Ohio

Blogiversary

 The other day, in discussing the Supreme Court’s decision on the nursing home arbitration agreement, I linked to a post that I’d done on May 14, 2006.  Other than the de rigeur welcome post, it was the very first one I did.

That’s right.  Today I’m starting my fourth year of doing this.  Although it takes a fair amount of time, probably around ten to twelve hours a week, I’ve enjoyed it immensely.  As you may have gathered, I’ve got a pretty serious writing jones, and this takes care of it.  Plus, it’s a nice little ego trip to have other lawyers and even judges ask me questions, thinking that I may actually may know what I’m talking about.  Essentially, this blog has vindicated my long-held belief that if you write and speak well, people will think you are a good bit smarter than you actually are.

So, in honor of my blogiversay, I’m taking the day off from heavy legal stuff.  Some notes from around the Internet…

And you were on the lookout for problem drinkers.  If you think Hollywood has an affinity for formulaic plots, check out the videos in the one-hour mandated CLE on substance abuse:  We see Lawyer Harry showing up for work in an increasingly disheveled state, missing pretrials and blowing off clients, until finally the managing partner confronts him about the need to get help for his drinking problem.  Cue the next scene, where Harry is sitting around a table with a bunch of other reformed attorneys, sharing stories about how their careers were saved by the timely intervention of their associates.

Well, that was then.  LegalBlog Watch brings us news of a more immediate problem:  the effect of recession-caused job loss on attorneys.  Quoting from an article on a study of the psychological effects of unemployment, based on “happiness data” collected from people here and in England (and no, I’m not making that up:  they call it “happiness data”), the post informs us that there have been three lay0ff-related suicides at major law firms in the past six months, and that the ABA recently sponsored a CLE program entited “What Lawyers Need to Know About Suicide During a Recession:  Prevention, Identity and Law Firm Responsibility.” 

You think that’s frivolous?  The New York Daily News compiles a list of the most ridiculous lawsuits of all time.  No 8:

In 1999, Daniel Dukes’ drowned body was found in the killer whale Tillikum’s tank at Sea World Orlando. Dukes apparently dodged security and stayed in the park after closing - and somehow ended up in only his underwear in the killer whale’s tank.

His parents sued, claiming that there was no public warning that the killer whale could in fact, kill, The Mirror said. Vic Abbey, Sea World’s executive vice president at the time, told the New York Times that the suit was “as crazy as they come.”

Then again, as my good bud Brian Wilson points out over on his Bull’s-Eye Blog, while it’s fashionable for the tort reform people to point to these kinds of suits, they never seem to mention some of the litigation that corporations institute.  Like the suit by Mutual of Omaha against Oprah Winfrey, “claiming she misappropriated the phrase ‘aha moment’ that Mutual has used in its recent commercials.”

Well, I’m off to eat my blogiversary cake.  See you on Monday.

Full post as published by The Briefcase on May 15, 2009 (boomark / email).