aviation – Overlawyered

January 9 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 09 Jan 2019 10:55:25 +0000

Maker of Steinway pianos threatens legal action against owners who advertise existing instruments for sale as used Steinways if they contain other-than-factory replacement parts [Park Avenue Pianos]
When the Securities and Exchange Commission settles with defendants, it extracts gag orders forbidding them to talk about the experience. Is it constitutional for the government to do that? [Peggy Little, New Civil Liberties Alliance/WSJ] Update: Cato is suing about this on behalf of former businessman who wants to write book about his experience in court against the SEC [Clark Neily]
Judge preliminarily enjoins New York City ordinance requiring home-sharing platforms like AirBnB to turn over to authorities “breathtaking” volume of data about users [SDNY Blog]
U.S. Chamber’s top ten bad lawsuits of 2018 [Faces of Lawsuit Abuse] “The Most Important Class Action Decisions of 2018 and a Quick Look at What’s to Come” [R. Locke Beatty & Laura Lange, McGuire Woods]
“Small aircraft engines are much less reliable than automobile engines. Why? Well, they all must be FAA certified, and it’s not worth the cost to certify, say, a new model of spark plug.” [John Cochrane, who gives HIPAA and military examples too]
“Why logos and art are sometimes blurred on reality TV shows” [Andy Dehnart, Reality Blurred, 2017]

Tags: aviation, HIPAA, hotels, movies film and videos, music and musicians, Securities and Exchange Commission, settlement, trademarks

January 9 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

April 5 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 05 Apr 2017 04:05:19 +0000

Lawsuit by pilot against landowner who shot down his drone is dismissed for lack of federal jurisdiction [Cyrus Farivar, ArsTechnica; earlier here and (criminal case) here]
Super-broad readings of Emoluments Clause intended to trip up President Trump might have unwelcome consequences for over 2 million military retirees and 2.8 million federal employees also affected by the Clause’s interpretation [Chuck Blanchard via Andy Grewal; earlier on Emoluments Clause]
“Appeals court throws out six Intellectual Ventures ‘do it on a computer’ patents” [Joe Mullin, ArsTechnica]
David Meyer-Lindenberg interviews Cato Institute chairman and legal scholar Bob Levy on topics that include Heller v. D.C., his taking up of law as a second career after business success, and Cato’s mission [Simple Justice]
Judicial deference to the administrative state: Evan Bernick reviews “Law’s Abnegation: From Law’s Empire to the Administrative State,” by Adrian Vermeule [Federalist Society Review]
An economist visits India’s great onion market [Alex Tabarrok]

Tags: administrative law, aviation, India, patent trolls

April 5 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

February 15 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 15 Feb 2017 11:02:39 +0000

Federal judge Wolf mulls appointing special master to investigate possible fee fraud in class action against State Street Bank [Boston Globe]
Two lawyers start fighting on an airplane over a shared armrest, and it makes the papers [New York Post]
Philly proposes mandatory sensitivity training for owners, employees of 11 gay bars [Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations report via Heat Street]
Finally, some constraints on Mississippi Attorney General and longtime Overlawyered favorite Jim Hood? [Mississippi Business]
One view of emergent controversy: “The Case Against National Injunctions, No Matter Who Is President” [Samuel Bray, LawFare, more from same author]
“Court To Review Target’s $10M Customer Data Breach Settlement” [Consumerist; Minneapolis Star-Tribune; Ted Frank’s Center for Class Action Fairness is objecting]
In or near Kansas? I’m speaking next week in Topeka at a Washburn University School of Law conference on the future of employment law [Feb. 23, details]

Tags: aviation, class action settlements, Jim Hood, Kansas, Philadelphia, procedure, restaurants, sexual orientation

February 15 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Liability roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 03 Nov 2016 10:41:58 +0000

“Big Bucks and Local Lawyers: The Increasing Use of Contingency Fee Lawyers by Local Governments” [Michael Maddigan, U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform]
Class actions: “The New Rule 23 Is Available for Public Comment,” comment period ends Feb. 15 [Andrew Trask]
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association urges Supreme Court to review Third Circuit case approving liability for FAA-approved part design [AOPA, Sikkelee v. Precision Airmotive Corp.]
“An FCC ban on arbitration of privacy claims would be the anti-consumer-protection approach” [Geoffrey Manne & Kristian Stout, Truth on the Market]
Montana case could bypass Daimler limits on state-court jurisdiction in cases under the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, Washington Legal Foundation urges certiorari [BNSF v. Tyrrell]
Insurers brace for new tilt of adverse doctrine as American Law Institute mulls Restatement of the Law of Liability Insurance [Nicholas Malfitano, Legal Newsline/Forbes]

Tags: arbitration, attorneys general, aviation, class actions, insurance, law enforcement for profit, preemption

