Walter Olson, long time tort “reformer” and my occasional sparring partner, has moved from the Manhattan Institute (and his home base at Point of Law) to the Cato Institute. He will continue on with Overlawyered, where he continues to provide fodder for legal commentary, while Ted Frank (both my sparring partner and my lawyer) tries to fill his shoes at MI;

This is Scott Greenfield’s policy on putting links in comments. I follow much of the same here;

Snoopy tried to break in to a prison. He got caught, which means, I suppose, that he succeeded? He’ll probably have to surrender the costume;

How much should it cost to prepare a record and transcript from court? How about $10 per page?

Are you storing your law firm data in a cloud? And is the cloud safe?

Using an iPad at trial;

60 bits of wisdom from Brian Tannebaum, including this nugget: “If you have a bad feeling about taking a case, don’t.”

Both Roy Mura and I were quoted in an column in the New York Law Journal on proposed changes to our No-Fault law;

We apparently have the lowest taxes since 1950. Should someone tell the Tea Party?

A look at malpractice systems in other countries. It might be important to note, of course, that those other countries have significantly different social safety nets, for which the people are taxed;

Facebook users continue to lose more and more control over privacy settings. How many will quit?

TortsProf with the Personal Injury Law Round-Up;

Blawg Review #263 celebrates Mother’s Day with an epic compilation (though I try to celebrate it with Mrs. NYPILB on the two days she did the hard work); and

Blawg Review #264 commemorates the Irish Famine

How much would you pay for a $10 bill? The answer may very well surprise you. Does this happen with lawsuits?

Scott Greenfield worked his way through law school by being a Warm Body at the Van der Graaff accelerator among other occupations. How are the current crop making it through, and does it affect the way they approach the law?

In March, I featured this opinion with two sentences that each weighed in at 300+ words. Kevin Underhill appears to have found a topper from Senior Judge Aquilino at the U.S. Court of International Trade. This marvel has 538 words and appears to address, in part, a problem that “may stem from a lack of sufficient clarity in [its] prior opinion…” I wonder how that could happen;

And yes, there is an award for convoluted legalese;

If a gym teacher tells a kid to take off a Medic Alert bracelet for class, is there potential legal liability?

A massive Wal-Mart class action regarding pay equality is permitted to go forward by the Ninth Circuit. These are the links as some hope the Supremes will take the case;

The inadvertent loss of a next-generation iPhone (left in a bar) and the subsequent purchase and deconstruction of it by Gizmodo presented plenty of fodder for people to discuss. But now it’s gone legal, with a search warrant and seizure of computers by the buyer. What’s missing from this scenario? Perhaps a little thing like probable cause for the seizure;

Want some free legal advice from Avvo? Don’t worry,  you’ll get exactly what you paid for;

TortsProf with the personal injury law round-up;

Defendants in personal injury suits are funded by multi-billion dollar companies. Should plaintiffs also have some serious money behind them, and if so, what form should it take?
What’s the best way to reduce medical malpractice lawsuits? Should we create tort “reform” that closes the courthouse doors? Or might there by another solution?

When the Icelandic volcano erupted, everyone faced a serious problem. How do you pronounced that damned name? From Andy Newman at the New York Times came this pearl of prose:

All across this fair city, thousands of people, some of them highly paid television and radio newscasters, found themselves tumbling down the vowel-and-liquid-consonant-lubricated slopes of Eyjafjallajokull, the mountain’s 16-letter, six-and-a-half-syllable, 47-Scrabble-point name.

Walter Olson lets us know that two brewers had a choice to make when the both pick the same name for an ale: Collaborate or litigate?

Be very careful when you use acronyms. Because they might have alternative meanings…

Please don’t boycott Arizona Iced Tea. It’s made in New York;

And Blawg Review #261 is up at IPKat, discussing (in part) what works and what doesn’t in blogs.

Are first-year associates worthless? And do we have an oversupply of them?

Taxpayers get stuck with the bill when drug device manufacturers get immunity for defective products;

They kept insisting he was dead. (“That’s only air escaping his body.”) But the patient indicated otherwise. Who to sue?

Is Carl Paladino, Republican candidate for Governor of New York, a racist, or just a moron? You be the judge; And yeah, a little bestiality is probably enough to bring down a career;

And while I’m on the subject of New York governors, what did Eliot Spitzer get for $2,000/hr? Let’s just say, this is not entirely safe for work;

Prof. Geoffrey Stone debunks Chief Justice John Roberts‘ claim that umpires only call balls and strikes, in the op-ed section of the New York Times;

Roy Mura’s Coverage Counsel gets cited in a law review;

A Melbourne, Florida Melbourne, Australia traffic officer sets a world record for giving out a parking ticket;

Is drunk driving a victimless crime?

