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    Wisconsin Lawyer
    December 01, 1997

    Wisconsin Lawyer December 1997: Book Reviews

    Book Reviews

    A Civil Action

    By Jonathan Harr (New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1997). Nonfiction. 512 pgs. $13. Paper.

    Reviewed by Kurt R. Anderson

    Jonathan Harr's A Civil Action chronicles the epic litigation between several residents of Woburn, Mass., and two multinational corporations (W.R. Grace and Beatrice Foods) accused of poisoning a vital city aquifer with trichloroethylene (TCE). In the early 1970s, children within a specific neighborhood in Woburn served by the aquifer began developing leukemia at alarming rates. Grass-roots organizational efforts among the affected families sought medical information establishing a connection between TCE exposure and leukemia, and legal advice concerning potential claims against Grace and Beatrice. Their efforts eventually led to the involvement of attorney Jan Schlichtmann, a flamboyant, intensely focused rising star in the Boston legal community.

    Harr's total access to the families and Schlichtmann's team provides readers of A Civil Action with a uniquely intimate account of the grief in Woburn, the grueling, marathon litigation and the eventual unraveling of Schlichtmann and his firm. Harr is privy to every detail - the gut-wrenching emotion of the families' battle against leukemia, and the strategy sessions and settlement negotiations once litigation is commenced. Harr devotes attention to the legal nuances at play between the cutthroat participants without bogging down his up-tempo narrative style. Post-trial interviews of counsel for Grace and Beatrice round out Harr's research and give the book a balanced perspective.

    More than anything else, A Civil Action is the story of Jan Schlichtmann. At the outset, Schlichtmann knows no fear. Every case he touches is better than the last. When he turns down a temptingly lucrative settlement offer on behalf of a client, he gets a better result from the jury. Success brings the spoils of sudden riches and a feeling of invincibility. When he turns his attention to the Woburn case, he excludes all else in his life. As if blinded by his focus, Schlichtmann ignores the pleas of his partners and advisors to drop the case due to the staggering costs and time anticipated. Grace and Beatrice are defended by star litigators from large firms with unlimited resources, and the ensuing years of litigation take their toll on Schlichtmann. He deteriorates mentally and physically, losing touch with reality as the case overwhelms him. His firm, once a showcase of extravagant prosperity, is reduced to battling creditors as the Woburn case drags on for years and dries up the cash flow.

    Harr's years in the ringside seat give A Civil Action an intimacy and perspective typically associated with the omniscience of fictional work, allowing a unique glimpse into the hearts of the parties and the minds of the litigants. The delicate weaving of detailed legal discussion with emotion and human spirit in an engaging narrative style provides an interesting and informative read.

    Kurt R. Anderson, Hamline 1992, practices with Nelson, Dries & Zimmerman S.C., Brookfield.

    A Guide to Wisconsin Statutes of Limitation and Other Time Limits, 1997 edition

    Compiled by Jennifer Darling and Margaret Dewind (Madison, WI: State Bar CLE Books, 1997). 463 pgs. $35. To order, call (800) 362-8096.

    Reviewed by Lisa M. Arent

    One-fifth of legal malpractice claims originate in missed dead-lines or other calendaring errors. There are many statutes that set forth limitation periods and other deadlines. For these reasons, the State Bar of Wisconsin published the Fourth Edition of A Guide to Wisconsin Statutes of Limitation and Other Time Limits 1997 (the Guide). The Guide is cosponsored by the State Bar and Wisconsin Lawyers Mutual Insurance Co., and is compiled by attorneys Margaret Dewind and Jennifer Darling.

    The Guide is a companion to the Wisconsin Statutes. It aims to provide a user- friendly summary of statutory time limits. The book is hefty but is an improvement on the statutes setting time limits, which are scattered throughout the volumes of the Wisconsin Statutes.

    There are 423 pages of statute summaries. The statutes are covered sequentially, beginning with Wis. Stat. section 1.11(2)(d), and ending with statutes from Chapter 990, regarding construction of statutes. Designed for quick reference, each summary contains: 1) the statute number; 2) the action required; 3) the time within which the action must be taken; and 4) the event from which the time period is calculated. The Guide does not analyze the statutes beyond their terms - it does not explain how the terms have been interpreted and applied. It also does not include other procedural prerequisites to suit. For example, its entry for Wis. Stat. section 893.82 does not include the requirements for the notice of claim to the state, which are strictly construed.

