Colorado Law Blog

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Users can also try an "advanced scholar" search link that narrows searches to opinions in specific states, according to the Supreme Court of Texas Blog. Users can also specify whether they want to search for "all of the words," an exact phrase, or at least one of the words. They can also add date and author restrictions.

The opinions will have "cited by" and "related articles" links that take readers to other opinions and articles that will help them understand the information.

Posted by Linda Chalat at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Just in time for the holiday shopping season, the U.S. Consumer Product and Safety Commission held a "Town Hall on Toy Safety" in New York City to discuss with parents the new rules aimed at making toys.

• federal limits for lead in paint on children's toys dropped to 90 parts per million, which is among the lowest in the world;
• toys for children 12 and younger must now be tested and certified that they meet the new lead in paint limits;
• children's toys cannot be made or sold with more than 300 parts per million of total lead;
• children's toys cannot be made or sold with more than 0.1% of six prohibited phthalates;
• and most children's toys now fall under mandatory standards, instead of voluntary ones.

World Against Toys Causing Harm, Inc. (W.A.T.C.H.), a Massachusetts charitable non-profit corporation, has released its annual "10 Worst Toys List." Disappointingly, familiar favorites such as Curious George, Wolverine and Batman appear in some form on the ten worst.

Since 1973, the annual "10 Worst Toys" list has identified toys with the potential to cause childhood injuries, and even death. Interestingly, none of the toys on the W.A.T.C.H. list appear on the Consumer Product and Safety Commission list of "Most Wanted." The CPSC reports that in 2008, 19 toy-related deaths were reported to the federal agency with an estimated 235,300 toy-related injuries in the U.S. resulting in an emergency room visit. A complete report can be found at Toy Related Deaths and Injuries Calendar Year 2008.

Posted by Linda Chalat at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Those opposed to real health care reform are flailing to come up with real, alternative solutions to our current crisis. With all the talk of death panels, government takeovers, and rationing of care, now tort reform has been thrown into the mix.

Yet it will do practically nothing to lower health care costs, and certainly will not fix our broken health care system. However, it will most definitely hurt patients injured through no fault of their own.

Myth #1: There are too many "frivolous" malpractice lawsuits.
Fact: There's an epidemic of medical negligence, not lawsuits. Only one in eight people injured by medical negligence ever file suit. Civil filings have declined eight percent over the last decade, and are less than one percent of the whole civil docket. A 2006 Harvard study found that 97 percent of claims were meritorious, stating, "portraits of a malpractice system that is stricken with frivolous litigation are overblown."

Myth #2: Malpractice claims drive up health care costs.
Fact: According to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, the total spent defending claims and compensating victims of medical negligence was just 0.3% of health care costs, and the Congressional Budget Office and Government Accountability Office have made similar findings.

Myth #3: Doctors are fleeing.
Fact: Then where are they going? According to the American Medical Association's own data, the number of practicing physicians in the United States has been growing steadily for decades. Not only are there more doctors, but the number of doctors is increasing faster than population growth. Despite the cries of physicians fleeing multiple states, the number of physicians increased in every state, and only four states saw growth slower than population growth; these four states all have medical malpractice caps.

Myth #4: Malpractice claims drive up doctors' premiums.
Fact: Empirical research has found that there is little correlation between malpractice payouts and malpractice premiums paid by doctors. A study of the leading medical malpractice insurance companies' financial statements by former Missouri Insurance Commissioner Jay Angoff found that these insurers artificially raised doctors' premiums and misled the public about the nature of medical negligence claims. A previous AAJ report on malpractice insurers found they had earnings higher than 99% of Fortune 500 companies.

Myth #5: Tort reform will lower insurance rates.
Fact: Tort reforms are passed under the guise that they will lower physicians' liability premiums. This does not happen. While insurers do pay out less money when damages awards are capped, they do not pass the savings along to doctors by lowering premiums. Even the most ardent tort reformers have been caught stating that tort reform will have no effect on insurance rates.

Over 98,000 people die every year from preventable medical errors. That's like two 737s crashing every day for a whole year. Instead of focusing on tort law changes that won't fix health care, let's make sure people aren't injured in the first place. Not only will that lower costs, but most importantly, will improve health care for everyone.

Posted by Linda Chalat at 9:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has released its findings for safety ratings of 2010 vehicles. The group provides the ratings on an easy to use website at http://www.iihs.org/ratings/default.aspx with drop down menus to quickly see results for most makes and models. New to the study this year is a rating for rollover safety which assess vehicle roof strength. This new element led to the failure of any Toyota vehicles making the top recommendations for safety. The IIHS website also provides several helpful brochures for consumers, including one on new teenage drivers and another on shopping for a safe car.

Posted by Linda Chalat at 8:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Next year when you bite into that leftover Halloween candy, the discomfort won't only be from the calorie count but also increased cost due to taxes if Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter's proposal to tax candy and soda-pop sales is adopted. Colorado would become one of a growing number of states and localities going after candy bars and soft drinks.

Illinois recently subjected candy and soft drinks to sales tax, San Francisco is considering a soda tax, and candy and soda tax proposals have been considered this year in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. Even President Barack Obama said recently he was interested in the idea of taxing soda, saying kids were drinking too much of it.

