Personal Injury Law

WSJ on Asbestos Trusts

Posted on December 03, 2009
Today's Wall Street Journal has an article about asbestos trusts that quotes Vanderbilt's Richard Nagareda and Buffalo's S. Todd Brown. It's a subscriber-only piece, so I can't link to it. However, the WSJ Law Blog has a shorter post on...

Feinman on the Appropriate Standard in "Bad Faith" Insurance Cases

Posted on December 03, 2009
Jay Feinman (Rutgers-Camden) has posted to SSRN The Insurance Relationship as Relational Contract and the "Fairly Debatable" Rule for First-Party Bad Faith. Here is the abstract: This article uses relational contract theory to discuss the standard to be applied to...

Rio Olympic Committee Mulls Suit Over Robin Williams's Comment

Posted on December 02, 2009
The Rio Olympic Committee's lawyers are considering action in a U.S. court over Robin Williams's comment to David Letterman on The Late Show regarding how Rio won the Olympic nod. Brazzil Magazine has the story (as well as a clip...

McFarland on Teaching Torts

Posted on December 02, 2009
Robert McFarland (Jones School of Law) has posted to SSRN Teaching the Law of Wrongs Without Searching for What is Right. Here is the abstract: This essay fits into a growing body of academic literature examining a crisis of identity...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

RAND Report on Silica Litigation Released

Posted on December 01, 2009
The RAND Institute has released Stephen J. Carroll et al., The Abuse of Medical Diagnostic Practices in Mass Litigation: The Case of Silica (RAND Inst. for Civil Justice 2009). It is available here: Download DC-170832-v1-RAND_silica_study_final_report[1]...

Looking for Proof Tort Reform Reduces Health Costs?

Posted on December 01, 2009
In last week's Houston Chronicle, Jennifer Bard (Texas Tech) had an interesting op-ed piece, "There's No Proof Tort Reform Reduces Health Costs." In this essay, Bard explains why tort reform is not a necessary part of health care reform. -...

Guest Blogger Jason Solomon: Thanksgiving, Football and Torts

Posted on November 30, 2009
Thanksgiving, Football and Torts If you're a real Torts person -- not someone who just happens to teach the class, take it as a first-year student, or practice in the area -- you see the world as one big kaleidoscope...

Guest Blogger Ben Zipursky?s Reply to Drug and Device Law Blog

Posted on November 28, 2009
I am delighted to have had responses from several thoughtful commentators, including well known voices in products liability law ? Restatement Reporter Michael Green, Mark Herrmann and Jim Beck of the Drug and Device Law Blog, and my own colleague,...

Happy Thanksgiving 2009 from TortsProf Blog

Posted on November 26, 2009
We're grateful you read our blog! --Bill, Sheila, and Chris

Monday's Guest Blogger: Jason Solomon

Posted on November 25, 2009
Jason M. Solomon is Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Georgia School of Law. His writing focuses on the theory and practice of civil justice, and his research interests also include regulatory theory and policy, the law of...

Products Liability Casebooks

Posted on November 24, 2009
It's that time of year - time for family, time for turkey, and time to select your casebook for your spring courses. A reader wonders what case book to use for a Products Liability course. Do you use -- Henderson...

Guest Blogger Ben Zipursky on "The Differential Treatment of Medical Devices and Drugs in Preemption Doctrine: A Justified Distinction?"

Posted on November 23, 2009
One year ago, many tort scholars and securities analysts believed that a major shift was about to occur in products liability law: our nation?s highest court was about to declare that claims against pharmaceutical manufacturers were preempted. We all know...

Health Care Debate to Begin in Senate Tonight

Posted on November 21, 2009
Tonight at 8:00 p.m, the Senate will vote on cloture for the health care bill. In other words, the Senate will decide whether to begin debating it. It appears Democrats have 58 of the necessary 60 votes to survive the...

Personal Injury Roundup No. 58 (11/20/09)

Posted on November 20, 2009
I hope your last week before Thanksgiving was a good one! Reform, Legislation, Policy Tim Lytton's guest post attracts attention. (Frank/Point of Law) (Lahav/Mass Tort Profs) Law Profs Max Mehlman & Dale Nance (Case Western) argue med mal tort reform...

Introducing Guest Blogger Ben Zipursky

Posted on November 19, 2009
Monday's Guest Blogger is Ben Zipursky. Zipursky is currently the James H. Quinn '49 Chair in Legal Ethics and Professor of Law at Fordham Law School, where he teaches Torts, Law & Philosophy, Advanced Torts ? Defamation & Privacy, Tort...

