5 comments about Damages.

1. I am a college student studying to be a medical assistant. I had to write an essay on a specific medical lawsuit for my class "Medical Law and Ethics." I have not read a nonfiction book in years, but once I started reading this book I could not put it down. It is so stimulating, exciting, and brilliant. Mr. Werth had little to work with since there was no court room drama. He did a spectacular job with the resources he had. He is indeed an intelligent writer. I wish him well.



2. Well written, a gripping story and balanced. I am teaching a course on medical malpractice at the local law school. This book is the text. It provides a frame work to discuss numerous issues and the potential impact - or more accurately non-impact - of many tort reform proposals.



3. This is a wonderful book for anyone involved in the litigation process or anyone involved in the health care field.

   I am a structured settlement consultant who works with personal injury attorneys and some insurance companies. This is the best book I have ever seen about the process.

   I have purchased over 200 copies of the book to give to trial attorneys, claims professionals and other structured settlement professionals. All love the book. It reads like a novel.

   Don McNay...




4. I'm a medical doctor embroiled in a battle to expose a corrupt insurance company engaged in racketeering. I think (and have been told) that this is a story that needs telling. There are lots of twists and turns, corporate and government cover-ups, some drama, many sympathetic characters in the form of other victims of the abuses of this company, and lots of anguish. Thousands are suffering and some committing suicide because of the actions of this company. It will take me years to get to court, if that is even possible. Except for the Internet contacts I've made and a few friends, I am working practically alone. The legal profession has all but abandoned the public and their actions in covering these crimes up with confidentiality agreements, for those who can even afford lawyers, is allowing it to continue and worsen and spread, like a cancer.



5. This is a wonderfully written and wonderfully worthwhile look into the healthcare and legal communities...it is a book that you won't be able to put down. The characters are well presented and you will find "knowing" them will enrich your own life.

5 comments about Truth at Any Cost: Ken Starr and the Unmaking of Bill Clinton.

1. Let's see. Ken Starr wastes the public money attacking Bill Clinton with false accusations while at the same time siding with KON-servative Mitch Mcconnel of KY to allow for more corrupt campaigns as if there aren't any already !!! This book is a perfect tool for neconservative NAZIS to enjoy and drool over but is otherwise useless trash for the rest of us who are already facing mass destruction by Bush/Cheney/Rove/Delay and GOP with of course a spineless opposition that barely got together to defend Clinton but easily caved into and defended Bush the liar-in-chief !



2. So Bill Clinton had his men muscle poor Ken Starr who did a fabulous job exposing this infidel. Clinton was disbarred and impeached but still allowed to finish his term, hand out pardons to criminals, steal furniture from the white house and take the economy right down the toilet.

   I gues that saying about the golden rule: "the man with gold makes the rules" is very true.

   Another reason why I am glad that I am no longer a democrat. Or is that democ(rat).




3. This smarmy little work of personal opinion, conjecture and gossip fits in neatly with its subject: independent counsel Kenneth Starr and the private lives of any human being that had any contact with President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary. Highly recommend wearing your gloves to keep the oil off your hands.



4. Truth At Any Cost does not pretend to be evenhanded. Instead, co-authors Susan Schmidt and Michael Weisskopf examine the Lewinsky affair from the standpoint of those inside the Office of Independent Counsel. The result is a new perspective on an exhaustively covered scandal.

   This book dwells little on Whitewater and the other investigations that led to the appointment of Independent Counsel Ken Starr. The authors instead concentrate on the sexual scandal that led to Clinton's impeachment and how Starr and his subordinates responded. It would have been nice to know more about the men and women who investigated the president, but the focus is on personality rather than biography. The authors depict Starr in a much different light than the oft-demonized caricature that was spoon-fed the public. Again, it would have been nice to know more about Starr's background, but the concentration is on his character. Starr is presented here as a conscientious but politically naive lawyer better suited to the bench than to the OIC.

   Although relatively brief, the book drags a bit but picks up steam in the latter chapters as the independent counsel gathers and compiles evidence against the president. A few new revelations emerge along the way. Among them is Hillary Clinton's central role in the defense of her husband and in the counteroffensive against his opponents.

   This book is worth reading just to see why, as well as how, the prosecutors pursued this case so vigorously. Their motivations often run counter to the stereotypes floated at the time, and this makes for a new spin on an old story.




5. I just finished reading the Hunting of the President by Conanson and Lyon, and Truth at Any Cost. These books provide an instructive contrast. Thus, while Hunting provides copious footnotes for factual assertions, Truth far too often presents the judgments, feelings, assessments and views of Starr and his staff in subtle substitution for attributed facts and as though those statements were the complete truth and not worthy of further examination. This fault becomes more clear when combined with the artful and disingenuous sorting and choice of facts to support its assertions.

