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"A blog devoted to the RIAA's lawsuits of intimidation brought against ordinary working people." Run by Ty Rogers and Ray Beckerman, two New York lawyers, this blog is an information clearinghouse for people who have been sued by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) "for having computers whose internet accounts were used to open up peer-to- peer file sharing accounts." (The site has a terrible layout -- pretty much everything is on one page -- but the information there is as useful as it is scary.) The bloggers find such cases "to be oppressive and unfair, as large multinational corporations gang up, in a cartel, to misuse the federal courts and sue ordinary working people for thousands of dollars" -- with little evidence to back up their cases. From This is True for 9 July 2006 Suggestions for further reading:
 By: Timothy D. Lytton List Price: $35.00 Amazon Price: $28.00 Editorial Review: The sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy is arguably the most acute crisis Catholicism has faced since the Reformation. The prevalence of clergy sexual abuse and its shocking cover-up by church officials have obscured the largely untold story of the tort system’s remarkable success in bringing the scandal to light, focusing attention on the need for institutional reform, and spurring church leaders and public officials into action. Stories of the tort system as an engine of social justice are rare. Holding Bishops Accountable tells one such story by revealing how pleadings, discovery documents, and depositions fueled media coverage of the scandal. Timothy Lytton shows how the litigation strategy of plaintiffs’ lawyers gave rise to a widespread belief that the real problem was not the actions of individual priests but rather the church’s massive institutional failure. The book documents how church and government policymakers responded to the problem of clergy sexual abuse only under the pressure of private lawsuits. As Lytton deftly demonstrates, the lessons of clergy sexual abuse litigation give us reason to reconsider the case for tort reform and to look more closely at how tort litigation can enhance the performance of public and private policymaking institutions.  By: Nina Bernstein List Price: $15.95 Amazon Price: $10.85 Editorial Review: At age 12, Shirley Wilder ran away from an abusive home and landed in New York City's foster-care system. By age 13, she was named the plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit that challenged the city's 150-year-old system as unconstitutional. At 14, Shirley gave birth to a son, Lamont, who was soon swept up in the same system. This absorbing account by New York Times reporter Nina Bernstein follows the threads of the tragic lives of Shirley and Lamont Wilder and the lawsuit that bears their name. In the process it illuminates the city's--and the nation's--dysfunctional social welfare system and its impact on the children it purportedly helps. The Wilder lawsuit was filed in 1973 by a passionate young lawyer who stuck by it through 26 years of litigation, without the case ever being fully resolved. The accusation: that New York City's system violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments for giving private religious agencies control of publicly financed foster-care beds. These mostly Catholic and Jewish agencies gave preference to white Catholic and Jewish children, while the growing numbers of black and Protestant children were sent to inappropriate institutions that left them with more problems than they had when they came. Such was the fate of Shirley, who, for lack of anywhere else to go, was placed in Hudson, a state reformatory for delinquents with no treatment services for abandoned or abused children. Hudson "looked like a camp from the outside and was unmistakably a prison within." There was rampant violence and sexual abuse, and girls were regularly punished by being put in "the hole," a 5-by-8-foot cell with no windows, furniture, or heat, which Shirley would later testify was like "Winter. Winter--all year round." But a case that named state and city officials, 77 voluntary agencies and their directors, and 84 individual defendants including nuns, rabbis, and clergymen, and that threatened to pit blacks and Jews against each other, was a case destined to enter a legal wilderness of avoidance and delay. Shirley and Lamont's unforgettable stories reveal the deep fault lines in a system that often does more harm than good. While reforms come and go with little success, Bernstein makes clear that the child welfare system will never really change until there is a coming to terms with the system's place as "a political battleground for abiding national conflicts over race, religion, gender and inequality" and the "unacknowledged contradictions between policies that punish the 'undeserving poor' and pledge to help all needy children." --Lesley Reed IIn 1973, a young ACLU attorney filed a controversial class-action lawsuit that challenged New York City’s operation of its foster-care system. The plaintiff was an abused runaway named Shirley Wilder who had suffered from the system’s inequities. Wilder, as the case came to be known, was waged for two and a half decades, becoming a battleground for the conflicts of race, religion, and politics that shape America’s child-welfare system.  