Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Archive for July, 2009

Tearing up the farm, in safety’s name

Eye-opening account by Carolyn Lochhead in the San Francisco Chronicle of some of the collateral damage in the farm-safety panic. For fear of bacterial contamination, farmers are now increasingly obliged to act rigorously against any sign of wildlife, whether frogs, squirrels, birds or mice:

…ponds are being poisoned and bulldozed. Vegetation harboring pollinators and filtering storm runoff is being cleared. Fences and poison baits line wildlife corridors.

Even organic techniques of surrounding crops with hedges of pest-resistant vegetation are being foiled by buyers’ demands that an entirely sterile ring be installed instead.

Auditors have told [farmer Ken] Kimes that no children younger than 5 can be allowed on his farm for fear of diapers. He has been asked to issue identification badges to all visitors.

Full article here.

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Duty to warn that wearing football gear might make you really hot

“The family of former Minnesota Vikings offensive lineman Korey Stringer won an important legal victory Monday against the manufacturer of the helmets and shoulder pads he wore when he died nearly eight years ago from complications of heatstroke. A federal judge in Ohio concluded that manufacturer Riddell Inc. had a duty to warn Stringer that its helmets and shoulder pads could contribute to heat stroke when used in hot conditions.” [Kevin Seifert, ESPN]

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Judge tosses Donald Trump’s bid to silence critical author

Wealthy and aggressive individuals wielding defamation lawsuits never seldom sometimes, but apparently not in this case, prosper in efforts to silence their critics. [NY Post, Bloomberg, WSJ Law Blog] Trump vows an appeal against New York Times-affiliated author Timothy O’Brien — not to run up anyone’s legal costs further, you understand, but from a disinterested sense of justice. Earlier coverage here, here, here, and here. More: American Lawyer.

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July 16 roundup

  • Bad move for GOP to call disappointed litigant as witness at Sotomayor hearing [Taranto via Barnett] Nominee’s disavowal of Legal Realism and identitarian/viewpoint-based judging should be seen as a victory for legal conservatism [Copland at PoL, related Examiner and NRO “Bench Memos”; Adler/WaPo; coverage in NYT] Why do Senators speechify instead of asking questions? “Why does the rain fall from up above?” [Althouse]
  • “Illinois Law Dean Announces New Admission Policy in Wake of Scandal” [NLJ; earlier] “U of I Law School Got Scholarship Cash for Clout Admissions” [ABA Journal]
  • Weird warning sign in Swedish elevator [BoingBoing; commenters there disagree as to whether the elevator in question is of an old continuous-motion type called a Paternoster which has fallen out of use in part because of its high accident risk, or an elevator of more conventional design but lacking an inner door]
  • “Gambler Appeals; Wants More of His Money Back From Casino” [South Korea; Lowering the Bar]
  • The price of one Ohio Congresswoman’s vote on Waxman-Markey [Washington Times via Coyote, who has a followup]
  • “Want to live like tort king Melvin Belli?” [real estate listing in Pacific Heights; WSJ Law Blog]
  • Fierce moral urgency yada yada: “Put nothing in writing, ever” advised Carol Browner on CAFE regs [Mark Tapscott, D.C. Examiner] Alex Beam zings Obama on signing statements [Boston Globe]
  • Constitution lists only three federal crimes: treason, piracy, and counterfeiting. How’d we get to 4,500 today? [Ryan Young, CEI “Open Market”]

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Medical privacy laws vs. adoption of electronic medical records

Nearly every policy wonk in the health care debate favors faster adoption of electronic medical records, but laws passed at the urging of other policy wonks seem to be getting in the way:

Hospitals have seen a decrease in EMR adoption in states where privacy laws restrict their ability to disclose patient information, according to a study published in the journal Management Science.

The study shows that states that have enacted medical privacy laws restricting the ability of hospitals to disclose patient information have seen a reduction in EMR adoption by 11 percent over a three-year period or 24 percent overall. States with no such regulations, on the other hand, experienced a 21 percent gain in hospital EMR adoption.

[Health Care IT News via HIPAABlog]

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Kid isn’t his, homeless man in jail for nonsupport anyway

Per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, both a special assistant state attorney general and a judge knew when sentencing Frank Hatley that he was not the biological father of the child born to an unmarried woman with whom he’d had a relationship. With the assistance of DNA results and a legal services lawyer Hatley had managed to get out from under future payments, but his arrearage on existing support (premised on his obligation to reimburse the state for its public assistance payouts on behalf of his supposed son) still left him in “deadbeat dad” status. “He’s dealing with a valid court order”, said one lawyer. So, as the paper notes, he’s “languished in a South Georgia debtor’s prison jail for more than a year”. More: Above the Law, Greenfield, CNN. Update Jul. 16: Hatley is freed.

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