San Francisco: “Chris Norberg left a negative review on Yelp after he got into a billing dispute with chiropractor Steven Biegel. Instead of quietly fuming like most people who get bad reviews on Yelp do, Biegel sued Norberg for defamation.” (Consumerist, Nov. 25, via Happy Hospitalist; defendant’s website).
Author Archive
Tomorrow in NYC on loser-pays
I’ll be on a morning panel discussion sponsored by the Manhattan Institute to discuss a new paper on loser-pays reform by Marie Gryphon. Details here.
Annals of public employee tenure, cont’d
Assume a false identity and file a bogus misconduct complaint that gets your boss fired. Claim whistleblower protection and transfer to a nice job in another department. When the imposture is discovered, the state won’t be able to do more than slap your wrist. That’s been the happy experience of a lawyer with Connecticut’s state ethics bureau (!) in a case provoking considerable, though apparently futile, outrage in the Nutmeg State. (Point of Law, Nov. 25; Dan Schwartz, Nov. 17).
Dov Charney chronicles, cont’d
Adding color to the legal woes of the controversial American Apparel chief is the identity of the lawyer suing him, Keith Fink, Esq., who’s known for getting negative tidbits about his Hollywood adversaries into the papers. (Alex Ebner, Hollywood Interrupted, Nov. 30; WSJ law blog, Nov. 12). Earlier here, etc.
Pork-handling and religious accommodation, cont’d
Hasanali Khoja, a Muslim chef employed by London’s Metropolitan Police as a catering manager, has filed a discrimination claim after being asked to prepare breakfasts with pork sausages and bacon, saying he had been assured he would not have to handle the meat products. (David Barrett, “Muslim police chef claims religious discrimination over sausage and bacon breakfasts”, Telegraph, Nov. 2). The Minnesota meat-packing case discussed earlier is here.
Waiting in emergency rooms
Even if you’re an attorney, it doesn’t mean you’re going to be seen to immediately. (Throckmorton’s Other Signs, Nov. 28).
“The video that helped put a man in prison for 22 years for running a stop sign”
Negligence lawyers have long reaped great benefits by introducing “day-in-the-life” videos that arouse jurors’ sympathy for injury victims. Now prosecutors are learning how to get enormous mileage from “victim TV” as well. Fair play? Should defense lawyers be allowed to introduce counter-videos of how horrible prison is and what it does to clients sent there? (Ann Althouse, Nov. 30).
More: Commenters say “for running a stop sign” much under-describes the crime at issue in the case.
“He’s not a klutz”: $4.5 million for NYC cop shot in tippy chair
A Brooklyn jury has awarded $4,548,000 to Anderson Alexander, a former New York City police detective injured when the office chair he was sitting on tipped over and he shot himself in the knee with a 9 mm Smith & Wesson he was holding.
“This case is not about him shooting himself,” Alexander’s lawyer Matthew Maiorana told the Daily News. “This case is about a broken chair and an unsafe workplace.”…
Alexander, 49, who retired on a three-quarters-pay disability pension, moved to South Carolina, where he works as a sheriff’s deputy.
(Scott Shifrel, “Ex-city cop wins huge award after chair he sat in broke, sending bullet into his knee”, New York Daily News, Nov. 26).
“Court: Sarkozy voodoo doll should not be stabbed”
Update: “Judge says perfume lawsuit can proceed”
Susan McBride, who works as a planner with the city of Detroit, can proceed with her ADA lawsuit “alleging a co-worker’s perfume made it difficult for her to breathe and impossible to do her job, a federal judge has ruled.” (Paul Egan, Detroit News, Nov. 27, opinion in PDF courtesy Bashman, h/t reader Vicky Gannon). We covered the case earlier here, here, and here.