Swamp Music

My first year practicing law was the year Florida started limiting the rights of medical malpractice victims. “Tort reform” started in 1988 with Florida’s pre-suit screening rules, making it more difficult to hold hospitals and health care providers responsible for the catastrophic costs of malpractice. Not satisfied with these protections, Florida’s legislature later added changes […]

Happy Day, George Washington!

So continues our calendar run of Founder and President Birthdays. “I heard the bullets whistle, Washington proclaimed, “and, believe me, there is something charming in the sound.” George Washington in the Cumberland Gap during the Wilderness Expeditions, 1748. The cherry tree story may be fake news. Here is a link to a post from 2018 […]

Watch Their Feet

All that you’ve loved is all you own Tom Waits There’s a saying that all you need to determine someone’s priorities is to see their budget. The judicial corollary to that is majority opinions. Don’t tell me what you’re for in an opinion you write for the dissent, tell me in an opinion where your […]

Personal Responsibility (Justice Tonight)

The American justice system’s bedrock is accountability, enforced by citizen juries guaranteed by the Seventh Amendment to the Constitution. Every day, individuals in American courtrooms are held responsible (or not) for their actions – in criminal and civil courts. The day any one person – or group of people – are considered immune from this […]

I’ve been giving the same advice about autopsies for twenty-five years …

From The National Law Review’s conclusion: Ultimately, the family of the patient must make this tough decision. Many people have religious and moral views about autopsies and choose not to have them performed. Further, many people tell their family that they do not want an autopsy in the event of their death and family members […]