Free Republic

Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., to insert his plan to limit the attorney fees into the bill when it went to the full Senate. He is proposing a 200 percent tax on attorneys' fees when they are more than five times what is "reasonable" in a jurisdiction. The rate varies from place to place, but would reach upward of $2,500 an hour in large cities. The attorneys who won a $246 billion settlement from the nation's big tobacco firms - and have received about $15 billion in legal fees - are the primary targets.

You'd think they'd learn, what with all the shattered careers and yuckfests with Jay Leno presiding. For Law Day 2003, The National Law Journal offers its list of judges behaving poorly -- or perhaps we should say behaving incomprehensibly....Other judges were ousted by their state judicial conduct commissions with an embarrassing press release but their pensions intact. In a few cases, the judges are sitting out suspensions until their supreme courts decide what to do with them.

Over the past year, dozens of doctors have shut down their practices or retired early because they could not find medical liability insurance or afford the skyrocketing rates. Most of the doctors who have called it quits have been high risk specialists such as obstetricians, general surgeons and emergency room physicians. Nevada patients will find themselves living in a state that's at least a decade behind the times in quality medicine and access to care.