Corp Reform - Not Tort Reform

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

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So why is there a statute of limitations for wrongful death?

Saw that Gotti is in trouble again:

John A. Gotti has been charged with conspiracy for his role in a sprawling cocaine trafficking operation and in three mob-related killings in 1980s and ’90s, the United States attorney’s office in Tampa, Fla., announced on Tuesday.

. . . .

But Randy M. Mastro, a former deputy mayor under Rudolph Giuliani, said: “They’re old crimes, but the defense he used the last time — that he resigned from the mob — doesn’t work in this case. There’s no statute of limitations on murder.”

Source: CrimProf Blog: Gotti Back in Court

Many of the arguments for having a statute of limitations for wrongful death apply in murder cases: Witnesses die or disappear, memories fade, there is a sense of uncertainty, litigants want a sense of finality, etc.

So why shouldn’t we end the statute of limitations for wrongful death suits?  Or create a short statute for murder?

Technorati Tags: John A. Gotti,John Gotti,murder,wrongful death,statute of limitations

Gun Control Activist Was an NRA Spy; Think There Are Any Reform Spies?

Certainly, the companies funding the “reform” movement have the money to hire spies/moles/cutouts/whatevers.  Think any of them actually are?

Mother Jones magazine has revealed a well-known activist in the gun control movement is actually a secret spy for the National Rifle Association and the gun lobby. Over the past decade, the woman, Mary Lou Sapone, managed to become active in almost every single major gun violence prevention organization. Sapone, who went by her maiden name Mary McFate, helped organize the Million Mom March in 2000 and oversaw the lobbying efforts of States United to Prevent Gun Violence.

Source: Democracy Now! | Leading Gun Control Activist Exposed as Gun Lobby Spy

Technorati Tags: Gun control,spies,tort reform,conspiracy theories

Jose Medellín is a one-man gang?

Wouldn’t it have been more accurate to say he participated in a gang-rape instead?

“Mr. Medellín gang-raped and murdered two teenagers,” said Allison Castle, a spokeswoman for Texas Governor Rick Perry. “We welcome foreign visitors, but for those who come here with the intent to do harm, there are going to be consequences.”

Law Blog - WSJ.com : Texas Defies Bush, International Law; ICJ's Credibility in Jeopardy 

I’m also glad she cleared up any confusion over our laws rape & murder.  I’m sure there were lots of foreigners out there who thought it was perfectly acceptable to rape and murder in Texas.

P.S. Medellín looks disturbingly like a guy I went to school with.

Technorati Tags: dumb quotes,Jose Medellín,Rick Perry

Dermatologists put profits before patients

Great.  Real patients with real skin diseases have to wait so aging trophy wives can get their Botox: 

Dr. Donald Richey, a dermatologist in Chico, Calif., has two office telephone numbers: calls to the number for patients seeking an appointment for skin conditions like acne and psoriasis often go straight to voice mail, but a full-time staff member fields calls on the dedicated line for cosmetic patients seeking beauty treatments like Botox.

And he has two kinds of treatment rooms: clinical-looking for skin disease patients, soothing for cosmetic laser patients.

“Cosmetic patients have a much more private environment than general medical patients because they expect that,” said Dr. Richey, who estimated that he spent about 40 percent of his time treating cosmetic patients. “We are a little bit more sensitive to their needs.” [Yeah, who gives a damn about the needs of patients with skin cancer?  - JCL]

Like airlines that offer first-class and coach sections, dermatology is fast becoming a two-tier business in which higher-paying customers often receive greater pampering. In some dermatologists’ offices, freer-spending cosmetic patients are given appointments more quickly than medical patients for whom health insurance pays fixed reimbursement fees.

In other offices, cosmetic patients spend more time with a doctor. And in still others, doctors employ a special receptionist, called a cosmetic concierge, for their beauty patients.

Dr. David M. Pariser, a dermatologist in Norfolk, Va., and the president-elect of the American Academy of Dermatology, said some practices did maintain preferential policies for cosmetic patients.

“The message is that the cosmetic patient is more important than the medical patient, and that’s not a good message,” Dr. Pariser said.

At a time when dermatologists are trying to advance the idea of a national skin cancer epidemic, such a two-tier system is raising concerns that the coddling of beauty patients may divert attention from skin diseases. 

Source: The Price of Beauty - As Doctors Cater to Looks, Skin Patients Wait - Series - NYTimes.com

This illustrates the way the medical system will work if free-market fetishists get their way: The rich go to the front of the line, and the poor have to wait and hope for substandard medical care. 

