Law school hypotheticals come to life: “Wang Han-chin, an electrician in central Taiwan, accused five neighbours of teaching their mynah, a parrot-like bird, to curse at him” with the epithet “clueless big-mouthed idiot” after he called the police on their noise. He claimed that the insults caused him emotional distress and distraction at work with resulting injury, but prosecutors found that he had not shown an adequate link between the bird and his injuries. [NineMSN via Lowering the Bar]
Archive for January, 2011
Texas governor: let’s move toward loser-pays
Right now Alaska is the only one of the fifty states with a serious loser-pays rule. If Texas adopted anything similar, the idea would get a massive boost nationally. [Gov. Rick Perry press release; Bob Dorigo Jones; Orange County Register; William Weaver, Indianapolis Star]
Tape recording Illinois cops
It could send you to prison. [New York Times; Radley Balko] Related: Jim Harper, Cato.
IBM’s proposed “meta-patent”
Will it work as a troll repellent? [Annie Lowrey, Slate]
Do not polish guns while taking this medication
The plaintiff, who had been prescribed Zoloft and Ambien, “reportedly fell asleep while ‘inspecting’ his gun” and shot himself inadvertently on waking. He “is now suing his doctor for medical malpractice, saying that prescribing both an anti-depressant and a sleep aid together deviated from accepted standards of medical care. He has a separate product liability claim pending against the drug manufacturers.” [New Jersey Lawsuit Reform Alliance, FindACase]
Susan Saladoff documentary “Hot Coffee” at Sundance
At Abnormal Use, Nick Farr brings some scrutiny to what’s looking like the big trial-bar media venture of the season.
P.S. And a follow-up that really stands on its own as a resource: “The Stella Liebeck McDonald’s Hot Coffee Case FAQ“
Jump in world prices raises specter of food riots
Now why again do we subsidize the making of corn into ethanol at great cost? [Kenneth Anderson, Opinio Juris]
“The Facebook deal moves offshore”
“Do we really want to exclude Americans from investing in high-flying American companies?” [Larry Ribstein, Truth on the Market]
January 24 roundup
- Trouble with hunting bad/burdensome regulations: most of them have entrenched advocates [NY Times] “Obama — the Great Deregulator?” [Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe]. Earlier here and here;
- Now we find out: tax hikes on outsourcing in 9/11 compensation bill infuriate India, were never vetted by Hill tax panels [PoL; more on Easter eggs in bill] Law firm that advertises for 9/11 dust clients is fan of Sen. Gillibrand [Stoll]
- France will stop censoring some historical images of smokers in ads [NY Times]
- “2010: The Year of the Angry, Company-Suing Plaintiff” [WSJ Law Blog] “The most sued companies in America” [Fox Business, counting federal-court suits only]
- Death by drunk driving: As bad as purposeful murder? Worse? [Greenfield]
- EPA gets specific on its plans to advance “environmental justice,” combat disparate racial impact in project siting, etc. [WLF, Popeo, earlier here, here, here, etc.]
- Winners of Chamber’s “Most Ridiculous Lawsuits of 2010” competition [US Chamber ILR]
- “If the FCC had regulated the Internet” [Jack Shafer, Slate]
“Even if it’s a 15-year-old, we hold 15-year-olds to certain levels of responsibility.”
Headline: “Teen hit with own golf ball sues for millions.” The youth was using a Hillsboro, Ore. driving range in the rain and his ball ricocheted off a metal awning post back into his face. [KATU]