And while on the subject of booze…Beer with 32% alcohol? If your government doesn’t like it, maybe they will like the 1.1% beer named Nanny State;

A tiger goes tiger and kills a girl. Does the insurance company have to pony up in a wrongful death suit?

At Deliberations, under new ownership, a discussion of Homer Simpson, Fonzie, MacGyver and other holdout jurors;

If a brain injury is “mild,” is it serious? (And does it matter who’s brain it is?)

A million dollar verdict in New York gets tossed out. Was the plaintiff tossed from a roof?

Blawg Review #259 is up at Legal Blog Watch on its 5th Anniversary, and “Ed Post” guest blogs with a bucketload of questions;

And iff you haven’t hosted Blawg Review yet, here is a list of available dates.

An important Court of Appeals case I would blog if I had more time: Primary assumption of risk does not apply to children since they cannot understand the risks of what they are doing Thankfully, Roy Mura at Coverage Counsel had the time to write up Trupia v. Lake George School District (a 12-year-old boy who was seriously injured when he slid down a banister and fell on school property); And there is more on the case at the Sports Law Blog;

Who knew that a string cite could be entertaining? Judge Kozinski shows how it’s done;

Did WestLaw deliberately design their new pricing plan to be utterly incomprehensible? It seems like the only explanation: 3 Geeks and a Law Blog; Legal Research & Writing Pro; Legal Blog Watch. Oh yeah, it also tops out at $3,400/hr. It’s a good thing that lawyers and clients don’t care about expenses and have money to burn in these booming times;

Does a lawyer have to have an office to practice law, and if so, what kind? And what about that home office?

Rudy Giuliani gives an important lesson on leadership and terror trials;

This is an analogy that makes perfect sense: How Identify Theft if Like the Ford Pinto;

In the ethics department, the New York Committee on Professional Responsibility issued its first opinion under the new code (which switched over on, no joke, April 1, 2009). And the rule on what to do if your client lies during a deposition has changed;

Michael Jackson’s father plans to sue his son’s doctor for wrongful death, a subject I speculated about last year;

Do lawsuits make hospitals safer?

The trial lawyer, as theater director;

Here is tort “reform, made simple;

Legal ethics and the embarrassment of having been wrong;

The jurisprudence of April Fool’s Day;

Since April Fool’s Day seems to last forever these days, a special link;

And Blawg Review #258 give us the 300 birthday of the Statute of Anne

Former Clinton White House lawyer Lanny Davis weighs in on the issue of medical malpractice “reform” in a WSJ interview with Ashby Jones where he spends time whining about punitive damages.

And it’s pretty clear to Andrew Barovick, that Lanny Davis is utterly clueless. And the PopTort noticed too, pointing out that the entire state system only had six such cases in an entire year. For medical malpractice, punitive damages is a non-issue;

Hey, Brian Wilson has a modest proposal, why not just get rid of all the personal injury lawsuits?

And if you’re a personal injury lawyer, how do you feel about being one?

The NYT ran with an editorial on a case against McDonald’s regarding fried chicken and a hot-pocket of undrained oil that burned the lips of a customer. The WSJ Law Blog wants to know if this is the next tort “reform” talking point;

Of course, some lawyers just seem hell-bent on embarrassing themselves;

And while on the subject of medical malpractice, here’s the story of a rogue butt-enhancer. No, I didn’t make that up;

Other interesting stuff:

FindLaw, that paragon of brilliant blogging that seeks to further embarrass the entire legal profession, is now looking for new writers for it’s dreck-blogs. Legal experience is not necessary. Really, you can’t make this stuff up;

And more in the crap attorney search department, Bob Ambogi rips BestAttorneysOnline.com to shreds then comes back to pulverize them some more, and then shovels dirt on this clueless company’s grave. Woe unto the lawyer that outsources his or her marketing (and ethics) to one of these attorney search outfits;

Class action lawsuits against Toyota could cost the company $3 billion;

When 911 calls get released to the public, is there a violation of privacy rights involved?

