The Corporate Takeover of the Judiciary
December 12, 2007
This could be interesting. I have long suspected that the corporate money has infiltrated the judiciary and hence the decisions that comes out of that institution. I have not watched this movie, but it goes along my suspicions. Worth a look…
“Benched: the Corporate Takeover of the Judiciary” chronicles the most expensive Supreme Court Race in history – the 2004 race for State Supreme Court in Illinois where over ten million dollars was spent.“Benched” explores the underlying issue of the race – the battle over “tort reform.” Critics charge that the insurance industry unfairly targeted doctors in Madison County, Illinois, raising their malpractice insurance premiums to pressure the doctors to lobby their patients and the community for “tort reform”, including caps on medical malpractice awards that will only benefit the insurance industry and harm consumers. The doctors contend that they are being driven out of business by “frivolous lawsuits” while victims of medical malpractice and lawyers argue caps on law suits will deny them justice and that claims of an out of control civil justice system are corporate propaganda.
In the end, the documentary reveals the true beneficiary of this campaign for tort reform – Big Tobacco companies. Critics charge that the Philip Morris tobacco company played a role in financing the tort reform movement to get their chosen candidate, Lloyd Karmeier elected to the Illinois Supreme Court in order to have a pending 10.1 Billion dollar judgment voided by the Court.
In December, 2005, Justice Lloyd Karmeier cast the tie-breaking vote reversing the 10.1 Billion Dollar judgement against Philip Morris.
No Wrongful Death Against Ford
December 12, 2007
Jury Rejects Wrongful Death, Injury Claims Against Ford Motor Co.
Ford Motor Co. is not responsible for the deaths of two people and injuries to at least eight others as a result of a rollover crash on an Interstate highway in Kansas in 2003, a jury ruled Tuesday.[...]The lawsuit alleged Ford was at fault for poor design but the Washington County Circuit Court jury rejected claims that inherent problems with the handling and stability of the van caused the crash. Jurors also rejected claims that the van was not crashworthy.
Ford contended the accident happened because Cripps fell asleep, allowing the van to drift into a guard rail. It then shot back across the road before flipping several times. Ford said the van also had the wrong tires on it, which could have contributed significantly to the accident. A heavy trailer being towed behind the van could also have contributed, according to Ford.
Attorneys said Ford extensively tested the vans, which were sold from the 1970s into the 1990s, and found them to be safe and stable. They also said the van’s roof performed as it should and did not fail structurally.Plaintiff’s attorneys told jurors the E-250 van was unstable and prone to rollover because of its design but did nothing to change it. They said Ford knew about the problem for years but didn’t fix it. They also said the van’s roof failed, allowing passengers to be ejected, because it wasn’t structurally strong enough. And, they argued Cripps didn’t fall asleep.
Better Way to Quit
December 3, 2007
Free Nicotine Patches Plus Phone Counseling Prompts More Smokers to Quit
Smoking cessation rates doubled when quit-line callers were given free nicotine patches in addition to counseling, researchers found.Calls to a smoking cessation hotline increased 112% when, in addition to a 30-minute telephone counseling session, callers were given a two-week supply of transdermal nicotine patches, said Jeffrey Fellows, Ph.D., of the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research here, and colleagues.
Quit rates also improved from 8.2% with counseling alone to 15.7% with the patches plus counseling, they reported in a December supplement to the journal Tobacco Control.
In a separate randomized trial, more than 21% of smokers quit when they received intensive counseling plus nicotine patches, versus 11.7% among smokers who received a single brief counseling session and no patches.
Frequency of Various Types of Physician–Industry Relationships
November 24, 2007
NEJM — Doctors and Drug Companies — Scrutinizing Influential Relationships
Percentages were weighted to adjust for the probability of selection within each specialty and for nonresponse. Data are from Campbell et al
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Happy Thanksgiving!!!
November 21, 2007
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Some Good News
November 14, 2007
Judge Larson’s decision was right on target.
The interesting thing about the brouhaha surrounding her decision is that in all the articles I have read, there is all this talks about the hospital interest and the doctors’ interest groups that appear to be fighting for this law. There is absolutely no talk about the insurance industry who is pulling the strings from behind the scenes in all this.
As if the trial lawyers are once again pinned against the doctors and hospitals.
From my talks with doctors I know, this strategy is no longer working–at least so far as the doctors are concerned. They have become wise to the fact that the insurance companies have worked hard to force the doctors and lawyers to be adversaries while they seat back and laugh all the way to the bank by gouging the doctors and blaming it on the trial lawyers.
If only the Sun Times and other publications were to bring the truth to their readers…
Judge strikes down Illinois malpractice caps
Cook County Circuit Court Judge Diane Joan Larsen on Tuesday sided with plaintiffs’ argument that the caps on non-economic damages such as pain and suffering in medical malpractice cases violate victims’ rights.The Illinois Hospital Association said in a statement it was disappointed in the verdict but it is confident an appeal to the Illinois Supreme Court will successfully uphold the caps.
[...]
Those caps came after a lengthy, intense debate two years ago over how
to help doctors deal with soaring malpractice insurance rates. The caps
were a cornerstone of the aid lawmakers provided after feeling enormous
pressure from doctors and upset patients to prevent more doctors from
leaving the state.
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Amazing!!
November 13, 2007
The length the insurance companies will go and use the judiciary system to prevent ordinary citizens to find out their internal (and evidently anti-consumer) policies–policies that may become part of investigation for alleged malfeasance.
Famed Plaintiffs Lawyer in Federal Judge’s Crosshairs
A corporation’s worst nightmare, famed plaintiffs lawyer Richard “Dickie” Scruggs has unflinchingly taken on asbestos companies, Big Tobacco and scads of insurance companies in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.But the 61-year-old Mississippi lawyer may have finally met his match in a controversial and outspoken Alabama federal judge.
U.S. District Judge William M. Acker Jr. has held Scruggs in criminal contempt for failing to abide by a court order to return allegedly purloined documents he received from two former employees of a State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. contractor to the insurance company.
Scruggs — who is representing hundreds of Hurricane Katrina victims in lawsuits against insurance companies — instead sent the documents to Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, who has been investigating the insurance companies for alleged malfeasance.
After U.S. Attorney Alice Martin in Birmingham, Ala., refused to bring charges against Scruggs, Acker took the highly unusual step of appointing three private special prosecutors to bring charges against Scruggs.
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Health Net's Profit and Loss
November 11, 2007
Health insurer tied bonuses to dropping sick policyholders
One of the [California's] largest health insurers set goals and paid bonuses based in part on how many individual policyholders were dropped and how much money was saved.Woodland Hills-based Health Net Inc. avoided paying $35.5 million in medical expenses by rescinding about 1,600 policies between 2000 and 2006. During that period, it paid its senior analyst in charge of cancellations more than $20,000 in bonuses based in part on her meeting or exceeding annual targets for revoking policies, documents disclosed Thursday showed.
