While many people here aren't all that interested in personal injury law, Eric's blawg is terrific and he really does a great job, both in breaking new stories and in analyzing the state of affairs. It's great stuff, and he's got unbelievable tolerance in dealing with those who believe the tort and med mal system is the end of American civilization.

Read more: The Best April Fool's Post Ever

I’ve written before about medical malpractice and the rising costs for physicians of all specialties. One of the things we as physicians really fear is malpractice lawsuits by patients. We are taught in medical school and in training that the number one way to prevent a lawsuit is to talk to the patient and address their concerns.

Read more: Usually It’s Cheaper to Pay Than to Go To Court

We hear of people who have been into car accidents. The reasons have been enumerated and most of them point towards drunk driving and even falling asleep on the wheel. Apparently, these statistics don’t lie.

Read more: Sleep Causes Car Accidents

Make no mistake about it, Apple loves their markup. So much in fact they have a monopoly. Wait, didn't people say Microsoft had a monopoly and sue them years ago? Hmm, maybe I should start a class action law suit demanding the freedom to run the OSX operating on any hardware I want. If any lawyers read this contact me, I'm in.

Read more: I'm Too Poor To Afford Apple So Stop Telling Me To Buy One Before I Go Postal

Well, it’s really kind of non-news, but the fact that this type of testimony is present in medical malpractice cases just gives me even more encouragment to get really good at my options trading.

Read more: “The Fonz” testifies regarding John Ritter’s death

There have been many minor “10-32’s” (car accidents) all over town, and even the 14th Street viaduct has become very treacherous. Hopefully another deadly accident doesn’t happen before they can salt the roads.

Read more: Slippery times in Hoboken

The Massachusetts case represents one of the largest awards in the state’s history (bracketed by record awards of $30 million in 1992 and $40 million in 2005 for medical malpractice resulting in massive brain injuries to newborns.) Unlike the OJ case and the medical cases, however, the lawsuit of the elderly women involved no death or physical harm; it was a contract dispute between two unknown co-authors and their tiny publisher.

Read more: Sunday, September 16: The A.D.D. Detective

From the Turk at New York Personal Injury Law, a post about Progressive Insurance sending its investigators into a church support group, worming their way into the private therapy sessions, where they recorded people disclosing their deepest, darkest secrets in the hopes of catching two members who were suing for damages resulting from an auto accident. One of the most disgraceful examples I've seen in a long time.

Read more: 3 Short Takes: Stuff You Should Know About

California-based lecturer and author Dr. Judith Reisman, who has served as an expert witness in lawsuits involving sex abuse, explains why Catholic clergy and laity have every right to sue for Medical malpractice, all those involved in the promotional use of sex therapy centers to cure the clerics who were accused of sex abuse.

Read more: Catholics Should Sue for Fraud and Harms Perpetrated by Bogus Sexperts

The floor was then opened to audience questions (pre-approved, of course). There was one on medical malpractice suits (how do we get rid of all these horrible, frivolous lawsuits?). There was a question on illegal immigration. One about reducing our dependence on foreign oil. So on and so forth.

Read more: Romney in OKC

The pill is put out by GlaxoSmithKline, the same people who have brought us the Paxil debacle (including having to settle with the US government because they were ripping off Medicaid as well as causing the deaths and deformation of many children, teens, and pre-born babies), and the Avandia controversy. (These drugs were also FDA approved, as was Vioxx. FDA approval does not equal safe, largely because the FDA does not fund independent studies but relies on the drug companies' own research.)

Read more: Alli

19. The burden of paying for insurance to cover the outrageous cost of workman's compensation.

Read more: Checking Out of the Hotel California

At this point, I was really concerned. I did some research online and it appears that JRA Furniture Industries, the company that makes this furniture, has filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy protection. Yes, I said Chapter 7–a total liquidation of assets. Apparently this is due to a class action law suit brought against them based on poor quality (i.e shatter-prone) glass table tops in some furniture they make for Martha Stewart (News article at Consumer Affairs.).

Read more: Beware of Patio Furniture from The Home Depot, Kmart, Sam’s Club, and Sears

When I started, it was a shoestring operation with no particular goal in mind. I wanted to write, and I had no idea whether anyone would read it. As it turned out, in the slightly less than 5 months that I've been doing this, my posts are read about 400 times a day. It's not as good as Eric Turkewitz at New York Personal Injury Law, but I don't think it's too shabby. Is the blawgosphere stagnant? Not for me.

Read more: Blawgosphere: Revenge of the Old Guard

The current system of residency training, like the Marine Corps of the early 1980s, was organized for a different era and a different kind of person. The resident of the 1950s was with few exceptions a young, geeky, unmarried male who’s career was an uninterrupted arc from high school to college to medical school to residency, free from the encumberances of marriage, family, and outside resposibilities that are almost the norm today. Not only that but as medicine was not as highly specialized or even as advanced as it is today a single year of internship was all that was required for a physician to set himself up in private practice. Since medical malpractice suits were almost unheard of and the dangerous interventions that physicians could even attempt were few and mostly the purview of the few specialists, most physicians felt comfortable hanging up their shingles after even this limited training.

Read more: Tell It To The Marines