Former state Superior Court judge Michael Joyce, of Erie, “was sentenced this afternoon to nearly four years in prison.” Joyce’s bogus claims of neck and back pain after a rear-ending had netted him $440,000 in settlements; “the judge filed his claims on judicial letterhead, [Assistant U.S. Attorney Christian] Trabold said, and referred to himself as a judge 115 times in the letters.”
Archive for March, 2009
Watch out, motel owners
Social conservative Maggie Gallagher, with whose views we have been known to differ, suggests a tort of “facilitating” adultery that would apply to businesses that “that intentionally and explicitly attempt to profit from acts of adultery”. [NRO “Corner”, first, second posts]
P.S. Eugene Volokh now has a more lengthy and serious treatment: “you can love marriage and hate adultery without thinking that more tort liability will make things better.”
When filing an injured-passenger claim…
It’s advisable to have actually been there and in the car, lest you share the fate of Ligia Lara, who drew eighteen months’ supervised probation on charges that included motor vehicle accident fraud [Lawrence, Mass., Eagle-Tribune]
CPSIA: “Children’s books have limited useful life (approx 20 years)”
Carol Baicker-McKee is stunned to find that line appearing as part of a slide presentation for staff of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) on enforcement of CPSIA (for those just catching up, CPSC’s guidelines last month recommend that resellers discard pre-1985 kids’ books unless the books are put through expensive testing.) It has her “ready to move to Australia. Or, better yet, ready to make Congress move to Australia and let the country start fresh.” Read the whole thing. More: Esther at Reader’s Loft.
“[O]ur entire world is a potentially dangerous place in which to live”
Dismissing a suit claiming that cigarettes and upholstery should have been flameproof, a Kentucky federal judge last month had this to say:
No court has found that there is a duty to make our world fool-proof or risk free. Nor is there a duty to warn of obvious consequences of foolish behavior.
In this case, we will reject the opportunity to hold that just because something could happen, failure to prevent it is unreasonable….
Nothing this court can do will change what happened. But we are obliged to ensure that the law is applied dispassionately, and in a principled way.
Hayman & Kirshenbaum
The Chicago personal injury law firm is still eager to tell you about your legal rights, but its website, when revisited by Mister Thorne, still proved less than solicitous of the rights of copyright holders (earlier). More: Likelihood of Confusion.
What have they done with the old Rose and Crown?
They’ve taxed it to death: “A record 2,000 British pubs have closed with the loss of 20,000 jobs since the chancellor, Alistair Darling, increased beer tax in the 2008 budget, new figures published by the British Beer and Pub Association reveal today.” [Guardian via Minton, CEI Open Market] A sheet music version of the Ian Robb song referenced in the headline is here, and the Campaign for Real Ale is here.
CPSIA: throwing away 500 stuffed animals
No, discarding 500 once-loved stuffed animals doesn’t really amount to much of a story amid scenes of billion-dollar disruptions caused by this law elsewhere around the country. But if you’re one of the people who run the Second Fling consignment shop in Goldsboro, N.C., it might still seem kind of sad.
How to save the financial markets
March 9 roundup
- “Attack on Inflatable Easter Bunny Might Be a Hate Crime” [Obscure Store; Westchester County, N.Y. Journal-News]
- Unclear on the concept? Judge resigns from Ethics Commission and backdates her letter doing so [Hartford Courant]
- Stephen Spruiell, Health Care Is Not a “Right” [NRO “Corner”]
- Christopher Fountain: Proud to have switched from lawyer to realtor, at least I escaped being in the same profession as those Seattle water class-action guys [For What It’s Worth]
- Why include Facebook as defendant in teenage “cyber-bullying” case? Ron Coleman has a theory [Likelihood of Confusion]
- Bill protecting Good Samaritans from lawsuits passes California Assembly Judiciary committee [California Civil Justice]
- Author/labor lawyer Tom Geoghegan had all the good writers on his side, so of course he lost big in replace-Rahm primary [Mickey Kaus, earlier]
- Three pro wrestlers thrown out of court in employment suit against World Wrestling Entertainment [Daniel Schwartz, earlier]