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We get a lot of traffic on this blog for law students looking to read about their bar results. When the Maryland bar exam results were coming out on Friday, we just got tons of traffic. The traffic has died off naturally but continues strong. Who is it? Surely, it is not people looking to see if they themselves passed the exam. I suspect it is curious ex-boyfriends and ex-girlfriends.

Listen, your ex-girlfriend passed the exam. You should have never dumped her. She is going places. Now, I’m not saying she has a job or anything; it is a tough economy. Still. You made a mistake.

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The South Carolina Supreme Court anonymously admonished a lawyer who had sex with the wife of his client with whom he had three open cases.

Our law firm’s general policy on these blogs is not to name names when lawyers screw up (or doctors or anyone else really for that matter). If you did something stupid, you did something stupid, but we don’t want to be the landing place to rub that in your face on Google. But, I can assure you, the Court of Appeals of Maryland does not share this view. So if a Maryland lawyer sleeps with a client’s spouse, you can expect the court to name names and to give a steeper punishment than a mere admonishment.

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When a Court of Appeals of Maryland opinion starts off with, “Reminiscent of a scene from a Cheech & Chong movie…”, you know the opinion will be interesting. Particularly when the dissent responds by quoting Mr. Mackey from South Park.

You can find the full Smith v. State opinion here.

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Maryland needs tougher DWI/DUI laws if we will reduce the number of drunk driving accidents. Two things come to mind.

First, tougher laws. The Drunk Driving Elimination Act rejected by the Maryland legislature this Spring would have been huge. The bill would have required all DUI offenders to use an ignition interlock. The bill lost after heavy pressure from the Alcohol Beverage Institute. Honestly, I cannot figure out why they would not line up against drivers who do not use alcohol responsibly – DWIs and the number of dead people that result are not exactly a PR boon for the sellers of alcohol. I’m sure there is self-serving wisdom to it. Or something. But I can’t figure it out.

Another law would have removed repeat DWI offenders’ right to refuse a breathalyzer. Personally, I think those repeat offenders should absolutely be able to refuse a breathalyzer test. But, ah, you lose your license for 5 years if you do.

Continue reading

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law school grade inflationThe New York Times has an interesting piece about grade inflation. Apparently, some schools are going back and increasing the GPA of all of its students in an effort to make them more competitive.

As an anonymous commenter alludes to on Overlawyered, this is not an awful idea at top tier schools. But at law schools that are not in the top tier, students need to separate themselves by doing particularly well or potential employers have no reason to take a chance on students who cannot be distinguished by GPA.

Grade inflation in and of itself is of no consequence. These days, half of the graduating class of a high school has a GPA better than 4.0. The key is class rank. As long as lines are cut well enough to allow law firms to figure out who the top tier students are at average law schools, grade inflation is not really a big deal.

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According to Washingtonian, the average medical malpractice award in Maryland is $319,977, which is approximately $35,000 more than the national average. The average medical liability premium for specialists is $100,625, compared with the national average of $65,489. Not noted: just how much the average specialist makes in a year. (Hint: it is a lot.)

medical malpractice verdicts

The article does not define what type of award it is. I assume it means the settlement or verdict.