Posts Tagged ‘about the site’

Latest newsletter

The latest installment of our free periodic newsletter went out this afternoon to its c. 2300 subscribers, covering the last couple of weeks’ worth of postings in telegraphic, even punchy style. It’s a great way to keep up with items you may have missed; when you’re finished, pass on the email to a friend to let them know about the site. Sign up today, right here.

Welcome New York Sun readers

I’m quoted and this site is mentioned in an article on the ever-expanding enforcement ambitions of New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer (William F. Hammond Jr., “Spitzer Cements His Reputation as One to Watch”, Oct. 21)(more on Spitzer from Point of Law). More: For a more benign view of Spitzer than the one I take, see Daniel Gross’s Oct. 21 profile in Slate. Yet more: Martin Grace points out that the multifaceted AG has a blog.

Latest newsletter

The latest installment of our free periodic newsletter went out this afternoon to its c. 2300 subscribers, covering the last three weeks’ worth of postings in telegraphic, even punchy style. It’s a great way to keep up with items you may have missed; when you’re finished, pass on the email to a friend to let them know about the site. Sign up today, right here.

Latest newsletter

The latest installment of our free periodic newsletter went out this afternoon to its c. 2300 subscribers, covering the last three weeks’ worth of postings in telegraphic, even punchy style. It’s a great way to keep up with items you may have missed; when you’re finished, pass on the email to a friend to let them know about the site. Sign up today, right here.

Attention publishers

[Bumped 9/27 for the benefit of readers who weren’t around when it ran last Thursday. Thanks to readers who’ve responded thus far.] Here’s a proposition that may be of interest to commercial publishers or, conceivably, to some nonprofit organizations:

Read On…

And for something completely different

I’ve written a literary review of a historical novel (Emma Donoghue’s Life Mask) for Sunday’s New York Times Book Review; it has nothing at all to do with problems of the legal system. I’m at work on a second review for the same outlet and hope the relationship will be a long and happy one. (Walter Olson, “Women in Love”, Sept. 26).

Back on topic: yesterday’s publicity roundup omitted a few recent clips. To wit: I’m quoted in an article in Legal Affairs on the controversial new “litigation-finance” industry, which advances money to plaintiffs (often at very high interest rates) in exchange for a share of the booty (Daniel Brook, Legal Affairs, Sept./Oct.)(see Aug. 4, 2003). My Manhattan Institute colleague Robert Goldberg quotes me in a piece on the attacks on FDA general counsel Dan Troy over his initiative to have the agency intervene in state-court liability suits which threaten to contravene FDA policies (“The sacking of Troy”, Washington Times, Jul. 25)(see Jul. 14). And very kind things are said at PokerPulse Forums about me, about this site, and about my book The Rule of Lawyers in the course of a discussion of the lawsuits under California’s s. 17200 against Google, Yahoo, etc. for supposedly promoting online gambling (see Aug. 9).

Welcome “All Things Considered” listeners

National Public Radio’s widely aired news show ran a piece yesterday afternoon (Saturday) on lawsuit reform as a factor in the election; the reporter first interviewed me at a couple of minutes’ length, and then turned the floor over to two professors who took the opposite view. The second of the two profs carried on at length about supposed public misunderstanding of the McDonald’s coffee (Stella Liebeck) case in a way that made me wish Ted had gotten some air time. I’m likewise quoted in a Denver Post article analyzing Congress’s failure to pass any litigation reform this term (Anne C. Mulkern, “Lawsuit caps lose support at roll call”, Sept. 13). Karen Selick kindly referenced me this summer in a piece for Canada’s National Post (“Stacking the deck against big tobacco”, Jun. 2, not online). And New York’s esteemed Observer, the one on the orange paper, carried in its last issue a favorable-in-context reference to “the [unnamed] Overlawyered.com guy”, meaning in this case me rather than Ted. (Tom Scocca, “Blogging Off Daily Can Make You Blind”, New York Observer, Sept. 20).

Welcome Romenesko readers

Jim Romenesko’s widely read media-watch weblog, sponsored by the Poynter Institute, links to our Wednesday commentary with the following blurb: “U.S. News screw-up: Why doesn’t mag reveal sources?” (see left column)

Also, I keep getting web-based publicity of a more personal nature. The co-blogger of Jane Galt (who is a perfect hostess, by the way) recounts my evenings out, so does James Taranto, Andrew Tobias discusses my political sentiments, and — is nothing too private? — Martin Grace has a comment on my sleeping habits.

House votes to strengthen sanctions against meritless suits

By a 229-174 vote, largely along party lines, the U.S. House of Representatives has passed the proposed Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act, sponsored by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas); it now goes on to an uncertain future in the Senate. (see Point of Law Sept. 9, Aug. 17, Jun. 21; this site, Jun. 21). (Bloomberg, Reuters, AP). The bill would restore the stronger Rule 11 standards which used to entitle victims of meritless litigation in federal court to recompense in the form of sanctions: a previous Congress, following a major push by the litigation lobby, gutted Rule 11 in 1993. A source on Capitol Hill who is in a position to know suggests that we might want to provide a link to the House Judiciary Committee Report on today’s bill, the Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act. “The report compiles in one place a ton of information on the problem of lawsuit abuse, with many of the examples of frivolous lawsuits drawn from your Web site”. And indeed, a quick glance at several sections of the report suggests that we did serve as an important source of material, for which we’re grateful.