Australia: satellite data to spy out pool-safety scofflaws

Authorities in Queensland, Australia, intend to use spy-satellite photos to catch homeowners not in compliance with strict new safety rules on swimming pools, which include the mandatory clearing of trees near pool fences so that determined children cannot climb their way over. [Courier-Mail] More: Popehat.

In the United States, incidentally, there are some indications that a crackdown may be underway to enforce the new federal pool safety act passed last year and administered by the Consumer Product Safety Commission [Aquatics International, earlier] And (via AI) Billings, Montana is pulling the plug on a big public pool project, since “the city wasn’t willing to accept the financial risk and legal liability of owning a large aquatic center”. [Billings Gazette]

Filed under: Australia, pools, privacy

Big win for global-warming litigators

A Second Circuit panel, reversing the district court judge, says a suit against utilities can go forward characterizing carbon dioxide as a nuisance. [American Lawyer, Point of Law first, second, third posts]

Filed under: climate change, global warming, Second Circuit

Troll Tracker blog suit settles

As the East Texas jury was set to begin deliberations. Per Joe Mullin’s must-read coverage at IP Law and Business, Rick Frenkel’s lawyer-critical blog is now entirely closed down even to private readers except as an archive for the use of lawyers in the related litigation. More: Mullin, Sept. 18 (Frenkel “wouldn’t have the financial resources to defend himself” had his employer Cisco not covered his legal costs), Sept. 21 (“You don’t wrestle with a snake, you cut its head off,” said plaintiff T. John (“Johnny”) Ward, Jr. “We shut the blog down, is what we did.”)

Filed under: bloggers and the law, Eastern District of Texas, Patent Troll Tracker, watch what you say about lawyers

September 23 roundup

There are “almost certainly” many innocent persons in prison today wrongly convicted of shaking a baby to death [Radley Balko, Reason] Harris County, Texas forensic examiner under scrutiny [same, Reason “Hit and Run”] L.A. Times on forensics reform [same]
Feds order large private insurer Humana to pull criticisms of Obama health plan from its website [David Henderson, Eugene Volokh and followup]
Why would anyone market lawyers’ services through blog comment spam? Especially at Popehat? [first and second posts]
“Revolving door” for officials of regulatory agencies tends to lead to law firms [Naked Capitalism]
Tenure trouble: teacher’s union head “would protect a dead body in the classroom” [Ron Bailey, Reason on Brill “Rubber Room” article, earlier]
Google asked to unmask user in another defamation suit (Turks & Caicos developer) [Brian Kumnick, FindLaw “Injured”]
“Fired Ave Maria Law Prof Gets Tenure in Whistle-Blower Settlement, Lawyer Says” [ABA Journal, background Washington Monthly]
Ted Frank on Ameritrade settlement [Center for Class Action Fairness, earlier]

Filed under: class action settlements, free speech, Google, Houston, law schools, teacher tenure, Ted Frank

Judge orders shared dog custody

A New Jersey couple who never married fought for three years over custody of Dexter the pug. Now they can look forward to having not only the canine in question, but also lawyers, in both of their lives for the indefinite future. [Gloucester County Times, Philadelphia Inquirer]

Filed under: animals, family law

“Zurich hospital turns away US health tourists”

“Zurich University Hospital has stopped treating North American ‘medical tourists’, fearing million-dollar claims from litigious patients if operations go wrong. Hospitals in canton Valais have also adopted measures to protect themselves against visitors from the United States, Canada and Britain.” [Swissinfo.ch via Mark Perry and Coyote]

Filed under: Europe, medical malpractice, Switzerland

“New Allegations About Fred Baron’s Role in Edwards Deception”

A book proposal by former John Edwards aide Andrew Young is sensationally said to allege “that Edwards asked [the late asbestos-suit impresario] Baron if he could find a doctor who would falsify a DNA report.” [New York Times via (quoted) AmLaw Litigation Daily] Now where would anyone have gotten the impression that Baron was a good person to talk to if you wanted to misrepresent medical facts about someone?

Filed under: Fred Baron, John Edwards

September 22 roundup

Proposed Costco fuel settlement: $0 for class, $10M for attorneys. [CCAF]

Senator Specter’s latest attempt to curry favor with trial lawyers. [Ribstein; see also Corporate Counsel]

The Frank-Gryphon paper on the game theory of medical malpractice settlements is now posted. Comments welcome. [SSRN]

Heritage panel on tort reform in the states features Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour. [Summary at Point of Law]

Liability waivers ignored and Texas Motor Speedway on the hook for $12 million after a 12-year-old driver strikes 11-year-old in the pit area. [Fort Worth Star-Telegram; id. on pre-trial]

Martha Raye turning over in her grave, as trial lawyers target denture cream as next mass tort. [AP/Washington Post]

Filed under: assumption of risk, bad faith, CCAF, class action settlements, Mississippi, politics

How class actions get invented

Sean Wajert on a class action filed against Bayer:

Plaintiffs are consumers who claim to have purchased Bayer combination aspirin and dietary supplement products. They do not claim that they were injured by these products or that the products were ineffective. Instead, plaintiffs seek damages because they say they would not have purchased these products if they had known that Bayer, instead of submitting a New Drug Application (“NDA”) for each of these combination products, relied on the preexisting separate regulatory review of aspirin and the supplements.

Archive for September, 2009