Monthly Archives: July 2009

 

July 24th, 2009

Linkworthy


How much is the life of a mother worth? Michigan Supreme Court Justice Robert Young said zippo. Nada. Bupkus. And this is the reason.

A spammer gets e-shamed out of a job by a blogger;

Torture lawyer John Yoo, who is teaching at Stanford and degrading its reputation, had a special, unannounced, visitor to his class. He wasn’t pleased. And yes, it was videotaped.

Some folks have a good sense of humor about warning labels;

Since my kid got hurt at school, I can sue, right?

I submit a brief that I slaved over, and Westlaw and Lexis can use it for their personal profit? Is that right? (Volokh; Greenfield)

Flori-duh town outlaws fun:

Now, to be fair to the Clearwater City Council, since they passed this badminton-related deaths have dropped dramatically.

And TortsProf with the weekly Personal Injury Law Round-Up.

 

July 23rd, 2009

Bar Exam Horror Stories


As I am reminded by Above the Law, the bar exam is coming up. And that means it’s time once again to run the stories of the two legendary screw-ups in New York bar exam history. I claim a proud connection to both.

Since there is no need to re-invent the wheel and re-write, I present to you, for your reading pleasure…
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New York Bar Exams (Legendary Screw-Ups) (July 16, 2008)

It’s that time of year again. Time for the bar exam. And so it is only fair I think, as recent grads work and sweat and cram and get all anxious, to remind them of some things.

First, that’s how you will probably feel when you try a case.

Second, the New York bar exam has had a couple of legendary screw-ups, and I’m here to remind you during your moments of insecurity, nausea and panic about them. I’d like to think it’s part of my job, but really, I’m just having fun at your expense.

There was the 1985 exam. The one where the multi-state exam results were lost or stolen. That was for those that took the test inside one of the New York Passenger Ship Terminals on the west side of Manhattan. I know first hand about that test: Your Bar Exam Answer Sheet is Gone — Now What? Hundreds had to re-take the exam. But not me. Click the link and see why.

Lest you think that was the only time our trusty bar examiners fouled up, fear not, they managed to do it again last year by losing some essay answers that were typed on laptops, due to a software crash.

But last year’s story seemed to go on, and on. To fix the problem of missing answers, the bar examiners decided to do a grade approximation. Trust us, they said, to get it right this second time. Trusting them might not have been such a good idea though, as a question arose due to an anonymous comment on this blog as to how, exactly, they did that approximation. It included giving a grade of 3/10 for an essay that was never written because the guy ran out of time.

And then the story got weirder still, after I called up and found out that an unknown appeals process existed at the New York State Board of Law Examiners. Lawyers creating a secret appeals process? Just how weird is that? An anonymous test-taker blogged his experience here, in the rest of that entry that followed my call.

But wait, there’s more! The guy who took the exam, the one who was told he had failed and then blogged his experience here, then went public under his real name, Eric Zeni. He successfully appealed, after after being told there was no appeal process. He had argued his first case and won. Zeni was sworn in as an attorney earlier this year. [Update: And is now practicing law out on Long Island with a small firm.]

Are there lessons to be learned from these stories? Probably. But I’ll leave my readers to figure them out.

 

July 22nd, 2009

Heard in the Courthouse (7/22/09)

In Bronx Supreme Court today, a woman calling out “Hand Jobs! Hand Jobs!”

My inquisitive correspondent found that McLean v. Hand Jobs, Inc. (Index #350502/2008) was on for a Preliminary Conference before Justice Suarez and defense counsel was looking for plaintiff’s counsel.

Defendant is a car wash.

No word yet on whether the day had a happy ending. The doctrine of unclean hands is rumored to be at issue.

 

July 22nd, 2009

Linkworthy


The state of medical care in Texas sees more potential for decline, as two whistle blower nurses are criminally charged after expressing patient safety concerns;

I’ve written before that the best way to put me out of business is for doctors to say “I’m sorry.” Now comes yet another study on the subject;

A $348 wheelchair costs taxpayers $1,200;

William Safire adds to the discussion on “Sotomayor & Associates” in his On Language column in the New York Times Magazine. He also expected questions on the subject;

Nebraska to New York: Your bicameral legislature is a circus. Come watch how a nonpartisan, unicameral government works just fine;

Does this ad infringe on Apple’s famous “I’m a Mac; I’m a PC” campaign?

Another lawyer tries to copyright his nastygram. Here’s the analysis on why lawyer Martin Singer is full of hot air. With Greenfield (The Lawyer Letter Commandeth), me previously when Public Citizen called the bluff of John Dozier (Don’t Post This Letter On The Internet!), The San Diego Reader (If You Use This, I’ll Sue) and Overlaywered with more links.

This week The Complex Litigator gave us Blawg Review #221, from the perspective of a class action attorney. Last week it was Walter Olson at Overlawyered with Blawg Review # 220 who, shall we say, may not be as keen on class actions as others.

TortsProf with their 42nd iteration of the Personal Injury Law Round-Up; And in case you were keeping track, I ran 36 of these round-ups before exhaustion got the better of me. Brooks Schuelke did it for awhile, but it was likewise for him too much to do on a consistent basis. So a big tip of the hat to Bill Childs and his merry band of torts professors, not just for the quality of their links but for their stamina as they come up on their one year anniversary of doing it.

And the Naked Cowboy is running for Mayor. Why not?