Blindman

Hopefully a few lawyers with some decent experience and knowledge can help me with this. It is probably a pretty simple thing, but for myself I have difficulty understanding this system. I am a physician. Why is that physicians as a profession are so easy to sue sucessfully as opposed to other professions?

All that has to happen in most cases is that some negative event supposedly related to medical care has to occur, and then the plantiff's attorney has to get his or her hands on a random doctor that is of the same specialty as the doctor being sued that is willing to go on record saying that the defendant physician was negligent. Then the plantiff has a very decent chance of getting a settlement. Nothing has to be actually proven in terms of whether or not the defendant actually was negligent, reckless, etc.

So why is that lawsuits against people of other professions are not as successful? Say I am taken to court in a civil case. My lawyer does a terrible job, and I lose my shirt. So why can't I get my hands on another lawyer who will review the records, testify that my original lawyer operated well below the 'standard of care' and bring a 'malpractice' suit against my original lawyer to recover damages? In theory, this concept could be applied to any profession. Your mechanic, accountant, etc etc. Please enlighten me. Is the legal code just not built to protect physicians?

Man, they are BORING! First off I would cut back on the number of teams that make it every year. As it stands, half the teams make it in. I would suggest 6 teams for each conference, with a first round bye for the top 2 seeds. How insanely competitive would the regular season games be as a result? Then I would make the first round series best of 3, second round best of 5, and championship best of 7. You wouldn't have teams with the 3rd seed shutting it down for the last few weeks of the season when they are so close to that first round bye. And if a weaker seed team gets hot they could definitely pull of an upset in a 3 game series.

Anybody else got any advice for cocky David Stern for the playoffs or NBA in general? I am tired of feeling like the playoffs last forever. I don't need the see the Jazz or the Hawks in 7 game snoozer series.

I'm not a fan of either team. I'm from New York so I can only live vicariously through other fans. But this series seems fishy to me.

Nelson had surgery Feb. 19, 2009. He decides a few days before the NBA finals that he is ready to go???? What happened to keeping team chemistry? He couldn't get even a few reps in during the Cleveland series?? Van Gundy threw this whole thought process (MASTER OF PANIC) out the window because he had his All-Star point guard back. It's not a coincidence that the Magic played their best game with Alston getting key minutes in crunch time.

Then Van Gundy decides in the most important quarter of the most important game in Magic history (game 4, down 2-1), that he is going to keep his very rusty, won't take a shot point guard in during most of the fourth quarter. On the play where Fisher hit the game-tying three at the end of regulation, the Magic didn't foul, and Nelson seemed to forget that you are supposed to close out three-point shooters.

I know this all be incompetence, Dwight missing free throws, the Van Gundy curse, and Nelson's ring rust. But another option is that Nelson and/or Van Gundy got paid. If I were a Magic fan I would be furious because aside from Game 1 the games have been ultra-competitive and it should be 2-2 and could have been 3-1 Magic with better tactical decisions. I wanted to see a closer series outcome than this. I don't know why GMs keep hiring these Van Gundys as coaches when you can only get so far with them.

Although I knew they were capable of winning on the road, I am surprised it happened this way. Overcoming a 24 point deficit? Ouch! It would have been better for the Lakers' psyche if the game had been close throughout. Talk about crippling your opponent. Good luck walking again in this series for the Lakers. I guess I wasn't wrong when I said that the Celts had too much firepower to overcome.

I live in NY. The stupid laws on online gambling are nebulous and confusing. Why is our government so backwards with regards to this issue? From reading several different sources, my current understanding is that individuals are not being sought out for this activity in the US, but that the US govt is trying to go after the companies that allow US citizens to gamble online, or banks etc. Kind of like going after the drug dealer and ignoring the end user.

I am trying to find out whether or not there is truly no penalty for a US citizen to do this. Obviously the govt is not aggressively monitoring gambling website visits to prosecute citizens or else this would end up being like a child porn issue and there wouldn't be millions upon millions of Americans openly doing this and discussing this. Has anyone run into any other problems? The IRS crying foul after you declare gamling winnings? Bank asking you where those monthly checks are coming from? Any bad experiences at all?

Thanks