Domino’s sued in murder of deliveryman

Springfield, Mass.: The parents’ suit charges that the chain wrongfully sent Corey Lind out to deliver pizza to dangerous and unknown addresses; he was ambushed and murdered in 2007. Noteworthy angle:

According to the suit, prior to 2000 Domino’s had a policy of not making or of limiting deliveries to certain areas.

As a result of discrimination claims against the company, the federal Department of Justice investigated the policy. The result was an agreement between the government and Domino’s establishing procedures Domino’s could use to limit or stop deliveries to certain areas based on safety.

The suit said that Domino’s required all stores to implement a Limited Delivery Service Policy which, among other things, would evaluate each store’s delivery and service area and provide for the safety of delivery workers.

Filed under: restaurants, sued if you do, third party liability for crime

A steer named Tivo

More from notorious patent venue E.D. Tex.: litigants and lawyers are reaching out to buy sponsorships and other sources of presumed goodwill with the heavily rural jury pool, thus resulting in “Samsung Stagecoach Days” and the purchase of prize cows by faraway patent holders. [Elinson/The Recorder, Frankel/AmLaw]

Filed under: Eastern District of Texas, forum shopping

A legal scramble over Michael Jackson’s estate?

The headline at Business Insider puts it more rudely than that. Business Week notes that “The singer faced a near-constant drumbeat of legal troubles in life. He’ll likely cue up plenty of them in death as well.” More: WSJ Law Blog; Eric Turkewitz with an early analysis of the medical and pharmacist liability possibilities.

Filed under: music and musicians, wills and trusts

“Teenage strippers sue Atlanta”

It is lawful for the 19- and 20-year-old exotic dancers to strip for customers, but a new Atlanta ordinance forbids persons their age to set foot in places selling alcoholic beverages, so they cannot legally enter their workplace, the Cheetah Lounge. [AP/WBBM]

Filed under: alcohol, strippers and exotic dancers

Financial services regulation overhaul: goodbye to arbitration?

Tucked away in the Obama administration’s proposals for revamping regulation of financial services is a provision that would apparently allow federal regulators to curtail or eliminate the preagreed arbitration of consumer complaints in stockbroker and other financial service disputes, thus shunting more cases as litigation to the civil courts. [Erin Geiger Smith, Business Insider]. Max Kennerly has a plaintiff’s-eye view.

Filed under: arbitration

“I’ll pay them a million dollars if they can do it.”

An old contract-law chestnut: when does a public statement along these lines rise to the status of a legally enforceable reward offer? Dave Hoffman at Concurring Opinions considers it unlikely that a law student will get past summary judgment in his suit against a criminal defense attorney who went on Dateline and promised (or at least seemed to promise) a cool million to anyone who proved his client could have committed the crime of which he was accused.

Filed under: advertising

Comment spam — from law firms

As Eric Turkewitz notes, “when a firm outsources its marketing, it also outsources its ethics.”

Filed under: chasing clients, legal blogs

Lawsuit claiming talk show host unfairly refused to take calls

You might think such a lawsuit, filed against radio host Marc Bernier in Bristol, Va. two years ago, would not detain the legal system for long or inflict heavy costs. But you’d be wrong about that. [Daniel Gilbert, Bristol Herald-Courier, May 19]

Filed under: broadcasters, Virginia

June 25 roundup

UK libel law still casting a chill on free speech around the world [Floyd Abrams, Index on Censorship via Ken at Popehat, Kirk Hartley]
Much talked about Ramesh Ponnuru op-ed on Constitution and government consideration of race [NYT]
“EFF Busts Bogus Internet Subdomain Patent” [Electronic Frontier Foundation]
Why you can’t get low-cost health insurance, part LXVII: legal pressure on insurers to cover behavioral autism treatment [NLJ, Detroit Free Press]
New Jersey disbars reparations lawyer Ed Fagan, New York having already done so [Black Star News, JTA, Newark Star-Ledger, NJLJ]

pigdrawing

Author Wendell Berry: force NAIS animal-tagging on every small farmer, and you’ll have to call the cops on me [Food Renegade; more on NAIS and small producers, Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund; earlier here, etc.]
Indiana enacts what Gov. Mitch Daniels calls nation’s strongest law protecting teachers from lawsuits [WANE, WTHR]
Town of Kenner, La. says it’s learned its lesson from being sued and will ticket drunken bicyclists even if they’re badly hurt in accidents [nine years ago on Overlawyered]

Filed under: agriculture and farming, autism, free speech, Indiana, insurance, patent quality, school discipline, United Kingdom

A non-troll patent lawsuit in E.D. Tex.

Both sides actually manufacture products and everything.

Filed under: Eastern District of Texas, patent trolls