   Some readers have expressed approval of the discussion of legal stategy presented by Truth and there certainly is plenty of discussion of these subjects which can serve to inform. But what a critical comparision of Hunting and Truth reveals is how an advocate's ordering of facts, use of conclusions in lieu of facts and reference to subjective views, judgments etc. as facts can present the distorted picture sought only by an advocate. Happily enough, in the context of appellate advocacy, such biased presentation of a factual or legal case is quickly dispelled by reply briefs of one's opponent before an appellate tribunal.

   As an example of the difficulty with the facts presented in support of the author's presentation is that involving David Hale. Mr. Hale's statement are presented at one point to debunk critics of the Staff investigation. Yet, as Hunting points out, Hale has a long history of lying about anything involving Clinton, to say nothing of stealing, all of which Truth ignores.

   Lastly, the book goes to on at length to justify Starr's expenditure of public funds to uncover Clinton's sexual behavior and lies about that. However, one striking thing to any civil litigator must be the number of times perjury is clear in an ordinary civil proceeding, and yet there is complete disinterest from prosecutorial authorities. I suggest that perjury is generally considered worthy of prosecution in the abstract by our society, but apparently not in the real world when compared against other crimes deemed more damaging to society. Yet when Starr as an independent prosecutor assigned to investigate only Clinton learns of possible future perjury in litigation he previously particpated in as an advocate for Clinton's opponent, that limitation on prosecutorial discretion goes out the window and requires the investment of millions of dollars and countless FBI agents. Clinton's behavior was unseemly. Despite Schmidt's and Weisskopf's efforts to portray Starr otherwise, his actions were also quite unseemly.

No comments about Brandeis and the Progressive Constitution: Erie, the Judicial Power, and the Politics of the Federal Courts in Twentieth-Century America.

No comments about There When We Needed Him: Wiley Austin Branton, Civil Rights Warrior.

No comments about America's First Woman Lawyer: The Biography of Myra Bradwell.

3 comments about A Lawyer's Journey: The Morris Dees Story (ABA Biography Series).

1. No one could help but be a fan of Mr. Dees when he is addressing issues of white racism. That people like him stood up years ago for justice when others turned their backs, should be commended. But reading this book in the light of current events made me wonder: is the bigotry in a church, say, like Jeremiah Wright's dealt with by the SPLC? Just go to the Southern Poverty site and check for yourself. No way. It seems bigotry is only one-sided. This ashame. Bigotry in all its forms should be dealt with in an even-handed manner. It just makes you wonder what (or what isn't) going on down there in Montgomery.



2. I supported the Southern Poverty Law Center without knowing its history, because I liked what it stood for, especially the Teaching Tolerance program. Reading this book helped me see the progression of the Center. I recommend it for anyone wishing to know more about the inside story of desegration in the South. It's a fascinating read, especially for amateurs interested in the law.



3. This book was about Morris Dees fight against the KKK. It centered around two or three big trials that helped bring he KKK down. It was clearly a personal fight for Dees. His life was threatened several times by the KKK. While he claims not to be a civil rights attorney, he has a strong sense of justice and figthts for what he believes is right.
   
   He also helped found The Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that helps repressed indigent people. Not all of the clients he represents are "good" people, but he feels that everyone deserves a fair trial.
   
   Overall it was a decent book, but sometimes his ego got in the way of the story.

5 comments about Fighting for Dear Life: The Untold Story of Terri Schiavo and What It Means for All of Us.

1. I purchased this book after reading Mark Fuhrman's Silent Witness. The passion which David writes with is profound. I found this book an amazing account of the injustice served on Terri. While I enjoyed reading it I had to take breaks occasionally because it was so intense and disturbing. How could something like this actually happen in the U.S.? I knew our justice system was flawed but I had no idea how much power one person could have and that someone could be killed through judicial homicide. This book will certainly have you thinking.



2. Every single one of us has a terminal body. Some of just have healthier terminal bodies. And some of us--like my newborn son--need substantial assistance to do something as simple as eating.
   
   I don't expect my home state to order the withholding of nutrition to my son. But that is what the state of Florida--or, rather, one unchecked judge in Florida--ordered for someone else who could not feed herself: Terri Schiavo.
   
