At least a dozen of our readers were generous enough to reply to our query of last Friday about how to replace relative with absolute links. We’ve now solved the problem to our satisfaction. Readers’ suggestions fell into three main categories:
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
“Kiss ladies’ night goodbye”
Although the California Supreme Court ruled as long ago as 1985 that the state’s civil rights law prohibits “Ladies’ Night” discounts at bars, various San Diego taverns apparently hadn’t gotten the word. That created a perfect opening for Steven Surrey and Alfred Rava to make the rounds of nightspots in the county, demanding similar discounts for themselves and taking note when they were refused. The Unruh Civil Rights Act provides $4,000 fines for each violation plus “one-way” attorneys’ fee awards (pay if you are a losing defendant, collect nothing if you win). The next step was for lawyers to swoop down and obtain $20,000 settlements from six errant bar owners and $5,000 from a seventh that was going out of business. “One of the [complainants] is a California Western School of Law classmate of the two lawyers who filed the suits on their behalf. The other is a paralegal. When asked about the social merits of these lawsuits, Erik Jenkins, one of the attorneys who filed the suits, made comparisons between ladies night discounts and the discrimination faced by African-Americans in the South.” (Alex Roth, San Diego Union-Tribune, Aug. 3).
In other news of California bounty-hunting, the Long Beach Press-Telegram (Aug. 2) has editorially cited our editor’s recent WSJ op-ed in upbraiding local Assemblywoman Martha Escutia for advancing a measure that masquerades as reform of the state’s notorious section 17200 law but in fact would give lawyers even more scope to use it for shakedowns (see Jul. 28).
Addendum: Lest anyone doubt that highly entrepreneurial applications of section 17200 remain alive and well despite the downfall of the Trevor Law Group, John Sullivan at the Civil Justice Association of California reprints a recent letter (PDF) from a Bay Area law firm demanding $6500 in legal fees in exchange for not filing a 17200 lawsuit over an allegedly erroneous advertisement; the law firm does not claim to represent any clients injured by the ad, but does state that “A substantial percentage of this firm?s practice is devoted to prosecuting UCL violations.” (“17200 Abuses don’t stop with Trevor: Shakedowns Head North”, CJAC press release, Jul. 23)
More on jackpot justice
Michigan: A federal jury awarded $270.05 in general damages and $875,000 in punitive damages to a 74-year-old woman who claimed she was “questioned, photographed, held against her will and finally tossed out” of a casino after she found an abandoned nickel credit in a deserted slot machine. Plaintiff Estella Romanski prevailed on her claims for violation of her civil rights, false arrest and false imprisonment, while Detroit’s MotorCity Casino defeated her claims for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
MotorCity spokesman Jack Barthwell told a reporter that the practice of so-called “slot walking” is discouraged to ensure “that proper taxes are paid, and to preserve order in the casino. … Because it’s not your money, you’re taking something that doesn’t belong to you. We believe it’s owned by the person who bet it or by the casino.” But Romanski’s lawyer “said the jury was instructed that under Michigan law the finder of lost or abandoned property has superior title to it than the owner of the locality where the property is found.” Barthwell said the casino plans to appeal, but may first ask the court to reduce damages. (Leonard Post, “Casino Visitor Parlays Nickel Into Legal Jackpot,” The Nat’l Law Journal, Aug. 4) (via law.com) (see also earlier Overlawyered.com report, Jul. 25). [Update Feb. 28, 2007: Supreme Court denies casino’s certiorari petition.]
Query on site redesign: how to replace relative with absolute links?
In converting the site to Movable Type format, we’ve run into a problem we’d like to share with readers with HTML design experience, since we’re sure there’s a solution out there.
Gambler sues casinos for failing to exclude her
Canada: 37-year-old Lisa Dickert “and her husband Steven have filed a $1-million lawsuit against the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp.” for failing to exclude Ms. Dickert, a compulsive gambler, from the casinos where she gambled away her savings. She had entered a voluntary casino self-exclusion program, but her suit argues that the casinos did little or nothing to enforce the exclusion. (Victor Malarek, “A gambler’s rehab gone wrong”, The Globe and Mail, Jul. 30)(more on gambling suits: May 20-21, 2002).
Compared with Gotham, getting off easy
Administrators of upstate New York cities are complaining that the cost of litigation saps their budgets: Rochester paid out $443,000 in 2002, while Buffalo writes between $700,000 and $900,000 worth of settlement checks a year. But maybe they should count their blessings: “Last year, despite its massive deficit, New York City paid out $525 million.” (Rick Armon, “More citizens taking governments to court”, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, Jul. 28). The figures represent a municipal budgetary burden of about $2 for each of Rochester’s 219,000 residents, perhaps closer to $3 if some share of the $253,000 in outlays for surrounding Monroe County is ascribed to the city. The comparable figure for New York City (in which city and county government are merged) is $65 per resident or $260 for a family of four.
Welcome Slate/MSNBC readers
Daniel Gross reports on a doughty band of tax protesters who insist that they are not actually obliged by law to engage in payroll tax withholding, and quotes our editor as describing this position as arising from “folk law”, in the form of legal claims that “bubbled up without any encouragement from the legal profession.” (“America’s Oddest Tax Dodge – Can Section 861 of the Internal Revenue Code save you from income taxes?”, Slate/MSNBC, Jul. 30).
Push for veterinary malpractice continues
More on the legal push across the country to reclassify humans as “guardians” rather than mere owners of pets, and the related-but-different push to expose veterinarians to sky’s-the-limit liability for the emotional significance of Fluffy and Snowball, rather than just the token damages that would be agreed to in virtually any imaginable contractual agreement they might reach with their paying human customers. (For earlier items, see Jan. 30-31, 2002, Feb. 12, 2003, and our animal-rights coverage generally (pre-6/03)). (“Malpractice Cases Spike … for Pets”, Christian Science Monitor/ABCNews.com, Jul. 29). Reader Sam Gaines comments: “I am deeply involved in the animal welfare/rescue movement here locally, but I see grave danger in this move — the potential for worse, not better, conditions for abandoned animals based on such initiatives is tremendous. Just as laws requiring fees for unneutered pets generally backfire into even more homeless animals than before, this feel-good meddling will simply drive vet costs further off the scale, and the animals will ultimately suffer.”
Guest blogger – take three
Hi. I’m Leah Lorber, and I’ll be your guest blogger for the next week. I’m a lawyer working on civil justice policy at a Washington, D.C. law firm, where I’m also co-counsel to the American Tort Reform Association. (Obligatory disclaimer: any opinions I post are my own and may or may not be shared by ATRA, although I’d be really surprised if there are any major discrepancies.) I’m also a former newspaper reporter, and I’m looking forward to seeing if writing legal briefs has forever ruined my ability to write sentences of 25 words or less. That said, I’ll begin. Thanks to Walter Olson for having me here.
Reparations demanded over deportation of Mexicans in 1930s
Latest on the reparations bandwagon: A suit was filed earlier this month in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of an estimated 400,000 people of Mexican descent, seeking damages for the “irreparable loss” suffered during deportation campaigns in the 1930s. Representing the plaintiffs, and seeking class action status, are the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Beverly Hills law firm of Kiesel, Boucher & Larson. (“Lawsuit seeks reparations for 1930s-era expulsion from California”, CNN, Jul. 16). Update Sept. 14: legislature passes bill to facilitate suits.