Sunday, July 14, 2002

Litigating good grades An article from Salon describes a recent trend of parents using litigation (or the threat of litigation) to challenge poor grades given to their children.  An excerpt: "Welcome to high school in America, 2002, where grades are a niggling annoyance that can be swept aside by a well-placed threat, and where teachers and administrators only have authority as long as they don't displease parents. Bad grades, discipline problems, shocking attendance records: Offenses that in the past warranted school action as strong as suspension, dismissal from school or refusal to grant a diploma are easily blocked or reversed -- as long as Dad's got a good lawyer.                     *  *  *                    "Says John Mitchell, deputy director of the American Federation of Teachers, 'Teachers are under incredible pressure right now from two places: from policymakers to raise standards and teach to those higher standards. Then on the other side you have parents giving pressure to teachers not to hold kids up to the high standards. Teachers are between a rock and a hard place ... It's an area ripe for lawsuits.'" 10:30:02 PM     The medical malpractice crisis Medical Economics has an article entitled Malpractice crisis? Not here!, which describes several states as locales with a "good malpractice climate".   What caught my eye and justified adding a squib here was a chart called "Where malpractice payments are lowest", depicting Michigan as ninth lowest (and California as the very lowest), based on the median payments for the period 1990-2000.  Considering payments in 2000 only, Michigan is tied with Colorado for third lowest, with California again at the head (or foot) of the line.  The source for the information is National Practitioner Data Bank data, and the median figures cover only cases in which a jury has awarded damages or a settlement has been paid.  Dismissals and defense verdicts are not included.  The chart is included to support the position that states with "solid tort reform measures" have smaller judgments in malpractice cases, but the listing of 11 states includes three (Iowa, Vermont, and Minnesota) with no limit on damages.  Given the fact that Michigan was considered a "hotbed" of medical malpractice liability in the 1980s, one would have to conclude that the 1986 and 1993 tort reform provisions have indeed had an impact on the liability climate in this state.  (See also our comments below on the Las Vegas hospital closure issue.) 7:15:14 PM     "I don't have a choice" The Weekly Standard comments on a first-person story in the New York Times Magazine describing the steps taken by the parents of a pregnant 15-year-old to pressure her into having an abortion,  going so far as to stage an "intervention", despite her professed desire to keep the baby.  This quote from the daughter when she finally gives in to her parents turns the abortion debate on its end. 4:42:06 PM     Visual Thesaurus PlumbDesign's Visual Thesaurus is an impressive Java-enhanced web site which uses mind-mapping technologies to allow the visitor to use two- or three-dimensional connections to step through word relationships until the proper term is found.  This is one of the types of applications where mind-mapping software such the The Brain really shines.  I consider these programs to be visually impressive but in the end practically useless as a quotidian (look it up) personal information tool, but the technology does have its niches where it can be truly striking.  This is clearly one of them. 10:41:02 AM

© Copyright 2002 Franco Castalone. Last update: 8/1/2002; 6:36:09 PM.