   David Gibbs represented Terri Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, in the later stages of that tragic event in our nation's history. His account of that event, Fighting for Dear Life, brings to heart and mind again the maddening outcome, which has already seemingly faded so quickly from our nation's conscience. As Gibbs tells it, it is his story of:
   
   "Why I fought for Terri.
   Why I'd do it again.
   And why I'd fight for you too."
   
   Gibbs can't tell us why Terri Schiavo had to die. No human can. But Gibbs does tell us that Ms. Schiavo had minimal cognition; that her parents loved her and wanted nothing more than to care for her; that her husband had broken his marriage vows; that he refused to allow her to see the outside world or to allow the outside world see her; that he did not spend a dime of the medical malpractice judgment on her rehabilitation, despite telling the jury he would do so; that the only evidence of her supposed wish to die was her husband's and his family's hearsay statements, that the judicial system failed her, and that she died a painful, unnecessary death.
   
   Few real life stories have such distinct Good Guys (Gibbs, the Schindlers, Ms. Schiavo herself, Governor Jeb Bush, President Bush, the Florida legislature, and the U.S. Congress) and Bad Guys (Michael Schiavo, George Felos, Judges George Greer and James Whittemore) as this one. If you care about life issues, and on the pro-life side, you will clinch your fists all over again.
   
   Especially appreciated is the final five chapters, which are essentially a written sermon explaining the global importance of what we allowed to happen to Terri Schiavo. One can hope that Ms. Schiavo's story as told in Fighting for Dear Life will revive all of us again to a culture of life.



3. I have read comments and reviews elsewhere that say "Fighting for Dear Life" unfairly demonizes Michael Schiavo. I have to wonder if these people actually read this book, as the book shows no more demonization of him than what he clearly brought upon himself.
   
   The justification for Michael's "right to die" case was that Terri wasn't really "there" anymore. Recall, however, that it was Michael who barred press coverage from Terri's room. It was Michael who kept visitors to an absolute minimum, right up to the end. It was Michael who exercised the strictest control over what the American public would see - and not see - of Terri. Why? If Terri was so self-evidently "not there anymore," why would he demand such restrictive coverage of her? Privacy? Dignity? I don't think so...if she was no longer "there," there was neither dignity nor sense of privacy left to violate.
   
   If the accounts in this book are true, the reason for Michael's actions are obvious: Terri actually WAS "there" right up to the end, and Michael fully knew it. If the lawyer's accounts of Terri's capacities are true, letting the press in for unrestricted coverage would have blown Michael's entire case out of the water, and for all I know may have opened him up to all kinds of trouble. Best case scenario, he would have come out as the villain many people have long suspected he is.
   
   So if you've read this book you have a choice to make: disregard this book as a pack of lies written by an ambulance chaser carrying on a vendetta for a bitter, grieving, vengeful family...or decide that Terri Schiavo really was "there" but was forced to die anyway.
   
   Had the accounts contained in this book been made public two years ago, I believe this case would have ended differently.



4. This book was fantasically written and a true eye opener of the real facts! I was very saddened of the outcome, but it really makes you wonder...are all of your affairs are in order???



5. The heinous death of the most famous resident of Florida 's Woodside Hospice certainly leaves me baffled - to say the least. My understanding is that the hospice movement has grown incredibly over the past two decades - largely due to Medicare reimbursement. Eligibility for Medicare hospice services requires certification by two physicians that a patient's terminal illness limits life expectancy to six months - at tops. How on earth was Terri Schiavo ever accepted into a hospice?
   
   From attorney David Gibbs, I have learned that Terri Schiavo was far, far more responsive and interactive than America was led to believe. Yet, her cognitive level should not have determined whether she received food and water! Mr. Gibbs refers to a 2004 statement by Pope John Paul II, which seemed directly related to the immorality of how Terri was treated: "the administration of water and food, even when provided by artificial means, always represents a natural means of preserving life, not a medical act."

No comments about Of Laws and Limitations: An Intellectual Portrait of Louis Dembitz Brandeis.

No comments about Earl Warren: A Public Life.

1 comments about Equal Justice Under Law: An Autobiography.

1. The book was best when the Judge provides her perspective on events and personalities known to most of us only through news accounts. I enjoyed the book which was a quick read and left me hoping Judge Motely would write another book with greater detail of some of the very interesting episodes in her career. The author's career is remarkable and tracks the major events of the civil rights movement through the eyes of a women who appears to be uneasy with the role model label. I had been looking for a book on Judge Motely after reading several books concerning the civil rights movement. It is remarkable that Judge Motely has not been the subject of biographers. Her story is unique. The book would be useful for lawyers, legal buffs and those searching for true role models. It avoids legalease and is written in a manner which made it a very easy read.