    The Guide succinctly records a large amount of information in one volume. It appears to cover all areas of substantive law addressed by the statutes - from elections law, through tax claims, civil actions and criminal law. The Guide is not limited to statutes of limitation. It includes other deadlines. For example, it includes the notice periods for evictions. For the probate lawyer, it tells the time within which to file the inventory and the estate tax return.

    How easy to use is the Guide? It takes practice and some advance information. If the user has in mind the applicable chapter or sections (for example, chapter 893), then the statute summary can be located quickly. If not, one must find answers in the index, or page through the summaries to find the appropriate chapter. The index is key to the Guide's usefulness, but it has its shortcomings.

    The index is not as thorough as the index to the actual statutes, which cross reference synonyms and common terms. For example, if people want to find the statute section for the time for filing an answer, they won't find it by looking for "answer" in the Guide's index. They will only find it by searching under "pleadings" and then scanning chapter 802. If a person knows generally that a notice of claim is required before suing the state, the index does not help find the applicable statute. The index does not reference the statute under "notice of claim" or under "state, actions against." One must look through the statute of limitations chapter 893 to discover sections 893.80 and 893.82.

    A Guide to Wisconsin Statutes of Limitation is a good tool for quickly surveying the field of deadlines and limitations periods. Its summaries provide helpful practice checklists. The Guide is not a substitute for careful research or for reading the statutes themselves. Moreover, it does not cover important sources such as local court rules or local laws. It does, however, serve as a useful map for maneuvering the web of procedural and substantive statutes containing limitation periods and deadlines.

    Lisa M. Arent, Indiana 1992, is an associate in the litigation department of Foley & Lardner, Milwaukee.

    The Medical Malpractice Handbook: The Plaintiff

    By Bruce Livingston and Stephen Morewitz (Bethesda, MD: Austin & Winfield Publishers, 1996). 113 pgs. Paper. $44.95. To order, call (800) 992-8784.

    Reviewed by Dennis E. Robertson

    The underlying premise of The Medical Malpractice Handbook: The Plaintiff is that health-care providers have the law, medicine, lawyers and money in their favor when defending medical malpractice cases. Through very brief discussions of various stages of handling a patient's claim, the louder lesson is that only experienced, well-funded and well-versed counsel should take cases for injured patients after close circumspection.

    Although the book's theme may be correct, those believing from the title that it will help them through their first plaintiff's malpractice claim will be very disappointed. Aside from some generalized advice, random case citations and unhelpful transcript excerpts, there is nothing here that is not well known to any personal injury litigator.

    This work's tone and organization suggest that it originally may have been intended for customers of the author's medical witness recruitment business while the content suggests a perspective obtained entirely from that of a witness recruiter/case evaluator. It is suggested, for example, that attorneys should not try to conduct an initial interview of a prospective malpractice client without a hired physician present to assist - a suggestion that would be followed only by one who paid $44.95 for this small publication.

    One could edit these writings by deletion only and produce a reasonable chapter in a book for new lawyers to prevent their unintended entry into the minefield of plaintiff's malpractice litigation. It will not help them out, however.

    There have been scores of attempts to merge medicine with law for a perceived large audience but with limited value to both fields. The best medical handbooks for lawyers are still those written for medical residents. The accurate, comprehensive and useful Lawyers Medical Cyclopedia, originally published by Allen Smith Co. in l959 (now published by Michie Co.), while not specific to medical negligence, remains one of the very few successful marriages of medicine and law even as it approaches its golden anniversary.

    Dennis E. Robertson has practiced in personal injury law since l970. He is a member of the litigation department of Brennan, Steil, Basting & MacDougall, Madison.

    The Mirror of Justice: Literary Reflections of Legal Crises

    By Theodore Ziolkowski (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997). 272 pgs. $47.50. Hard. To order, call (609) 258-5714.

    Reviewed by Jack Stark

    Law and literature is a burgeoning field. As Theodore Ziolkowski asserts, the field is composed mainly of literary criticism about works that have something to do with law and of analyses, in the mode of literary criticism, of legal opinions. Neither approach has been very fruitful. With a few exceptions (for example, Martha Nussbaum's Poetic Justice), the former category is standard literary criticism that reveals little about the law. Also with a few exceptions (for example, James Boyd White's work), the latter category is not very useful or revealing. In The Mirror of Justice Ziolkowski offers a much more promising approach: beginning with the law, in particular with crises in its development that are caused by a disjunction between recent developments in it and prevailing moral beliefs, and then examining literary works that comment on those crises.

