- Can’t possibly be true: Tampa man sentenced to 25 years for possession of pills for which he had a legal prescription [Balko, Hit and Run]
- Plaintiff’s lawyers “viewed [Sen. Fred Thompson] as someone we could work with” and gave to his campaigns, but they can’t be pleased by his kind words for Texas malpractice-suit curbs [Washington Post, Lattman; disclaimer]
- Pace U. student arrested on hate crime charges after desecrating Koran stolen from college [Newsday; Volokh, more; Hitchens]
- Little-used Rhode Island law allows married person to act as spouse’s attorney, which certainly has brought complications to the divorce of Daniel and Denise Chaput from Pawtucket [Providence Journal]
- Lott v. Levitt defamation suit kinda-sorta settles, it looks like [Adler @ Volokh]
- Trial lawyer Mikal Watts not bowling ’em over yet in expected challenge to Texas Sen. Cornyn [Rothenberg, Roll Call, sub-only via Lopez @ NRO]
- Frankly collusive: after Minnesota car crash, parents arrange to have their injured son sue them for negligence [OnPoint News]
- Canadian bar hot and bothered over Maclean’s cover story slamming profession’s ethics [Macleans blog]
- Five Democratic candidates (Clinton, Obama, Edwards, Biden, Richardson) auditioned at the trial lawyers’ convention earlier this month in Chicago [NYSun]
- Donald Boudreaux’s theory as to why Prohibition ended when it did [Pittsburgh Trib-Rev via Murray @ NRO]
- Speaker of Alaska house discusses recent strengthening of that state’s longstanding loser-pays law [new at Point of Law]
Author Archive
Guestblogger thanks
Thanks to Skip Oliva for helping fill in here again over the past week. Skip’s posts drew notice from, among others, Prof. Bainbridge and Liberal Order. You can read more of his work at the Voluntary Trade Council blog and the Mises Economics blog.
BlawgWorld 2007
The folks at TechnoLawyer have just released a free eBook that serves as an engaging introduction to the world of law blogs. BlawgWorld 2007 (PDF download) pulls together posts or other excerpts from 77 legally oriented blogs, including this one. There are embedded links, so you can quickly follow up on the ones you like. It’s all free, as mentioned, and intended as a way to draw attention to TechnoLawyer’s services. (Their press kit mentions us at about the 2:50 mark.) Blawg Review has more.
“Felony sexual abuse”
In McMinnville, Ore., it may consist of fanny-patting in school hallways by seventh graders. Following a public outcry, Yamhill County D.A. Bradley Berry has now dropped the felony counts — the resulting status as registered sex offenders might have followed the youngsters through life — but he still wants to have Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison at least given probation on misdemeanor counts. (Scott Michels, “Boys Face Sex Trial for Slapping Girls’ Posteriors”, ABCNews.com, Jul. 24; Mark Steyn, “Swat somebody’s butt, and yours belongs to the D.A.”, Orange County Register, Jul. 28; Jeanine Stice, “Gene’s right about The McMinnville Two”, Salem Statesman-Journal, Jul. 24). Update Aug. 22: charges dropped.
William Shatner lawyer ads
Could Star Trek’s Captain Kirk, more recently a success in “Boston Legal”, actually be in enough need of work to do low-budget ads like this? Apparently so.
“Ladies’ Nights” lawsuits, cont’d
ABC News files a report on a sector of litigation we’ve covered extensively over the years:
Tim Gleason, general manager of the China Club in New York, calls [attorney Roy Den] Hollander’s complaint “pathetic” and echoes other club owners who argue that the discounts actually help both sexes by balancing out the ratio between men and women….
“Ladies’ Night benefits the men as much as it benefits the ladies, the clubs and society,” said John Juliano, owner of the recently closed Copacabana Nightclub. “And the only loser here is this grouch with a warped point of view.”
GWU lawprof and inveterate publicity hound John Banzhaf, whose “suing for credit” course has generated one such suit, gets a mention too. (Brittany Bacon, “‘Ladies’ Night’ Lawsuits on the Rocks?”, Jul. 25; 239 reader comments so far). More: Lat, Jul. 30.
Fugitives responsible for risks of pursuit, cont’d
On Thursday we posted a story about a jury’s holding a Missouri fugitive responsible for the crash of a police car which was headed (at a great distance) toward his manhunt. Now similar issues might come up following a more spectacular catastrophe, yesterday’s crash of two news helicopters over central Phoenix while covering a live police pursuit, with the death of all four persons aboard. Phoenix police chief Jack Harris, per the coverage, “said he believes the man [fleeing police] will be held responsible for the deaths of the four TV station employees.” (“2 News Helicopters Collide; 4 Dead”, KPHO News 5, Jul. 27).
July 27 roundup
- Grand jury declines to indict Dr. Anna Pou in Katrina hospital deaths, despite heavy breathing from Louisiana AG Charles Foti and TV’s Nancy Grace [Times-Picayune, more; 2005 CNN transcript; Health Care Blog, GruntDoc, Vatul.net]
- Protection from lawsuits for “John Doe” security informants is back in anti-terror legislation moving through Congress, despite back-door effort to eliminate it earlier [Fox News, Malkin; earlier] Addendum: but it’s in altered, much-weakened form, says commenter Bob Smith;
- U.K.: Top law firm Freshfields earns millions advising clients on employment compliance, yet “omitted to check that changes to its own pension scheme were legal” [Times Online]
- Thinking of doing some guestblogging, for us or another site? Some good advice here [Darren Rowse via Kevin O’Keefe]
- Even Conrad Black can have trouble affording lawyers, at least with feds freezing his accounts [PoL on Steyn]
- Shouldn’t have let us become parents again: Florida jury awards $21 million in “wrongful birth” case [Fox News]
- Possibility of gigantic reparations claims adds intensity to big lobbying fight in Washington over whether Turkey’s slaughter of Armenians in 1915 amounted to genocide [Crowley, New Republic]
- Updating colorful coverage case (Jun. 22, 2005): dentist wins $750K verdict on insurer’s duty to defend him for taking gag photos of sedated employee with boar tusks in mouth [Seattle Times, more; dissent in PDF; Althouse]
- Giuliani might use federalism to defuse culture wars [Brownstein, L.A. Times; disclaimer]
- Virginia’s enactment of harsh traffic fines (Jul. 6) follows tryouts of the idea in Michigan and New Jersey, where effects included rise in unlicensed driving [Washington Post]
Toddler dancing home video
A few seconds of musical background, in the form of Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy”, was grounds enough for Universal to file a takedown notice with YouTube. (Nate Anderson, “Universal demands takedown of homemade dancing toddler clip; EFF sues”, ArsTechnica, Jul. 25).
Fundraiser for Chung family
The Associated Press and WSJ Law Blog cover Tuesday’s event, which was co-sponsored by ATRA and the Chamber. Raised so far: more than $64,000. Earlier coverage of the Roy Pearson pants case here (cross-posted from Point of Law).