September 30, 2007

The multi-part editorial commentary series on trial lawyer abuses in the Examiner (Washington and other cities), previously covered here and here, continues this week with stories on "How they do it: Favorite tactics of liability lawyers that tip the scales for their fame and fortune", "How important are judges?", "Influential friends: Attorneys General can steer millions toward litigators", and "Judicial hellholes | Lawsuit magnets". The "How they do it" segment includes a discussion of how many asbestos cases are migrating to (of all states) Delaware; it cites a post by Steven Hantler of Chrysler during the week he spent guestblogging at Overlawyered. The "How important are judges?" segment cites the research of Alex Tabarrok and Eric Helland on the effects of partisan election of judges on liability climates, which Alex later summarized at Forbes.com. For a contrasting view, see Bob Ambrogi at Legal Blog Watch, which results in a comments exchange with Washington Examiner editorial page editor Mark Tapscott.