- Recruiting municipalities to sue: “Class-action lawyers target online travel sites” [Roger Parloff, Fortune, earlier]
- “New York press shield law would extend to bloggers (and define blogging)” [Turkewitz]
- Keep publishing that paper or else? Arizona Attorney General sues Gannett to make it keep Tucson Citizen alive [Legal NewsLine] More: Ken at Popehat has further thoughts on entanglement of government and press.
- Prediction if the feds bail out Sacramento: “bondholders will get 10 cents on the dollar, and the SEIU will be given 55% ownership of California.” [Coyote, Nick Gillespie/Reason]
- “Top Conservatives on Twitter” organizer takes critic to court [Citizen Media Law, Patrick @ Popehat]
- Louisiana woman sues Wal-Mart over unwanted in-store encounter with nutria (muskrat-like rodent) [Lowering the Bar, On Point News]
- Annals of zero tolerance: student expelled over eyebrow trimmer [KDKA, Pittsburgh, via Obscure Store]
- Program encourages Brits to report their neighbors to the cops if they seem to be living beyond their means [Radley Balko]
Author Archive
CPSIA and Violet’s Peapod
The testing requirements of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act are due to go into effect nine months from now, when the temporary stay expires. Here’s what they’ll do [AmendTheCPSIA.com] to the economics of one Bay Area designer who specializes in “100% natural, locally-made, completely adorable peapod-shaped baby sleep sacks”, a product line relatively well suited to absorb the costs of a testing program since the item sells for a fairly high price and doesn’t have many component parts:
If I were to have each batch of my current inventory tested by CPSC-approved third party, I would have to pay $57 per print and batch for 3rd party lead testing, and $278 per print & batch for phthalates, totaling $4,690 altogether. If I were to increase my price point based on cost increases to cover this 3rd party testing, I’d have to raise my price point by $19.14 each. My precious baby sleepsacks are barely selling at $53.95, so charging $73.09 each in these tough economic times would surely put me out of business.
[…Or I could instead produce] a single batch of sleepsacks (ONE PRINT). I’d then have it 3rd party tested for lead and phthalates, and increase the price point to $57.95. With an increased price point and only one style/print in my line, I could hardly remain competitive in the marketplace!
Intimidation through subpoena
Lawyers know how to do it, but then, so do members of Congress.
Risks of getting sued for blogging
The WSJ notes that online comments, bulletin boards and chatrooms, and social media of all kinds present a risk, not to mention blogging: “Though the likelihood of a plaintiff winning a lawsuit is not high, ‘you could go bankrupt’ just from defending against them, says Miriam Wugmeister, a partner at Morrison & Foerster LLP and a privacy and data-security law expert.”
Symposium: “Replacing Justice Souter”
I’m one of the participants in an online symposium at Reason on who can, should or will serve as President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee. I have kind words for Walter Dellinger III, mixed views on “empathy”, and predict that the current surge of activist federal economic policy will contribute to the Court’s docket in coming years. The full list of participants: Radley Balko, Alan Gura, Wendy Kaminer, Manuel Klausner, Judge Andrew Napolitano, Walter Olson, Roger Pilon, Glenn Reynolds, Damon W. Root, Ilya Shapiro, Harvey Silverglate, Ilya Somin, and Jacob Sullum.
Don’t
Maybe we need to create some “super-Don’t” label for when a story like this comes along: “A defense attorney and former federal prosecutor whose clients have included rap stars and a soldier at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq was charged Wednesday with arranging the killing of one witness and trying to hire a hit man to kill another.” [AP/1010WINS]
“Obama Regulatory Review Could Spur Product Lawsuits”
The plaintiff’s bar scores a big victory with a White House policy reversal on preemption. [Business Week].
“Lawyer charged with stealing over $600,000 in client settlement money”
According to Manhattan D.A. Robert Morgenthau, New York lawyer Marc Bernstein “settled these cases pretty cheap, then took the money and ran.” [NY Daily News, press release] Meanwhile: “Prominent Arkansas plaintiffs securities lawyer Gene Cauley is expected to plead guilty for failing to pay clients $9.3 million in settlement funds he was supposed to be holding as their escrow agent.” [ABA Journal, earlier] According to a report dated February (PDF) from the ABA’s Center for Professional Responsibility, New York is among the states that have adopted payee notification reforms intended to catch this category of fraud at an early stage; Arkansas has not. For more on payee notification, see my 2006 paper with Peter Morin.
Sued by contractor after criticizing its zoning variance
That’s what an Illinois woman says happened to her; now she’s countersuing [Madison County Record]
“Giuliani Duke Golf Lawsuit Shanks”
“In an opinion peppered with golf references and a quote from “Caddyshack” star Bill Murray, a federal magistrate has recommended the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by Rudolph Giuliani’s son over his booting from Duke University’s varsity golf team.” [The Smoking Gun, Althouse; earlier]