Countrywide – Overlawyered

August 19 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 04:05:59 +0000

Two topics of recent interest on the site — cremation and service monkeys — together in one post [The Urn Garden]
Please don’t tell us an aggressive stance by music copyright holders is going to kill Pandora radio, one of the bright stars of the Internet [WaPo, more]
“Citizens in Chains: The High Cost of Prisoner Lawsuits to California Taxpayers” [CALA, PDF]
Navajo plaintiffs: spraying artificial snow on our sacred mountain is spiritually injurious [Volokh]
Remember those anti-poverty non-profit groups that were going to represent the culmination of John Edwards’ life work, aside from running for you-know-what? Him neither [Silverstein, Harper’s via Folo]
Toxic tort class action in Saudi Arabia proves unsuccessful [Arab News]
Fending off patent trolls has been expensive for high-tech Massachusetts firm Cognex [NLJ]
Arizona law professor’s creative denials in paternity suit have furnished faculty-lounge chuckles for years [Caron/TaxProf, Jack J. Rappeport]
New at Point of Law: big ruckus over proposal to compel accounting projections of lawsuit exposure; guestblogger Peggy Little on Connecticut vs. Countrywide, the ABA in judicial selection and more; cy pres litigation slush funds assailed as constitutionally dubious; Trial Lawyers Inc. series tackles the state of Ohio; MBIA mulls suing hedge fund that’s sniped at its stock; more on med-mal “loss of a chance”; and much more.

Tags: accounting, Arizona, copyright, Countrywide, cy pres, Indian tribes, John Edwards, law schools, music and musicians, Ohio, patent trolls, prisoners, Saudi Arabia

August 19 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

May 12 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 12 May 2008 00:06:35 +0000

Canada free speech: Islamic group files complaint against Halifax newspaper over cartoon of burka-wearing terror fan; two more libel suits aimed at online conservative voices; growing furor over complaint against Steyn/Macleans [National Post]
More than 5,000 students committed crimes last year in Philadelphia schools, but none were expelled — consent decrees tying system’s hands are one reason [Inquirer]
U.K.: Man threatened with legal action for flying pirate flag as part of daughter’s birthday party [Guardian]
Bankruptcy judge doesn’t plan to accept at face value Countrywide’s claim that it generated false escrow documents by mistake in foreclosure [WSJ, WSJ law blog]
Amid bipartisan calls to step down, Ohio AG Marc Dann [Apr. 19, May 6] hires an opposition researcher [Adler @ Volokh] on top of Washington lobbyist [Legal NewsLine], after being rebuked by judge for political suit [Dispatch]. And where’s that ethics form on the Chesley flight? [Dayton Daily News]
Missouri med-mal claims fall sharply after legislated damages curb [Springfield News-Leader]
More on Dartmouth prof Priya Venkatesan, the one who wants to sue her students — as suspected, she’s a devotee of deconstructionist Science Studies [Allen/MtC; earlier]
Covert plan to sabotage Chinese economy? [Wilson Center event]
What, never? Well, hardly ever: Docs continue to assail notion that various complications such as patient delirium, clostridium difficile infection, iatrogenic pneumothorax, etc. — not to mention falls — are “never events” [KevinMD various posts; earlier]
Mich. high court agrees anti-gay-marriage amendment bars municipal health benefits for domestic partners, just what key proponents had claimed it wouldn’t do [Rauch @ IGF, Carpenter @ Volokh, earlier]
Private service rates the safety of charter air providers — but can it afford the cost of being sued after giving a bad rating? [Three years ago on Overlawyered]

Tags: bankruptcy, Countrywide, Dartmouth, domestic partners, free speech, free speech in Canada, hospitals, libel slander and defamation, Marc Dann, Mark Steyn, Missouri, never events, Ohio, Philadelphia, regulation through litigation, roundups, same-sex marriage, school discipline, Stan Chesley, tort reform

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

Did redlining accusations lead to the subprime mortgage mess?

Ted Frank — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 09:09:07 +0000

Stan Liebowitz writes in the New York Post:

Perhaps the greatest scandal of the mortgage crisis is that it is a direct result of an intentional loosening of underwriting standards – done in the name of ending discrimination, despite warnings that it could lead to wide-scale defaults. …

In an earlier newspaper story extolling the virtues of relaxed underwriting standards, Countrywide’s chief executive bragged that, to approve minority applications that would otherwise be rejected “lenders have had to stretch the rules a bit.” He’s not bragging now.

I’m not sure I entirely agree, but it’s an element we should be considering as we look at the new complaints of “racial discrimination” through excessive sub-prime loans.

Tags: Countrywide, housing discrimination, mortgages, redlining, regulation through litigation

Did redlining accusations lead to the subprime mortgage mess? is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system