Technorati Tags: Botox,free market,medical insurance,medicine,skin cancer,trophy wives

Predicting the future: Writing the "reform" stories before they do

I saw that there are three lawsuits alleging that Mirapex causes compulsive gambling in some people:

Joe Neglia was a retired government intelligence worker with Parkinson’s disease when he suddenly developed what he calls a gambling habit from hell. . .After losing thousands of dollars playing slot machines . . . Neglia stumbled across an Internet report linking a popular Parkinson’s drug he used with compulsive gambling. “I thought, ‘Oh my God, this must be it,”’ he said. Three days after stopping the drug, Mirapex, “all desire to gamble just went away completely. I felt like I had my brain back.” — from Associated Press, July 12, 2005.

Do “dopamine agonists” — a class of drug used to stimulate dopamine receptors and treat Parkinson’s disease — also stimulate compulsive gambling? That’s the crux of three lawsuits, filed in Minnesota federal court against Boehringer Ingelheim, the maker of Mirapex.

Source: Law Blog - WSJ.com : Claim: Parkinson's Drug Causes Gambling Addiction. Discuss.

Allow me to save you the trouble of reading the inevitable stories about these lawsuits that will be written by the "reform" movement.  Here they are, condensed for your convenience:

Blah blah, personal responsibility.  Junk science, blah blah, Trial Lawyers, Inc.  Grumble, trial bar, loser pays.  Blah blah, Benedictin, blah, useful drug.  Mel Weiss, grumble, extortionate settlement, blah.  Tort tax, loud noises, FDA approval, blah, preemption. 

Technorati Tags: Mirapex,gambling,Joe Neglia,tort "reform",satire

In describing mold litigation, Ted Frank also describes the "reform" movement

I saw that Ted got snubbed by LA Weekly as they only used a snippet of an interview with him.  That sucks - and I'm not being sarcastic.  Not yet, anyway.  In reading the following passage of the full interview, I realized Ted could easily be describing the reform movement.

I want to be absolutely clear about something: The following passage has been edited.  Some of Ted's words have been deleted, and others replaced.  The words that I have added are in italics.  The link below takes you to the entire interview.  I am not in any way trying to mislead anyone into thinking this is Ted's position.  It isn't.  It's simply my attempt to show how so many of the financial incentives the reform movement complain about apply equally to them.  Imagine what would happen to the various tort "reform" groups if we enacted all of their suggestions: The need for the groups would greatly diminish and a whole lot of guys (and a couple of gals) making $300k+ per year would be out of jobs.  With that disclaimer, here's a sarcastic rewrite of the interview:

What does this fear of an enigma say about our society?

Fascinating, isn’t it? We coexist with mold for thousands of years. My friend, Walter Olson of the Manhattan Institute has said sarcastically “How unfortunate must we be to live in the twenty-first century, when plaintiffs’ lawyers have discovered the terrible health effects!”  It's always better for business if plaintiffs' lawyers don't know something is deadly.  See the first half of the 20th century and asbestos, for example.

Economic incentives have a lot to do with it:  reform thinktanks have an economic incentive to describe something relatively innocuous– rarely-awarded and often-reduced punitive damages, contingency fees that enable the poor to have court access, medical malpractice lawsuits against guys like Dr. Desai –as something deadly and fit it into the fictional  evil trial lawyer paradigm, which appeals to jurors’ preconceived notions.  Low-quality scientists of a variety of levels of sincerity are given the economic incentive to take the same position. Journalists have the economic incentive to tell a story that fits the paradigm whether or not it’s true, because the victims-and-villains storyline that could affect the viewer because of our made-up "tort tax" attracts eyeballs. The three work together symbiotically: the expert witness feeds stories to the thinktank and vice versa; the thinktank feeds stories to the journalist with the expert; the journalist creates publicity that brings credibility to the thinktank, which in turn creates more stories for the journalist.

The culture of fear is a lot larger than that (others take advantage of it), but I think the reason it is so much larger in America is because only here do we make people millionaires for inventing new things to be afraid of. Look at the six (and perhaps seven) figure salaries of the leaders of the reform movement, for example.  Selling fear of lawsuits is big business.

Modified from source: LA Weekly: The Mold Rush and the case of Sharon Kramer and Bruce Kelman

Note also the manner in which Ted kicks Ed McMahon while he's down by referring to the man's sad situation as "poetic justice" for filing a mold lawsuit.  You'll have to click the link to read it, and while you're there, read the original interview so you can verify that my version is merely sarcasm & satire.

Technorati Tags: Mold lawsuits,Ted Frank,LA Weekly,Ed McMahon

Fans of "loser pays" ought to love this one

Hey, I said I'd have more snark here.

Another abuse story is emerging from the Middle East on the treatment of young girls. Nujood Ali, 10, was married to a man in his 30s, who then allegedly raped her. While she is now divorced, she has been criticized for confronting her husband and not accepting her fate. Not only was she denounced by some for not obeying her husband, but under Islamic Sharia law in Yemen, her family had to compensate the accused rapist.

