baseball bats – Overlawyered

Product liability roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 04:04:10 +0000

“Oklahoma Court Tosses Jury Verdict Over ‘Defective’ Louisville Slugger” [Daniel Fisher/Forbes, Abnormal Use] “In contrast, a New Jersey case against the same defendant resulted in a multi-million-dollar settlement divorced from any showing of culpability.” [PoL]
An expert witness wore two hats [Chamber-backed Madison County Record]
5-4 Washington Supreme Court decision in asbestos case bodes ill for makers of safety devices [Pacific Legal Foundation]
“Defective design and the Costa Concordia” [Rob Green, Abnormal Use; Rick Spilman, The Old Salt]
Calif. appeals court says man shot by 3 year old son can sue Glock [SFGate]
“Evidence of Drug Use May Be Relevant in Product Liability Litigation” [Farr, Abnormal Use]
“What used to be in chemistry sets that are not in there anymore are actual chemicals” [BBC, earlier here, here]

Tags: asbestos, baseball bats, chemistry sets, cruise ships, expert witnesses, guns, Oklahoma, product liability, Washington state

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

Goodbye to metal bats?

Walter Olson — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 11:28:29 +0000

The family of a New Jersey boy severely injured by a line drive has reached a $14.5 million settlement with the maker of the metal baseball bat and other defendants that include Little League and a sporting goods retailer. Plaintiff’s lawyers have argued that metal bats raise the risk of injury on the diamond by imparting too much force to the ball. [New York Post, Point of Law (CPSC failed to find metal bats any riskier than wood), earlier here, etc.]

Tags: baseball bats, Little League

Goodbye to metal bats? is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Pitcher hit by line drive, jury awards $900K against bat maker

Walter Olson — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 14:48:00 +0000

“Last Friday an Oklahoma federal jury awarded a pitcher $871,000 in actual damages (and gave his parents $80,095.85 in actual damages) for an aluminum bat that allegedly was defectively designed and contained insufficient warnings. The case is styled Yeaman v. Hillerich & Bradsby Co., Case No. CIV-10-1097-F (W.D. Okla.).” [Russell Jackson] Earlier here, here, here, etc.

Tags: baseball bats

Pitcher hit by line drive, jury awards $900K against bat maker is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

August 3 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 05:25:12 +0000

Central Falls, R.I. lands in bankruptcy court [NYT; my Cato take]
Less efficient patdowns? Man with one arm files complaint after being turned down as TSA inspector [MSNBC via Hyman]
Don’t join the Mommy Mob [Ken at Popehat]
Montana high court upholds failure-to-warn verdict against maker of aluminum baseball bat [PoL link roundup, Russell Jackson; earlier here and here]
Finally some good news from Connecticut: state enacts law protecting municipalities from lawsuits over recreational land use [BikeRag; earlier here, etc.]
Claim: climate-change tort suits will require radical changes in tort law and that’s a good thing [Douglas Kysar (Yale), SSRN]
Attorney keen to go on TV, will take any case, either side [Balko]

Tags: baseball bats, climate change, Connecticut, recreation, Rhode Island

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

Family sues bat maker over line drive

Walter Olson — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 05:09:06 +0000

Some trial lawyers have been crusading for a while on the theory that aluminum baseball bats are unreasonably dangerous because they allow balls to be hit with more force. A lawsuit over a 11-year-old Little Leaguer’s injury may be the next to test that theory. [Chicago Sun-Times]

Tags: baseball bats, Little League

Family sues bat maker over line drive is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

