April 10, 2008

All-opinion edition:

• "Litigation does collateral damage, too. ... We ought to avoid using lawyers the way we avoid firing missiles." [John Stossel, Real Clear Politics]
• Legal ethics more honored in the breach when winning at all costs is the fashion [Hepp/Battle Creek Enquirer]
• Rest of country should take a leaf from California and Texas on medical liability [David Ridenour/IBD]
• Weiss, Lerach, Scruggs scandals should spur Congress to action [Sherman Joyce/LADJ, PDF]
• Bear Stearns' Schwartz next? Dept. of Justice in recent years has routinely launched criminal probes of business people and other "professionals who have engaged in seemingly routine requirements of their job" [Silverglate, WSJ]
• Lefty bloggers thrilled at thinly supported Eric Lichtblau NYT front-pager depicting deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) as mere pretext under which softy DoJ lets defendants off; virtually unmentioned is several years' worth of controversy over the agreements' often harshly coercive nature [disguised as news article; Heritage]