Personal Injury Law

Simons on "What can tort law (and tort law scholars) learn from criminal law (and criminal law scholars)?"

Posted on March 01, 2010
As someone who has regularly taught, and written extensively, in both the fields of tort law and substantive criminal law, I thought I might suggest a few ways that criminal law doctrine and scholarship could helpfully inform tort law doctrine...

Durbin on Med Mal Reform

Posted on February 27, 2010
From George Conk at Otherwise: Senator Richard Durbin responds to Republican arguments for medical malpractice reform. - SBS

Personal Injury Roundup No. 68 (2/26/2010)

Posted on February 26, 2010
We finally got something like a winter storm this week in New England. But it's always sunny in the world of Torts. Or something. Reform, Legislation, Policy Rep. Issa says health care reform must also include malpractice reform (Politico) Doctors...

Introducing Guest Blogger Ken Simons

Posted on February 25, 2010
Monday's guest blogger is Ken Simons. Simons is the Honorable Frank R. Kenison Distinguished Scholar in Law and Professor of Law at Boston University School of Law. Simons has been a member of the BU Law faculty since 1982. He...

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More on Toyota Lawsuits

Posted on February 24, 2010
David Owen (South Carolina) and Byron Stier (Southwestern/Mass Tort Profs) are quoted in yesterday's NPR "All Things Considered" broadcast on Toyota's lawsuit problem. The story (and audio) are available here. --CJR

Hanson & Kysar to Give 2010 Monsanto Lecture

Posted on February 24, 2010
Jon Hanson (Harvard) and Douglas Kysar (Yale) will give the 2010 Monsanto Lecture at Valparaiso on Friday, March 19 at 4:00 p.m. The topic is "Abnormally Dangerous: Inequality Dissonance and the Making of Tort Law." --CJR

Journal of European Tort Law

Posted on February 24, 2010
The European Centre of Tort and Insurance Law (ECTIL) and the Institute for European Tort Law (ETL) of the Austrian Academyof Sciences are pleased to announce the launch of their new official journal, the Journal of European Tort Law (JETL),...

Senate Hearing Today on Foreign Libel Lawsuits

Posted on February 23, 2010
From Point of Law comes news of a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing at 10:00 am today on "Are Foreign Libel Lawsuits Chilling Americans' First Amendment Rights?? Kurt A. Wimmer, a partner at Covington, and Bruce D. Brown, a partner at...

Critiques of Markel's "How Should Punitive Damages Work"

Posted on February 23, 2010
PENNumbra, the on-line companion of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, has published two responses to Professor Dan Markel's latest article on his retributive damages theory, "How Should Punitive Damages Work?" David S. Owen (University of South Carolina) addresses Markel's...

Bernstein on "Pervading"

Posted on February 22, 2010
Honored to be here for a guest post. In choosing my topic, I?ve decided to forgo the chance to, ahem, promote my own recent torts publications and instead write in response to the request I?ve heard most often from colleagues...

Personal Injury Roundup No. 67 (2/19/10)

Posted on February 19, 2010
Okay. I admit it's been a very busy week for me, and I haven't spent as much time on the Roundup as usual. However, that being said, I have trolled all my typical sources of information. It just seems to...

Introducing Guest Blogger Anita Bernstein

Posted on February 18, 2010
Monday's guest blogger is Anita Bernstein. Bernstein is the Anita and Stuart Subotnick Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School, where she currrently teaches Torts, Marriage and the Law, and The Legal Profession. Prior to joining Brooklyn Law School, Bernstein...

Burch on Group Consensus, Individual Consent

Posted on February 17, 2010
Elizabeth Chamblee Burch (FSU/Mass Tort Profs) has posted to SSRN Group Consensus, Individual Consent. The abstract provides: Despite a rise in the number of personal-injury and product-liability cases consolidated through multi-district litigation, a decline in class-certification motions, and several newsworthy...

Bernstein on "Pecuniary Reparations Following National Crisis: A Convergence of Tort Theory, Microfinance, and Gender Equality"

Posted on February 16, 2010
Anita Bernstein (Brooklyn) has posted "Pecuniary Reparations Following National Crisis: A Convergence of Tort Theory, Microfinance, and Gender Equality" on SSRN. The abstract provides: Governments around the world have undertaken reparations programs following historically recent experiences of serious human rights...

Prosser Award Nominations

Posted on February 16, 2010
The Torts and Compensation Systems section of the American Association of Law Schools (AALS) is soliciting nominations for the William L. Prosser Award for 2011. The award "recognize[s] outstanding contributions of law teachers in scholarship, teaching and service in ...

