Beginning November 29, those who employ nannies, housekeepers and similar workers in New York will be exposed to broad new legal liabilities. If the experience of other employers proves an example, some will get sued for years’ worth of back pay, front pay and other damages over alleged discrimination in hiring, promotion, or firing, or for permitting to develop in their home what an employee experiences as a “hostile work environment.” [Empire Justice Center]
Archive for November, 2010
Irish businessman awarded $13.6 m in “naked sleepwalking” libel trial
Nocturnal ramblings of a less-than-conscious nature during a business trip to Africa were misportrayed by the company as sexual harassment or something else improper, argued the mining exec. A jury awarded him €10 million, by far a record for an Irish libel case. [Telegraph, Eichler/Atlantic Wire]
November 21 roundup
- Federalist Society annual convention (which I attended) included panels on anonymity and the First Amendment, judicial recusals, many other topics;
- Nomination of R.I.’s McConnell to federal bench could soon reach Senate floor [ProJo]
- “Why U.S. Taxpayers Are Paying Brazilian Cotton Growers $147 Million” [NPR via Popehat]
- “Litigation Governance: Taking Adequacy Seriously” [Trask, Class Action Countermeasures]
- “Family” groups vs. a family, cont’d: Vermont Supreme Court upholds Miller-Jenkins custody ruling [Volokh, BTB]
- OSHA allows more comment on what could be an extremely expensive mandate against noise in the workplace [ShopFloor]
- Cops who inform on cops are often left to twist in wind [Balko]
- Interview with Mark Zaid, collector of comic book art with law/legal themes [Abnormal Use]
“‘Police! Step Away From the Chess Table'”
Gotham cops crack down on pawn pushers in parks. [NY Times]
“Interior inspector general: White House skewed drilling-ban report”
Federal judge Martin Feldman was vilified in some quarters for lifting the Obama administration’s Gulf deepwater drilling moratorium, but in retrospect “arbitrary and capricious” seems if anything generous as a description of the Interior Department’s actions. [Politico]
Court: riding oil pump like toy horse could be “reasonably anticipated” use
By reversing a grant of summary judgment, a Louisiana court has reinstated a suit alleging that the manufacturer of a 50-year-old oil pump should have reasonably anticipated that a 13-year-old boy would climb onto its moving pendulum and attempt to ride it for fun, thus injuring himself. As evidence that such a use was reasonably foreseeable, plaintiffs offered three instances in which kids had been hurt attempting similar stunts in other states — all of which, as it happened, had occurred well after the making of the Louisiana pump, leaving it unclear in what way they could have served to put its manufacturer “on notice” of anything. [Sean Wajert]
New Jersey gun transport case, cont’d
We earlier linked the story of Brian Aitken, a man convicted under New Jersey’s tough gun control laws of transporting his own firearms at a time when he said he was between household moves. Some readers felt the reporting on the case had not drawn out as many of the details as they wished, and Radley Balko has now moved to fill the gap with a column at Reason delving further into the story (more).
Facebook unfriending as workplace “retaliation”?
Providing another artificial legal reason for employers to prohibit social-media “fraternization” between managers and the employees they supervise. [Molly DiBianca, Delaware Employment Law Blog]
East Texas patent venue
The Federal Circuit appears to be cracking down on a notorious symbol of forum-shopping, according to Richard Samp at Washington Legal Foundation’s Legal Pulse.
November 18 roundup
- Adios to Rum and Coke? “FDA, FTC crack down on caffeinated alcoholic drinks” [WaPo]
- Flap over Justice Alito’s attendance at conservative magazine’s dinner may be much ado about nothing [Steele, Legal Ethics Forum]
- “Cops Threaten Mom for Letting [8 Year Old] Son Play Outside” [Free-Range Kids]
- Contrary to some assertions, American courts from early on did recognize that tort liability could run into First Amendment constitutional limits [Eugene Volokh, Iowa Law Review, PDF]
- Woman pleads guilty to insurance fraud after obtaining $300,000 over low-speed auto collision [Seattle P-I]
- Well-known examples to the contrary, regulation doesn’t always favor big business against small [Bryan Caplan]
- Should “professional plaintiffs” have standing? [Brandon Murrill, William & Mary Law Review, PDF]
- Blonds not protected class under federal employment discrimination law, judge declares [six years ago on Overlawyered]