Corp Reform - Not Tort Reform Tort reform is a scam that punishes people to protect profits. In describing mold litigation, Ted Frank also describes the "reform" movement I saw that Ted got snubbed by LA Weekly as they only used a snippet of an interview with him. That sucks - and I'm not being sarcastic. Not yet, anyway. In reading the following passage of the full interview, I realized Ted could easily be describing the reform movement. I want to be absolutely clear about something: The following passage has been edited. Some of Ted's words have been deleted, and others replaced. The words that I have added are in italics. The link below takes you to the entire interview. I am not in any way trying to mislead anyone into thinking this is Ted's position. It isn't. It's simply my attempt to show how so many of the financial incentives the reform movement complain about apply equally to them. Imagine what would happen to the various tort "reform" groups if we enacted all of their suggestions: The need for the groups would greatly diminish and a whole lot of guys (and a couple of gals) making $300k+ per year would be out of jobs. With that disclaimer, here's a sarcastic rewrite of the interview: What does this fear of an enigma say about our society? Fascinating, isn’t it? We coexist with mold for thousands of years. My friend, Walter Olson of the Manhattan Institute has said sarcastically “How unfortunate must we be to live in the twenty-first century, when plaintiffs’ lawyers have discovered the terrible health effects!” It's always better for business if plaintiffs' lawyers don't know something is deadly. See the first half of the 20th century and asbestos, for example. Economic incentives have a lot to do with it: reform thinktanks have an economic incentive to describe something relatively innocuous– rarely-awarded and often-reduced punitive damages, contingency fees that enable the poor to have court access, medical malpractice lawsuits against guys like Dr. Desai –as something deadly and fit it into the fictional evil trial lawyer paradigm, which appeals to jurors’ preconceived notions. Low-quality scientists of a variety of levels of sincerity are given the economic incentive to take the same position. Journalists have the economic incentive to tell a story that fits the paradigm whether or not it’s true, because the victims-and-villains storyline that could affect the viewer because of our made-up "tort tax" attracts eyeballs. The three work together symbiotically: the expert witness feeds stories to the thinktank and vice versa; the thinktank feeds stories to the journalist with the expert; the journalist creates publicity that brings credibility to the thinktank, which in turn creates more stories for the journalist. The culture of fear is a lot larger than that (others take advantage of it), but I think the reason it is so much larger in America is because only here do we make people millionaires for inventing new things to be afraid of. Look at the six (and perhaps seven) figure salaries of the leaders of the reform movement, for example. Selling fear of lawsuits is big business. Modified from source: LA Weekly: The Mold Rush and the case of Sharon Kramer and Bruce Kelman Note also the manner in which Ted kicks Ed McMahon while he's down by referring to the man's sad situation as "poetic justice" for filing a mold lawsuit. You'll have to click the link to read it, and while you're there, read the original interview so you can verify that my version is merely sarcasm & satire. Technorati Tags: Mold lawsuits,Ted Frank,LA Weekly,Ed McMahon Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) Fans of "loser pays" ought to love this one Hey, I said I'd have more snark here. Another abuse story is emerging from the Middle East on the treatment of young girls. Nujood Ali, 10, was married to a man in his 30s, who then allegedly raped her. While she is now divorced, she has been criticized for confronting her husband and not accepting her fate. Not only was she denounced by some for not obeying her husband, but under Islamic Sharia law in Yemen, her family had to compensate the accused rapist. Source: Ten-Year-Old Girl in Yemen Married and Then Raped — Then Divorced « JONATHAN TURLEY Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) Radioactive granite countertops? Who knew? Last month, Suzanne Zick, who lives in Magnolia, Tex., a small town northwest of Houston, called the E.P.A. and her state’s health department to find out what she should do about the salmon-colored granite she had installed in her foyer a year and a half ago. A geology instructor at a community college, she realized belatedly that it could contain radioactive material and had it tested. The technician sent her a report indicating that the granite was emitting low to moderately high levels of both radon and radiation, depending on where along the stone the measurement was taken. “I don’t really know what the numbers are telling me about my risk,” Ms. Zick said. “I don’t want to tear it out, but I don’t want cancer either.” The E.P.A. recommends taking action if radon gas levels in the home exceeds 4 picocuries per liter of air (a measure of radioactive emission); about the same risk for cancer as smoking a half a pack of cigarettes per day. In Dr. Sugarman’s kitchen, the readings were 100 picocuries per liter. In her basement, where radon readings are expected to be higher because the gas usually seeps