Cranky Greg's View

John O'Quinn: RIP

I just heard that John O'Quinn, lawyer extraordinaire from Houston, died in a car wreck last week.

Here's an interesting story about this legal legend.

And here's a video:

George Lobb

This is George Lobb, Cranky Greg's favorite Texas lawyer.

George practices law in Austin, Texas and apparently has an exquisite sense of humor.

The other day in Austin, there was a groundbreaking ceremony for a new federal courthouse.

Lobb showed up and got his shovel and said a few words even though he wasn't an invited "dignitary" and had only been licensed to practice law for a little over a year.

He was given a golden shovel and after everyone figured out what happened, the GSA wanted the shovel back.

I say let George keep his shovel!

Cranky Greg would practice law with George Lobb any time.

The Lawsuit "Reform" Gimmick

The Washington Times editorialized today against trial lawyers by saying that there should be caps for pain and suffering awards in medical malpractice suits as well as limits on attorney's fees.

The Times takes for gospel the following statistics provided by a self-interested physician's group:  half of all neurosurgeons, one-third of all orthopedic surgeons, one-third of all emergency room physicians and one-third of all trauma physicians are sued each year.  These statistics are bogus and are not substantiated by any facts.  Yet The Times relies on them anyway.  Talk about malpractice!

Assuming these bogus statistics are true, if there are so many lawsuits against these physicians, is it possible that these physicians need more training?  If these doctors are such fertile ground for greedy lawyers, the lawyers must be winning some of these cases.  That means that all of these physicians routinely commit malpractice!  How is the public protected when there are special laws designed to protect doctors from the effects of committing malpractice?  Do you think that your health care will improve as a result?

In order to prevail in a malpractice lawsuit against a physician, the plaintiff must show that the physician breached the standard of care owed to the patient.  That means that the offending doctor did not do what a reasonable physician would have done in the same circumstance. It requires another physician to testify and to provide evidence against the accused physician.  In case you didn't know, both sides hire experts.  These experts are very expensive.  Lawyers that sue doctors fund the cases out of their own pockets - up front.  Lawyers don't just sue doctors and go to the teller window and pick up a check!  A lawyer that sues a doctor and then loses at trial or has the case dismissed loses thousands and thousands of dollars.  Lawyers who pick bad cases don't stay in business.

Do we really want a public policy that protects substandard medical care?  Do we really want to protect errant physicians?

California and Texas already have limits on pain and suffering awards.  Did that change health care in Texas or California?  No - it just limited patients who were seriously injured or killed by medical malpractice from recovering for their damage.

Just hope that if you are the victim of serious medical malpractice - where the wrong lung is removed or the wrong limb, etc.... - that you don't live in Texas or California.  Because in these states, such egregious malpractice will ensure that you will not receive any measure of justice.

Cranky Greg doesn't like frivolous lawsuits any more than anyone else.  There are bad lawyers just as there are bad physicians.  Just as bad lawyers should not receive special protection in legal malpractice lawsuits, physicians should not receive special protection, either.

It just seems silly that enacting laws to protect bad doctors will solve all of the health care problems.

Forty Years of Manson

It was 40 years ago today that Charles Manson ordered his minions, Tex Watson, Susan Denise Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Linda Kasabian to start Helter Skelter by going to 10050 Cielo Drive and murdering all occupants of the house there.

The killing spree continued a night later when Manson took Watson and Leslie Van Houten and Krenwinkel to Leno and Rosemary LaBianca's house and ordered them murdered, too.

These gruesome crimes freaked everyone out, and if you haven't read Helter Skelter by prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi and The Family by Ed Sanders, you should do so if you like crime stories.  They don't get any better than this.  And don't forget about the made for TV movie, Helter Skelter.  It is one of the best crime films around, and is scary without silly special effects.  Steve Railsback's portrayal of Charles Manson is downright creepy.

The best website for everything Manson is The Manson Family Today.

Unfortunately, some are starting to have some sympathy for the aging savages.  Susan Denise Atkins is in Chowchilla sans a leg and with a brain tumor.  Some say she should be given a compassionate release.  Cranky Greg thinks she should be executed instead, or allowed to die without any pain killers.

