LJN Newsletters

On Sept. 14, the Republican-led House passed a bill dubbed the Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act of 2004 that aims to do just that: deter attorneys and their clients from bringing unfounded suits. The vote was 229-174 for the bill that would impose sanctions on lawyers who bring suits that are deemed unfounded.

Recent news of importance to you and your practice.

Recent verdict you need to know.

Times have changed. Depositions, used at trial for impeachment purposes, are now more than just dry words on a page. Increasingly, they are on videotape and the courts are happy about that. Weseloh-Hurtig v. Hepker, 152 F.R.D. 198, 201 (D. Kan. 1993). Should medical malpractice lawyers feel the same way? Well, it depends on whether you are the attorney taking the deposition or if you are the one whose client's deposition is being captured on video. It can be a blessing or it can be the death knell for your case. Let's look at this developing trend.

In the previous months' newsletters, we looked at two of the three significant cases interpreting the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, Pub. L. No. 104-191, 110 Stat. 1936 (1996) (HIPAA). Northwestern Memorial Hospital v. Ashcroft, 2004 U.S. App. LEXIS 5724 (7th Cir. 2004), a case decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, rejected the idea that HIPAA created a new federal privilege regarding abortion medical records. In South Carolina Medical Association v. Thompson, 327 F.3d 346, 2003 U.S. App. LEXIS 7940 (4th Cir. 2003)(cert. denied 2003 U.S. LEXIS 8010 (U.S., Nov. 3, 2003)), the Fourth Circuit held the HIPAA regulations themselves to be constitutional. The third case of note on the subject of HIPAA interpretation, which we look at this month, is Law v. Zuckerman, 307 F. Supp. Part Three of a Three-Part Article.

Each October we devote most of our content to public relations. This month we are once again spotlighting the work of Levick Strategic Communications and…

Recently, at the American Bar Association Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Deval Patrick, the General Counsel (GC) of the Coca-Cola Company, said: "We are not hiring law firms, we're hiring lawyers."
Many, many GCs say the same thing. Seriously, by now this has become cliche in the legal services market: time and time again, in-house General Counsels say they hire lawyers not law firms. So why in the world do firms spend so much time and money marketing the firms rather than the attorneys and (at most) practice groups that are the actual marketplace products?

Marketing measurements generally come in two flavors; quantitative and qualitative. We'll talk next month about some quantitative measurements relative to marketing at your firm. This month, though, we'll discuss the ever-popular survey. On a scale of 1-7, how likely are you to read the rest of this article?