Articles Posted in Miscellaneous

Tony Snow has a different opinion about the use of the "executive privilege" defense today than he did almost a decade ago.

Here is a sample from the folks at The Swamp: ""Evidently, Mr. Clinton wants to shield virtually any communications that take place within the White House compound on the theory that all such talk contributes in some way, shape or form to the continuing success and harmony of an administration,” the columnist wrote. "Taken to its logical extreme, that position would make it impossible for citizens to hold a chief executive accountable for anything.”

Read it all here.

Cardinal Mahoney from LA.  You read the story from the LA Times and decide for yourself.

An excerpt:  "In a letter to then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before Ratzinger became pope in April 2005, Mahony said [Father] Caffoe had videotaped "partially naked" boys in a state of sexual arousal. The tape was "objective verification that criminal behavior did occur," Mahony wrote, according to papers filed last week in Los Angeles County Superior Court in a lawsuit by four plaintiffs who allege that Caffoe abused them.

In October 2005, in what Mahony told parishioners was the "fullest possible disclosure" about the scandal, he reported that a videotape had been discovered in 1992 in Caffoe’s bedroom, depicting "improper behavior" with high school boys. But the cardinal said the boys were "fully clothed" and there was no sexual activity."

I am pleased to report that this blog received its 500th comment the other day.   We are approaching 1000 posts, a milestone that will be reached in June.

This blog began in February 2005.  I truly enjoy writing it and wish I had even more time to devote to it. 

Thank you for your wonderful comments and your words of encouragement.  Please let me know what topics you would like me to cover more frequently and I will do my best to accomodate you.

The President’s daughter Jenna has written a book that she "very, very modestly" hopes will have the influence of  Anne Frank’s The Diary of Anne Frank.

Like Jenna, I too find myself tightly bound by humility.  Her willingness to reveal her hopes despite her extreme modesty  compel me to reveal one of my own hopes:   that this blog will have the influence of the Declaration of Independence.

There.  I said it.  I feel better already.   Many of you plaintiff’s lawyers simply cannot comprehend the burden of  being "very, very modest."  Indeed, I felt extreme anxiety for weeks calling this blog "Dayontorts"  and took this step only after discovering, much to my dismay, the "Humbleontorts" was not available.

Texas has a rule that permits presuit depositions to be taken, not just be preserve testimony but also to do discovery to determine the merits of a claim before filing suit.

Professor Lonny Hoffman has written about the subject.  Here is an abstract of the article:

"What is the relationship between access to information and access to justice? Private parties obviously have many publicly available points of access to the information they seek in order to file a lawsuit. Lawyers can talk to their clients and other willing witnesses. Documents can be gathered. Specific statutes may sometimes permit information to be obtained before a formal lawsuit is brought. On other occasions, however, information needed or desired will lie solely within the exclusive knowledge and control of another. The ability of private parties to compel the production of information, documents or testimony before litigation rarely has been seriously considered as a factor bearing on access to court. Beyond the lack of treatment of the doctrinal sources of authority, no attempt has been made by academic commentators or those most closely involved in civil procedural reform to gather empirical evidence to try to fix how important to the institution and maintenance of civil suits is the right to take presuit investigatory discovery. This Article seeks to fill these vital gaps that exist in the literature and in the public debates, more generally, over access to justice. After examining the available authority in the federal and state courts, the author gathers and reports on original empirical research conducted on the use of presuit investigatory discovery by private parties. That data comes from Texas, where the state rule provides the broadest grant of authority to prospective litigants to invoke judicial process for investigatory purposes. The empirical evidence from Texas may reasonably be read as indicating widespread use of the state’s presuit discovery rule, most likely on the order of approximately one out of two lawyer and judge respondents reporting at least one experience in which a presuit deposition was taken. Relatedly, it appears that approximately 60% of the time the deposition was taken to investigate a potential claim before suit was filed; the remaining 40% of depositions were secured for the purpose of perpetuating testimony. Examining the available data, the author argues that there are good reasons to believe that the perceived need to satisfy formal legal requirements to bringing suit, as well as the pull of practical considerations, may plausibly explain the incidence of use of the state’s presuit discovery rule. Read in this manner, the empirical evidence suggests an important relationship exists between access to information and access to justice."

The Tennessee Supreme Court will hear the following tort cases in Jackson in April:

Dewayne E. Holloway v. State:    Whether the Claims Commission lacked subject matter jurisdiction under Tennessee Code Annotated section 9-8-307(a)(1)(E) to adjudicate the plaintiff’s wrongful death claim. 

Troup v. Fischer Steel Corporation:   Whether the Court of Appeals erred in (reversing the trial court and) determining in this negligence action in which the employee of a roofing subcontractor, from which the employee has received workers’ compensation benefits, sues a steel subcontractor, the jury may assign fault to the general contractor, which is a “statutory employer” but did not pay any workers’ compensation benefits.

Charlie Weis, head football coach at Notre Dame, sued two doctors in connection with injuries he received following gastric bypass surgery.  The trial in underway in Boston.

He alleges that he suffered internal bleeding after the procedure and that his doctors failed to promptly correct it.  The doctors say that internal bleeding is a known, disclosed risk of the procedure and that they did not move more aggressively to correct the condition because of the risk of pulmonary embolus.

Read more here.  Weis testified yesterday.

Business Tennessee magazine has released its list of the 150 best lawyers in Tennessee.  Here is the list by area of practice.

These lists come out from time to time and I am always surprised to see that some lawyers I think are just fantastic are not included.  I don’t know exactly how the process works but I am honored to be included on the list again this year.

I was in Knoxville yesterday and had the opportunity to talk with my friend Howard Vogel and his son Alex.  We were talking blogs (the three of us make a fun group, don’t we?) and Howard or Alex asked what blogs I regularly read.

I thought I would share the list. 

What About Clients?

I really enjoy reading Blog 702.  The writing is great, the posts informative.  I wish they had a permalink function in their blogging program, but this post is too good not to re-print here in toto.

2/7/07 UPDATE:  I got a comment from the folks at Blog 702 and they informed me that they do have a permalink function.  My bad.  Here it is the link.

"A post by Ted Frank at Point of Law directs us to another post, by Jim Beck and Mark Herrmann at Drug and Device Law, which adverts, in turn, to an article in the December 2006 issue of Neurology entitled "The impact of litigation on neurologic research." The article is authored by two faculty at the Washington University School of Medicine (Drs. Brad A. Racette and Joel S. Perlmutter) and two attorneys (Ann Bradley, internal university counsel, and Carrie A. Wrisberg, a partner in the St. Louis law firm Moser & Marsalek).