NO-FAULT – DEFAMATION – QUALIFIED PRIVILEGE – MALICE Hame v. Lawson (2nd Dept., decided 2/2/2010) Can an insurer be sued for defamation in relation to statements it makes about the insured or claimant while it is investigating whether or after it has concluded that the claim is fraudulent?&nbs ...

The Illinois Supreme Court struck down the state’s $500,000 cap on awards for pain and suffering in medical malpractice lawsuits against doctors, finding that the limits set by the Legislature violate the state constitution’s separation of powers principle. The court threw out a law pas ...

Following now-Senator Scott Brown’s supermajority-busting win of TedKennedy’sSeat™ in Massachusetts, the Democrat rats are quickly leaping from the Obama sinking ship. The latest “run away” moment comes on the heels of the Obama FY2011 budget proposal. Unsurprisingly, the POTUS continues his trillio ...

Brian Gaston, a longtime advisor to Republicans on Capitol Hill, is joining The Glover Group as managing director of government affairs practice. Gaston most recently served as leadership advisor to Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO). Prior to that, he served four years as Blunt’s chief of staff. “Fe ...

Brian Gaston, a top staffer to Republican Rep. Roy Blunt, is joining The Glover Park Group, a public affairs firm known for its Democratic ties. Gaston is the second major Republican hire for the Glover Park Group. Kevin Madden, a...

Toyota faced another round of bad news this week with the announcement today of a probe by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) into braking problems in the popular Prius hybrid model. NHTSA has received at least 124 complaints about momentary braking problems in the defective ...

Former administrative law judge Roy Pearson hit a snag in a federal appeals court in Washington today. Call it an admonishment from the bench or maybe a simple "do over." A three judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals...

Transportation Secretary retracts recommendation not to drive recalled Toyota vehicles Toyota shares dropped when Transportation Secretary Roy LaHood told a congressional committee that drivers of the recalled Toyota vehicles should not drive them until they are fixed. Later at a press conference, ...

By Allison Jones THE CANADIAN PRESS TORONTO — When a 15-year-old boy, whose death would prompt major reviews of school safety, lay dying at the bottom of a stairwell in his high school no one realized at first that he had been shot, a Toronto court heard Wednesday. Jordan Manners was lying not in a ...

How do writers read? I've come to believe that writers see things in texts that are invisible to others. Moreover, I have a theory that the best writers are the best readers, possessed with a kind of X-ray vision that allows them to peer through the surface of a text, to see the machinery whirring ...