Consumer Law

What Else Is Toyota Hiding?

Posted on April 12, 2010
One has to wonder what else the company is hiding.  This certainly doesn?t reflect well upon their sense of ethics: -Toyota hid the existence of its roof strength tests in numerous cases. A new potential class-action lawsuit filed in California on behalf of two women left paralyzed by separate Toyota rollover crashes contends that recently uncovered company documents contradict sworn testimony by Toyota officials that the company had no written standard for how far vehicle roofs could be crushed...

Toyota floor mats and the legal definition of defective products

Posted on April 10, 2010
In a comment thread at Overlawyered, I?ve been debating with an individual about whether the floor mats that were the subject of the Toyota recall are defective.  He seems to believe that because the floor mats did in fact protect the carpet, they are not defective...

Tort Reform Hypocrite – Florida AG Bill McCollum

Posted on April 09, 2010
An attorney in Florida is calling out the Florida Attorney General for supporting tort ?reform? but now turning to the civil justice system for political gain: I graduated from law school and moved to Florida in 1987. So my entire legal career has chronologically coincided with the Florida tort reform movement, a multi-million dollar effort, funded by large corporations, to convince the public that the unholy alliance of trial lawyers, with their ?frivolous lawsuits,? and activist judges, who override the legislative will of the people, are the root of all evil in this world...

Three Reasons Why Every Tea-Partier Should Oppose Tort Reform

Posted on April 08, 2010
There?s an old saying that politics makes strange bedfellows.  Never has that been more true than with the case of tort ?reform? and Tea Partiers.  At first glance, you?d think that Tea Partiers would support tort reform, if for no other reason than most Democrats oppose it...

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Tort Reform – A mechanism for shifting business costs onto taxpayers

Posted on April 08, 2010
For many years, I?ve been pointing out that there?s no ?free lunch? with tort ?reform.?  Medical bills don?t disappear just because a person?s ability to sue does.  All that happens is that those bills get shifted from a responsible defendant onto private or public insurers...

Georgia Noneconomic Damages Cap Unconstitutional

Posted on March 25, 2010
Congratulations to the attorneys who argued the case. On March 22 the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that a controversial law capping the amount of money an injured patient could recover from a negligent medical provider is unconstitutional. The 7-0 decision was written by Justice Hunstein...

Thoughts on the 9/11 Settlement From Professor Charles Silver

Posted on March 23, 2010
A reader submitted this story to me this morning: If there are good characters and bad characters in this drama, the workers' lawyers are wearing white hats. True, the lawyers did not agree to represent the workers for free. Their retainer agreements entitle them to contingent fees equal to one-third of the recovery plus expenses, about $200 million...

Let's Talk About Toyota

Posted on March 19, 2010
I?ve read a couple of pieces about the Toyota unintended acceleration issues.  The most recent one I read is from Boston attorney Alan Crede.  In his piece, which I?ve quoted below, he takes a couple of familiar names to task for assuming that the real cause of the unintended acceleration problems is elderly (55 is elderly?) drivers...

Health Insurance Company Routinely Dropped Coverage For Individuals With HIV For Bogus Reasons

Posted on March 18, 2010
Note that this only came to light because of a civil lawsuit. Previously undisclosed records from Mitchell's case reveal that Fortis had a company policy of targeting policyholders with HIV. A computer program and algorithm targeted every policyholder recently diagnosed with HIV for an automatic fraud investigation, as the company searched for any pretext to revoke their policy...

Guest Post About Medical Malpractice

Posted on March 17, 2010
Jeffrey Adams, an attorney in New York submitted the following as a guest post to this blog.  It was written earlier this year, so time references like ?this week? might be a little off, but the rest of the data is sound.  ?First thing we do, let?s kill all the (personal injury) lawyers?, or something like that, William Shakespeare?s oft quoted and frequently misinterpreted line from Henry VI, was meant as a complement to judges and lawyers who champion justice, not as an attack on them...

Join The TortDeform.Com Group At Facebook

Posted on March 16, 2010
Guess what?  Facebook just surpassed Google as the most visited site on the Internet.  Guess what else?  TortDeform has a Facebook group.  Check it out, join, and become a contributor to the group.  Those interested in becoming contributors here can do that through the Facebook group, too...

Emergency Room Doctors In Georgia Can Now Make Medical Mistakes With Impunity

Posted on March 16, 2010
If you, or I, or anyone else who isn?t a doctor injures someone in Georgia, we?ll be found liable if the jury finds us negligent.  But if an emergency room doctor in Georgia injures a patient, he or she will not be liable unless he or she was grossly negligent, which is a much higher standard: The Supreme Court of Georgia on Monday dealt a two-pronged blow to plaintiffs lawyers, rejecting challenges to two parts of the 2005 tort reform package...

More evidence that there isn't a medical malpractice crisis

Posted on March 15, 2010
Medical malpractice payments totaled .14 of 1 percent of healthcare spending.  Just how much lower do we need to go before the ?crisis? is over?  Is it like drunk driving and we need to get below .10 or .08?  WASHINGTON ? Fewer medical malpractice payments were made on behalf of doctors in 2009 than any year on record, according to the National Practitioner Data Bank...

Will The Georgia Supreme Court Overturn Medical Malpractice Damage Caps?

Posted on March 15, 2010
They?re going to have the chance to do just that thanks to this trial court decision: A Fulton County judge has struck down the cap on monetary awards in a medical malpractice case, a decision that if upheld on appeal could undercut a major component of Georgia's tort reform laws...

