Lawyer: Citibank should have protected me from advance-check scam

“I’m a capital ‘D’ Dumbass,” Houston lawyer Richard T. Howell Jr. said about the incident. His law firm is however suing on the grounds that the bank should have better explained the check-clearing process. The scam artist posed as a businessman in Japan who wanted to become a client of Howell’s firm. [Texas Lawyer, TechDirt]

Update March 2010: lawsuit still pending [KHOU h/t reader VMS]

Filed under: banks, fraud

January 30 roundup

Irvine, California class-action lawyer Sandeep Baweja: sorry, I bet the class’s $2.7M wage/hour settlement on the stock market and lost it [ABA Journal, WageLaw]
Litigant alleges his iPod playlist is worth $1 trillion; also, another kicked-by-exotic-dancer lawsuit [Lowering the Bar]
Lawyers representing victims of Long Island’s “Agape” Ponzi scheme would do well to be modest [Scott Greenfield]
More on that litigation filed by Dallas developer H. Walker Royall against author Carla Main, who wrote a book critical of eminent domain abuse; her publisher, Encounter Books (which is also publishing a book of mine); a reviewer, and his newspaper; and even eminent scholar Richard Epstein, for giving a blurb [Real Clear Politics, Somin @ Volokh, Sullum/Reason “Hit and Run”, earlier]
“OMG, there’s mercury in the high-fructose corn syrup!” scare doesn’t sound very scare-worthy [Coyote]
Another reason we (sometimes) go too far in search of safety: “Availability Bias and Water Landings” [Cernovich]
Supreme Court mulls whether to grant certiorari on Bilski (business methods patent) case [SCOTUS Blog]
Trial judge lops $32 million off that $55 million verdict against San Diego Gas & Electric for helicopter crash into unlit utility tower [CalBizLit]

Filed under: airlines, H. Walker Royall, safety, strippers and exotic dancers

Frederic Wertham’s dream fulfilled

CPSIA might at last succeed in wiping out the comic book trade (Evan Dorkin; via) Our posts about CPSIA are here. More: TCJ Journalista (“Read it and weep.”)

Filed under: CPSIA, publishers

Please, Mayor Bloomberg

At least let us drown our sorrows in a bowl of pretzels. More: Amy Alkon.

Filed under: nanny state, NYC, salt

January 29 roundup

Free class-action swag if you bought department store cosmetics between 1994 and 2003; not that they’re giving away the very best stuff or anything [Tompkins/Poynter, California Civil Justice, WSJ Law Blog, settlement site] We’ve been covering the story for quite some time;
Law school “can be a financial disaster” for unwary students [Law and More] Law schools not immune from economic downturn [Above the Law]
Bruce Bawer on Dutch prosecution of Islam-criticizer Geert Wilders [City Journal]
More on possible passenger suits after the miracle Hudson-landing USAir Flight #1549 [USA Today, earlier] Update: NY Post, NY Mag.
Bad news for patients and other living things: Sidney Wolfe of Public Citizen somehow got named to a key FDA panel during the late Bush administration [Point of Law, Postrel, Bernstein/Volokh, Hooper & Henderson/Forbes]
“Friends weren’t really trying to reach me!” class action against Reunion.com encounters another setback [Spam Notes]
Stand and deliver it back: “Minnesota: $2.6 Million in Red Light Camera Tickets Refunded” [The Newspaper]
Gary, Indiana’s is the last standing of what were once thirty “gun sales = nuisance” suits filed by cities; now Indiana high court says it can go to trial [Point of Law]

Filed under: airlines, class action settlements, FDA, free speech, Indiana, law schools, Minnesota, Netherlands, Public Citizen, red light cameras

Didn’t want “sibling relationship to completely disintegrate over this tragedy”

So Crystal Bear of Rice, Wash., who’d won $6 million from her sister in a crash lawsuit, settled for the $200,000 insurance policy limits instead. Co-defendant Ford Motor Company had also been targeted in the case, which arose from a Bronco rollover, but it got off with a defense verdict. (Matthew Heller, On Point News).

Filed under: Ford, rollover litigation

Infringement as “rip-off” morality play

Apparently jurors are keen to construe the story before them as a search for fault, even if that’s not quite how patent law actually works (IP Law and Business)

Filed under: patent law, patent litigation

CPSIA Blog Day #6: Wrap-up

Links and angles that didn’t fit anywhere else:

Just in time to be too late? Per activist Kathleen Fasanella, NPR “Marketplace” is said to be planning a show on CPSIA for Feb. 6, by which time shelves will be emptying;
Community of independent artists squabble amid anguish of “discovering piece by piece they can’t comply” [Electric Boogaloo, strong language]

Obama’s decorator better hurry and furnish girls’ rooms before Feb. 10 [Vicki Piippo, Calico Closet]
Consumer Reports sticks to its profoundly benighted view that there’s nothing wrong with the law, and gets an earful from visiting readers. Relatedly, the once-independent blog Consumerist was recently bought by CR’s parent Consumers’ Union, and likewise parrots the organization’s misleading line on thrift shops and other applications of the law;
My call for past bloggers to revisit CPSIA today was even more successful than I hoped. Posts from Amy Alkon at Advice Goddess, Patrick at Popehat, John Schwenkler, Mark Thompson at the wonderfully named League of Ordinary Gentlemen, and Eve Tushnet at Ladyblog.
Also, I contributed two posts at my other site, Point of Law, on the law’s testing costs and its impact on the amusement park/attractions business. And excellent business/econ blogger Marc Hodak (Hodak Value) posted today as well.
Darn. This place had some cute stuff, too.
In today’s New York Post, Jeff Stier (American Council on Science and Health) points out that the law will deal a blow to NYC’s garment trade. Help, Mayor Bloomberg!
Canadian web-based book seller: we’ll have to decide whether to go on shipping kids’ books to U.S. customers;
Resources: A great big assemblage of videos on the cause; nice collection of resources on the law from Karen Clark; info and action kit from Etsy (PDF), print it out for reference.

Filed under: CPSIA, CPSIA and apparel/needle trades, on other blogs

CPSIA Blog Day #5: “Laptop for every child” campaign

You guessed it: hitting a CPSIA snag (Digital Journal).

Filed under: CPSIA, schools

CPSIA Blog Day #4: Groups that should care

There’s at least one “generic” blog post on CPSIA that has been freely distributed for crafters and other bloggers to use today (example: Chichiboulie). It’s a good one, dividing the topic along the lines of the various groups that each have a lot to lose if the law goes into effect as planned Feb. 10:

To the Parents of Young Students:

To the Avid Reader:

To the Lover of All Things Handmade:

To the Environmentalist:

To the Second-Hand Shopper:

To the Entrepreneur:

To the Antique Toy Collector:

Do you fall into any of these categories? Many people I know fall into at least half of them. It’s hard to imagine the law’s diehard defenders at places like Consumer Reports, The Pump Handle, and the trial-lawyer-defense Center for Justice and Democracy don’t fall into any. (Graphic credit: Hasenpfeffer).

Filed under: CPSIA, CPSIA and resale