The province of Nova Scotia “is offering cash prizes to people who spot ‘offensive’ language in newspaper and magazine articles related to mental health and suicide. Readers who pick out inappropriate language will be entered into a draw for prizes worth up to $2,000. Included on the list of are such words and phrases as ‘basket-case, cracked-up, crazed, demented, fruitcake, kooky, loony, lost their marbles, lunatic, madman, maniac, nutcase, and schizo.'” (“Nova Scotia urges media to watch its language”, CTV, Mar. 7; “Are these guys nuts?” (editorial), National Post, Mar. 4; “Here’s an idea that really is nuts” (editorial), Montreal Gazette, Mar. 5; Mark Steyn, “Beware of the fruitcakes in government”, Daily Telegraph, Mar. 9)(via Tongue Tied).
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Traffic-cams vs. motorist safety
Beware contingency-fee law enforcement: Radley Balko (Mar. 4) has an update on the controversial ticketing machines discussed in our posts of Sept. 6, 2001, Apr. 8-9, 2002 and Apr. 19-21, 2002.
If the doorbell rings…
…and a team of federal investigators is standing there, just tell them: “I’m not talking to you”. Such may be the basic lesson of Martha Stewart’s conviction, various observers seem to think. See Steve Bainbridge (Mar. 8, Mar. 6 (& scroll down)); Eugene Volokh; Tung Yin; Instapundit. For earlier coverage, see Jan. 27, Oct. 14 and links from there.
L.A. Times on spinning teacups
Funny, pointed editorial in Los Angeles Times on the decision of one of the management dwarves at Disneyland (“probably Grumpy”) to slow down the Mad Hatter’s spinning teacups lest someone sue (see Mar. 4). “Maybe right next to the sign, ‘You Must Be This Tall to Ride,’ they should post ratings with little symbols — one lawyer with briefcase for mildly scary attractions and a whole legal assault team for roller coasters.” (“Around and Around and…” Mar. 7).
Light sentence for false accusers
Following up on our Feb. 24 report: “Three 12-year-old girls whose lies put an innocent man in jail for eight months pleaded guilty Thursday and were sentenced to Juvenile Hall and community service. Two of the girls must each serve 45 days and the third must serve 30 — the shorter sentence granted because she was considered less culpable, her lawyer said after the closed-door Orange County Juvenile Court hearing. The girls have already served most of their time while waiting in custody since their arrest Feb. 9. … The Orange County district attorney’s office had pressed for the Garden Grove girls to serve eight months and 13 days on criminal conspiracy charges, one day more than 36-year-old drifter Eric Nordmark was incarcerated.” (Claire Luna, “Girls Given Sentences for Lying”, Los Angeles Times, Mar. 5)
Chicago’s ADA filing mill
After South Florida, California and Philadelphia, Chicago’s time was bound to come: a lawyer/complainant team has tagged some 175 businesses, mostly in the Lincoln Park area, with charges of lack of disabled accessibility. Previously, complaints in the city had been running at about 30 annually. “They’re settling for cash,” said David Hanson, commissioner of the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities: $100 for Stuart L. Smith and $485 for Alan J. Morgan, his lawyer, plus minor upgrades to store entrances and the like. Steve Starr, owner of a jewelry and antique shop, says he has spent thousands in legal fees fighting one of the complaints. (John Schmeltzer, “Disability lawsuits rile North Side businesses”, Chicago Tribune, Mar. 7).
Malpractice plaintiff database
By reader acclaim: trial lawyer allies are crying “blacklist” about a fledgling service, DoctorsKnow.us, which makes available to paying subscribers the names of patients who have filed suits against doctors in the past, along with their lawyers and expert witnesses. “You may use the service to assess the risk of offering your services to clients or potential clients,” the Web site says. The site’s slogan is: “They can sue, but they can’t hide.” (Ralph Blumenthal, “In Texas, Hire a Lawyer, Forget About a Doctor?”, New York Times, Mar. 5)(Slashdot thread) Sydney Smith, MedRants and Cut to Cure all comment. The site DoctorsKnow.us is blank as of Monday evening, and, no, we don’t know why. Update: site is back up, with what looks like changes meant to answer/acknowledge criticism. Older version here. Plus: Chris Rangel (RangelMD) turns a definite thumbs down.
“Gravestones pulled down in safety scare”
“Tens of thousands of gravestones across Britain are being deliberately toppled by local authorities, often without the knowledge of relatives of the dead. The cull is being undertaken because councils fear legal action if a wobbly headstone were to fall over and injure or kill someone.” Several children have died in stone-toppling incidents. “Bereaved relatives visiting cemeteries are frequently unaware of the council’s plans, and are horrified when they come across hundreds of stones lying on their sides. In some cases, they have rung the police to report vandals, only to find that their elected representatives were to blame.” (Jonathan Petre, Daily Telegraph, Dec. 26).
Courts compete for bankruptcy cases
“As [energy company] Mirant’s Chapter 11 unfolds in North Texas, the region’s bankruptcy bar is keenly aware that the region is playing for high stakes. The area has been trying for years to bag a big-ticket bankruptcy. Its first catch was Mirant, the 10th-largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. It’s been very, very good to Fort Worth.” Large-firm bankruptcies are enormously lucrative to lawyers, other professionals and support industries, but the competition for a business once dominated by Manhattan and Delaware puts pressure on judges to issue rulings pleasing to the managers and lawyers of debtor companies. “Judges who don’t deliver are dooming themselves and their local peers to backwater status: Let a big bankrupt company leave unhappy, and nobody else will come back.” In the 1980s, one-third of big bankruptcies were filed away from the bankrupt firm’s headquarters, an indicator of forum-shopping; since then the figure has risen to two-thirds (Margaret Newkirk, “Courts compete to bag big cases”, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Feb. 29).