In Maryland, hospitals are pushing – and I mean pushing very hard (complete with a media campaign and push polls) a bill that targets the most vulnerable victims of medical malpractice – catastrophically-injured newborns.

Their legislation – which is the subject of Maryland legislative hearings later this week – would abolish access to the jury system for these babies and their families, no matter the extent of the hospital’s misconduct or the severity of the child’s injury. To be compensated, parents would be forced to go to a state fund, controlled by the state’s powerful medical establishment.

Two recent lawsuits brought by contract attorneys seeking overtime pay have gotten the attention of law firms and staffing agencies, some of whom are changing hiring practices to avoid the issue of overtime. The contract attorneys had argued that the firms and agencies violated the Fair Labor Standards Act when the attorneys were not compensated for working more than 40 hours a week. The law firms countered that contract attorneys are exempt from overtime pay as licensed attorneys engaged in the practice of law.