Close
Updated:

Rees Morrison Morsels #32 – additions to earlier posts

Settlements in cash. One major manufacturing company’s senior litigator estimated that 95 percent of the company’s settlements were cash (See my post of Aug. 1, 2006 on some settlements not being monetized.).

States adjudged best and worst for plaintiff tort lawyers. InsideCounsel, July 2006 at 17 reported the Pacific Research Institute’s annual ranking of the best and worst state tort systems in America. Such rankings should not be accepted lock, stock and barrel (See my post of May 17, 2006 and the US Chamber of Commerce ranking; but then my posts of June 6 and 7, 2006 with methodological attacks on it.). The Institute looked at 39 variables to come up with its rankings. The states with the worst tort systems were Vermont, Rhode Island, New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The best states, according to the free-market think tank, included Texas, Colorado, North Dakota, Ohio and Michigan. Do you suspect any political correspondence?

Another psychometric test. The Birkman Method® personality profile, partially funded by the National Foundation for Science, helps students clarify their true interests, motivational needs, preferred operating styles and potential stress behaviors. The Birkman has been applied to high level executives in many of the world’s leading organizations (See my posts of Oct. 21, 2005 about less than serious uses of psychometric tests; April 27, 2007 on their use to screen applicants; and April 9, 2005 on thinking styles and such tests.).