Squeaky Fromme, who tried to kill President Ford, is awaiting release in Fort Worth, Texas.  She'll probably move to Corcoran, California to be near her man, Charlie.

Cranky Greg has always been fascinated by this case ever since he read Helter Skelter when he was very young and it was first published.  Cranky Greg isn't sure why the case still garners a lot of attention, but it probably has to do with the times.  It was 1969, Woodstock, hippies, Hollywood, the Beatles and it all going so wrong.

Credit Check Abuses

Here's a story from the New York Times documenting the problems raised when prospective employers check applicants' credit reports.

Cranky Greg thinks that unless the job description includes dealing with lots of money, this practice should be banned.  Cranky Greg doesn't think that for the most part, credit issues have anything to do with work issues.  For example, while this is anectdotal, Cranky Greg knows of two excellent attorneys who have filed bankruptcy.  A prospective employer checking their credit reports and concluding that the attorneys must not be good attorneys because they filed bankruptcy would be denied the services of two fine attorneys.

And of course, there are many bad attorneys who have nice credit reports.

Is nothing private anymore?

Is it Time to Parole Leslie Van Houten?

John Waters says it's time to free Manson Family member Leslie Van Houten, even though she helped kill Leno and Rosemary LaBianca and then laughed about it afterwords at trial.  In fact, after stabbing their victims that awful night, she and her cohorts, Tex Watson and Patricia Krenwinkel, sat down in the LaBianca's kitchen for an post-killing meal.

Call Cranky Greg crazy, but In Cranky Greg's mind, that means she does not ever deserve to get out of prison.  And hopefully she will rot in hell.

Lila Rose Exposes Planned Parenthood

Lila Rose isn't your typical college student, and certainly not your typical UCLA student.

She started an organization called Live Action....Lila's out to expose Planned Parenthood, that feminist organization run amok, and she's doing a good job of exposing how Planned Parenthood will do just about anything to help girls kill their babies by encouraging lying to judges and covering up for rapists, etc....

With Planned Parenthood, it's all about the abortions.

And federal money, of course.

The L.A. Times did a story on Lila today.

So next time you pay your taxes, you can sleep comfortably knowing that your hard-earned money is going to help kill babies and cover-up for rapists and child molesters.

Check out Lila's YouTube site.

Those Crazy New York Lawyers!

Fancy-pants New York City lawyer Madlyn Primoff was driving around the other day with her two young daughters who are 10 and 12.  As young sisters often do, they started bickering in the car.  Well, Ms. Primoff, who is an attorney and makes a living fussing and fighting all day, couldn't take it anymore so she pulled over and dumped her kids on the side of the road.  She was arrested for endangering a child.

Manhattan lawyer William Parente, while visiting his college-student daughter in Baltimore, killed his wife and two children and then committed suicide.  Friends describe Mr. and Mrs. Parente as a "perfect couple" and the family as "close."  No one knows why Parente went off the deep end.

Former New York attorney general and governor, Elliot Spitzer, resigned in disgrace after the hooker prosecuting prosecutor was found patronizing his former targets.  This weekend, Spitzer took his daughter to see State of Play, a new movie about a congressman who got caught having an affair with a pretty young thang.  Others who were at the show were "squirming" when they saw Spitzer at the show with his daughter.

Mean, Heartless Dallas Cop Resigns

Robert Powell, that ass of a cop in Dallas who likes to play tough guy while his victim's relatives are dying in the hospital, finally resigned.  He probably resigned in lieu of being fired.

A good ass-whoopin' is also in order for that sorry bastard.

More on Dallas PD Officer Robert Powell

Robert Powell, that moron who is a police officer with the Dallas Police Department, apparently has a pattern of acting like the tough guy he is not.

Zach Thomas says his wife was the target of Powell's wrath some months ago, and Powell arrested her over a minor traffic offense and no proof of insurance.

It's time for the DPD to fire Powell and do it now.  He is a disgusting person.