Statement RE: Failure of Proposition 79
Where Do the Candidates Stand on Lawsuit Abuse?
Can legal leopards change their spots: Hollow Sincerity -- Glueck and Cihak Comment
Can legal leopards change their spots: A treat instead of a trick -- Glueck and Cihak Comment
Medical third strike, WND -- Glueck and Cihak Comment
Litigious HMO legislation could well be a giant step toward socialized medicine.
Physicians strike back at last!
The 'Everlasting O.J. Syndrome'
Patients Bill of Rights Editorial
Legal Disease - Epidemic Of Lawsuits Costs Taxpayers Money
Sweetheart Deal Enriches Law Firm / The Orange Grove
Smoking Gun Verdict
Why The Editorial Silence On Tort Reform
Abusive Class Action Lawsuits Hurt All Of Us
Lawsuit Abuse Makes It Impossible to Buy Affordable Housing in CA
Why Changing MICRA is a Bad Idea
Third-Party Lawsuits
Can legal leopards change their spots: Hollow Sincerity -- Glueck and Cihak Comment
The weeks since 9-11 have been a time of great heroism and unity. Theyhave also been a time for certain groups and persons to disgracethemselves. The professional America-haters, the Blame America Firstcrowd and an attention-craving ex-president. But now comes a new and,in some ways, even uglier disgrace: the war-profiteers. click for more...
Can legal leopards change their spots: A treat instead of a trick -- Glueck and Cihak Comment CAN the legal leopards change theirspots? In the adversity of the tragic events of September 11, 2001, we hopeso. We also hope this is a sincere gesture not a public relations tactic. On Wednesday September 12 -- one day after the terrorist attack -- TheAmerican Trial Lawyers Association (ATLA) announced that it had asked itsmembers to declare a moratorium on World Trade Center and Pentagon relatedlawsuits. click for more...
Medical third strike, WND -- Glueck and Cihak Comment Strike 1: About 25 years ago it was the lawyers who were persecuting physicians with malpractice lawsuits. Their malpractice assault raised medical costs directly due to extreme lawyers' fees and judgments and indirectly by causing doctors to practice "defensive medicine." Medicine and physicians painfully survived this assault but may not live far beyond the proposed additional rights to sue in the "Patients' Bill of Rights" unless reasonable legal restraints are added. click for more...
Litigious HMO legislation could well be a giant step toward socialized medicine. Almost everyone has commented on the "Patients' Bill of Rights." This gives us the chance as physicians to tell you - that once again - the mainly liberal press have missed some of the critical issues. click for more...
Physicians strike back at last! What do you call a few good women physicians in San Jose, California, fighting back against managed-care plans? click for more...
The 'Everlasting O.J. Syndrome' To paraphrase an old adage, "Shaft us once and it's your fault. But shaft us twice and it's our fault." O. J. Simpson was arrested five days after the murders of Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman on Sunday, June 12, 1994. Probably no other event in recent American history revealed so much about the indecent behavior of some of those whom we once trusted to implement our legal and judicial system. click for more...
Patients Bill of Rights Editorial With the seriously ill Patients' Bill of Rights -- what you see and hear -- is not what you will get. click for more...
Legal Disease - Epidemic Of Lawsuits Costs Taxpayers Money - And Much More Warning! There are some new contagious diseases that even the modern miracles of medicine won't ever be able to cure. Spread through close contact with trial lawyers, they include lawsuititis, legal paralysis and class-action insanity. click for more...
Sweetheart Deal Enriches Law Firm / The Orange Grove Just when you thought it was safe to come out after the county's torrential rains, the head of the legal cobra again raises its head and devours your money.
click for more...
Smoking Gun Verdict At first sight the $145 billion tobacco settlement in Florida may seem good for our national health. But as a physician I feel the longterm term [sic] ramifications will be just the opposite. Americans need to assume responsibility by taking charge of their own health. click for more...
Why The Editorial Silence On Tort Reform Orange County is one of the most litiginous regions in California and the entire nation. Legions of county trial attorneys and their firms have pocketed previously unheard of obscene sums in their greedy little wallets. On the issue of tort reform one major candidate has an exemplary record and the other a dismal one. click for more...
Abusive Class Action Lawsuits Hurt All Of Us Orange County's amazing parks, services, museums, arts,entertainment, and thriving economy make our state one of the greatest places to live.
But there's nothing like a big class action suit to throw a wet blanket on our quality of life. There's a monster lurking here, threatening our economic stability. Class action lawsuits are about to lunge forth with a vengeance. click for more...
Lawsuit Abuse Makes It Impossible to Buy Affordable Housing in California Every movement needs a monument: A place where people decided their time for action had come. That place for the legal and housing crisis in California just might be in Huntington Beach. For it is the Bolsa Chica property in Huntington Beach that gives us one of the most instructive examples of how lawsuit abuse has driven up the cost of housing to catastrophic levels, and driven many California families away from buying their first home. click for more...
Why Changing MICRA is a Bad Idea
Changing MICRA would create a chain reaction that will: Hit consumers with higher health care costs. These are real, working people in your district who will pay more out of their pockets for health coverage, prescriptions and doctor visits.
Jeopardize the ability of small business owners in your district to provide health coverage for employees due to higher costs. The result will be more Californians without health insurance.
Community clinics and hospitals will be at greater risk of liability. This will jeopardize access to care for California's working poor and place an additional, unnecessary tax burden on all Californians as taxpayer supported emergency rooms treat those who cannot pay for care. MICRA does not need to be adjusted for inflation.
Under MICRA, injured victims are entitled to unlimited recovery for economic damages (lost wages, medical costs, etc.)
MICRA's cap only applies to non-economic damages, which are in addition to any economic damages.
Payments for economic damages have increased at nearly twice the rate of inflation since MICRA was passed.
Third-Party Lawsuits
Why Consumers Lose if the Supreme Court is Overturned And Non-policyholder Lawsuits Over Claims Handling are Revived. A four-year decline in auto insurance rates would be reversed almost overnight.
Consumers pay insurance premiums. If the risk of liability goes up for the insurance companies, their litigation costs will go up and, therefore, our insurance rates will go up to cover those costs. The price of auto insurance would not be the only area affected.
Third-party lawsuits could also increase the cost of homeowners, property, casualty and business insurance. Everyone who pays premiums for liability insurance of any kind would face higher costs.
A recent study predicted that consumers could pay as much as 14.5 percent more for all types of liability insurance if these lawsuits are once again allowed. Taxpayers would be burdened with higher court costs.
The California Department of Finance estimates that these lawsuits could increase court costs by as much as $25 million. Those are taxpayer dollars that would be better spent on community services, public education and fighting crime. History proves that allowing these lawsuits is bad for California.
These lawsuits were allowed from 1979 to 1988. During that time the amount of litigation in California's courts doubled, and insurance rates increased as much as 60 percent. This legislation is not needed.
Consumers who feel they have been treated unfairly already have recourse through the State Department of Insurance.
