of action would never stand a chance? (Jeffrey Silva, “Verizon Wireless faces class action over ETFs”, RCR Wireless News, Jan. 28; Jason Mick, DailyTech, Jan. 30).
A letter thus begins
As you may not be aware, we are both lawyers and both litigators, for whom the usual barriers to litigation are minimal….
According to the New York Times, that’s the opening line of the letter sent by husband-and-wife attorneys Jonathan Selbin and Jenny Selbin to neighbor Galila Huff, curtly warning that she’d better keep cigarette smoke from escaping her apartment or they’d see her in court. (Josh Barbanel, “Neighbor vs. Neighbor”, Feb. 17). Earlier coverage here. More: Bainbridge.