“Taxpayers have footed a £1 million compensation bill after almost 200 drug-addicted prisoners sued the Government, claiming that denying them a heroin substitute breached their human rights. The prisoners claimed that their rights were infringed when they were deprived of methadone and had to go ‘cold turkey’.” (Richard Ford, Times Online, Apr. 18).
Author Archive
Welcome KTRH listeners
I was a guest on the Houston radio station this morning discussing personal responsibility and our propensity to litigate. A few recent cases possibly on point: “Inmate Sues Jail, Blames It for His Escapes“; five of her friends as well as the inevitable bar sued after college student’s fatal alcohol binge; and lawyer gambles away client money at the tables, then sues casinos for not stopping her. (Corrected original post title which got the call letters wrong).
April 17 roundup
- “I did not know what kind of monster we were dealing with”: dramatic testimony from Judge Lackey on Scruggs corruption [Folo; and repercussions too]
- New at Point of Law: Pork-barreling Albany lawmakers shell out for just what NY needs, three more law schools; Sarbanes-Oxley unconstitutional? Ted goes after JAMA on Vioxx; sadly, appeals court overturns Santa Clara opinion that nailed ethical problems with govt.-paid contingency fee; legal aid lawyers, to subprime borrowers’ rescue? and much more;
- Cadbury claim: we own the color purple as it relates to chocolate [Coleman]
- A world gone mad: Innocence Project directors include… Janet Reno? [Bernstein @ Volokh]
- Not unrelatedly: Can a California prosecutor be held liable for wrongful murder conviction of man freed after 24 years? [Van de Kamp versus Goldstein, L.A. Times via Greenfield]
- With all his lawyer chums from Milberg-witness days, you’d think Ben Stein could have saved the makers of his creationist movie from stumbling into textbook IP infringements [Myers, again, WSJ law blog]
- Groggy from dental anesthesia, plus a half a glass to drink: then came the three felony DUI counts [Phoenix New Times, Balko via Reynolds]
- Shell says boaters had years of notice that mandated ethanol in fuel was incompatible with fiberglass marine gas tanks, which hasn’t stopped the filing of a class action [L.A. Times via ABA Journal]
- Terrorism asymmetry: “They say ‘Allahu Akbar!’ we say ‘Imagine the liability!'” [McCarthy/Lopez, NRO]
- Deborah Jeane Palfrey convicted [WaPo; earlier]
- David Neiwert truly born yesterday if he thinks Kevin Phillips is noteworthy for his record of being right [Firedoglake; some correctives]
Titanic sinking
A new book contends that subpar rivets and riveting might have materially contributed to the disaster. Given the erosion of statutes of limitations, might that give rise to lawsuits, even after all this time? (Childs, Apr. 15).
From a reader: Home albumin therapy
Lacking specialized knowledge in this area I’m not well situated to evaluate the contents of this letter from reader J.W., but perspectives and advice from medically knowledgeable readers would be more than welcome:
One of our friends apparently has focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, which has a substantial risk for progression to end-stage renal disease.
Apparently, getting a nurse to come and administer albumin, which is a blood product, is a real problem. About three years ago, liability laws stopped the companies that produce albumin from allowing it to be used at home. There is a real possibility she will have to go to “Day Hospital” every day for five hours and perhaps have to be readmitted every weekend.
Given the likelihood that she will die from her disease, I’m sure she is comforted by the fact that she’ll spend so much time in the hospital for legal reasons.
But I feel safer, so that’s nice.
Welcome UPI readers
The news service picks up on a report from the Chamber-backed Legal NewsLine, whose reporter Chris Rizo had called me up for a reaction to the new website SueEasy.com (on which see earlier post). Other blog reactions to the same site include Steel Turman (“like a carpool for ambulance chasers”), Everett White, Just Average American.
Tax Day thought
From Dave Barry: “Yes, this [filing your federal tax return] is a pesky chore, but remember that paying taxes is not a ‘one-way street.’ When you send your money to the government, the government, in return, provides you with vital services, such as not putting you in prison.” (“How your taxes turn into manure”, syndicated/Miami Herald, Apr. 13).
“Passengers sue Southwest Airlines over missed inspections”
Because it’s not as if you actually have to have been, like, harmed or anything to get a class action going (AP/USA Today, Apr. 16). Birmingham, Ala. lawyer Lew Garrison is representing four passengers on “claims that include breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and negligent and reckless operation of an aircraft”.
Reader inquiry on feeds
As mentioned, I know very little about RSS, Atom, feeds, etc. but just try to take the minimum steps needed to make sure readers can follow the site that way if they wish. This note from a reader in Australia is not the first to indicate that our software upgrade and site redesign of recent weeks may have caused some disruption:
I hope you’ll accept my apology in advance, but it just occurred to me today that I hadn’t had any feeds from you for quite some time now. I use Bloglines as my newsreader. I tried to resubscribe to Overlawyered using a different type of feed and that seemed successful, but when I looked at what had been supplied with the different type of feed, all of the material was from mid-March. Are you able to throw any light on this? Is there some problem with Bloglines and Overlawyered? Is there something I can do to restore the feeds? Thanks for any assistance.
Knowledgeable comments welcome.
Plaintiff: my lawyers cut unfair side deal with Prudential
The law firm of Leeds Morelli & Brown has recently been embroiled in controversy over episodes in which it has settled batches of employment discrimination claims while contemporaneously entering agreements in which the defendants agree to hire it (the Leeds Morelli firm) for substantial sums. Now an African-American woman who was once a vice president at Prudential Insurance and then sued the company for racial bias as a Leeds Morelli client “is asking a federal judge to set aside an arbitration award, alleging her lawyers were given improper financial inducement to keep her claim and hundreds of others out of court. According to Linda Guyden, the company paid $5 million to the law firm representing her and 358 other employees, in return for which Prudential’s total exposure was capped at $10 million and the claims were kept secret just as the company was about to be taken public.” (Mary Pat Gallagher, “Bias Plaintiff Says Lawyer Sell-Out Warrants Vacating of Arbitration”, New Jersey Law Journal, Apr. 8). For a cognate controversy over Leeds Morelli’s settlement of employment claims with Nextel Corp., see Leigh Jones, “Columbia’s Simon Blasts Professors’ Role in Nextel Bias Case”, National Law Journal, Nov. 26; Bluestone, New York Attorney Malpractice Blog, Feb. 12, 2007.