Congressional candidate Joe Walsh backs down in dispute with rocker Joe Walsh over use of one of his (rocker Joe’s) songs;

New York City gets a new official condom, which has nothing whatsoever to do with the law, but it’s my blog and I get to link to stuff like that if I want;

My brother Dan is not the only one to get personal letters from SCOTUS; Justice Thomas opines on McDonald’s;

I’ve been meaning to get around to this for awhile: In case you hadn’t noticed, Colin Samuels of Infamy or Praise fame has been doing outstanding round-ups of the legal blogosphere in his “Round Tuit” postings. Unlike my brief commentary by providing links — where I try to send you away from here — he does in depth analysis of life in the legal blogosphere. If he isn’t part of your RSS feed, then you are missing something good;

And Niki Black has Blawg Review #254 up at Sui Generis, focusing on International Women’s Day and National Women’s Month.

Clock is tickin’, so much I wanted to write about but didn’t have the time for…

Here’s some reasons not to make any representation as to what a case is worth when you take it in: Settle it Now, Negotiation Blog;

Sometimes the mistake gets made, but the damages aren’t there: New mom given wrong baby to nurse, wants settlement from hospital;

Baseball mascot flings hot dog. Said doggie hits fan in the eye. Did the fan assume the risk of having a mascot fling a hot dog at him during a game? And would John Hochfelder have taken the case?

Let me guess, the new client is overseas and they want you to collect an easy $400,000 or so for them, right? And you get a nice big piece? Uh huh. Law Firms Swindled Out of $500K in E-Mail Scam and a personal experience with the scammer;

How’s this for a quote regarding the Toyota scandal: “Yet for all the demonizing of trial lawyers, the reality is that product-liability litigation has become an ever more important means of keeping consumers safe.” It appeared on the WSJ OP-Ed page;

A post at Concurring Opinions on medical liability uses this graphic at left. But the image looks Photoshopped to me as the instrument seems too small to actually hold. Want to see what a retained surgical instrument really looks like?

Bob Dylan is dead. You didn’t know? Ann Althouse finds out due to a computer program that ambulance chases. When I wrote Attorney Solicitation 2.0 back in 2007, I never thought of that one;

TortsProf is still chugging along with the Personal Injury Law round-ups;

Blawg Review #252 is frightening;

My three posts on Justice Scalia’s letter to my brother regarding secession have had 40,000 page views as it roared around the web with thousands of forum comments, tweets and blog postings, finding a home at NYT, WSJ, WaPo, NBC, CBS and The Hollywood Reporter, among others. And if Eugene Volokh hadn’t put up this post, the letter would still be in a drawer as a fun, family curiosity. But no one has tackled my suggestion that Scalia flat out blew it on whether the court could ever hear such a case.

I’m going to bed, hope there aren’t too many typos and blown links.

A dramatic slip and fall caught on video. Too bad he was trying to throw a chair through a Burger King door at the time. Will he be dumb enough to sue?

Point of Law has AAJ’s agenda for protecting consumer rights. They don’t like the list. I do.

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals opines on champerty and maintenance in New York. You don’t know what that means? If you practice personal injury law, you better damn well find out at Blawgletter.

Is that really a stodgy, New York, government bureaucracy on Twitter?

How many auto accidents take place each year because of drivers distracted by cell phone use and texting? The answer is here;

OK, CareerBuilder has placed an ad on the web that I don’t think you will ever see on television. My wife is still laughing…

In honor of the 20th Anniversary of The Simpsons, that law-talking guy…

Scott Greenfield has an example of a good lawyer ad from one of the bastion of fine personal injury firms in New York, Trolman Glaser and Lichtman — even Walter Olson seems to like it! Too bad the firm also  is part of the wretched FindLaw system of using dreck-blogs for advertisements. Hey TGL, if you’re reading this, isn’t it time to get on the phone with your FindLaw rep and tell them to stop creating stuff that hurts our clients and our reputations? It’s already hard enough to find impartial jurors for personal injury cases, we don’t need them making things worse;

Finally, Blawg Review #246 at The Client Revolution, looking into the crystal ball at the future of law.

Medical researchers go hunting for a link between disease and lawyers, and Max Kennerly takes the “research” and rips it limb from limb;

The PopTort has become, over the last several months, a truly outstanding blog. They wrote recently how Katrina hospital victims were, literally, dead in the water, and how tort “reform” in Texas failed to bring docs back to rural areas;

Kevin, M.D. has a round-up of his most popular posts from 2009, many of which have a legal angle to them;

Avvo makes 8 predictions for the legal field for 2010;

The NY Court of Appeals hears oral argument on the issue of “sole proximate cause” of the worker as a defense to strict liability under our Labor Law;

Since when did cyber-stalking become a gender issue? Eugene Volokh starts the conversation. [Edit: Subsequent links removed 7/30/10 as they went dead]. (Previously here, Twitter Followers and Stalkers — Can You Tell the Difference?);

Am I my blogger’s keeper? Carolyn Elefant and Brian Tannebaum on ethical issues and lawyers‘ professional obligations regarding marketing;

And Blawg Review #245 comes at us from Charon QC with this exquisite theme:

I have no theme — other than to look at as many good blog posts and bloggers as I can under various quasi-random headings.