Colorado's Department of Public Health and Environment has produced a 154-page Colorado Physical Activity and Nutrition Program plan for 2010 that, among other things, advocates that businesses create a healthier environment by not setting out trays or bowls of candy. And groups such as LiveWell Colorado, which promotes healthier eating and lifestyles, applaud Ritter's idea to tax the foods as well.

Polling from the Kaiser Family Foundation this year has shown only narrow majority support for taxing "junk" food and soft drinks, usually polling in the low to mid-50 percent ranges for both ideas.

The so-called candy tax was among 13 tax credits and exemptions Gov. Bill Ritter proposed repealing to generate $131.8 million to help balance the 2010-11 state budget, which is facing a $1 billion shortfall.

A legal opinion last year said that while lawmakers cannot raise taxes without voter approval, they can eliminate tax exemptions and tax credits without asking Coloradans as long as the new revenue generated doesn't exceed limits under the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights in the state constitution. Critics say doing so still would violate TABOR, but the matter hasn't been put before a court yet.

Since 1980, the state has not imposed sales tax on food purchased for home consumption, with a few exceptions that include vending-machine beverages, chewing gum and certain deli items. Ritter proposes applying the state's 2.9 percent sales tax to "candy" and "soft drinks" sold everywhere, not just vending machines.

According to Ritter's office, at least 16 states tax candy along with all food, while 14 exempt all food except candy. A 2006 report from the Grocery Manufacturers Association said 20 other states imposed either a sales tax or special tax on soft drinks and/or candy. Ritter officials say the fact that other states have been doing it shows such a tax could be workable in Colorado despite industry concerns it would be unwieldy.

Posted by Linda Chalat at 2:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A Denver District Court judge rebuked the state board of health today for changing rules about medical marijuana without providing adequate notice to patients.

In his ruling, Chief Denver District Court Judge Larry Naves struck down the state board's actions from a meeting earlier this month. At that telephone conference meeting the board repealed the definition of medical-marijuana "caregiver", casting the burgeoning industry into uncertainty ---- all without taking public testimony. Naves also ordered the state to pay the attorneys' fees of medical-marijuana advocates, who filed a motion saying they were wrongly blocked from participating in the hearing.

The particular case before Naves stretched back more than two years, when a medical-marijuana patient named Damien LaGoy sued the state over a rule - also adopted without public testimony - limiting the number of people a caregiver could serve. Caregivers, as defined in the state's constitution, are people who provide medical marijuana to patients and have a "significant responsibility for managing the well-being of a patient."

LaGoy, who has AIDS and uses medical marijuana to control nausea from his other medications, won an injunction against the rule, and a settlement in the case requires the Health Department to notify medical-marijuana patients of rule-change hearings. There are now more than 12,000 people on the state's medical marijuana registry, a state official said today.

The state board of health took up the caregiver rule again during a marathon public session this summer, ultimately deciding against setting a patient limit and instead defining a caregiver merely as someone who provides medical marijuana to patients.

However, last month the Colorado Court of Appeals upheld the conviction of a medical-marijuana grower, saying that caregivers must have more meaningful contact with patients than just supplying them with the drug. The ruling caused the board of health to call the emergency meeting last week, at which it struck its recently adopted caregiver definition.

Medical marijuana advocates argued that the Court of Appeals opinion applies only to cases prosecuted before the state adopted its caregiver definition this summer. In sharp exchanges with Colorado First Assistant Attorney General Anne Holton, Naves sided with this interpretation of the ruling, saying the state wasn't justified in holding an emergency hearing and excluding patients' voices.

The board of health plans to hold a more thorough hearing on the caregiver definition next month. Health Department spokesman Mark Salley said the board had originally planned to take only written public testimony but may change its mind in light of Naves' ruling.

Posted by Linda Chalat at 7:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

More than 200,000 people might be driving illegally in Colorado, and such drivers were involved in crashes that caused nearly one-fourth of all state traffic deaths last year, state auditors reported last week. State legislators requested the audit after Francis Hernandez, an unlicensed driver unlawfully in the United States, was accused of speeding through traffic, hitting another vehicle and killing three people in Aurora, including a 3-year-old in an ice cream shop, in September 2008.

Hernandez was both. Not only did he lack a valid license, the Colorado Division of Motor Vehicles had also revoked his right to drive.

Statewide, 548 people died in traffic crashes last year. The auditors reported that drivers without valid licenses were involved in crashes that killed 130, or 24 percent of all deaths.

One of the major problems is that as many as three-fourths of drivers whose licenses are suspended or revoked keep driving. Division of Motor Vehicles records show that since 1992, 2,620 drivers have been convicted of driving under restraint in Colorado at least five times.

Hernandez, who was 23 at the time of the Aurora crash, had been jailed eight times for prior traffic offenses and misdemeanors. However, the felony charge can be invoked only after three major traffic violations, such as drunken driving, in seven years, followed by another arrest for another major violation.

The auditors did not prescribe a plan to keep problem drivers off the road. They did list a range of strategies used in other states, from impounding vehicles or license plates to putting special stickers on cars that have been driven by people without valid licenses.

"House arrest" by electronic monitoring was noted by the report as one means of controlling problem drivers without driving up jail costs.

On the bright side, Colorado has succeeded in reducing traffic deaths in recent years. From 2000 to 2007, Colorado's traffic fatality rate improved from 29th best in the nation to 13th

Posted by Linda Chalat at 7:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)