into homes from decaying uranium underground, the readings were 6 picocuries per liter. The average person is subjected to radiation from natural and manmade sources at an annual level of 360 millirem (a measure of energy absorbed by the body), according to government agencies like the E.P.A. and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The limit of additional exposure set by the commission for people living near nuclear reactors is 100 millirem per year. To put this in perspective, passengers get 3 millirem of cosmic radiation on a flight from New York to Los Angeles. Source: What’s Lurking in Your Countertop? - NYTimes.com Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) Replace the word "Obama" with "McCain" It just doesn't work then, does it? At moments, Obama was acting as though he were already “on a coin,” as Jon Stewart would say. But cocky or not, he needs to swoop up to conquer so Americans can picture him in the role. The One left them swooning in Jordan. A member of the king’s inner circle who attended the chicken-and-rice dinner with King Abdullah and Queen Rania said that Obama had gone a long way toward assuaging their fears that he would be so eager to run away from his paternal family’s Muslim roots and to woo skeptical American Jews that he would not be “the honest broker” they long for after W.’s crazed missionary work in the Middle East. “The guy gets it,” the Jordanian official said after dinner with Obama. “Sharp, aware and a very good listener. He doesn’t seem stuck in preconceived positions. He said he would get straight to the Palestinian issue as soon as he becomes president.” Source: Op-Ed Columnist - Is ‘The One’ Cocky or Commander in Chiefy? - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com He wasn't my first choice, but I'm definitely warming to Obama. Technorati Tags: Obama,McCain,Election 2008 Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) 50 Cent's Frivolous Lawsuit against Taco Bell The Wall Street Journal reports that 50 Cent is suing Taco Bell: Now, 50 Cent is trying to provide a little more for himself — through legal means. He’s suing Taco Bell, a division of Yum! Brands Inc., for, among other things, trademark infringement, alleging that the restaurant drafted a fake letter (attached at the end of the complaint) purporting to ask Jackson to change his name to “79 Cent,” “89 Cent” or “99 Cent” in order to publicize its “79-89-99 Cent Why Pay More Value Menu.” Taco Bell released the letter to the national press in June before sending it to Jackson, the complaint alleges. “Simply put, Taco Bell knew that it would likely have had to pay Jackson a multi-million-dollar fee to get his endorsement, even if he had agreed to do it — which is in doubt,” says the suit, which was filed by Reed Smith’s Peter D. Raymond and Wallace B. Neel. “Rather than face rejection or pay fair value, Taco Bell chose to steal his endorsement and to enjoy all the publicity of being associated with a mega-star while bearing none of the costs.” A spokesman for Taco Bell said: “We made a good faith, charitable offer to 50 Cent to change his name to either 79, 89 or 99 Cent for one day by rapping his order at a Taco Bell, and we would have been very pleased to make the $10,000 donation to the charity of his choice.” Source: Law Blog - WSJ.com : 50 Cent Looking for Big Change Outta Taco Bell Taco Bell made a legitimate offer to 50 Cent: If he "rapped" his order at a Taco Bell location, Taco Bell would (a) donate $10,000 to the charity of his choice, and (b) give free food to all the patrons of that Taco Bell. There is nothing improper about this offer. The complaint makes much ado of the fact that Taco Bell published this letter before mailing it to 50 Cent. So what? Contract law doesn't make offers invalid if they're published to a wide audience. The frivolity doesn't stop there. According to the lawsuit, the "low-end" Taco Bell diluted the value of the 50 Cent brand by asking him to endorse their restaurant. Celebrities are asked to endorse products all the time. If for some reason they're not interested in endorsing the product, they decline the offer. Does it really make sense to then allow the celebrity to sue the company seeking the endorsement? Playboy Magazine routinely makes generous offers to celebrities to pose in the magazine, including recently to Ashlee Simpson and the stars of Desperate Housewives. No one in their right mind thinks that these public offers means these celebrities have endorsed the magazine. Similarly, no one in their right mind should think that 50 Cent endorsed Taco Bell because they made him an offer. Did Taco Bell imitate 50 Cent by talking about their "79-89-99 Cent" menu? Sure. But 50 Cent hasn't trademarked referring to plural sums of money in the singular - just when it happens to be 50 Cent(s). This lawsuit is frivolous, and the worst part about it is that most proposals for damage caps wouldn't apply to it because he's seeking economic damages. You tell me if it's fair that under tort reform proposals, Taco Bell would only be liable for $250,000 in noneconomic damages if someone died from their food, but may have to pay millions to 50 Cent for making him an endorsement offer. Technorati Tags: 50 Cent,Taco Bell,50 Cent Lawsuit,frivolous lawsuits,tort reform Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) Let's raise gas taxes so we can use the revenue to lower corporate taxes! No, I'm not making