The One Group That Was Not Made Whole: INJURED PATIENTS

Posted on March 15, 2010
The following email was sent to me by an attorney who monitors the civil justice system in Maryland.  I thought it was worth reposting here: by Wayne M. Willoughby Past President, Maryland Association for Justice In 2004, hysteria struck Annapolis...

Defensive Medicine Doesn't Lead To Unnecessary Medical Treatment

Posted on March 14, 2010
One of the complaints about President Obama?s healthcare package is that it doesn?t include enough tort ?reform? in it.  Many argue that making it harder to sue doctors and making it impossible to recover large noneconomic damage verdicts will decrease the cost of healthcare by reducing defensive medicine...

Another McDonald's Lawsuit – Will We Get The Facts Straight This Time?

Posted on March 14, 2010
Civil justice advocates cringe every time we hear someone mention ?the McDonald?s coffee case? because the facts of the case have become so distorted.  I?m not going to rehash the whole thing here (for the umpteenth time) but will say that the woman who was burned (a) was in a parked car, and (b) suffered third degree burns to her crotch because (c) the coffee was as hot as the water in your car?s radiator after you go for a drive, and (d) she was about the 700th person to suffer serious burns from that undrinkably-hot coffee...

The Healthcare Insurer Antitrust Exemption

Posted on March 12, 2010
Here?s one perspective on whether it helps or hurts consumers. With comprehensive health care legislation foundering in Congress, the House Wednesday passed a narrower piece of legislation that lawmakers hope has widespread, populist appeal: repealing the antitrust exemption for health insurers...

Bruce Braley Discusses the Toyota Recall

Posted on March 04, 2010
No surprise that I think we need more men like Braley in Congress.

A real example of medical malpractice damage caps

Posted on March 04, 2010
A common suggestion on how to ?reform? the malpractice system is to institute a $250,000 damage cap.  Here?s a real life example of how those caps work.  I?ll leave it to you to decide if this seems fair: Bashar Ashkar should be at work running the seven-figure engineering firm that bears his name, or helping his wife, Shari, plan his daughter Lauren's fall wedding...

Will tort 'reform' get doctors to wash their hands?

Posted on March 03, 2010
I haven?t seen evidence that it will, but I have seen ample evidence that doctors are failing to do that and other basic measures: About a week after my father?s death, The New Yorker ran an article by Atul Gawande profiling the efforts of Dr. Peter Pronovost to reduce the incidence of fatal hospital-borne infections...

What effect will tort 'reform' have on healthcare spending?

Posted on February 16, 2010
This is a rather colorful analogy. To think that [tort ?reform?] would significantly change health care costs is like believing that a Mack truck can be diverted by a June bug ? even a moderately large June bug ? hitting its windshield. There are reasons to suspect even that analogy overstates the result...

Medical Malpractice Reform May Cost More Than It Saves

Posted on February 12, 2010
Now that the Democrats don?t have a filibuster-proof majority, medical malpractice reform is back on the table.  Many argue that if we enact some sort of malpractice reform, we?ll save money because doctors will be less likely to practice defensive medicine...

Illinois Supreme Court Strikes Down Damage Caps

Posted on February 04, 2010
Just saw this and thought it was worth posting. The Illinois Supreme Court says limiting damage amounts in medical malpractice cases violates the state's Constitution. In an opinion filed Thursday, the court says such caps violate the principle of separation of powers...

Got questions about tort reform terms?

Posted on December 11, 2009
One of the projects I have planned for my winter break is to revamp my tort reform blog, www.whatistortreform.com.  At that blog, I give simple explanations of common terms in the tort reform movement.  For example: Negligence Statute of Limitations Summary Judgment If there?s a term you think I should add, or think I should expand on an existing term more, please either email me or comment here and I?ll do so.

Congratulations to the Center for Justice & Democracy

Posted on December 01, 2009
Today I got a wonderful e-mail from Joanne Doroshow, the founder and Executive Director of the Center for Justice & Democracy.  Joanne is on my short-list of heroes, so I?m extremely pleased to share the following news with you: CJ&D?s blog, ThePopTort, has for the second year in a row been selected as one of the 100 best legal blawgs by the American Bar Association...

California Appellate Court Holds That Defendants Are Liable For The Full Cost of Medical Care

Posted on November 27, 2009
This is a major victory for the civil justice system in California.  A prevailing plaintiff should be entitled to recover the full cost of her medical care, even if her private insurer paid a smaller, negotiated amount to cover all of her hospital and doctor bills, California's 4th District Court of Appeal panel held Monday...

Judge Rules That The Government Failed To Properly Maintain New Orleans Waterways

Posted on November 20, 2009
This case shows everything that is right about America; our citizens are able to hold the government accountable both at the ballot box, and in the court room.  It must seem crazy to citizens of other countries that we can do so.  It seems crazy to me to live any other way...

There Were Only 17 State Court Jury Trials In Hawaii Last Year

Posted on November 20, 2009
Not per week, per month, or per day.  In the entire year.  Seventeen. The ?vanishing trial? is resulting in less courtroom experience for Hawaii?s litigators as parties on both sides of legal disputes seek faster and cheaper ways to resolve their differences...

Award Reduction Shows Our Justice System Works Just Fine As It Is

Posted on November 20, 2009
I don?t know the underlying facts of this case well enough to opine as to whether $800,000 was in fact too much money.  But the fact that a judge slashed the award from $800,000 to $265,000 shows that we don?t need anymore tort reform: LAKELAND | A federal judge Thursday cut $535,000 from the $800,000 GEICO was ordered to pay a former employee from Lakeland whom the company fired in August 2004 for refusing orders to dismiss an older worker...

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