Corp Reform - Not Tort Reform

Plaintiffs as courtroom conservatives, Defendants as liberals?

I saw this post at Point of Law and it reminded me of political arguments.  Plaintiffs’ lawyers tend not to be conservatives, and conservatives tend to argue for things like natural law, and the “right” thing.  Yet the author of this article suggests that plaintiffs’ lawyers are making conservative arguments to sway jurors – particularly the allegation that they’re seizing on confusion and fear:

The plaintiff bar has made a good read on the confusion and fear - ethical, emotional and legal - of these volatile times.

In the court of law and of public opinion, it is arguing increasingly about the "right thing to do." That, of course, relies on natural-law theory [lex naturalis] or the fundamentalist belief that holds that there exists a law whose content and authority are established by nature, therefore valid everywhere. Throughout Rhode Island's lead paint public nuisance litigation and afterwards in taking on the state's Supreme Court decision in the media, Motley Rice spoke in terms of some universal legal and ethical code.

. . . .

What the defense bar seems to be doing to neutralize this power includes arguments based on points of law, changing times, community mores…

The success of tort reform efforts has also tilted the legal system towards relativism instead of absolutist dictates.

Source: PointofLaw.com | PointOfLaw Forum: That "Right Thing to Do" - Natural Law in Scary Times

And it’s usually conservatives who believe relativism is inherently evil and wrong.

Food for thought.

Technorati Tags: Conservatives,trial lawyers,tort reform,Point of Law

I’m not going to say I had a lot of absences in Property Law…

…but I managed to be absent on the day this picture was taken.  Can you guess where I sat?

Technorati Tags: MSU Law,Michigan State University,Justinian Lane

Any law students want to get paid to blog about the civil justice system?

I recently received this email from Tom Young, a friend of mine at Injuryboard.com.  He gave me permission to repost this email, and I couldn’t think of anyplace better to do so than here and at my site, Corpreform. 

I’m hosting a conference call / webinar on Wednesday at 5pm ET for law students interested in placement with some of the top trial firms in the country. These firms are plaintiff focused and are looking to employ students currently in law school. The firms belong to the InjuryBoard.com cooperative and there are about 100 of them, located in nearly every state.

Visit the following website for calling instructions: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/966955865 

Initial duties will be to assist the firms with their public relations campaigns through blogging on the InjuryBoard.com blog network. A major goal of the coordinated effort by these firms is to educate the public on the importance of the civil justice system and why protecting the right to a jury trial is paramount. The firms need assistance from law students familiar with online social networking in general (forums, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc) and the legal blogosphere in particular. It should be noted that this initial employment may very well open doors to more substantial opportunities with these firms upon graduation.

In addition to modest financial compensation, InjuryBoard.com and its member firms are sponsoring several all expense paid trips for qualifying law students to the upcoming AAJ Winter convention in New Orleans. While the details of these sponsorships are still to be determined, students working with InjuryBoard.com firms will receive first priority. Oh yea, the convention is conveniently scheduled during the first weeks of Mardi Gras;)

Feel free to pass along the information about this call to your law school colleagues. Please ask those interested to register at the link above so that we have a proper headcount.

Hope you’ll join us Wednesday evening.

I’d also like to extend my thanks and congratulations to the law firms participating in this program.  I’m very active in my law school’s competition programs, and out of the dozens of students I’ve met there, only one other student is interested in being a plaintiffs’ lawyer.  Part of the reason why is because the tort reform movement has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to paint plaintiffs and their lawyers in a negative light.  Plaintiffs lawyers have an obligation to reach out to the law school community to spread the truth and to help recruit the next generation of trial lawyers.  Even if your firm is too small to have On Campus Interview (OCI) programs, or to hire summer associates, it can’t be so small that you can’t take on an intern or work with law students in some other way.  If you’re a trial lawyer who lives near a law school, why not reach out to it and start getting involved this week?

Sign the petition against FDA preemption

I saw at Pharmalot that TortDeform contributor Hank Greenspan worked with a broad group of policy analysts, healthcare professionals, and patient activists to setup an Internet petition against FDA preemption.  I’ve signed it – so should you.