that argument. An economist who obviously has no trouble paying to fill his gas tank is: A new gasoline tax that ensured high prices would accelerate the move toward fuel-efficient vehicles and provide enough revenue to allow a cut in corporate taxes. .... Economist Gregory Mankiw has estimated a $1 tax increase on gasoline could raise $100 billion in revenue that could (and should) be used to reduce the ridiculously high U.S. corporate tax rate. That, in turn, could lead to more jobs and better pay in virtually all domestic industries. Source: Why we need to keep gas above $4 Sorry if I'm not on board with screwing the American worker so we can lower taxes on companies that are also screwing the American worker. Someone should kick this guy in the shins. Technorati Tags: taxes,gas prices,economists,out of touch rich guys Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) Did Roche get FDA approval for this? I wonder. Ricardo Ricco, who upset some big names in biking during this year’s tour, was caught doping after the drugmaker planted a traceable molecule in the banned stamina-building drug he had taken, according to the World Anti-Doping Agency. And so the 24-year-old was kicked off after testing positive for EPO, or erythropoietin. Roche included a molecule in the third generation of EPO, called Continuous Erythropoiesis Receptor Activator (CARA), that acted as a flag in drug tests showing when an athlete was using the substance, John Fahey, WADA’s chief, tells the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Source: Roche Helps Catch Tour de France Cheater // Pharmalot Technorati Tags: Ricardo Ricco,Roche,EPO,erythropoietin Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) Hamdan, Clerks, and the Death Star Who here remembers Kevin Smith's brilliant movie Clerks? One of my all time favorites. Remember the part where Dante and Randall are arguing about whether it was "fair" for all the contractors on board the Death Star to die when it got blown up? The defense attorney's argument for Hamdan reminded me of that scene: When the prosecutor delivered his opening statement in the military commission trial of Salim Hamdan — Osama bin Laden’s former driver — he said he would show that Hamdan heard bin Laden describe the target of United Flight 93, the hijacked plane that crashed in a field just outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all 44 people aboard. Lt. Cmdr. Timothy Stone said bin Laden had said the plane was headed for “the dome,” apparently in reference to the U.S. Capitol. (For reports on the second of the trial, click here for the WSJ’s and here for the NYT’s.) Defense lawyer Harry Schneider, reports the WSJ, responded that Hamdan was a simple laborer who neither espoused nor acted on radical beliefs, as attorneys for Hamdan have claimed all along. (Emphasis added.) Source: Law Blog - WSJ.com : Prosecutor Says Hamdan Heard Bin Laden Describe Target of United 93 I'm with Dante (I think) who argued that the contractors got what they had coming to them because they knew who they were working for. Similarly, if Hamdan is convicted, he'll get what he has coming to him, too. Technorati Tags: Hamdan,Clerks,Star Wars,Death Star Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) Borat making a movie about personal injury attorneys Hat tip to Above the Law. All I can say is I can't wait. That and I volunteer to be a consultant to the film. :) LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Sacha Baron Cohen, better known as "Borat," has sold Fox film studios a comedy, "Accidentes," about an ambulance-chaser-turned-hero, which he will produce and possibly star in, Variety magazine said Tuesday. The film is about a personal injury lawyer who becomes a hero among Los Angeles Hispanics for successfully defending a worker against a wealthy employer, but who in the process becomes the enemy of the city's elite. Cohen, 36, last appeared on the big screen alongside Johnny Depp in "Sweeney Todd." He became a household name as the hillarious journalist in "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," which earned him the 2007 Golden Globe's best actor award. Source: AFP: Sacha 'Borat' Cohen to produce lawyer flic 'Accidentes' Technorati Tags: Borat,Sascha Baron Cohen,Accidentes,personal injury attorney Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) Italy likes preemption, too Especially when it protects the rich and powerful: Italy's lower house of parliament has voted to pass a controversial immunity bill put forward by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government. The amendment protects top public officials, including the prime minister and president, from prosecution. The bill is expected to be passed by the upper house, where Mr Berlusconi enjoys a solid majority, in September. Critics have labelled the change a made-to-measure piece of legislation to protect the 71-year-old billionaire. Source: BBC NEWS | Europe | MPs pass Berlusconi immunity bill Technorati Tags: Italy,preemption,Berlusconi Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) If you didn't support telecom immunity, you should support this scumbag's lawsuit Let me get this out of the way first: Former tax attorney James Colliton pleaded guilty to having sex with a 15 year old and a 13 year old girl. He is, to put it mildly, a scumbag. He received a 2-year sentence when it should have been at least twenty years. He's a disgrace to himself and