The Case For Tort Reform Gets Harder And Harder To Make (But That Won’t Stop Some)

It is absurd to criticize a fee structure that puts a lawyer in complete concert with his client’s interests and allows clients without resources or influence to pursue remedies against the most powerful institutions in their community for real harm done to them. Back in the day, the argument was that verdicts were too numerous […]

More Opioid Settlements

From New Hampshire’s DOJ: In 2018, the state filed a complaint against J&J, alleging the company misrepresented their opioids as safer than other alternatives in their aggressive marketing campaign to prescribers and patients in New Hampshire. The state further alleged that J&J misrepresented their opioids as rarely addictive, negligently promoted the concept of pseudoaddiction, and […]

Happy (belated) Labor Day!

I love writing about my great uncle (Mom’s mother’s side of the family). That’s him on the far left at the Parkersburg, WV steel mill at the turn of the century. LP Somerville Here’s a link to my post comparing my memories of LP to jury selection in the trial of Sid Hatfield. LP Somerville […]

Unnecessary Medical Tests Are #QualityFraud

DOJ pursues billing fraud cases. In some cases, the patients did not know what they were being tested for. TRICARE beneficiaries were enticed to provide urine or saliva specimens in exchange for $50 gift cards. Evidence at trial demonstrated that Rao was paid in exchange for signing off on medically unnecessary and repetitive toxicology and […]

First Amendment Rights and “Journalism” versus Defamation Claims

Media silos that push opinion content as fact aren’t getting much love lately. I wrote about Sarah Palin’s recent and failed attempt to hold the New York Times responsible here. They say that bad facts make bad low, but accountability may be a good thing. Hannity, Carlson, Pirro, & Dobbs get to show their homework […]

The Swamp

Runoff from farms collects in Lake Okeechobee and is discharged regularly across the state, polluting the waterways, bays, and shorelines of Florida. Red Tide is just one of the adverse consequences imposed by big agricultural concerns (sugar, citrus, dairy) that lurk in the rural interior of the Sunshine State. “We discovered that nitrogen-enriched Caloosahatchee River […]

Ethics in Medicine

Why aren’t medical students trained in ethics the same way law students are? Ethics is required in school and your knowledge of ethics is tested in a stand-alone bar examination before a lawyer can start practicing. Here’s a link to a BMJ article on it. With consent, medical students get to observe most surgical procedures, […]