August 12 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 12:41:44 +0000

“Father demands $7.5 million because school officials read daughter’s text message” [KDAF via CALA Houston]
How many different defendants can injured spectator sue in Shea Stadium broken-bat case? [Melprophet]
Prominent trial lawyer Russell Budd of Baron & Budd hosts Obama at Texas fundraiser [PoL]
DNA be damned: when actual nonpaternity doesn’t suffice to get out from under a child support order [Alkon, more]
“Sean Coffey, a plaintiffs’ lawyer-turned-candidate for New York Attorney General, made more than $150,000 in state-level campaign contributions nationwide over 10 years.” [WSJ Law Blog] “Days before announcing a shareholder lawsuit against Bank of America, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli accepted $14,000 in campaign donations from a law firm hired to help litigate the case.” [WSJ]
Big new RAND Corp. study on asbestos bankruptcy trusts may spur reform [Lloyd Dixon, Geoffrey McGovern & Amy Coombe, PDF, via Hartley, more, Daniel Fisher/Forbes, background here and here] Update: Stier.
Public contingency suits? Of course the elected officials are in control (wink, wink) [The Recorder via Cal Civil Justice]
Copyright enforcement mill appears to have copied its competitor’s website [TechDirt via Eric Goldman]

Tags: asbestos, bankruptcy, Barack Obama, baseball, baseball bats, child support, contingent fee, copyright, Fred Baron, New York, politics, privacy, schools, shotgun defendant selection

August 12 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

February 12 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 13:29:15 +0000

Patent trolls are thriving, one study finds [271 Patent Blog, The Prior Art, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, PDF]
One plaintiff’s lawyer’s view: Did Rep. John Murtha Die From Medical Malpractice? [Turkewitz]
“Rubber stamps for two [class action] settlements” [Ted Frank, Center for Class Action Fairness, AOL and Yahoo cases]
Little League and baseball bats: “America’s favorite pastime collides with favorite pastime of personal injury lawyers” [Bob Dorigo Jones]
States push home day-care providers into unions [Stossel]
U.K.: “Cardiologist will fight libel case ‘to defend free speech’” [Times Online] More on British libel tourism: Frances Gibb, Times Online (“It’s official – London is the libel capital of the world” ), Citizen Media Law, Gordon Crovitz/WSJ, N.Y. Times.
From a half-year back, but missed then: FBI says Miami lawyer bought stolen hospital records for purposes of soliciting patients [HIPAA Blog, Ambrogi/Legal Blog Watch]
Would-be Green Police can be found in Cambridge, Mass., not just Super Bowl ads [Peter Wilson, American Thinker via Graham]

Tags: baseball, baseball bats, chasing clients, environment, HIPAA, hospitals, labor unions, libel slander and defamation, Little League, Massachusetts, medical malpractice, patent trolls, Ted Frank, United Kingdom

February 12 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Bat maker found liable for player’s death”

Walter Olson — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:05:34 +0000

A Montana jury decided that the aluminum baseball bat manufactured by “Louisville Slugger” maker Hillerich & Bradsby was not a defective product, but that the company should have warned of the dangers from its hitting balls at a higher speed, and awarded a family $850,000 for the 2003 death of their son at a baseball game. [Helena Independent Record, AP] Early commentary: Russell Jackson (doubting that a warning would actually have altered the behavior of those in the game) and Eugene Volokh (before verdict). Earlier here. More: Jim Copland discusses on CNN; Above the Law.

Tags: baseball, baseball bats, Montana

“Bat maker found liable for player’s death” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Welcome to the Nanny State Nation”

Walter Olson — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:04:15 +0000

It’s going on from California to New York City: a Drew Carey feature for Reason.tv.

Tags: baseball bats, California, nanny state, NYC, smoking bans, trans-fats

“Welcome to the Nanny State Nation” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Metal baseball bats, cont’d

Walter Olson — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 03:33:16 +0000

Filling in a detail readers wondered about before, on why Little League was named as a defendant: “The game in which Steven Domalewski sustained the injury was a Police Athletic League contest rather than a Little League event. Attorney Ernest Fronzuto countered that Little League Baseball officially approved the bat and by its actions led players, coaches and parents to believe the bat was safe for play among 10-, 11- and 12-year-olds.” (Bob Condor, “Living Well: Youth baseball injury stats: Ouch!”, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Jun. 1).

Tags: baseball, baseball bats, deep pocket, Little League, shotgun defendant selection

Metal baseball bats, cont’d is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system