Iowa Adopts R3 Positions on Duty and Causation

Posted on November 18, 2009
Last week, the Iowa Supreme Court decided Thompson v. Kaczinski, 2009 WL 3786632 (Iowa 2009), and adopted the Restatement (Third) of Torts approach to both duty and causation. The plaintiffs lost control of their car on a rural road because...

Illinois Rejects Tarasoff

Posted on November 18, 2009
In Tedrick v. Community Resources Center, Inc., Nos. 104861, 104876 (Ill. Sept. 24, 2009), the Supreme Court of Illinois explicitly rejected Tarasoff. Earlier opinions cast doubt on the acceptance of the famous California case in Illinois, but Tedrick made it...

Another Wacky Warning...

Posted on November 18, 2009
Torts professors frequently become connoisseurs, or at least aficionados, of warning labels. Knowing this, a colleague brought me the warning label in his copy of Walther P-38 Pistol by Major George C. Nonte. The book was published in 1975 by...

Putting Words In Their Mouths

Posted on November 17, 2009
The New York Times reports that lobbyists working for Genentech, one of the world's largest bio-tech companies, authored statements on the health care debate for over 40 House members: The lobbyists, employed by Genentech and by two Washington law firms,...

"Hold Your Wee for a Wii" Trial in Progress

Posted on September 30, 2009
I don't expect to do regular updates, but today's update might be an interesting basis for discussions of knowledge and foreseeability. --BC

Cupp on Preemption

Posted on September 30, 2009
Richard Cupp (Pepperdine) has posted to SSRN Preemption's Rise (and Bit of a Fall) as Products Liability Reform: Wyeth, Riegel, Altria, and the Restatement (Third)'s Prescription Product Design Defect Standard. Here is the abstract: This Article is Professor Cupp's most...

Cheng & Yoon on "Predicting the Constitutionality of Punitive Damages"

Posted on September 29, 2009
Edward Cheng (Brooklyn) and Albert Yoon (Toronto) have posted their recent article, "Predicting the Constitutionality of Punitive Damages: A Statistical Approach." The abstract provides: The constitutional doctrine governing punitive damages captivates legal scholars and jurists in part because it is...

Some Data Points On Coffee

Posted on September 29, 2009
Last week's guest post from Michael Rustad discussed (among other things) the infamous Liebeck v. McDonald's case, triggering a response from Ted Frank (in the comments) and an additional post from Rustad. I start my Torts class with asking students....

Guest Blogger Jonathan Cardi: "Does Tort Law Really Deter?"

Posted on September 28, 2009
Last Spring, I participated in a conference at Wake Forest on the Restatement (Third) of Torts. As is usually the case when a group of law professors get together, a number of panelists spoke about whether this or that Restatement...

Guest Blogger Mike Rustad Responds to Ted Frank

Posted on September 28, 2009
Mr. Frank takes issue with my statement that McDonald's coffee was "superheated" in my recent guest post here on TortsProf. He writes that other coffee vendors also sold their coffee at 190 degrees. He also states that some home brewed...

Ted Eisenberg vs. U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Posted on September 26, 2009
As Chris previously reported, a new article by Ted Eisenberg (Cornell) takes on the Chamber of Commerce's annual "state liability ranking study," which ranks the lawsuit climate in all fifty states. In an interview with the WSJ Law Blog, the...

Personal Injury Roundup No. 51 (9/25/09)

Posted on September 25, 2009
Here's what happened during the first week of fall in the world of torts: Reform, Legislation, Policy Senate Finance Committee marked-up its health care reform bill. (FDA Law Blog) Congressional Research Service issues report on health care reform. (Open CRS)...

Monday's Guest Blogger: Jonathan Cardi

Posted on September 24, 2009
Jonathan Cardi is the Dorothy Salmon Professor of Law at the University of Kentucky, where he teaches in the areas of Copyright, Torts, Jurisprudence, and Remedies. Professor Cardi?s primary research interests are in tort law, most recently the nature and...

More Torts and Pop Culture

Posted on September 23, 2009
Torts aficionados should be proud. Our subject has been used to prove the bona fides of a lawyer in the movie "Rachel Getting Married," a powerful, disturbing movie about family dynamics and the consequences of actions. It features Anne Hathaway...

Hersch & Viscusi on "Saving Lives through Punitive Damages"

Posted on September 23, 2009
Joni Hersch & Kip Viscusi (Vanderbilt) have posted to SSRN Saving Lives through Punitive Damages. Here is the abstract: This article proposes that the value of statistical life be used to set the total damages amount needed for deterrence when...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.