Posts Tagged ‘insurance’

December 31 roundup

  • “No refusal” DUI checkpoints spread and can result in mandatory blood tests for drivers; MADD cheers infringement of liberty [WTSP]
  • Teleworking regulations: a new way to sue your (federal) boss? [welcome Mickey Kaus/Newsweek readers]
  • “The federal government has been in the business of micro-managing our kids’ lunches for 30 years” [David Gratzer/Examiner] St. Paul, Minn. schools ban sweets, even when brought from home [Star-Tribune] Michelle Obama, Sarah Palin, and the Happy Meal lawsuit [John Steele Gordon, Commentary]
  • Top ten insurance law decisions of 2010 [Randy Maniloff, Insurance Journal; also congrats on his new book (with Jeffrey Stempel)]
  • “Mitch Daniels and Criminal Sentencing Reform in Indiana” [Orin Kerr] Daniels isn’t backing down from call for truce on social issues [GOP12]
  • Happy 100th birthday, Ronald Coase [Gillespie, Reason]
  • Damage to Gulf from spill now looks much less than feared [Robert Nelson, Weekly Standard]
  • Saudi court decides that text message is valid method of divorce [Emirates 24/7]

August 21 roundup

  • More criticism of $671 million California nursing home verdict [Tracy Leach/Examiner, California Civil Justice, earlier]
  • Community service as precondition for college tax credits? [Charlotte Allen/Minding the Campus, earlier]
  • Casket-making monks vs. Louisiana funeral regulators [Ken at Popehat]
  • Careful about repeating claims that bad stuff in the environment is causing children to go through puberty earlier [Sanghavi, Slate]
  • Grilled chicken: “California Restaurants Lose Appeal On Cancer Warnings” [Dan Fisher/Forbes, earlier]
  • Randy Maniloff on the uncertain foundations of insurance bad faith law [Mealey’s, PDF]
  • “Why Imitation Is the Sincerest Form of Fashion” [Raustiala/Sprigman, NY Times, earlier on design “knockoff” legislation here, here, and here]
  • On a personal note, this week I completed my relocation from the New York to the Washington, D.C. vicinity. I look forward to seeing more of my friends both at the Cato Institute’s offices and elsewhere around D.C.

June 16 roundup

  • Shameless: House leadership exempts NRA lest it sink bill to regulate political speech [John Samples, Cato]
  • Employment law: “Arbitration Showdown Looms Between Congress, Supreme Court” [Coyle, NLJ]
  • “Wake Up, Fellow Law Professors, to the Casualties of Our Enterprise” [Tamanaha, Balkinization]
  • Move to allow international war crimes trials over “aggression,” a notoriously slippery term [Anderson, Brett Schaefer/NRO “Corner” via Ku]
  • Litigation slush funds: “Cy pres bill in Ohio House” [Ted Frank, CCAF]
  • “Recent Michigan Prosecutions for ‘Seducing an Unmarried Woman’” [Volokh]
  • Scalia: “…least analytically rigorous and hence most subjective of law-school subjects, legal ethics” [LEF]
  • Silicosis settlement scandal update: “As 2 Insurance Execs Admit Bribes, PI Lawyer Says He Can’t Be Retried” [Houston Chronicle via ABA Journal, earlier]

“Palm Beach Gardens firm accused of filing lawsuits just to collect legal fees”

The firm often sues insurance companies for amounts under $50, sometimes under $5. A manager with one defendant said the lawyers can use a $1 settlement to leverage a demand for thousands in legal fees payable by defendants. The firm, which has filed more than a thousand cases since last summer, acquires potential claims from medical clinics which bill the insurers over care dispensed after no-fault auto accidents; often the clinics have been paid for the bulk of the case, leaving a small unpaid sum. [Jane Musgrave, Palm Beach Post]