- Making the rounds: letter on NFL stationery telling off lawyer over nastygram [DeadSpin, language]
- Suburban Detroit man faces possible 5-year sentence for reading wife’s email [Free Press, Volokh]
- U.K.: Scout Association found liable for injury sustained in scramble-in-the-dark game [Andrew Hough, Telegraph via Lenore Skenazy]
- Florida appeals court orders environmental groups to compensate taxpayers for unfounded complaint [Ryan Houck, TampaBayOnline]
- “Fix It Yourself Garage” self-service auto repair shop hopes it’s beaten the liability curse [McClatchy; Charlotte, N.C.]
- Much more from Peter Schweizer and Lee Stranahan at Big Government on dubious Pigford farmer settlement (“attempting to farm;” recruiting and “brokering” claims; FBI said to be interested; problems within USDA?; lawyer says Pigford clients often got away with faulty claims; earlier);
- “Faux concern for judicial ethics” [Jonathan Adler, Volokh, on Constitutional Accountability Center campaign against judges’ seminars]
- Founder of much-loved musical parody series thanks real-life artists whose works are being spoofed: “Without their reluctance toward lawsuits there would certainly be no Forbidden Broadway.” [six years ago on Overlawyered]
Posts Tagged ‘autos’
“Not all tragedies are preventable”
That’s something Congress should remember, notes the Economist, before it passes more laws named after victims, such as the Cameron Gulbransen Kids Transportation Safety Act of 2008, under which the Department of Transportation is in the process of mandating rear cameras on cars so as to reduce back-over accidents in family driveways.
“‘New-Car Fumes’ May Have Contributed to Hit-and-Run, Expert Says”
Kevin at Lowering the Bar spots a promising new theory in a defense expert’s testimony, though it’s not clear the lawyers actually wound up making use of it. [Vail Daily, same at Denver Post]
November 22 roundup
Product liability edition:
- You mean cigarettes were dangerous? “Florida jury awards $80M to daughter in anti-smoking case” [AP]
- “Acne drug not found to increase suicide risk” [BBC, earlier on Accutane here, here, etc.]
- “Man hit by jar of exploding fruit says $150,000 award isn’t enough” [Detroit News via Obscure Store]
- Chicago accident coverage exemplifies Toyota acceleration hysteria [Fumento/CEI] NHTSA-NRC panel findings on subject [PoL]
- Strict product liability is in decline, according to Prof. David Owen [Abnormal Use]
- More questions raised on $500 million Nevada hepatitis verdict [PoL]
- Notwithstanding chatter in press about toxic cosmetics, study finds cosmetologists have below-average cancer rates [David Oliver]
- Florida juries repeatedly hold Ford liable for millions when drivers fall asleep [five years ago on Overlawyered]
“Girls named Zoe lose suit against Renault for naming electric car Zoe”
A lawyer sued on behalf of two girls named Zoe Renault, but a French judge ruled the claim out of bounds absent proof that “the car name would cause the girls “certain, direct and current harm.” [USA Today]
September 23 roundup
- Could bald employees sue under genetic-bias law? [Delaware Employment Law]
- EPA under pressure in bedbug battle [Atlantic Wire, Time]
- “Child Safety Advocates Push for Changes to Prevent Hot-Car Deaths” [Fair Warning]
- Proof of Living Constitution Theory? iPhone Constitution app is now on version 1.3.8 [Magliocca, Co-Op]
- “North Carolina’s Corrupted Crime Lab” [Radley Balko]
- “The folly of needless alcohol laws” [Conor Friedersdorf, The Daily Dish]
- “Judge Posner opinion on overwarning” [PoL, Drug and Device Law]
- Annals of zero tolerance: No scissors allowed at ribbon-cutting ceremony at Pittsburgh airport [eight years ago on Overlawyered]
September 7 roundup
- “If someone wants to sue you, they can. Easily, too.” Amy Wallace on being sued over her vaccine story [Reporting on Health, earlier]
- Jury tells Ford to pay $131 million after minor league ballplayer crashes Explorer at 80 mph+ [WaPo]
- Winnipeg judge scandal has sex, race, coercion and most riveting of all a legal ethics angle [Alice Woolley, LEF]
- “$667M Nursing Home Verdict Surprised Even the Plaintiffs’ Lawyers” [ABA Journal, earlier]
- “Maryland Woman Sues After Being Banned by Facebook” [Kashmir Hill/Forbes, MSNBC “Technolog”]
- The trouble with (some) defense-side trial lawyers [Ted Frank, CCAF] And: defense bar briefing prosecutorial agencies on ins and outs of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Ethics/loyalty problem in that, or no? [Koehler]
- Bow-tied troll? Patent-marking suits hit the big time [WSJ Law Blog and more, ABA Journal, Glenn Lammi/Forbes]
- “A girl named Sue who sues and sues and sues” [SE Tex Record]
Update: Branham v. Ford
In May 2001, Cheryl Jane Hale was driving four children to a sleepover in her 1987 Ford Bronco. She didn’t bother to have the children wear their seat belts, so, when she took her eyes off the road to argue with the backseat passengers, and thus drove off the road and flipped the car, 12-year-old Jesse Branham was thrown from the car and suffered brain damage. A jury in Hampton County, South Carolina (the second jury to be impaneled—the first one was dismissed in a mistrial when it was discovered after two weeks of trial that five of the jurors were former clients of Branham’s lawyers) decided that this was only 45% Hale’s fault, held Ford 55% responsible, which puts Ford entirely on the hook for $31 million in damages.
On Monday, the South Carolina Supreme Court reversed because of prejudicial closing arguments that relied heavily on inadmissible evidence. More importantly for lawyers practicing in South Carolina, the Court adopted “the risk-utility test with its requirement of showing a feasible alternative design.”
How bad of a judicial hellhole is Hampton County? Though Hale was a co-defendant, she cooperated with the plaintiffs throughout the trial in their case against Ford, even sitting at the plaintiffs’ table; but because the judge classified Hale as a co-defendant, it meant that Hale got half of the peremptory challenges of the “defense.” More from Comer; no press coverage that I’ve seen yet. (cross-posted from Point of Law)
August 5 roundup
- Wouldn’t it be nice if Congress lifted the ban on Internet gambling [Steve Chapman]
- Design of New Orleans shotgun houses is an adaptation to tax laws [Candy Chang]
- Lawyer-enriching Costco class action settlement draws an objection from a blogger often linked in this space [Amy Alkon]
- “Fourth Circuit slaps down N.C. attorney general’s suit against TVA” [Wood/PoL, Jackson]
- South Carolina jury’s $2.375 million award based on premise that Nissan should have followed European, not U.S. crashworthiness standards [Abnormal Use]
- City of Cleveland won’t take no for answer in dumb lawsuit against mortgage lenders [Funnell]
- Charles H. Green at TrustMatters hosts Blawg Review #275;
- Duke lacrosse fiasco: Nifong’s media and law-school enablers [three years ago at Overlawyered]
“It Wasn’t Me, Officer! It Was My GPS”
When drivers say faulty driving instructions caused their accident, should someone else have to pay? [Tom Vanderbilt, Slate] Earlier on the Google Maps pedestrian suit here.