Liability roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“DEA mines Americans’ travel records to seize millions”

Walter Olson — Tue, 04 Oct 2016 04:05:40 +0000

“Federal drug agents regularly mine Americans’ travel information to profile people who might be ferrying money for narcotics traffickers — though they almost never use what they learn to make arrests or build criminal cases. Instead, that targeting has helped the Drug Enforcement Administration seize a small fortune in cash.” [Brad Heath, USA Today/KUSA]

Tags: aviation, forfeiture, illegal drugs, surveillance

“DEA mines Americans’ travel records to seize millions” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

August 3 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 03 Aug 2016 04:05:43 +0000

“Don’t Ground ‘Uber in the Sky'” [Ilya Shapiro and Randal John Meyer on Cato Institute brief in FAA v. FlyteNow]
Trademark spats bog down the world of craft brewing and those over place names are among the worst [Timothy Geigner/TechDirt on Miami Brewing/M.I.A. Beer Co. conflict]
After the Freddie Gray trials, redistricting, StingRay, cyberbullying, eminent domain and more in my new Maryland roundup at Free State Notes;
“Attorney: DOJ’s pursuit of Post Office’s competitors shows hypocrisy of administration” [Jessica Karmasek/Legal NewsLine (fixed link), earlier on FedEx trial here, here, here]
Trial lawyers seize on New Jersey law to file wave of cases challenging online agreements [The Economist]
FDA’s war on vaping pleases big tobacco firms, makes little sense otherwise [Jonathan Adler, Jacob Sullum]

Tags: aviation, beer and brewers, FDA, Maryland, New Jersey, shrinkwrap/EULAs, tobacco, trademarks

August 3 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Fraud week III: jump-ons

Walter Olson — Wed, 29 Jun 2016 10:10:15 +0000

Jumping onto the hood of an oncoming car is one way of getting into claims fraud with minimal commitment, but there are many other ways, some of them quite complex and diabolical. After air crashes in Latin America in which U.S. residents lost their lives, it was noticed that a number of youthful claimants appeared on the scene whose mothers described them as the unacknowledged out-of-wedlock children of American men reported as lost on the ill-fated plane. These children, living in countries like Mexico and Guatemala, would then file claims in U.S. court against the airline, aircraft maker, and other potentially liable parties for cash settlements over the loss of what was said to be their father. These claims would come as bewildering, even horrifying news to the wives, children, and other family members of the deceased, who had to consider the possibility that the men they thought they knew so well had been living an undisclosed second life. At least one survivor — who probably had better reason that most to doubt the veracity of the claim — decided to fight:

In one case, a 53-year-old San Francisco man who perished on the doomed flight is alleged to have recently fathered two Latin American children who deserved to collect for his decease, a story that ran into trouble when his outraged gay partner of twenty years, Dale Rettinger, 63, stepped forward to challenge it.

For a defense by a Florida lawyer who had been involved in the filing of multiple surprise-heir claims, follow the above link. And more conventional jump-on fraud occurs when, say, a city bus with 15 passengers on board gets in an accident and by the time the police arrive the number of passengers is up to 30. (From 2014: Jackson, Miss. driver leaves scene of accident and returns accompanied by more victims.) And it even happens with cruise ships.

Tags: aviation, best of, claims fraud

Fraud week III: jump-ons is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Families of GermanWings crash victims sue pilot’s flight school

Walter Olson — Sat, 16 Apr 2016 15:50:25 +0000

“The families of victims involved in the Germanwings Flight 9525’s deliberate crash in the French Alps last year filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the American flight school where the co-pilot was trained. The suit alleged that the school failed to properly screen Andreas Lubitz’s medical background.” [Suman Varandani, International Business Times]

Tags: aviation, Germany

Families of GermanWings crash victims sue pilot’s flight school is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Are SCOTUS justices swayed by foreign law?

Walter Olson — Sat, 26 Sep 2015 16:43:59 +0000

The much-discussed flirtation of Supreme Court justices with foreign law and transnational standards is something they can seemingly turn on and off at will, argues CEI’s Iain Murray in a WSJ letter to the editor: “to allow more lawsuits, the Supreme Court disregarded every foreign court ruling defining the word ‘accident’ in the Warsaw Convention, in Olympic Airways v. Husain (2004)…. The Supreme Court regularly ignores the international consensus against punitive damages and broad discovery, which most of the world forbids in civil cases, but the U.S. permits.”

Tags: aviation, discovery, international law, punitive damages, Supreme Court

Are SCOTUS justices swayed by foreign law? is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

This land is my land

Walter Olson — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 22:16:03 +0000

“Kentucky man shoots down drone hovering over his backyard” [Cyrus Farivar, Ars Technica]

Tags: aviation, guns, property law, property rights

This land is my land is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system