Two adjusters have come forward saying State Farm covered-up engineering reports which would have exposed the company to coverage for damage caused by hurricane Katrina. This post is quite an eye-opener!
A Federal Jury in New Orleans has ruled against Merck as the maker of Vioxx and ordered the company to pay $51 million to a retired FBI agent who suffered a heart attack after taking the drug. This post on the Wall Street Journal law blog raises the question of whether the passage of time favors Plaintiffs in mass tort litigation. I tend to agree with Texas trial lawyer, Mark Lanier, who is of the opinion that the passage of time helps develop information that erodes the base defense for companies like Merck.
It is becoming increasingly rare to find good customer service these days. One of my pet peeves is store clerks who complete a transaction without acknowledging the customer or saying "Thank You." Maybe I am observant of customer service since my profession is highly centered upon service as well. Several years ago I attempted to return an item to Target. The return was a huge hassle and unfair and basically resulted in my personal boycott of that store. By contrast, I recently returned an item to the local Bass Pro Shop. Even without a receipt, the customer service rep easily handled the transaction and gave me every option from exchange; return of my money to store credit toward a different item.
Needless to say, Bass Pro has earned my loyalty.
The MS Court of Appeals recently addressed the issue of calculating the average weekly wage (AWW) for a worker injured on the job and who also works an additional part-time position for the same employer. This claim involved an employee of a school who worked full time as an administrator and part time as a dorm supervisor on an "as needed" basis. The MWCC ruled that AWW may only be calculated using the wages from the job the worker is engaged at the time of injury.The Court of Appeals reversed the MWCC and held that all income from the same employer must be considered when calculating the AWW. This can be quite substantial in certain whole body claims.
Lately I have had a bad case of Wanderlust. I think a great deal of my search is caused by the current steamy heat wave crossing Mississippi. Another aspect is the City of Jackson's inability to deal with crime and a shrinking tax base. Generally when I get a case of Wanderlust I call up my good friend Patrick Moore who lives in Covington, LA. He is quite "worldly" and has lived/visited many places in the US. Patrick made a comment that I find true.....basically, it is hard to find Southernisms (food, hospitality, humor and overall joy of life) in locales not visited by high heat and humidity. This has me thinking.....and basically cooled my wanderlust for the time being.
The evidence keeps mounting in favor of the fact no medical malpractice lawsuit crisis exists. While the latest fad has been to promote tort "reform" to limit jury awards, this article recently published in Slate is worth a read. The article puts forth facts describing medical mistakes as the real problem; not jury awards, which are only a fraction of a percentage of medical costs in the US today.
Don't be so sure about it...read this article first!
For all my fellow cheap skates, here is an interesting calculator to figure out how much you spend on "high dollar" coffee compared to just brewing a cup at home...
Ever thought you have been around kids with cellphones and they look at you like you just don't "get it"? Well, according to this NY Times article, you may not be paranoid....the kids may actually be pulling a fast one (or at least inaudible one)over you.
Here is an interesting NY Times article discussing a study of pro athletes and what make them better than other athletes. Is is just coincidence that many pro soccer players are born in the early months of the year? According to the article, the old sayings that "there is no substitute for hard work" and "practice makes perfect," appear to be correct:
Ericsson and his colleagues have thus taken to studying expert performers in a wide range of pursuits, including soccer, golf, surgery, piano playing, Scrabble, writing, chess, software design, stock picking and darts. They gather all the data they can, not just performance statistics and biographical details but also the results of their own laboratory experiments with high achievers.
Their work, compiled in the "Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance," a 900-page academic book that will be published next month, makes a rather startling assertion: the trait we commonly call talent is highly overrated. Or, put another way, expert performers — whether in memory or surgery, ballet or computer programming — are nearly always made, not born. And yes, practice does make perfect. These may be the sort of clichés that parents are fond of whispering to their children. But these particular clichés just happen to be true.
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