Archive for 2009

U.K.: Xmas tree “designed according to principles of health and safety”

The new holiday decoration in the town of Poole, Dorset,

has no trunk so it won’t blow over, no branches to break off and land on someone’s head, no pine needles to poke a passer-by in the eye, no decorations for drunken teenagers to steal and no angel, presumably because it would need a dangerously long ladder to place it at the top.

One onlooker describes it as “horrible”. [Times Online via Free-Range Kids; & welcome Damon Root/Reason “Hit and Run” (calling us “the indispensable Overlawyered.com”, Coyote, Ed Driscoll, Musing Minds readers]

December 1 roundup

  • Hertz drops libel lawsuit against investor research outfit that claimed its solvency was at risk [Crain’s New York, earlier]
  • Report: New Jersey blogger jailed for threats against federal judges was on FBI informant payroll [AP]
  • “Bentley Photos Are Props in Willie Gary’s High School Motivational Speech” [ABA Journal]
  • Australian personal injury lawyers evade ad ban [Sydney Morning Herald]
  • Scott Rothstein’s alleged Ponzi scheme “targeted people who invested in law suits” [Steele/Legal Ethics Forum] “Two Inside Looks at Rothstein’s Firm, Lifestyle” [Ambrogi/Legal Blog Watch]
  • O’Quinn driving nearly twice speed limit on rainy pavement at time of crash [Chron]
  • “Support for UN religious defamation rule drops” [Media Watch Watch] On the other hand? “Envoy’s Speech Signals Softening of U.S. Hostility to International Court” [AP]
  • Rudely titled new book on how to avoid getting sued [Instapundit]

New at Point of Law

Stories you may be missing if you’re not following our sister site:

When they sue the wrong person

When the wrong defendant is named in a civil complaint — wrong in the sense of being “different guy with the same name” — you might think it would be relatively routine to order the complainant to compensate the bewildered target. But it’s actually unusual enough to rate news coverage. [Jim Dwyer, “Hello, Collections? The Worm Has Turned,” New York Times]