Source: Ten-Year-Old Girl in Yemen Married and Then Raped — Then Divorced « JONATHAN TURLEY

Radioactive granite countertops?

Who knew?

Last month, Suzanne Zick, who lives in Magnolia, Tex., a small town northwest of Houston, called the E.P.A. and her state’s health department to find out what she should do about the salmon-colored granite she had installed in her foyer a year and a half ago. A geology instructor at a community college, she realized belatedly that it could contain radioactive material and had it tested. The technician sent her a report indicating that the granite was emitting low to moderately high levels of both radon and radiation, depending on where along the stone the measurement was taken.

“I don’t really know what the numbers are telling me about my risk,” Ms. Zick said. “I don’t want to tear it out, but I don’t want cancer either.”

The E.P.A. recommends taking action if radon gas levels in the home exceeds 4 picocuries per liter of air (a measure of radioactive emission); about the same risk for cancer as smoking a half a pack of cigarettes per day. In Dr. Sugarman’s kitchen, the readings were 100 picocuries per liter. In her basement, where radon readings are expected to be higher because the gas usually seeps into homes from decaying uranium underground, the readings were 6 picocuries per liter.

The average person is subjected to radiation from natural and manmade sources at an annual level of 360 millirem (a measure of energy absorbed by the body), according to government agencies like the E.P.A. and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The limit of additional exposure set by the commission for people living near nuclear reactors is 100 millirem per year. To put this in perspective, passengers get 3 millirem of cosmic radiation on a flight from New York to Los Angeles. 

Source: What’s Lurking in Your Countertop? - NYTimes.com

50 Cent's Frivolous Lawsuit against Taco Bell

The Wall Street Journal reports that 50 Cent is suing Taco Bell:

Now, 50 Cent is trying to provide a little more for himself — through legal means. He’s suing Taco Bell, a division of Yum! Brands Inc., for, among other things, trademark infringement, alleging that the restaurant drafted a fake letter (attached at the end of the complaint) purporting to ask Jackson to change his name to “79 Cent,” “89 Cent” or “99 Cent” in order to publicize its “79-89-99 Cent Why Pay More Value Menu.”

Taco Bell released the letter to the national press in June before sending it to Jackson, the complaint alleges. “Simply put, Taco Bell knew that it would likely have had to pay Jackson a multi-million-dollar fee to get his endorsement, even if he had agreed to do it — which is in doubt,” says the suit, which was filed by Reed Smith’s Peter D. Raymond and Wallace B. Neel. “Rather than face rejection or pay fair value, Taco Bell chose to steal his endorsement and to enjoy all the publicity of being associated with a mega-star while bearing none of the costs.”

A spokesman for Taco Bell said: “We made a good faith, charitable offer to 50 Cent to change his name to either 79, 89 or 99 Cent for one day by rapping his order at a Taco Bell, and we would have been very pleased to make the $10,000 donation to the charity of his choice.”

Source: Law Blog - WSJ.com : 50 Cent Looking for Big Change Outta Taco Bell

Taco Bell made a legitimate offer to 50 Cent: If he "rapped" his order at a Taco Bell location, Taco Bell would (a) donate $10,000 to the charity of his choice, and (b) give free food to all the patrons of that Taco Bell.  There is nothing improper about this offer.  The complaint makes much ado of the fact that Taco Bell published this letter before mailing it to 50 Cent.  So what?  Contract law doesn't make offers invalid if they're published to a wide audience. 

The frivolity doesn't stop there.  According to the lawsuit, the "low-end" Taco Bell diluted the value of the 50 Cent brand by asking him to endorse their restaurant.  Celebrities are asked to endorse products all the time.  If for some reason they're not interested in endorsing the product, they decline the offer.  Does it really make sense to then allow the celebrity to sue the company seeking the endorsement? 

Playboy Magazine routinely makes generous offers to celebrities to pose in the magazine, including recently to Ashlee Simpson and the stars of Desperate Housewives.  No one in their right mind thinks that these public offers means these celebrities have endorsed the magazine.  Similarly, no one in their right  mind should think that 50 Cent endorsed Taco Bell because they made him an offer. 

Did Taco Bell imitate 50 Cent by talking about their "79-89-99 Cent" menu?  Sure.  But 50 Cent hasn't trademarked referring to plural sums of money in the singular - just when it happens to be 50 Cent(s). 

This lawsuit is frivolous, and the worst part about it is that most proposals for damage caps wouldn't apply to it because he's seeking economic damages.  You tell me if it's fair that under tort reform proposals, Taco Bell would only be liable for $250,000 in noneconomic damages if someone died from their food, but may have to pay millions to 50 Cent for making him an endorsement offer.

Technorati Tags: 50 Cent,Taco Bell,50 Cent Lawsuit,frivolous lawsuits,tort reform