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Around the Web in Law

When “payment is full” isn’t really payment in full.

When one agrees to accept a payment as one “in full”, does it really mean “payment in full?”  According to the California Supreme Court, the answer is - sort of. In Parnell v. Adventist Health System / West, the high court held that when a hospital treats an injured plaintiff and then accepts the contractually-agreed upon reduced rate from the plaintiff’s medical insurance provider as “payment in full,” the hospital cannot then assert a lien under the Hospital Lien Act (Cal. Civ. Code, secs. 3045.1-3045.6) against the plaintiff’s damage recovery from the third-party tortfeasor.  The court reasons that acceptance of the payment in full from the plaintiff’s insurance carrier extinguishes the plaintiff’s obligation to the hospital and, thus, removes any basis for the assertion of the HLA lien.

Justice is for morons.

After reading about Justice at Robert Ambrogi’s LawSites, I requested a press kit from the publisher. A mock-up of a Justice cover contained in the press kit gives you a pretty good idea that the magazine, even if it is for morons, might be a hit. Justice, it seems, aspires to be the National Enquirer of the legal press.  Future readers might hope that JUSTICE takes the time to add a couple of copyeditors and proofreaders to its staff. You could say that failing to do so would be an INJUSTICE . .  except that the magazine seems to be targeting folks who can’t read.

Blogging as academic publishing.

The problem is that blogs run the gamut from the really useful and insightful (e.g. my new colleague Larry Solum) to useless navel gazing (I’m not going to fill in that blank).  Of course we already have to evaluate all kinds of publishing. But the point is that traditionally we’ve relied on student law review editors.  Blogging will force us to come up with new standards and, even, read and judge the stuff for ourselves. 

Usability: how good usability can improve performance in your business. 

When it comes to user errors caused by bad design, there’s a further problem as well: If the interface fails to provide adequate feedback, users might not even realize that they’ve committed an error. How many of your office systems could be improved by asking your customers and staff to show you how they use them and problems they face?