Day on Torts

I mentioned this several months ago but here I go again.

Former Supreme Court Justice Penny White, former Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Joe Riley and I have started offered CLE programs in the Fall. We have expanded the program to allow you to earn all 15 hours of CLE in two days, including your 3 E & P hours. If you wish, you can attend just one day. In addition, we are having a 3 hour E & P program only in several cities around the state. Click here for the dates and the cities.

We had a great turnout last year and hope for an even better turnout this year. In addition to an unpdate on the law of torts and comparative fault I will be giving an extended lecture on the law of depositions. When you leave the seminar you will know what there is to know about law in Tennessee concerning taking depositions and use of them at trial.

Yes, there is a board certification for lawyers. For civil trial lawyers, the only national certification program is one offered by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. See the NBTA website here.

I am honored to be the Immediate Past President of NBTA and have served on the Board for many years. It is a fine organization, committed to helping consumers find a competent, ethical lawyer.

Read the standards for certification of a civil trial lawyer here.

What did the President know above Karl Rove’s role in the outing of Valerie Plame and when did he know it?

Rove was suspected early on but did not admit that he was a source. Instead, Rove played cute. Reuters says that “Rove has carefully chosen his words when questioned about the leak. ‘I didn’t know her name. I didn’t leak her name,’ he told CNN last year when asked if he had had anything to do with it.”

But Reuters reports that “the Newsweek article said an e-mail Cooper sent his bureau chief after briefly talking with Rove stated that ‘it was, KR said, Wilson’s wife, who apparently works at the agency on wmd (weapons of mass destruction) issues who authorized the trip.'” OK, I understand now, he didn’t link her name, he only leaked that the wife of Joe Wilson worked for the agency. I am sure that he thought Joe Wilson had dozens of wives and that our enemies would never be able to identify which one worked for the CIA.

I can understand that some people don’t like lawsuits. Come to think about it, only a dang fool likes lawsuits. Litigation is stressful and expensive. Anyone who files lawsuits for fun is in need of medication, counseling, electric shock therapy, or an appropriate combination of the above.

Then, there are people who file lawsuits but don’t think other people should file lawsuits. These people are called HYPOCRITES. Here is an article that identifies some of the hypocrites.

My favorite hypocrite is Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA). He is all in favor of limiting the rights of victims of medical malpractice. He had a different view when he testified on behalf of his wife, a plaintiff in a medical malpractice lawsuit.

Here is a nice article that defends the current tort system. It concisely articulates what many us believe in but have difficulty putting into words.

Here is an excerpt:

The tort system provides for just compensation from wrongdoers and relieves the rest of society of unfair burdens. Fundamental fairness dictates that one who suffers a loss at the hands of a wrongdoer be compensated for the wrong he has suffered. If our system of justice fails to provide just compensation, the victim, or his family, will be inclined to seek personal revenge or retribution. This promotes a spirit of vigilantism and contributes further to the breakdown of social order. Additionally, if the wrongdoer is not required to bear the loss occasioned by his wrongdoing (i.e. medical bills, lost wages, etc.) those losses will have to be borne by the rest of society. When society has to pick up the tab for the losses caused by a wrongdoer, the result is the involuntary redistribution of wealth among persons who are innocent of any wrongdoing. This is just another form of “welfare” which rewards irresponsible behavior and punishes innocent parties.

Despite what you read in the paper, lawyers don’t cause medical malpractice. Doctors and hospitals cause malpractice. Stop malpractice and you not only help patients but you get lawyers out of the picture.

Here is a profile of a company that is trying to actually do something to stop errors from injuring or killing patients. This company is trying to change “the ‘John Wayne’ style of hospital management, [where] surgeons run the operating room [and e]verybody else has the good sense to keep quiet.”

The Company reports that “the results are pretty dramatic. One of our biggest clients was running a wrong surgery once every 60 days.” After adopting the program, the error rate is now one every 619 days, 10 times better than the national average, which is 15 wrongs per 100,000 procedures.

Here is yet another article that studies what is actually going in the medical malpractice insurance industry.

The NYT article says that “a study to be released today by the Center for Justice and Democracy, a consumer advocacy group in New York, may add fuel to that debate [about the controversy over insurance rates]. The study, compiled from regulatory filings by insurers to state regulators, finds that net claims for medical malpractice paid by 15 leading insurance companies have remained flat over the last five years, while net premiums have surged 120 percent. From 2000 to 2004, the increase in premiums collected by the leading 15 medical malpractice insurance companies was 21 times the increase in the claims they paid, according to the study.”

Will state legislators who bought the prior misrepresentations reverse the tort reform measures they passed? They should. They were sold a bill of goods.