    Occasionally, Ziolkowski is successful at pointing out ways in which literary works illuminate those crises and, thus, illuminate the law. For example, his discussion of Aeschylus' The Eumenides as a reflection on the transition from a law based on custom and enforced by individuals' exertion of force to a more formal law administered by the state is illuminating. However, his book is diffuse. Sometimes it is not clear whether he is trying to explain the law applicable to the time when a work of literature was written or the law of the time when the work's action occurs. Often he embarks upon meandering excursions into either law or literature. Sometimes he briefly analyzes several works that relate to the legal crisis he is delineating, thereby blurring his focus. Sometimes he discusses not a legal crisis but an enduring problem, such as the relation between positive law and natural law.

    One of the main values of this book are the insights scattered throughout it; Ziolkowski is incisive and amazingly erudite. The other main value is his method. If he had limited himself to a few literary works that comment on legal issues crucial when the works were written, had delved more deeply into both the legal issues and the literary works and had avoided detours, he would have produced a monumental work. As it is, he has produced a very interesting book that shows how later scholars can produce even better books.

    Jack Stark, U.W. 1979, is an assistant chief counsel at the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau. He has authored The Art of the Statute and The Wisconsin State Constitution: A Reference Guide. He is working on The Iowa State Constitution: A Reference Guide.

    Wills, Trusts and Technology: An Estate Lawyer's Guide to Automation

    By Daniel B. Evans (Chicago, IL: ABA Law Practice Management and Real Property, Probate and Trust Law sections, 1996). 200+ pgs. $74.95. To order, call (800) 285-2221.

    Reviewed by Stephanie G. Rapkin

    I was excited to get a copy of Wills, Trusts and Technology for review. Although I am not technophobic, I am not as computer-advanced as I should be. I hoped this book would provide me with advanced techniques on how to better automate my will and trust practice. Instead it provides a solid primer on using computers in a law practice, and it just happens to concentrate in the area of wills, trusts and probate. However, the basic concepts apply to any practice area with a multitude of repeated tasks and repetitious use of forms.

    It is the perfect book for my father, Sheldon Rapkin, who refuses even to turn on the computer. This is the book technology-hesitant readers must have; it discusses such matters as why one should automate, what calculations can be done on a computer and how well-organized the calculations and projections look. In other words, this book shows how and why one would want to become a consumer of automation. It describes how efficient one can make a practice that constantly requires the repeated use of basic forms that are modified for specific needs.

    The book contains an appendix listing the various relevant software programs available, including disks on estate planning, valuation, actuarial calculations, tax return preparation and document assembly, and how to order them. The appendix also lists tax research programs available on CD-ROM; however, they omitted two major publishing houses - Matthew Bender and CCH as resources that have extensive tax libraries on CD-ROM. Consequently, it is best not to rely solely on appendices for complete information. The caveat to all appendices is that they should be used as only one research resource.

    To summarize, computer-literate readers shouldn't bother with this book, but computer-phobic readers will see what they've been missing.

    Stephanie G. Rapkin, California Western 1982, practices with Crossot & Rapkin, Mequon.

    Judges and Politics in the Contemporary Age

    By Richard Hodder-Williams (Dulles, VA: Bowerdean Briefing Series, 1997). 144 pgs. $14.95. Paper. To order, call (800) 243-0138.

    Reviewed by James J. Casey Jr.

    One of the most complex and perplexing issues in American political and legal theory (and in reality) is the relationship between the judicial branch and the two more political branches of government. What is and should be the relationship between judges and politicians? In Judges and Politics in the Contemporary Age, Richard Hodder-Williams provides a solid introduction into these and related topics.

    The commonplace assumption in the United States is that impartial judges render objective law and that judges are not "political animals" in the sense of legislators and executive officials. While attorneys, judges and some of the general public know this not to be the case, the author maintains that although this assumption is inaccurate, it is necessary because it legitimizes the judiciary in the eyes of the general public. In fact, the assumption is necessary in our democratic form of government.

    In covering additional topics, such as legal interpretation philosophies, judicial protection of minorities' rights and judicial application of statutes, the author emphasizes the importance of the separation of powers concept in our form of government. While judges may act "political" when rendering decisions that essentially allocate values, the separation of powers still is desirable to avoid an excessive concentration of power in the legislative and executive branches of government.

    The author deepens the analysis of these and other topics by using examples from the U.S., U.K. and France. As a professor of politics and dean of the faculty of social sciences at the University of Bristol (U.K.), he succeeds in using this comparative approach.

    Upon finishing the book, the reader may wish it was longer and more specific. Though short, the book provides readers with a broad overview of the relationship between the judicial and political branches of government.

    James J. Casey Jr., Dayton 1988, works in the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs at Northwestern University and is a lecturer of public administration and law at Upper Iowa University.


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