Reel Tort Reform, Judges We’ll Miss (Souter), and Avoid (Lopez)
- 3 Comment
It’s been an exciting week in the world of torts, and the law in general. What follows is a wrap up of some of the more pertinent developments.
- Tort “reformers” take aim at captive audiences in movie theaters.
- DC MedMalBlog reports that the idea of physicians “fleeing” from the threat of medical liability is no more than a myth in their neck of the woods: Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia.
- Justice Souter’s replacement is likely to be not only liberal, but Latina. See the Gothamist’s take on Bronx-born legal powerhouse and current jurist, Sonia Sotomayor, with whom I had the pleasure to work in the old days when I was a summer associate. (I’m the only one who aged.)
- Ashby Jones, at the WSJ Law Blog, interviews Mayer Brown’s Evan Tager on how Justice Souter’s departure from the U.S. Supreme Court may affect “Big Business.”
- From Chicago, a reason to consider judge shopping: the ABA Journal reports that Cook County Associate Judge Mark Lopez held a female attorney who appeared before him in a child support hearing jailed on civil contempt charges due to an alleged error she made in a draft order. The ABA Journal’s Martha Neil wrote that the attorney “was handcuffed, strip-searched and insulted by jail guards before being released the next day.” No comment yet from Judge Lopez.
3 Comments on this post
Trackbacks
-
John M. Hochfelder, Esq. said:
I don’t like ads in movie theaters and now there will be “tort reform” spots? This issue – and there are two sides to it – should be left out of the movies. C’mon!
May 3rd, 2009 at 6:03 am -
throckmorton said:
While I am typing this there are ads on TV by attorneys advertising for Asbestosis, silicosis, pacemakers and personal injury.
There was an add at the movie theatre for a local trial attorney adversiting for truck accidents.
May 3rd, 2009 at 2:09 pm -
EMR Software said:
Re: DC MedMalBlog reports that the idea of physicians “fleeing” from the threat of medical liability is no more than a myth in their neck of the woods: Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia….
In the past 6 months, we have had a substantial number of new practice EMR software installations in this geographical area – and we are a west coast based vendor so it’s been an marked change. Interestingly, I’m also finding increased marketing interest among our customer base in the area to reach prospecitive patients via new websites, newsletters, etc. in light of increased competition. I, for one, find it refreshing that physicians in this area are treating their practices like real businesses that need to (rightly so) be focusing on patient safety and interoperability (via EMRs), and patient satisfaction (via websites, online accessibility, and patient portals). Two thumbs up for capitalism and competition!
May 8th, 2009 at 9:40 am