Thursday, September 25, 2003

Avoid PDFExplorer I downloaded and tried PDFExplorer.  Avoid this product.  It exhibits bizarre behavior and runs very slowly.  Early indications of a problem: Although I identified a different directory on a different drive than the default c:-program files-pdfexplorer 1.2 (I never install programs there), it ignored my choice and installed into a newly created directory under c:-program files anyway. To add a PDF file to its database, some parameters have to be entered.  It will not accept an entry, though, without a category, but there was no obvious way to add a new category.  So I had to back out of the dialog and then go looking for the "add a category" button. When I found the button, I hit it, and was brought right back to the same dialog I had seen before.  This piece of garbage was immediately uninstalled from my system. 8:01:43 PM     Trial lawyers and money Tyler Cowen of the Volokh Conspiracy first wrote: The number stunned me. Last year trial lawyers pulled in $40 billion from lawsuits, or twice as much as the revenues of the Coca-Cola company. Then Adam at DaiBlog wrote: So here's my question: Is he stunned that the American Lawyer's list of the top 100 law firms (who do mostly corporate defense work) grossed more than $47 billion last year? Why is only one of these numbers stunning? I have not found (or looked for) the source of either figure, but I don't need to to make the following comments. The number for "trial lawyers" undoubtedly includes lawyers representing plaintiffs in big-ticket commercial or securities cases, not just personal injury cases.  One $10.6 billion verdict in favor of a Pennzoil against a Texaco (just as an example, from several years ago) can skew the numbers dramatically. On the other hand, the use of the American Lawyer number is just as misleading.  The "top 100 law firms" do not do "mostly corporate defense work", as Adam claims.  The big money in large law firms is in fields of practice far removed from defending lawsuits.  If partners in the top 100 law firms are in the top 15th percentile of income, as they undoutedly are, the trial lawyers who defend lawsuits (yes, that's what they are) are perhaps in the 50th-60th percentile.  They make a living, but they aren't getting rich at it. 8:01:08 AM

© Copyright 2003 Franco Castalone. Last update: 10/2/2003; 4:24:51 PM.