It’s best to choose your words carefully when writing about this aspiring Delaware politician. “Lawsuits have been a big part of Korn’s life for the better part of two decades….’I would sue anybody again if I had to, if something were not right or accurate,’ Korn said. ‘I will go to the ends of what it takes if I feel I’ve been slandered, libeled or maligned in any way.'” (Celia Cohen, Delaware Grapevine, Jun. 26).
Author Archive
Transit union not liable for bicyclist’s accident
New York City: “A judge has dismissed a lawsuit that claimed the union representing the city’s bus and subway workers was responsible for an accident that left a firefighter critically injured because workers went on strike. Matthew Long, 39, was run over by a private bus while he was bicycling to work during the December walkout. He sued the Transport Workers Union Local 100 in February, arguing the accident would not have happened had the union not gone on strike.” (“Judge dismisses firefighter’s lawsuit claiming strike responsible for injury”, AP/CourtTV, Jul. 7). For more on the lawsuit, see “Firefighter wants transit union to pay”, Gothamist, Feb. 14.
Parents’ liability for kids’ drinking in homes
Drexel lawprof Dan Filler at Concurring Opinions reports (Jul. 6) that Mountain Brook, Ala., a well-off suburb of Birmingham,
is considering adopting a new “open house party” ordinance. It would fine homeowners when two or more underage people drink alcohol in the house. On the third offense, the law provides that the homeowners would be guilty of a misdemeanor. Homeowners, by which we really mean parents, would be criminally liable even if they were unaware that kids were drinking in their homes. They are strictly liable – guilty even if they had no intent to break the law, had no knowledge it was being broken, and were not even negligent in allowing the infraction to occur.
Prof. Filler isn’t enthusiastic about the idea:
If a parent is not negligent – she does every single thing a reasonable person would do to keep her child in check – I think it’s hard to justify punishing her. What more can we ask of a parent?
Ted Frank vs. Peter Nordberg on med-mal
Over at Point of Law, there’s a new Featured Discussion on medical malpractice: our own Ted Frank expands on his theory that it might be a good idea for doctors to benefit from something akin to the “business judgment rule”, by which courts refrain from second-guessing many decisions of corporate directors and officers in shareholder litigation. Ably representing the opposite point of view is Peter Nordberg, whose Daubert on the Web and Blog 702 cover scientific evidence issues in the courts with unrivaled depth.
Federal prosecutors
Wanland v. Mastagni, Holdstedt & Chiurazzi
This complicated case “starts with what would be universally recognized as the worst of all possible worlds — an automobile accident between two lawyer-affiliated people”. And from there it gets worse, and worse, and worse. (Shaun Martin, California Appellate Report, Jul. 7).
“National Divorce Rate Reaches New Highs in Bitterness”
Comparatively few spouses blow up buildings, as police suspect a Manhattan doctor may have done, but things can still get pretty extreme:
Prominent New York divorce attorney Raoul Felder was more specific. “I had a client murdered by his wife,” Felder said. “I have seen [cases in which] a kitten [was] put in a washing machine, a puppy in the microwave — the puppy died, the kitten lived.
“I have seen art collections slashed, a guy with a vinyl record collection had it returned by his wife all smashed into bits,” Felder added. “I’ve seen clothes ripped up. One gentleman got his wife tickets to some hot play, and when she returned, her stuff was in the street. I’ve seen children taken at airports.”
(Chris Francescani and Kristen Depowski, ABCNews.com, Jul. 11; Anemona Hartocollis and Cara Buckley, “Divorce, Real Estate and Rubble: When Marriages Go Really Awry”, New York Times, Jul. 12 (note similar quotes from Felder, who’s clearly not afraid to give the same interview twice); Jane Ridley, “Divorce gets dirty”, New York Daily News, Jun. 12(et plus encore for that same kitten and puppy)). And: Rebecca Goldin at STATS.org chides ABC for sensationalism (Jul. 14).
Bonus video link: Patsy Cline, “A Church, A Courtroom, and Then Goodbye” (YouTube) (via Terry Teachout’s fabulous new listing of online video and audio resources).
UK: “Police won’t chase if thief has no helmet”
In Bath, England, a “teenager was shocked when police refused to chase joyriders who had just stolen his moped – because the thieves were not wearing helmets…. An officer told him they could not give chase in case the unprotected thieves fell off the bike and sued the police.” (“Police ruled out joyrider chase”, BBC, Jun. 30). The Association of Chief Police Officers confirmed that police on “most forces” would call off chases where a suspect fleeing on a motorbike was unhelmeted. “Sharon Ball, a Liberal Democrat councillor in Bath, said: ‘There is a terrible bike theft problem in this area, and this crazy approach means the issue will just get worse.'” (Richard Savill, “Police won’t chase if thief has no helmet”, Daily Telegraph, Jun. 30).
Overlawyered commenters in the spotlight
Word Around the Net is Christopher Taylor’s site devoted to reprinting interesting comment threads from around the blogosphere. His latest selection is the reader comments that followed our post on Allen Heckard, the Oregon man who’s tired of being mistaken for basketball star Michael Jordan and has reacted by suing Jordan and Nike’s Phil Knight.
Lawrence Lessig on lawyering
It turns out the celebrity Stanford lawprof can make us sound like squishy moderates on the issue:
In a contentious debate with Random House’s Richard Sarnoff, [Prof. Lessig] argued that the publishing industry’s lawsuit over Google’s book-scanning effort threatens the very soul of the Internet, and there was little doubt who he believes is to blame. “Why unleash lawyers on this issue? We know lawyers suck value out of an economy,” he said, to cheers from the audience.
(Lattman, Jun. 2).