LexMonitor | Prominent Topics and Discussion

New ABA Poll on the job market and the economy

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 08:01:37 GMT

The ABA Journal is surveying lawyers about the job market and the current state of the economy. Results will be published in the January edition of the Journal.

Blawg Reviews & Other Bloggy Goodness

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 08:01:08 GMT

Hello Faithful Readers!

Next week's Blawg Review will be hosted right here, by Yours Truly. Not coincidentally, May 5th is also International Midwives' Day, so of course the theme of Number 158 will be "Midwifery and the Law". But posts on a wide variety of legal topics will be included as well. If you would like to submit a post for consideration, instructions are available at Blawg Review.

This week's Blawg Review has been posted at Thoughts From a Management Lawyer, a Canadian labor & employment law blog. Also of note: Carnival of Moms in The Law is a monthly law-moms roundup hosted by Power of Attorney. Moms In Lawschool is a weekly carnival which rotates between PT-LawMom and A Little Fish in Law School. And the law-student author of the intriguing The Art of Manliness is starting The Manival, a blog carnival "for posts dedicated to man stuff."

Enjoy, and please come visit next Monday for Blawg Review!

Mediation & Chicken Soup?

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 05:00:21 GMT

What do mediation and chicken soup have in common? They’re both good for you!

According to a recent article in The New York Times, “Study Finds Settling Is Better Than Going To Trial,” a study to be published in the September issue of the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies has found that most of the plaintiffs who rejected a settlement offer and went to trial received less money than if they had accepted the offer. Defendants “made the wrong decision by proceeding to trial far less often, in 24 percent of cases; plaintiffs were wrong in 61 percent of cases. In just 15 percent of cases, both sides were right to go to trial — meaning that the defendant paid less than the plaintiff had wanted but the plaintiff got more than the defendant had offered.”

Mediators are the “agents of reality” empowering the parties. This role becomes even more critical in the face of the study’s findings which “suggest that lawyers may not be explaining the odds to their clients — or that clients are not listening to their lawyers.”

It's a very interesting article - worth reading!

To email me, click Perry S. Itkin.

I'm feeling a little chilly

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:57:54 GMT

I try to keep up on law library issues from abroad. My favourite source from the US, the Law Librarian Blog, alerted me to the recent changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Wikipedia has a good summary of this