We, the undersigned, petition Congress to guarantee the right to a day in court if a person is harmed or killed by an FDA-approved product. Specifically, we stand against the policy of FDA preemption.
What is FDA preemption? The Food and Drug Administration, whose responsibility it is to safeguard the public, is attempting to take away the right of American citizens to hold a manufacturer accountable for damages caused by an FDA-approved medication or medical device.
Such preemption reduces industry accountability, even while it endangers our civil rights and public health. 

Source: FDA Preemption = Bad Medicine Petition : [ powered by iPetitions.com ]

Click here to sign the petition.

Technorati Tags: FDA preemption,preemption,TortDeform,tort reform

I Love Joe Biden

If NAM hates him, he must be good.  Remember, NAM is the group who prefers Congressmen who can be bought.  

Included in the listing is a selection of key votes on legal reform issues from the 106th-109th Congress, i.e., 1999-2006. We ranked 13 votes, and Sen. Biden was opposed to the NAM's position -- the legal reform position -- all 13 times. In other words, a 0 percent ranking.

Source: PointofLaw.com | PointOfLaw Forum: Sen. Biden's voting record on legal reform issues

FASB Strikes Back

The business community is having fits over a FASB proposal.  Here’s what FASB has to say in response:

I write in response to your editorial, "FASB's Lawyer Bonanza" (Review & Outlook, Aug. 7). The Financial Accounting Standards Board is not proposing that companies change their current accounting for the cost of ongoing litigation. Rather, our proposal would require additional disclosure in the footnotes to the financial statements. It is a proposal, not a "demand," and is subject to our normal extensive public due process.

Under the proposal, the amount that would be required to be disclosed is the claim amount, or, if there is no claim amount, the company's best estimate of its maximum exposure to loss. The Board attempted to insure the proposal would not require a company to "[show] its hand to plaintiffs' attorneys" as the editorial says. For example, the proposal allows companies to aggregate claim amounts, so that the plaintiffs attorneys would not be able to identify specific cases. We have also proposed an exemption for certain disclosure situations that would be clearly prejudicial to the company.

Source: FASB Seeks to Inform Investors, Not Whack Companies - WSJ.com

Technorati Tags: FASB

Fox News: Spelling Fail

They got it right earlier in the article.

Given that’s the case, we took a look at the policy and decided that the campaign ads would be a good fit and would complement what we do for “Choose or Loose.”

Source: ‘It Could Happen to You’ Political Ad Hitting Airways - America’s Election HQ

Actavis looking for documentation specialist

Maybe this is why we had the Digitek recall: They were short staffed.

Performs quality related investigations and provides detailed reports for management review. Assesses impact of failures on surrounding lots, conducts process analysis to determine cause for failure and provides permanent corrective actions. Evaluates process deviations, out of trend reports, out of tolerance impacts and customer complaints.

Source: Little Falls, NJ 07424-Documentation Specialist

Technorati Tags: Digitek,Actavis,pharmaceuticals,Digoxin,Digitek Recall

You know what never ceases to crack me up?

How reformers can laugh at the plight of others.

It never ceases to crack me up how some people can take a modest, legitimate claim and blow it up into a claim for financial independence.

Source: Suit: Untimely cremation should net us $3.5M

Pharmaceuticals and Regulatory Capture

It appears that the author of the following blog and I have little common ground in most political areas, but we do agree about the problems facing the FDA:

The pharmaceutical industry controls the FDA. There is the usual "revolving door". The drug approval process is cumbersome, complicated, and drawn-out. This guarantees that only someone who works at a large pharmaceutical company can get a drug approved. Patents further restrict competition. Treatments that threaten the pharmaceutical industry's business model, such as stem cell research, are banned. Further, there's a perception "The FDA approved this drug. Therefore, this drug is safe." This attitude, combined with tort reform, means that pharmaceutical corporations and their management face practically zero liability when they release a drug later proven to be harmful; the damages paid are typically less than one year's profit from the harmful drug. Most FDA-approved research has incredibly shoddy quality. The FDA is merely a rubberstamp for large pharmaceutical corporations, rather than an independent auditor verifying the quality of drugs. (Emphasis added.)

Source: FSK's Guide to Reality: The Captured Regulators Problem

Seriously, does anyone really believe the FDA is doing a good job?

Technorati tags: FDA, regulatory capture