Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Archive for January, 2010

Prizes baked into food, cont’d

The New York Times has more on the customs surrounding the traditional French galette des rois baked with little figurines inside, though it does not get into the possible legal or regulatory angles that might prohibit placing such items in interstate commerce. In this case they’re prepared by a licensed home baker in Larchmont, N.Y. For the cases of New Orleans king cake, Christmas puddings, Kinder Surprise candy, etc., see earlier posts.

P.S. For more on Epiphany traditions of “Twelfth Cake,” see Christine Lalumia/BBC, David Zincavage, and KatInTheCupboard/Flickr (1937 children’s book).

Filed under:

“Lawyer: Man who slipped on cruise ship deserves every penny of $9.5 million”

“I strongly disagree that this case is a classic example of the legal system run amok; in truth, it is a classic example of justice being served,” said David Brill, Florida-based attorney for plaintiff Danny Simpson, a fitness instructor on Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Crown who slipped on a wet floor area. [Gene Sloan, USA Today “Cruise Log” blog]

Filed under: ,

January 3 roundup

  • “A Patient Dies, and Then the Anguish of Litigation” [Joan Savitsky, NYT, more]
  • “Kern County’s Monstrous D.A.” [Radley Balko]
  • “Former N.Y. Judge Sentenced to 27 Months in Jail for Attempted Bribery” [NYLJ]
  • “ADA Online: Is a Website a ‘Place of Public Accommodation’?” [Eric Robinson, Citizen Media Law, background here and here]
  • “The New Climate Litigation: How about if we sue you for breathing?” [WSJ editorial]
  • Saratoga school district agrees to overregulate, rather than ban, students’ bikes [Free-Range Kids, earlier]
  • “Head of BigLaw pro bono department fails to pay income taxes for 10 years? How’s that happen?” [WSJ Law Blog]
  • Municipal subprime suits: “The Most ‘Evil’ Lenders Are Also, Conveniently, The Richest” [Kevin Funnell; more at Point of Law]

Filed under: , , , , ,

New Year’s Day musing

Florida’s Sugar Bowl blowout of Cincinnati (the game wasn’t even as close as its 51-25 final score, given the 37-3 third quarter lead) is a rebuke to efforts to regulate the BCS, though admittedly the US would be better off if Congress dropped its current agenda and spent 2010 in hearings and debates over the optimal means of determining the college football champion.

Filed under: ,

“There Is No Joy In Toyland”

Former Congresswoman Anne Northup, now a commissioner at the Consumer Product Safety Commission, AnimalsBall5chad an op-ed in the Journal last week on the continuing damage being wrought by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). Related: Rick Woldenberg (“Big Toy may be prospering right now, but the little guy is getting killed”). And Karen Raugust at Publisher’s Weekly has a year-end status report on the unpleasant effects of the law on various segments of the kids’ book business, including retailers, “book-plus” and novelty book makers, and one of the most seriously endangered groups, sellers of vintage children’s books.

PUBLIC DOMAIN IMAGE from Elise Bake, Der Ball Der Tiere (“The Animals’ Ball”, German, 1891), courtesy ChildrensLibrary.org.

Filed under: , , , ,