February 9, 2010

Colorado: "Trial Lawyer Hypocrisy Act"

Colorado House Bill 1168, which restricts subrogation by insurers who have paid for an accident victim's injury, would drive up insurance premiums and not coincidentally benefit trial lawyers, argues Mark Hillman in the Denver Post.

February 2, 2010

Setting California bounty-hunters against insurers

On hold just temporarily, or dead for this session? "On January 6, Assembly Member Marty Block pulled his bill, AB 989, before it could be heard before the Assembly Insurance Committee. The bill would have let private lawyers become self-deputized vigilantes and go after insurance companies to get damages and -- no surprise -- attorney's fees. It would allow lawsuits against insurers by anyone alleging to be harmed -- including people who aren't even policyholders." [California Civil Justice; background from John Sullivan, Capitol Weekly]

January 31, 2010

Med-mal insurers and antitrust: the costs of payback

"House Democrats are planning a vote next week on legislation that would repeal the McCarran-Ferguson Act anti-trust laws exemption for health care and medical malpractice insurers." Insurers have warned that without a legal safe harbor for exchanging some information within the industry about past claims patterns, some insurers will be underwriting in the dark and will be more likely unknowingly to write coverage for bad risks. In the case of medical malpractice insurance, that means they'll be more likely to offer unduly cheap and abundant coverage to high-risk sorts of provider that an information-sharing model would have given them fair warning about. That will encourage there to be more of those sorts of high-risk providers.

One wonders whether the Litigation Lobby has not considered that possibility at all, or finds it well worth risking for the sake of getting its payback.

January 7, 2010

Around the web, January 7

• Bernstein Liebhard "hit with anonymous allegations" in Florida beauty contest for securities class action firms [American Lawyer, more; see also Steele, LEF]
• "Georgia Legislators Ready to Revise Tort Reform Provisions if Held Unconstitutional" [TortsProf]
• U.S. Chamber: threat or menace? [moderately hysterical comments section at Talking Points Memo]
• New Hampshire opens new specialized business court [Concord Monitor]
• Michigan Senate declines to pass a bad bill on insurance rates [Minton, CEI]
• "China Passes Tort Liability Law" [Robinette, TortsProf]

December 21, 2009

New featured column: Epstein on health insurance reform

Our newest featured column, by perennial Point of Law favorite Richard Epstein (University of Chicago, visiting scholar at the Manhattan Institute and NYU, etc.), is on the constitutional issues raised by current proposals to regulate health insurance in a public-utility-like manner. Read it here.

P.S. Welcome readers from Glenn Reynolds/Instapundit, Damon Root/Reason "Hit and Run", Jonathan Adler/Volokh Conspiracy, Andy McCarthy/NRO "Corner", and Roger Kimball/Pajamas Media. And Larry Ribstein and Stephen Bainbridge react to the copy of the same paper posted at our sister Manhattan Institute site, Medical Progress Today.

December 18, 2009

Top Ten lists -- and Mark Herrmann departs blogging

Randy Maniloff is back with his annual survey (PDF) of the top ten insurance coverage decisions. At Drug and Device Law, James Beck offers the "Top Ten Worst Prescription Drug/Medical Device Decisions Of 2009". And speaking of Drug and Device Law, co-blogger Mark Herrmann is departing both the blog and the field of drug litigation to take over as vice president and chief counsel-litigation of Aon, the giant insurance brokerage firm. You can read his farewell post here, and Beck's intrepid vow to carry on without him (but with some additional Dechert blogging talent) here. Plus: reactions.

December 14, 2009

Around the web, November 14

• Prempro/Premarin plaintiffs' lawyers score big P.R. hit as NYT banners their case;
• "Central Park Rotten Tree Branch Lawsuit Worth $120 Million" [Gothamist]
• Consumer advocates, home builders united to push bad finance tool that's cost FHA dearly [Bank Lawyer's Blog]
  
• Watch out, Akaka bill (native Hawaiian tribalization) is coming back in Congress and this time with a friendlier White House [Coffin, NRO; earlier] Update: WSJ editorial.
• "North Dakota Democrats Want To Punish Insurance Company For Speaking Out Against Obamacare" [Say Anything, earlier here and here]
  
• "A rare victory for small business: Sarbox Routed in House" [WSJ editorial]
  

December 3, 2009

Around the web, December 3

All-New York edition:

• New York "ranks dead last in 18 of 28 legal categories" on litigation cost, per new Pacific Research Institute report [Lawrence McQuillan, "An Empire Disaster: Why New York's Tort System is Broken and How to Fix It", report in PDF, related McQuillan NY Daily News op-ed with Mark Kriss, NY Post, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle and editorial, NJLRA]
• NY court: doctors can be sued over defense medical exams approving return to work [Turkewitz]
• Albany's Empire State Plaza ranks among nation's worst architectural crimes [Ann Althouse] And is the New York capital's 9/11 memorial the very worst in the nation, or merely one of the worst? [same]
• Interlocking organizations surrounding Working Families Party are subject of investigative series in the publication City Hall News [first of series; Henry Stern/NY Civic]
• "New York State Legislature Passes New Anti-Subrogation Law" [Roy Mura/Coverage Counsel via Eric Turkewitz, who notes that this "is one bill that I've lobbied for in the past with the New York State Trial Lawyer's Association."]
• Court rebuffs ex-Congressman (and Pace Law School dean) Richard Ottinger over SLAPP suit he filed against critical online commenter [Online Media Daily, Bayard/Citizen Media Law] Goldman Sachs fails in bid to shut down critical website GoldmanSachs666.com, but its owner suffered a heart attack and had to step down from running site during the legal battle [Kevin Funnell]

November 2, 2009

Florida's property-insurance "public option"

Health insurance and property insurance markets operate quite differently, which is fortunate since no one in their right mind would be inclined to replicate Florida's approach toward disaster risk [Tabarrok/Marginal Revolution] Earlier here, here, here, here, etc.

October 22, 2009

Around the web, October 22

• Florida Justice Association race-baiting ad furor: "Trial Lawyers' Group Suspends Top Three Execs" [Legal Blog Watch, earlier at Overlawyered]
• Dept. of unsurprising findings: per survey of news reporters, 38 percent find plaintiff's lawyers to be useful sources, 0 percent find defense lawyers so [Monteith & Co. (PDF) via Legal Blog Watch]
• Dept. of unsurprising findings II: many public interest law firms from "liberal" and "conservative" sides unite as amici to support enhanced fees for public interest law firms [Coyle/NLJ, WSJ Law Blog, Mauro/NLJ (Children's Rights Inc. case); earlier]
• "Threatening to strip their anti-trust exemption as a quid-pro-quo is the kind of thing that sounds cute until someone thinks up a way to do it to people on your side." [Megan McArdle, earlier]
• I've been blogging extensively at Overlawyered, and have a new City Journal piece, on the Federal Trade Commission's scary new guidelines purporting to regulate bloggers' acceptance of freebies such as review copies of books and conference passes;
• Burford Capital Ltd., litigation finance group in Britain, raises $130 million in IPO [Bloomberg via Hartley]