March 30, 2005

In recent months the New York Times has given lots of space to a feature series by reporter Walt Bogdanich investigating litigation over railroad crossing accidents; each installment has flayed the railroads and their lawyers from a standpoint highly sympathetic to plaintiff's lawyers and their complaints. The latest came on Sunday, in a piece on the railroads' use of lawyer-generated affidavits signed by a state official regarding provision of warning signs at crossings. Trial lawyer-blogger Bill Dyer (Beldar) usefully fills in some of the background on how sloppiness (and worse) in this area may not be a sin peculiar to railroad defendants. (Corrected; original post erroneously described article as running on Saturday).