the legal profession. Even worse than him is the mother of the two girls, who is the one who took the money. Sick people. That said, I'm tentatively supporting the lawsuit he's filed against American Express. My entire opinion is likely to change if the AmEx contract grants AmEx the right to work with law enforcement without a subpoena: AP reports that a disbarred Manhattan lawyer, who has been convicted of statutory rape, has sued the American Express Co. for giving police credit card information that he says led to his capture in Canada, where he had fled to avoid prosecution. Source: PointofLaw.com | PointOfLaw Forum: Convict-lawyer sues AmEx for helping police find him Does this lawsuit remind you of anything that's been in the news recently? OK, the headline tipped you off - FISA. Think about it: Many of us are upset that Congress caved and granted immunity to the telecoms who provided law enforcement with information about subscribers without requesting a subpoena. If AmEx gave up this information without a subpoena, they've committed the same sin as the various telephone companies did. But in this case, it's actually even worse. Supposedly, the telecoms provided data to help us prevent a terrorist attack - lives were supposedly in danger. This guy, on the other hand, wasn't a terrorist. If he wasn't captured immediately, a bomb wasn't going to go off. People weren't going to die. The guy was too busy hiding out to be soliciting sex. The reason the cops needed this info may be because they dropped the ball: Of all the many stories that have fallen within our jurisdiction, the story of James Colliton is perhaps the most sordid. In March 2006, Colliton, a former tax attorney at Cravath, was indicted on charges of paying two teenage sisters for sex (and paying their mother to permit it). After being arrested in Canada, he was mistakenly released and became a fugitive for a few days before being caught in an East Village hotel room. Click here for our Law Blog Coverage. Source: Law Blog - WSJ.com : In Plea Deal, Ex-Cravath Lawyer Admits To Sex Crimes The stories are unclear as to whether AmEx provided info to the cops after he "escaped" their custody. If that's the case, do you think that fear of getting caught for their mistake is why the cops didn't try and get a subpoena? I mean, on the facts presented I don't think any judge would have declined to issue one. Even if AmEx was giving the cops information before the "escape," it still sounds like there would have been no problem getting a subpoena. It's easy not to get up in arms over this because, as I said, the guy is a total scumbag. But surely at least one of the people caught up in the warrantless surveillance the telecoms engaged in was as big a scumbag, if not bigger. I just can't see anyway not to be a hypocrite if I oppose this guy's lawsuit since I supported the lawsuits against the telephone companies. What AmEx did is what the telecoms did, but on an individual scale. P.S. Michael Krauss asked if this lawsuit is the definition of chutzpah. Nope, what this guy's defense attorney did is: "In April 2006, Greenberg was singing a different tune, reportedly calling the two young alleged rape victims perjurers and one of them a “skank.” “My client made $500,000 a year,” he said. “He had the wherewithal to pay for any piece of tuchus on the planet. And he paid that skank?” Technorati Tags: James Colliton,Cravath,tax lawyer,underage girls,FISA,American Express Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) Thoughts on the GMAT cheating scandal I've been following this story with some amusement. It comes as no shock to me that applicants to business school are cheating on the GMAT in droves. In a sign of increasing concern about cheating, the nation's top business schools will soon require a high-tech identity check for standardized admissions tests. Aspiring corporate executives taking the Graduate Management Admission Test, or GMAT, will have to undergo a "palm vein" scan, which takes an infrared picture of the blood coursing through their hands. The image -- which resembles a highway interchange in a major city -- is unique to every individual. The scans are used widely in Japan among users of automated teller machines but only recently have appeared in the U.S. .... The technology targets "proxy" test taking, a fraud in which applicants hire high-scoring imposters to take the exam in their place. Five years ago, federal authorities broke up a ring of six fraudsters who took more than 590 exams, including GMATs, for customers who paid at least $3,000. [Typical of the MBA mentality - rules only apply to those who can't afford to break them. Hopefully the 590 people were all stripped of their degrees and fired... but I wouldn't be surprised if some of them are running chemical companies now. - JCL] David Wilson, president of the Graduate Management Admission Council, which represents top business schools and oversees the test, won't disclose the level of cheating today but says the case underscored the potential. Since 2006, test takers have been required to undergo digital fingerprinting to validate their identity. They are also photographed, and videotaped taking the exam. The council says the new vein-scan technology is superior and will be more acceptable to consumers, who often associate fingerprinting with the police. [Perhaps we should extend the courtesy to all white collar criminals; God forbid they literally