Let’s clear out the old in-box of things I’d like to blog about but never found the time for (because Martindale-Hubbell, Yahoo and FindLaw sucked out my recent time here).

And so, without any attempt to organize by subject or in any other rational way:

If you pay the cost of medical care, should you (or someone else?) get the benefits? (Walter Olson @ Point of Law);

Which is better for a law professor, a PhD or actual experience as a lawyer? Both Marc Randazza and Scott Greenfield have sharp opinions, with dozens of comments that follow;

Opinions on lawyers ethics and honesty dropped 5% in one year. Why? And does it matter? (Tannebaum @ My Law License);

Personal injury cases are not funny. People get hurt. But when a moose head falls on someone in a bar, it’s hard for some to wonder how the moose got loose…Did anyone blame Sarah Palin? And was it Woody Allen’s moose? (Kevin Underhill @ Lowering the Bar, the Gothamist, and NY Mag);

It was nice to be included in the ABA Blawg 100, as I previously noted, but now it seems some are so desperate to win that votes are for sale (@ Simple Justice)

What value is Twitter to a personal injury lawyer? Is it zero, or just close to zero? (Mark Zamora @ A Georgia Lawyer)

Someone in Florida gets steamed at lousy treatment from Route 60 Hyundai, they send a cease and desist letter, and then get a sharp lesson in the Streisand Effect and some brilliant legal writing from Marc Randazza (@ Overlaywered)

Criminal defense lawyer Norm Pattis writes about Another Year in the Trenches, and man, can this guy write. Just one small piece:

Summoning fight is usually not hard for me. I was born on the other side of the tracks and know firsthand how thin the line that separates me from the folks I represent. And for all my bold irreverence, I know a truth Christians know: All have sinned, and fallen well short of the glory of God.

But I am having a hard time summoning fight just now. I am tired, discouraged and filled with misgivings about the law and my role as a lawyer…

Grrr. Bark. Woof. Good dog. (Wise Law Blog);

Blawg Review # 241 came on Pearl Harbor Day from Infamy and Praise;

Blawg Review #242 at Liklihood of Confusion, inspired by the Festival of Lights, was a joy;

Blawg Review #243 from Silverman Sherliker came out of London;

A round-up of the Blawg Reviews of the past year, and a time to vote for the best one.

And now, since Mrs. NY PI Blog is yelling at me to get off the damned computer and come have a drink, best wishes to all for a happy and healthy new year. (Except you, FindLaw, I’ll see you Monday morning.)

New York gets a new blogger, doing his thing at Lou and The Law. Lou has been an occasional commenter here, and comes from the defense side of the aisle having worked as senior trial attorney for Liberty Mutual Insurance for almost 30 years. Worth reading for New York practitioners is Late Expert Disclosure Affidavits, and it is worth it because the statute governing expert affidavits doesn’t actually have a time frame in it.

John Hochfelder rants against New York’s appellate judges who knock down jury awards, but fail to explain why;

Mark Bennett has 16 Rules for Lawyers Who (Think They) Want to Market Online. Proceed with caution.

But Bennett missed this one: Don’t use the names of your competitors as keywords for Google ads, as the Milwaukee personal injury firm of Cannon & Dunphy now learns as their name turns to mud;

And more from the attorney advertising department: Florida settles a case that now allows lawyers to use sites like Avvo and LinkedIn.

Carolyn Elefant on Google’s new research tool, Google Scholar, and what it means for lawyers. I know what it means for me, as I discovered that I’ve been cited in a couple of law reviews, a litigation reporter, and a medical journal.

Mickey Mouse sued Donald Duck;

Is there a cause of action for Goth Discrimination?

What happens if you dress up like a suspect?

The family of a dead man — who it turns out wasn’t quite dead yet — wants to sue the medical examiner;

As tort “reform” comes up in the debate over the health care bill — along with screams of excess litigation and frivolous suits — a reminder from Public Citizen that the actual data on tort trials is that they have decreased in number over the years;

Scott Greenfield shreds New York’s new drunk-driver law;

The Personal Injury Law Round-Up is up at TortsProf; and

Blawg Review #238 is up at the Twin Cities Carry Journal, authored by Joel Rosenberg, prolific novelist, non lawyer and Jew With a Gun. His theme? Tolerance (and the lack thereof), with an introduction by one of the all time great political-humor songs.