Articles Posted in Miscellaneous

AIG’s recent financial disclosures make it clear that the nation’s property and casualty insurers need tort reform now or they wIll be headed to receivership.

I mean, AIG’s profit was only $3,990,000,000. For the 2nd quarter. As in 90 days. As in a profit of about $44,333,000 per day. As in about $1,850,000 per hour every hour of ewvery day. Which is a little over $30,000 per minute. Which comes to about $513 per second, of every hour, of every day, for 90 days. In a row.

Which is up about 50% from last year.

Here is an article from Time about hospitals and doctors going after doctors in the name of “peer review.”

I recently defended a physician charged by a hospital with poor patient care. I must say that after reviewing the charts I was surprised at the charges – not a single case would have been won by a plaintiff in a medical negligence action. The central allegation involved the treatment of a patient for a serious medical condition of which I had some knowledge because of a past malpractice case where I represented the plaintiff. I knew the proper course of treatment, I knew the survivability rate with proper treatment, and I would have turned the case down on the records without even consulting an expert.

The system is really stacked in favor of the hospital in such cases. As a lawyer, I was shocked at the lack of due process in the system.

The weekend after Thanksgiving 2005 I will be speaking at a seminar in Cozumel that will be of particular interest if you want to scuba dive.

The seminar is sponsored by the Bench Bar Committee of the Tennessee Judicial Conference. Attendees will stay at the Fiesta Americana, an all-inclusive resort.

I will be speaking for 6 hours (3 hours per day) on Saturday and Sunday. Three hours will address tort and comparative fault issues and three hours will be an indepth look at the law of depositions. CLE credit will be available. The sessions will be interactive.

Have you had the opportunity to check out our Business Litigation Blog yet? It is full of information for those of us who involved in commmerical disputes.

For example, here is a link to a post on the issue of when attorneys’ fees must be litigated.

Here is a link to the building codes that are supposed to be followed in Davidson County.

One lawyer has taken a priest sex abuse case to the top – he has sued the Vatican.

A well-known Louisville lawyer filed suit against the Vatican, saying that it knew of the abusive activities of a priest. The Vatican is trying to get the case dismissed.

I ran into fellow blogger David Swanner of the South Carolina Trial Law Blog in Toronto. He was kind enough to grab me as I was walking along oblivious to my surroundings and introduce himself. He has a great blog and a great collection of powerpoint presentations from various lawyers. He will give you a copy of the powerpoint presentations if you ask.

The Convention was a real treat. I have attended the last 21 ATLA Annual Conventions and I have learned many valuable things at each one of them. ATLA has a new commitment to educating the public of the value of the civil justice system. It will be a long, expensive process but, I suggest, one worth the effort. We have to win back the hearts and minds of the jurors.

If you represent plaintiffs and are not a member of ATLA you should join. Not only will you get a great return on your money, but you will also help support the good fight.

Here is a link to an interesting blog about probate litigation.

We were involved in a significant will contest several years ago that ended up going to the Tennessee Supreme Court (Rule 11 denied) and then, believe it or not, to the United States Supreme Court (cert. denied). It was interesting work and, quite frankly, alot of fun.

The blog looks good, too!

Well, I am still in Toronto at the ATLA Convention. The Covention has been great; it is wonderful to see old friends and meet new ones.

The word here is that the Vioxx trial in Texas is going great for the plaintiff. I have been receiving daily transcripts and from my review it seems like plaintiff’s lawyer Mark Lanier is scoring a lot of good points.

That being said, the first few trials in a products case usually result in defense verdicts. If this one does, people with “good” cases should not lose faith.

Colin Farrell does not want Nicole Narain, a former Playboy Miss January, to distribute a 15-minute video tape showing the two of them engaged in sexual activity.

They entered into an oral agreement to keep it private.

He alleges that she was about to market the tape, so he filed suit against her and her alleged potential co-distributors. Here is some (but not all) of the complaint. You can see a photograph of the defendant there, too.