- Update: “Cash4Gold Drops Consumerist From Lawsuit” [its report; earlier] Unrelatedly, the same Consumers Union publication was taken in by a fake memo in which Australian McDonald’s supposedly plotted to defraud its customers [its revised post]
- “You just killed the homeowner. The bad guy is in there.” [Courthouse News and Scott Greenfield, Phoenix]
- “Reporter Who Survived Midair Crash Now on Risky ‘Libel Tourism’ Journey” [ABA Journal, Krauss/Point of Law, earlier; Joe Sharkey, Brazil]
- Permanent disbarment sought for “too drunk to join fen-phen conspiracy” Kentucky lawyer Mills [Courier-Journal]
- “Woman Blames Study Abroad Program for Rape in Mali” [OnPoint News]
- Ninth Circuit reinstates prosecution of Nevada lawyer, surgeon and consultant in injury-case furor spotlighted by Fortune mag [Legally Unbound, which by coincidence has just hosted Blawg Review #231; Las Vegas Review Journal; earlier]
- Punch line ad lib.: “Former terrorist wants to be lawyer” [Toronto Star] More: Lowering the Bar.
- “Is It So Crazy For A Patent Attorney To Think Patents Harm Innovation?” [Michael Masnick, Techdirt, Against Monopoly (Stephen Kinsella)]
Archive for October, 2009
“British Government Considers Mandating Plastic Pint Glasses”
So let’s not-quite-clink our glasses to safety, always safety first. Authorities are concerned that the glass vessels familiar for hundreds of years are too often used as weapons. [Lowering the Bar]
Liability for flu spread?
Some are anticipating that, per this line in Washington Post coverage:
Still, discussion [at a recent conference] centered on what employers could do to minimize the spread of the virus and to keep their doors open.
If a customer contracts the virus from the business “there’s an increased liability,” said Elizabeth Lewis, a partner at the law firm Cooley Godward Kronish.
Judge Laurence Silberman interviewed
By Peter Robinson, at Uncommon Knowledge (site):
Lawyering is an essential component of democratic capitalism, but too much lawyering can be too much of a good thing. A disproportionate amount of our talent in the United States goes into law as opposed to business, which creates wealth. Lawyers redistribute the wealth, but they do not generally produce wealth.
Judge Silberman’s classic 1978 article, “Will Lawyering Strangle Democratic Capitalism?” — originally published at my old magazine Regulation, though before my time there — is available in PDF form from Cato here.
Related: “Scalia: ‘We Are Devoting Too Many of Our Best Minds to’ Lawyering” [WSJ Law Blog]
Judge-menacing Philly lawyer ignores disbarment
A “judge ordered the Office of Disciplinary Counsel to lock [Allen] Feingold out of his offices” after he went on practicing law notwithstanding his suspension and eventual disbarment, even going so far as to use another lawyer’s letterhead and electronic-filing code without his permission. That was aside from the question of whether he’d earlier attempted to choke, or only attempted to strike, a judge who’d ruled against him on an arbitration matter. [Above the Law, Legal Intelligencer, AmLaw Daily]
Defensive medicine and hospital admissions
Unnecessary testing and prescribing is often the first example that comes to mind in discussions of defensive medicine, but Stuart Turkewitz, M.D., explains why needless hospital admissions, especially of older adults and those with chronic medical problems, should also be seen as a prime example. Just to lend interest, Dr. Turkewitz, an internist and geriatrician, contributes the views as a guest blogger at the New York Personal Injury Law Blog, published by his lawyer brother Eric.
More “fruity” cereal class actions
Disgruntled California consumer Roy Werbel is the latest to file putative class-action complaints against the makers of Cap’n Crunch Crunchberries and Froot Loops because their products do not contain actual fruit or, as the case may be, froot. [SF Weekly and followup via Above the Law] Earlier coverage here, here, here, etc.
“Peeping Tom threatens legal action”
Strange goings-on in Ontario. [Toronto Sun]
The state of CPSIA
On the craft site Etsy, Cecilia Leibovitz of the Handmade Toy Alliance provides an update on the present state of affairs, including component testing, rhinestone workarounds, and the CPSC’s exemption of ordinary fabric (but not many other constituents of sewn goods) from third party testing.