Guest Blogger Alan Calnan: On Due Process, Probable Cause, Duty and Torts

Posted on February 15, 2010
Nothing in torts is more sacrosanct than the aggrieved party?s right to sue. Some theorists see it as a political right of access to an important public institution. Others say it is a moral imperative securing a fundamental personal liberty....

Personal Injury Roundup No. 66 (2/12/10)

Posted on February 12, 2010
Reform, Legislation, Policy A lower pain-and-suffering damages cap for med malpractice suits under consideration in Utah. (Salt Lake Tribune) FDA considers changing serving size information. (NY Times) Connecticut gubernatorial candidate calls for medical malpractice tort reform...

Monday's Guest Blogger: Alan Calnan

Posted on February 11, 2010
Alan Calnan is Professor of Law at Southwestern Law School. He developed a profound interest in jurisprudence and the social policies that influence it while serving as Notes and Comments editor of the Syracuse Law Review. Today, that interest has...

Sharkey on Trespass Torts and Self-Help

Posted on February 10, 2010
Catherine Sharkey (NYU) has posted to SSRN Trespass Torts and Self-Help for an Electronic Age. The abstract provides: Liability for trespass to chattels (or personal property) ensnares one who intentionally takes or inter-meddles with chattel in the possession of another...

Burch on Procedural Adequacy

Posted on February 10, 2010
Elizabeth Chamblee Burch (FSU/Mass Tort Profs) has posted to SSRN Procedural Adequacy. The abstract provides: This short piece responds to Jay Tidmarsh?s article, Rethinking Adequacy of Representation, 87 Texas Law Review 1137 (2009). I explore Professor Tidmarsh?s proposed ?do no...

A Treasure of Torts in The Latest Northwestern Law Review

Posted on February 09, 2010
The latest volume of the Northwestern Law Review contains a treasure of tort scholarship including Jason Solomon's Equal Accountability Through Tort Law (pdf) and The Synergy of Early Offers and Medical Explanations/Apologies (pdf) by our own Chris Robinette...

Litigation-Driven Research

Posted on February 09, 2010
On last week's roundup, I linked to a Drug & Device Law Blog post on litigation-driven scholarship and peer review. I'd commented on that post, and that triggered a post from Dr. Barbara Martin that might be of interest. --BC

Guest Blogger Kenneth Abraham: Four Conceptions of Insurance

Posted on February 08, 2010
As all torts scholars and teachers know, tort liability and insurance are intimately connected. Much of tort liability as we know it would not exist if liability insurance did not also exist, to provide plaintiffs a reliable source of recovery...

Personal Injury Roundup No. 65 (2/5/2010)

Posted on February 05, 2010
Six more weeks of winter, and another week of Torts. Reform, Legislation, Policy Illinois med mal caps struck down (Legal News Line). Tribe et al. (in conjunction with WLF) on the use of litigation to deal with global warming (spoiler:...

Monday's Guest Blogger: Kenneth Abraham

Posted on February 04, 2010
Kenneth Abraham is the David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Council of the American Law Institute....

Toyota's Lawsuit Problem

Posted on February 03, 2010
In the aftermath of sudden acceleration problems and a recall, Toyota is facing a stream of lawsuits. A recent Reuters piece quotes two lawprofs (and future TortsProf guest bloggers), David Owen (South Carolina) and James Henderson (Cornell), on the issue...

CA: $16.5 M Med Mal Verdict

Posted on February 03, 2010
A Riverside jury awarded $16.5 M to a couple for the malpractice of a Palm Springs neurosurgeon. The male plaintiff was injured while off-roading and was airlifted to a hospital where the defendant neurosurgeon was on call. Despite having a...

This Is Not Torts Related. But It Is Fun.

Posted on February 02, 2010
You've been warned. This post is not torts-related in any way. If you want some torts-related content, just scroll down a bit to "Too Hot for Courts To Handle." This video, however, blew me away and is less than 5...

"Too Hot for Courts to Handle: Fuel Temperatures, Global Warming, and the Political Question Doctrine"

Posted on February 02, 2010
Laurence Tribe (Harvard), Tristan Duncan (Shook, Hardy), and Joshua Branson (Harvard Law student) have recently published "Too Hot for Courts to Handle: Fuel Temperatures, Global Warming, and the Political Question Doctrine" (pdf) with the Washington Legal Foundation...

Guest Blogger Richard Epstein on "Multiple Standards of Liability in Tort Law: Of context and categories"

Posted on February 01, 2010
At the past meeting of the American Association of Law Schools, the Torts & Compensation Systems Section, chaired by John Goldberg, devoted its session to an examination of my academic writings on the law of tort. Over the years, I...

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