By: Philip K. Howard List Price: $14.00 Amazon Price: $11.20 Editorial Review: Author Philip K. Howard returns with the same storytelling style and supreme reasonableness that made his first book, The Death of Common Sense, such a smash hit in 1995. He begins The Lost Art of Drawing the Line by noting the damage predatory litigation has done to the communal fabric of the United States: "Social relations in America, far from steadied by law's sure hand, are a tangle of frayed legal nerves." He tells how seesaws have started to vanish from playgrounds, how teachers are banned from touching students, and how emergency-room staff are blocked from attending to patients off hospital grounds--even if they can see them bleeding to death just 30 feet away. These aren't just speculations, a parade of hypothetical horror stories--they are actual trends and events that Howard describes and documents. The ability to weave dozens of anecdotes like these into his narrative is one of Howard's great strengths, and it allows him to make important points in entertaining ways. Yet the book is much more than a collection of outrageous stories or a mere broadside against the legal system--though the legal system does come in for plenty of criticism. Instead, it's a meditation on the meaning of freedom, why freedom cannot exist outside of authority, and why individuals in positions of authority should have the ability to make decisions based on sound judgment. There is a temptation to secure liberty by restricting authority through the law, but this can be overdone, and it carries a high price: "Put law or any other formal construct in the middle of daily dealings, and people will start looking to the law instead of to one another." Then things get much worse: "The more our common institutions fail us, the more Americans want to limit their authority. Through a downward cycle of distrust, legal controls, [and] worse failure ... we drive Americans' governing institutions further into the bureaucratic maw." That is a terrible place to be, where no one is held accountable and antisocial behavior rules. And it has nothing at all to do with freedom. --John J. Miller In pursuit of fairness at any cost, we have created a society paralyzed by legal fear: Doctors are paranoid and principals powerless. Little league coaches, scared of liability, stop volunteering. Schools and hospitals start to crumble. The common good fades, replaced by a cacophony of people claiming their “individual rights.”  By: Alan G. Williams List Price: $24.95 Amazon Price: $16.47 Editorial Review: Although 25% of all physicians are sued for medical malpractice each year and 65% of all physicians are sued sometime during their careers, most medical malpractice claims can easily be prevented by following seven simple rules. This concise reference manual clearly yet succinctly shows physicians and physicians-in-training how to avoid malpractice claims, explaining in simple terms the basic strategies to preventing claims before they ever begin. Written by an expert medical malpractice defense attorney--who teaches malpractice prevention techniques at medical schools, teaching hospitals and medical centers across the country--and edited by a team of physicians, Physician, Protect Thyself is endorsed by physicians at Harvard, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Dartmouth, Cornell, the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown and Colorado, to name a few. Recommended reading for every physician, resident, fellow, intern and medical student, following Physician, Protect Thyself's suggestions will definitely result in the reduction of malpractice claims.  By: Arnold S. Goldstein List Price: $24.95 Amazon Price: $16.47 Editorial Review: There is a lawsuit explosion!;Over 50 million lawsuits will be filled this year. So Sue Me! This 2nd edition reveals the little known secrets and strategies guaranteed to protect both your personal and business assets from any financial disaster. This book is specifically targeted to people who want to protect thier assets from lawsuits.... divore.... creditors.... and other deadly threats to their wealth. Avoid the 5 biggest asset protection mistakes. Get the inside facts on liability insurance. When corporations, FLP's, LLC's, co-ownerships, domestic trusts and exemption laws will and won't protect you. Go offshore safely and inexpensively. How to shield your assets from divorce, the IRS, creditors, and bankruptcy. Save income and estate taxes....and much more. So Sue Me! is designed to be your personal armchair and guide to a lifelong financial security. Delivering strategies that have been used and developed over Dr. Goldstein's 40+ years of experience. The trick is not making money, it's keeping it! |
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