Ted Frank and Scott Greenfield suspect that some New York lawyers are soon going to be donating to judges they dislike, just to keep from drawing them for their case.
Archive for February, 2011
February 21 roundup
- Estate of Anna Nicole Smith may sue over opera based on her life [Daily Mail via Surber, other Daily Mail]
- Maryland Department of Environment: yep, we put tracking devices on Eastern Shore watermen’s boats [Red Maryland]
- Trial lawyers’ federal contributions went 97% to Dems last cycle [Freddoso, Examiner]
- $6.5 million for family abuse: unusual sovereign-exposure law costs Washington taxpayers again [PoL]
- Canadian court: no, we can’t and won’t waive loser-pays for needy litigants who lose cases [Erik Magraken]
- CPSC considers mandating “SawStop” technology [Crede, background]
- Gun groups alarmed over ATF pick [Chicago Tribune]
- Jury blames hit-run death on wheelchair curb cut [four years ago on Overlawyered]
Uh-oh: “Telecommuting: The Next Wave of Wage and Hour Litigation”
Such is the theme of a legal audio conference. The wave-after-next of employment litigation, presumably, consists of suits by workers infuriated because their employers have curtailed permission for telecommuting on advice of HR lawyers trying to avoid the wage-and-hour suits.
Speaking this week: Indiana, Illinois
I’ll be talking on Monday at noon at the University of Indiana-Bloomington Maurer School of Law in Bloomington, Ind., about my forthcoming book Schools for Misrule. Prof. Bill Henderson will comment. On Tuesday I’ll speak to law students at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, again at noon, with Prof. Larry Ribstein commenting. Student chapters of the Federalist Society are sponsoring both events. If you’re there, please feel free to introduce yourself.
“Is Canada becoming an overly litigious society?”
Column by Sameer Vasta in Sympatico.ca’s “Coffee Talk”:
Thankfully, a lot of these cases are thrown out by judges who realize that litigation isn’t the solution to every problem, but some of them are not, tying up important public resources that could be better used.
Over-litigiousness doesn’t really solve any problems, even for the person filing the case.
“Man Sues All-You-Can-Eat Sushi Joint Because He Didn’t Want To Eat Rice”
The customer says he has diabetes and should be entitled to scrape the rice off and just eat the fish. “The rice is part of the all-you-can-eat sushi,” said the restaurant owner, who says the plaintiff has asked $6,000 to drop his suit. “If you only eat the fish, I would go broke.” [Consumerist; David Lazarus, L.A. Times]
On Secular Right (& welcome NY Times readers)
Religion correspondent Mark Oppenheimer mentions this site and me in a finely drawn profile of Secular Right, the website I’m involved in (it launched in 2008) which explores the theme of a non-religiously-based conservatism. Oppenheimer interviewed at length two scintillating writers who contribute much of the site’s luster, Heather Mac Donald and Razib Khan. This passage amusingly captures the diversity of views among the SR principals:
The five bloggers are like the dramatis personae of a drawing-room comedy about irascible conservatives — written by Alan Bennett but set at the Heritage Foundation.
There’s the urban pragmatist (Ms. Mac Donald, who clerked for the liberal federal Judge Stephen Reinhardt but now writes conservative essays about homelessness and policing), the data-driven scientist (Mr. Khan), and the libertarian enthusiast for tort reform (Walter Olson, also founder of the blog Overlawyered).
The other two, I should add, are John Derbyshire and Andrew Stuttaford, both born in Great Britain and well known through their association with National Review, and both, like Khan and Mac Donald, exceptionally talented writers. The article is interesting throughout, and has already begun to provoke a variety of responses: Memeorandum, Dan Riehl (disapproving) with response from Razib Khan, Amy Alkon, Tyler Cowen, Ilya Somin, FrumForum, etc.
House hearing on CPSIA Thursday
Speaker line-up via Rick Woldenberg; opening statements by Reps. Mary Bono Mack (R-Calif.) and Fred Upton (R-Mich.); ABC News coverage; Republicans reportedly preparing legislation that would amend, but not repeal, the ill-conceived statute; a move to strip funding for the controversial product database.
A separate piece of legislation may address the law’s devastating effects on the sale of youth motorcycles, snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles:
“The original legislation Congress passed was meant to keep kids safe from lead content in toys,” said Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-MT), who comes from a state where smaller recreational vehicles are popular. “Ironically, the overreaching enforcement wound up putting kids at risk by forcing them to use larger more dangerous machines that are intended only for adults.”
Rehberg’s “Kids Just Want to Ride” Act, which he introduced last month, has 41 co-sponsors, including seven Democrats. A similar bill in the last Congress garnered 70 co-sponsors, including 24 Democrats.
Annals of public employee tenure, cont’d
A police officer in Davie, Fla. has been on paid leave for seven years. [Sun-Sentinel]
“England recovers from background check mania”
Parents who volunteer at school won’t need to hold back until they’ve completed a police scan. [Free-Range Kids]