Word: torts
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Essay "Of Risks, Hazards and Culprits" [Aug. 28] decrying what you call "the increased tendency of injured parties to sue somebody," you attempt to equate American law holding negligent and careless individuals liable for their conduct with "the modern welfare state." That is unforgivable. In fact, the tort system allocates losses to those who actually cause them, rather than asking society in general...
Courts have long limited the right of children to sue their parents because such suits would sow discord in the family. But nearly a score of states, including California, Illinois and New York, have chipped away at the "intrafamily tort immunity" rule, largely to allow children to sue parents in auto accident cases. A child who has reached majority may sue his parents for a wrong that may have occurred during his minority, and in such cases the statute of limitations does not start to run until majority is reached. Suits on such vague grounds as Hansen's. however...
What is next? "Are we headed in the direction where a woman can sue the police department if she is raped, screams and no one comes?" asks Walton. Shadoan thinks the trend in tort law-toward no-fault auto, product liability and medical malpractice insurance-may block that next step. He points to Great Britain, where "if you get raped, you get medical care and a government payment. Damage suits will soon be a relic of the past." Many lawyers are betting it will never happen...
...this respect, as in many others, medicine stands alone among the professions. Poor performance by a tax accountant, an architect, or a tort lawyer can usually be expressed in terms of dollars, which any layman can understand. Not so with medicine. The cliché has it that medicine is as much art as science. Granted, the art part is in tangible and immeasurable. But much of the science part of medicine remains largely hit or miss. One doctor will pre scribe twice as much of a potent antibiotic as another, or prescribe a needlessly dangerous drug. One surgeon will hurry...
...Steingold was grumbling to a friend that the lack of a rating had cost him a client, since people looking for out-of-town lawyers tend to check the entries in Martindale-Hubbell. Steingold was grumbling to the right man: Melvin Belli, free-swinging crusader against every variety of tort. Belli promptly filed a class-action suit against Martindale-Hubbell on behalf of Steingold and all other non-rated lawyers (a group that includes Belli himself). His demand...