Pending state legislation would limit medical malpractice victim's rights. Read about it at TennViews...

The "Institute for Legal Reform" has launched an attack on the Tennessee Trial Lawyer's Association, claiming that they are trying to hide who they are by changing their name to the Tennessee Association for Justice.

The ILR submitted an attack ad to run on this site, but it was rejected. Now they are sending Tennessee bloggers a press release, and for some reason think I might be sympathetic to their cause.

What's funny is that the Institute for Legal "Reform" is a tool of the ultra-conservative U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a fact they fail to mention in their press release and that you might not know if you didn't follow the link to their website.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a "powerful business lobbying group" active in tort "reform", privatizing Social Security, and other right-wing extremist agendas. According to Source Watch, the group spent $53.38 million lobbying executive and legislative branches in 2004, which another watchdog group said was "the largest twelve-month amount reported spent by any group."

Apparently there's a growing llama liability situation in Tennessee, and State Sen. Tim Burchett (R-Knoxville) aims to fix it.

SB2097 (PDF format) would absolve "llama professionals" and "llama activity sponsors" from any liability arising from the "inherent risks of llama activities" to llama activity participants, including "riding, driving, inspecting, or evaluating a llama belonging to another" or "trimming the nails of a llama."

No, seriously. I'm not making this up.

Speaking of llamas, here's a cool story about the annual Mt. LeConte supplies airlift, which is supplemented throughout the season with perishables delivered by... llama!