construction defect – Overlawyered

September 14 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 14 Sep 2016 04:05:43 +0000

“Conviction Overturned In Case Of Rutgers Student Whose Roommate Committed Suicide After Being Secretly Filmed” [Mike Masnick, TechDirt; earlier on Dharun Ravi and the Tyler Clementi case generally]
Report from Denver: “Threat of Lawsuits Crimps Condo Developments” [Chris Kirkham, WSJ]
“California bans Civil War painting from county fair because it shows Confederate flag. Artist now suing the state.” [Jacob Gershman, WSJ Law Blog; Ken White, Popehat]
Don’t make housing discrimination law a money tree for municipal government plaintiffs [Thaya Brook Knight and Ilya Shapiro on Cato amicus brief in Supreme Court case of Bank of America v. City of Miami; earlier on municipal suits against banks here, here, here, etc.]
Federal court: bus company not responsible for what happened to its passenger after she alit in D.C.’s Union Station [Reyen v. Jones Lang Lasalle and Megabus]
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and eight GOP colleagues co-sponsor bill to transfer $490 million to United Mine Workers pension fund [Diana Furchtgott-Roth, WSJ]

Tags: banks, bullying, construction defect, housing discrimination, labor unions, transit

September 14 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Lawyer Pleads Guilty in Scheme to Elect Condo Board Members Favoring Construction Lawsuits”

Walter Olson — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 05:24:03 +0000

“A Las Vegas lawyer who once ran a courthouse restaurant has pleaded guilty in a scheme to take $3,000 in kickbacks to rig two condo board elections in Nevada.” The takeover of the condo boards, advanced by methods that included stuffing ballot boxes with fake ballots, made it possible to bring in a favored law firm to file construction-defect suits. “Federal prosecutors claim conspirators used straw buyers to buy properties in about a dozen condo communities from 2003 to 2009 and helped them win control of condo boards, AP says.” A wider investigation continues whose targets allegedly include judges. [ABA Journal]

Tags: construction defect, Nevada, real estate

“Lawyer Pleads Guilty in Scheme to Elect Condo Board Members Favoring Construction Lawsuits” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

March 21 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 16:13:18 +0000

“Cleveland Browns lawyer letter is apparently real” [Lowering the Bar, earlier]
“Headlines of the Apocalypse: ‘Lady Gaga eyes legal action over breast milk ice cream.’” [@vsalus re: Breitbart via @EdDriscoll]
Chesley discipline prospects in Kentucky fen-phen scandal: “King of Torts Dethroned” [Laura Simons, Abnormal Use]
Busy construction-defect lawyers vex Fresno builders [Bee, Business Journal]
“NHTSA Postpones Back-Up Camera Requirement Rule” [The Truth About Cars, earlier]
Lawyers in Italy call strike to protest law requiring mediation of commercial disputes [WSJ Law Blog]
NYT’s Mark Bittman has a magical touch with food (alas) [Patrick at Popehat]
Beasley Allen lawyers sluiced $850K to Alabama GOP judicial contender [Birmingham News via PoL]

Tags: Alabama, construction defect, Italy, Mark Bittman, New York Times, NHTSA, Stan Chesley, wayward Republicans

March 21 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

June 1 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 12:00:00 +0000

Some California attorneys hoping to restart lucrative construction-defect litigation [Frith, Cal Civil Justice]
Jury awards Seattle bus passenger $1.3 million for stair mishap [KOMO, Seattle Times]
“Louisiana Bill Would Outlaw Insulting an Under-17-Year-Old By E-Mail” [Volokh, earlier] Update: bill watered down before passage, but still bad news for speech;
“Attorney Fee Fight Gets Ugly in World Trade Center Litigation” [Turkewitz and more]
Preventive detention law shows why we need to confine Congress [Sullum, Greenfield]
Mass Fifth Circuit recusals in Comer v. Murphy Oil global warming case [Wood/PoL, Jackson] More: Shapiro, Cato, Wood/ShopFloor (a strategy to provoke recusals?)
“By some estimates, circa 40 percent of cases in the Central African court system are witchcraft prosecutions” [Graeme Wood, The Atlantic]
Lawyers who sued Facebook over “Beacon” to get $2.3 million in fees, class $0.00 [Balasubramani, SpamNotes]

Tags: California, child protection, class action settlements, construction defect, Facebook, Fifth Circuit, global warming, Louisiana, recusals, Seattle

June 1 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Architects now more sue-able than ever”

Walter Olson — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 15:54:07 +0000

So says Edificial (via Above the Law).

Tags: construction defect

“Architects now more sue-able than ever” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Construction defect litigation, rated X

Walter Olson — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 13:54:38 +0000

“In what may be the first case of a sexually explicit construction defect, the owner of a historic Kansas City, Mo., hotel is alleging that ‘graphic markings’ left by a contractor on unfinished sheetrock walls have ‘bled through’ vinyl wall covering, causing ‘significant damage’ to the hotel’s reputation.” [OnPoint News]

Tags: construction defect

Construction defect litigation, rated X is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Family sues over girl’s death during tornado”

Walter Olson — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 17:21:18 +0000

There go trailers, right? “An attorney for the family of the 10-year-old killed when the 2006 Rogers [Minnesota] tornado hit is arguing that faulty construction, not an act of God, is to blame.”

Tags: construction defect, Minnesota

“Family sues over girl’s death during tornado” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system