Texas passed an extensive anti-patient reform of its medical malpractice laws in 2003.
How’s it going for them?
Public Citizen says that "while litigation over malpractice in Texas has plummeted since the caps were imposed, residents of Texas (except for people with financial connections to liability insurance companies and, to a lesser extent, doctors) have realized few, if any, benefits. Instead, the health care picture in Texas has worsened significantly by almost any measure."
There are two things wrong with this post. First, it is not directly about tort law – it is about contract law. And this is supposed to be a blog about tort law. So perhaps this post shouldn’t be here.
Second, this post is about a victory our firm had in the Tennessee Court of Appeals on October 19, 2011. Regular readers know that I typically don’t write about our firm’s cases on this blog.
That aside, I know that many of my fellow tort lawyers handle commercial litigation cases from time to time. I have done so for most of my career and enjoy the work. Thus, I thought that many readers could benefit from knowing about this new appellate court decision, particularly the readers from Tennessee.
Aggie Spirit took exception to my suggestion that Herman Cain encourage the NRA to waive the confidentiality provisions of the settlement agreements with the women who lodged sexual harassment charges against him.
This was AggieSpirit’s comment::
I am sure your position as a trial lawyer (and likely member of ATLA) and your donation history (which shows that you donate to Democrats like Bruce Braley) have no influence on your hypocritical position on whether or not Cain should release his accusers from confidentiality agreements. Where were all the Democratic calls for openness for Ginnifer Flowers, nor where was the main stream media in revealing that Flowers was paid a 6 figure settlement by the Clintons?
You democrats have a double standard at every aspect here — in your mind, Cain has been accused of wrongdoing, therefore, he must be guilty. But the benefit of the doubt is given to every accused Democrat, and the media turns the other way and essentially ignores wrongdoing by Democrats. You would think the media would have reported extensively about the close ties between Obama and American unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers, but not one network outside of Fox reported on the relationship.
This whole situation with Cain wreaks of one thing, and one thing alone — the political establishment and their media Obama worshiping allies will do anything to railroad the possibility that a black man become the GOP nominee — because Democrats, just like their slave master ancestor Southern Democrats of the 1800s, believe that they OWN black people, and deserve their vote. How dare Cain, or any other minority, leave the plantation of handouts, welfare, and failed affirmative action policy which have destroyed black America and created a generation of government dependency. But hey – you lawyers benefit directly from regulation, which is why you are overwhelmingly liberal. The more regulation and law, the richer you get. You sir, are disgusting.
A New York Appellate Court has ruled in Patterson v. Turner Construction that a defendant in a personal injury case does not have an unfettered right to access the plaintiff’s Facebook account.
Instead, the defendant can seek only to that which is “relevant, in that it contradicts or conflicts with plaintiff’s alleged restrictions, disabilities, and losses, and other claims.”
The appellate court reversed a trial court order which "granted defendants’ motion to compel an authorization for all of plaintiff’s Facebook records compiled after the incident alleged in the complaint, including any records previously deleted or archived."
Table saws are dangerous – but they don’t have to be. Stephen Gass developed technology called "Saw Stop" that prevents cuts and amputations when using table saws and other types of saws.
Read this white paper to see how the Saw Stop system works. This video describes the system and shows a demonstration using Gass’ hand. This video shows how the saw works using a hot dog rather than a human finger.
Interesting stuff, if you do woodworking. But why would I mention this subject on a torts blog?
A man with a student pilot’s license crashed into a home, killing himself and his minor daughter. The deceased child’s mother brought suit against the local aviation board and others for permitting him to take off in the plane despite the absence of a pilot’s license, seeking damages for the death of her daughter.
The defendants moved for summary judgment, saying that the father had intentionally crashed the plane into his mother-in-law’s house with the intent to kill his daughter and himself. The father and his wife were in the process of a divorce, and the father was upset that his wife was dating another man. Among other damning facts, the evidence showed that
Eric [the father] attempted to contact Beth [the mother] on her cell phone, and he made angry and threatening statements when he reached Beth on the third attempt. At some point during the conversation, Eric told Beth that she would never see Emily again. Just before the plane crashed into Pace’s house, two bystanders witnessed the airplane abruptly angle downward and throttle its engines toward the ground, without taking the normal steps to prepare for landing, such as deploying flaps, reducing speed, and shallowing descent. Eric crashed the airplane into the house shortly thereafter. As noted above, [his mother-in-law’s] residence was one of 18,500 houses in Lawrence County. [Citations omitted.]
Herman Cain has been accused of sexual harassment. He denies the allegations.
What about the women who asserted the claims? The ones who allegedly received money from the National Restaurant Association, Mr. Cain’s employer at the time? What do they say?
Apparently, they aren’t saying anything because as a condition of the settlements they were required to sign confidentiality agreements. In other words, they agreed not to discuss the settlement or the allegations as a condition of the settlement.
Yesterday I posted my 2000th entry on this blog. 2000 posts in 78 months – this blog started in the Spring of 2005.
I celebrated by writing five posts for the coming week.
Thanks for reading.
You have to give the Republican Party credit – they are working hard to create jobs for those who are out of work.
In Tennessee, for example, the right to trial by jury was limited for every Tennessean so that somebody somewhere could get a job.
The right that citizens had to sue those who design and build dangerous roads and bridges was severely limited with the promise of more jobs.
PowerPoint is a useful tool at the trial of personal injury and wrongful death cases. However, there is a right way and wrong way to use it.
This video by Don McMillian points out some of the errors one can make in the use of PowerPoint.
Does this video bring home errors you have made with this software? I must plead guilty to several errors described on this video.
