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July 6 marked an historic moment in the history of New York's Court of Appeals. Some will argue (this author included) that it is a black mark against the court's reputation as an institution willing to take a different, non-traditional path for the determination of significant, historic and controversial issues of equal rights and equal protection under the law when the high courts of its sister states have often ducked and evaded the opportunity to confront societal biases head on. Oftentimes, our Court of Appeals has turned to the New York State Constitution for this purpose in order to ensure that the underpinnings of its decisions will withstand attack in the Federal Courts. Nevertheless, the current Court of Appeals has punted the issue of same-sex marriage back to New York's Legislature over a carefully crafted and ringing dissent by Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye.

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In products liability cases in most states, a plaintiff's conduct that contributes to his or her harm does not bar a claim, but instead may be considered by the jury in weighing the comparative fault of the parties. But should a case even have to go to a jury when the very harm that the plaintiff is suing for resulted from the plaintiff's own criminal misconduct?

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Anthony M. Gamboa, Jr. of Vocational Econometrics Inc. (VEI) has produced a new edition of the New Worklife Expectancy Tables (the Tables), which purport to show, using statistical averages, how much work loss an injury will cause over the injured person's lifetime. The Tables are used almost exclusively by plaintiffs to establish damages, especially plaintiffs who have been injured and expect to return to work, or who have missed no work at all at the time of trial.

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The number of doctors and hospitals making virtual house calls has exploded in recent years, which has lawyers cautioning the medical community about the legal dangers of treating and monitoring patients via the Internet. Attorneys warn that virtual medicine ' which has popped up in hospitals and clinics in more than a dozen states in the last 2 years ' could open the floodgates to malpractice claims, privacy disputes and licensure problems.

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Over the past year, hospitals, doctors and health insurers have been meeting to discuss pay-for-performance (P4P), the latest attempt to correct our dysfunctional health-care payment system. The general concept is actually quite simple: Providers of health-care services would be paid more if they achieve certain performance metrics and less if they don't.