March 19 roundup

More ADA filing mills: “Fuller, Fuller and Associates was once sanctioned when their client, who was alleged to be quadriplegic, walked into his own deposition.” [Childs @ MassTort] Professional expert witnesses as a publicly traded multimillion dollar industry. [WSJ] No accommodation needed for LSAT taker claiming ADHD. [Legal Intelligencer] Homeowner’s gripe on web draws lawsuit […]

  • More ADA filing mills: “Fuller, Fuller and Associates was once sanctioned when their client, who was alleged to be quadriplegic, walked into his own deposition.” [Childs @ MassTort]
  • Professional expert witnesses as a publicly traded multimillion dollar industry. [WSJ]
  • No accommodation needed for LSAT taker claiming ADHD. [Legal Intelligencer]
  • Homeowner’s gripe on web draws lawsuit from contractor. [WaPo]
  • Lawsuits of the future: Muslim cashier refuses to ring up bacon (if only I had thought of that when I was in high school) [Minn. Star-Tribune]
  • Neighbors feud over driveway: “three civil lawsuits, a physical altercation, a criminal indictment, [and] a court hearing over a videotape” [St. Pete. Times]
  • “Warning: Lawsuits Hazardous To Financial Health” [Forbes.com]
  • Y’know, if a man wrote a ludicrous essay to the effect that every professional women has a Lisa Nowak inside of them on the verge of erupting, that’d be the last thing he ever wrote. [Legal Times]

8 Comments

  • Couple of thoughts –

    Do you really want a lawyer that needs ‘extra time’ on tests? I can’t imagine he would charge less per hour than other lawyers. Not to meantion that in the courtroom I doubt the judge would give him time after every statement to think about objectings.

    I like the end quote in the lawsuit by the contractor vs the homeowner. One does wonder how the contract knew who to sue if there wasn’t some element of truth in the description.

  • In response to: Customer service and faith clash at registers

    What is this Target doing selling unpackaged pork? Every target I’ve been to puts their bacon in plastic and cardboard packaging. Hell, I’m not even religious and I wouldn’t handle unpackaged pork products unless I worked in the meat packaging department or deli.

    If, in fact, the bacon was wrapped and boxed, then the cashier should shut the F up, do the job, or look for employment elsewhere.

  • I’m with you, Frank, but to the people in question, it’s no different from the Minneapolis airport taxi drivers who won’t carry the passengers who have alcohol or dogs. As far as I’m concerned, it is a condition of employment. You refuse to do it, find another line of work. There are many jobs you can do where you do not have to “compromise” your beliefs.

    It’s your choice to take the job. You have to abide by the conditions of that job. For the Target sales clerk, you have to scan and bag the items sold at the store. You don’t want to handle packaged pork? Fine. There are other jobs, even at Target, where you don’t have to do that. Just ask for reassignment.

  • If you read the article, the bacon situation actually sounds like quite a reasonable accomodation: nobody is stopped from buying it; it just takes a few extra seconds to get somebody else to handle it for the cashier. This isn’t like the fundamentalist muslim cab drivers refusing to transport passengers who have alchohol, or like the fundamentalist Christian pharmacists who refuse to fill birth control prescriptions. Instead, it strikes a reasonable balance between religious belief and customer needs.

  • Footnote – Except that the Christian Pharmacists tend to lose those arguments when they go to court.

    Also the pork wasn’t unpackaged. No Target that I know of sells unpackaged pork. Some super walmarts might have a deli with unpackaged meats, but I’m not sure about that either.

  • The sentence “She made me scan the bacon” in the article ought to answer that question about “unpackaged pork.” You won’t find bar codes stamped on the meat, they’re on the package. This clerk refused to handle a small cardboard box around a sealed plastic envelope containing pork.

    In his next job, he’ll probably go to work for a liquor store and refuse to handle any bottle containing alcohol…

  • Re: the alleged quadriplegic, walking into his own deposition. Thats just insane…right out of a comedy. I guess the question is did he win his claim?

  • Ryan Frank – My point is that usually the Christian pharmacists (and the Muslim cabbies) are more seriously delaying, if not completely impeding, the customer’s desires — unlike the Muslim cashier, who simply delays the checkout by a few seconds.