get their hands dirty. Seriously though, what does it say about the ethics of these people that you need a more reliable means of identification to take the GMAT than to pass an FBI background check? - JCL] .... Donald L. McCabe, a Rutgers University professor of management, says it is understandable that business schools are now "protecting the integrity of their test, whatever it takes." Professor McCabe has surveyed more than 200,000 students over 19 years and concluded that those in business school cheat more than their peers in other disciplines. He says business-school students often cite instances of corporations' "bottom-line mentality" and ethical lapses to justify their own dishonesty. [Think about this for a minute. These cheaters are basically saying, "Hey, big corporations lie and cheat, so its no big deal if I do." They seem to think lying and cheating is the norm, the accepted practice. Granted, at many corporations it is. See the many pharmaceuticals who hide data from the FDA. This "bottom-line mentality" is what's really at the heart of many product liability lawsuits. Unethical managers placed the bottom-line ahead of anything else and chose to sell a dangerous product because it was profitable. That's why it's so important to allow large noneconomic damages and punitive damages verdicts, as those are the only thing that can change the bottom-line, which is the only thing that matters to many business people today. - JCL] Source: Business Schools Try Palm Scans To Finger Cheats - WSJ.com I also note with some humor that cheating on the Law School Admissions Test isn't so rampant as to require anything more than old-fashioned fingerprinting. And would-be lawyers aren't so prissy as to refuse to have their fingerprints taken, either. My law school is directly across the street from our business school. I had a very hard time stifling my laughter when one of my professors referred to the business school as "the torts lab across the street." So true. So very true. Technorati Tags: GMAT,GMAT cheating,law school,MBA,tort reform,noneconomic damages,punitive damages,bottom-line mentality,torts lab Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) I make a "surprisingly cogent" argument at Above the Law about freedom of contract Some enterprising students at NYU are paying other students to withdraw from popular classes in order to free up a seat. Needless to say, the administration doesn't like it and is threatening disciplinary actions for those students who engage in this practice. I come out firmly on the students' side, because contrary to what some would suggest, I'm a big proponent of freedom of contract. Here's my argument, which another commenter described as surprisingly cogent: Posted by guest | Permalink Tuesday, July 22, 2008 1:03 PM The students aren't buying class spots. Student B is paying Student A to withdraw from class at a specified time. Student B then enrolls in the class immediately thereafter. Student A's obligations under the contract are limited only to withdraw at the time specified. It's absolutely a proper contract that shouldn't run afoul of any rules. It could also be done in a different manner. Assume that the class in question meets MW at 10:30 in classroom 100. Student B could pay Student A to not be in classroom 100 on MW at 10:30. Student A would then drop the class because it conflicts with his schedule. Let's see some enterprising NYU students blatantly inform the school they're doing this, and then file a pro se lawsuit if they're sanctioned for it. Source: Above the Law - A Legal Tabloid - News, Gossip, and Colorful Commentary on Law Firms and the Legal Profession - Trading Places: At NYU Law, A Clash Over Classes for Cash I've never cared for school administrators at any level. So many of them are just control freaks who recoil at the thought that some student might not "respect their authoritah!" If the school really wants to put a stop to this practice, it should (I can't believe I'm about to make an economics argument) adjust the supply of classes to meet the demand and not punish students who refuse to let a flawed lottery system dictate what classes they take. Technorati Tags: NYU Law,above The Law,classes for cash Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) Phrase of the Day: Ivy Retardation It's long, but excellent. It didn’t dawn on me that there might be a few holes in my education until I was about 35. I’d just bought a house, the pipes needed fixing, and the plumber was standing in my kitchen. There he was, a short, beefy guy with a goatee and a Red Sox cap and a thick Boston accent, and I suddenly learned that I didn’t have the slightest idea what to say to someone like him. So alien was his experience to me, so unguessable his values, so mysterious his very language, that I couldn’t succeed in engaging him in a few minutes of small talk before he got down to work. Fourteen years of higher education and a handful of Ivy League dees, and there I was, stiff and stupid, struck dumb by my own dumbness. “Ivy retardation,” a friend of mine calls this. I could carry on conversations with people from other countries, in other languages, but I couldn’t talk to the man who was standing in my own house. Source: The American Scholar - The Disadvantages of an Elite Education - By William Deresiewicz Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) Next »
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