The Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act of 2004 didn’t pass (though it’s been reintroduced) but Rep. Sensenbrenner’s majority report for the House Judiciary Committee nearly gave us (well, okay, nearly gave Stuart Taylor, Jr.) the chance to make permanent legislative history (see footnote 81).
Archive for March, 2005
U.K.: No moor tourists, please
Don’t make plans to visit Vixen Tor on Dartmoor any time soon: “The owner, Mary Alford, was afraid of being sued by members of the public who injured themselves on the tor, which was named after Vixana, a witch who reputedly died there and was turned to stone.” (Richard Savill, “Owner asked to restore access to Vixen Tor”, Telegraph (U.K.), Mar. 5).
More: Via Decs & Excs, Mar. 6, comes word that British Prime Minister Tony Blair has now called for a “real debate over risk”:
Mr Blair said that the fears of public service workers over the potential for a US-style litigation culture had made a deep impact on him.
“I was quite shocked to be told by people who were running a nursery that they were worried about letting the kids out into the playground when it was wet, in case one of them slipped and fell and they ended up having a legal case,” he said.
“We have got to look at a way of getting people protection on that.”
(Andrew Woodcock, “Blair Questions ‘Needless Panic’ over Issues”, The Scotsman, Mar. 5). For more on the “compensation culture” debate, see our U.K. page.
A logical place for a bus stop
That is, except for the ADA implications, or so MNKurmudge hears (Dec. 17).
Zulu Coconut Suit
Remember those “Zany Immunity Law Awards” from the “Center for Justice and Democracy” that complained that Louisiana gave immunity from suit for some injuries from thrown Mardi Gras prizes? The law was passed in 1987 when liability fears stopped the Zulu Krewe from the popular tradition of tossing decorated coconuts. But the lawsuits continue claiming to fit within the loopholes, and though Zulu, which had already limited itself to handing coconuts out, usually wins them, they’re having trouble finding affordable liability coverage because of the cost of defending the suits. “‘We’re protected by the law,’ said Gary Thornton, chairman of Zulu’s governing board, ‘but it doesn’t stop people from filing lawsuits against us.'” At least five other krewes have been sued for this year’s Mardi Gras over other thrown prizes. (Leslie Williams, “Girl hit by Zulu coconut sues krewe”, New Orleans Times-Picayune, Mar. 1; “Zulu reigns supreme as crowd favorite”, Louisiana Weekly, Feb. 7) (via RiskProf).
McCain-Feingold
Expect it to begin serving soon as the basis for regulation of bloggers’ political speech, predicts Brad Smith of the Federal Election Commission. (Declan McCullagh, “The coming crackdown on blogging” (interview with Bradley Smith), CNet/News.com, Mar. 3). Michelle Malkin has a roundup of reactions (Mar. 3). More: Prof. Bainbridge follows up (Mar. 6).
“‘No link’ between MMR and autism”
Another study finds no link between the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine and rising incidence of autism. (BBC, Mar. 3). For more on the litigation-fueled efforts to establish such a link in Britain, see our earlier reports: Dec. 29, 2003 and Feb. 25, 2004. More: Helene Guldberg, “MMR, autism and politics” (interview with Dr. Michael Fitzpatrick), Spiked-Online (UK), Jun. 23, 2004.
“Disabled golfer files complaint”
Says Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Tuscaloosa won’t provide free golf carts. (Stephanie Taylor, Tuscaloosa News, Dec. 15). The National Golf Course Owners Association maintains a page on ADA issues and compliance. At Cybergolf, Jeffrey D. Brauer (“Must golf courses accommodate wheelchair golfers?”, undated) discusses the impact of wheelchair-access regulation on golf course design: “The golf industry at first feared that ADA might outlaw contoured greens and fairways, and possibly sand bunkers, to achieve disabled access. Future rules revisions may eventually eliminate features like ‘perched’ greens and steep banks, but for now, traditional golf course architecture is not compromised by the guidelines.” And federal prescriptions on the design of miniature golf courses can be found here.
AEI: Who Is to Blame for Obesity?
A webcast of today’s American Enterprise Institute panel on obesity and lifestyle litigation is now on-line. I spoke at the second panel, moderated by AEI’s Michael Greve, along with activists Richard Daynard and Alison Rein, and Thomas Haynes of the Coca-Cola Bottlers’ Association. Todd Zywicki moderated an earlier panel on empirical research on the causes of obesity.
Helping themselves to class action funds
Federal prosecutors say they’ve caught two men masterminding unrelated complex schemes to siphon off large sums from class action settlements by falsely posing as members of the class. Richard Lagerveld was charged with mail and wire fraud after settlement administrators in two class actions mailed $9.2 million to his stated address in San Diego, which was in fact a homeless shelter. Authorities said he had a long criminal record including aliases and stolen identities; in one of the class actions, he submitted forged brokerage records to document his claim that he’d owned $145 million worth of stock in Oxford Health Plans, the target of securities litigation. In a second case, he collected a check for $2.3 million after claiming to be an owner of a fictitious company that had purchased glass from companies settling a class action. In the other case, inmate Alan N. Scott, who resides in the Schuylkill federal correctional institution in Pennsylvania, is charged with orchestrating an $8 million assortment of false settlement claims of which about $200,000 had been received as of the time of his arrest. According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, Scott used co-conspirators to correspond with claims administrators in about 90 securities class actions, “and routinely sent directions and correspondence to his co-conspirators by falsely labeling the correspondence ‘legal mail.'” (Onell R. Soto, “Ploy paid man millions, authorities say”, San Diego Union-Tribune, Jan. 18; Department of Justice press release, Feb. 9; Robert E. Kessler, “Two are charged in separate scams”, Newsday, Feb. 10; Securities Litigation Watch, Jan. 18).
Flint’s mayor retreats
On Jan. 21 Mayor Don Williamson of Flint, Mich., issued an executive order directing the city not to do business with any enterprise or person who had sued the city during the previous five years. Last week he announced a retreat from that policy, his spokesman saying a record of having sued the city would henceforth be considered as one factor among others rather than as an automatic bar to doing business.
Williamson’s original order had been criticized on various grounds, and the local ACLU chapter had threatened — what else? — to sue the city over the policy. Now, it should be noted that a municipality’s blanket refusal to do business with lawsuit-filers very likely might run afoul of various laws: employment discrimination statutes, to take one notable example, typically include provisions banning employers from “retaliating” against persons who sue under them. Other state laws on topics such as procurement might also be plausibly implicated, and perhaps constitutional doctrines as well. On the other hand, news accounts portray the ACLU chapter as adventurously asserting some sort of universal if heretofore unenumerated right not to be retaliated against by any official body on the grounds of a record of litigiousness — so that an asphalt contractor, for example, with a record of getting into repeated wrangles with the city over the terms of past contracts might have a constitutional right not to have that held against it in future competition for business. Given Flint’s announced policy of continuing to consider proneness to litigation as one factor among others, it may be predicted that the controversy has not been finally put to rest. (Christofer Machniak, “Flint’s no-sue policy modified”, Flint Journal, Feb. 25; “Flint rescinds policy barring business with companies who have sued city”, AP/Detroit Free Press, Feb. 24).