FTC endorsement rules – Overlawyered

Free speech roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 22 Mar 2018 09:50:09 +0000

Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Mansky: SCOTUS considers state ban on political apparel at polling places [Ilya Shapiro, Cato]
Under American law governments cannot sue persons for defamation, and “slander of title” won’t do as substitute ploy for lawyer representing city of Sibley, Iowa [Jacob Sullum]
“Someone Trying to Vanish My Post About Someone Trying to Vanish Another Post” [Eugene Volokh]
“Free Speech and the Administrative State”, George Mason/Scalia Law Center for the Study of the Administrative State conference with videos;
“Influencer Marketing Remains in FTC’s Crosshairs” [M. Sean Royall, Richard H. Cunningham, and Andrew B. Blumberg, WLF]
Worth recalling: it was legal academia’s Critical Race movement that helped reinvigorate Left support for censorship and speech repression [Alan Dershowitz]

Tags: campaign regulation, free speech, FTC endorsement rules, Iowa, law schools, libel slander and defamation

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

April 17 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 04:05:11 +0000

“The Consortium has hired Arnold & Porter, and they can threaten whomever they want, the facts be damned.” [Popehat]
Former Social Security administrators: NPR’s just imagining things, pay no attention to that report on the growth of the disability program [NADR.org, earlier] Ronald Reagan got rolled on the SSDI disability program, and we’re all paying the price [Avik Roy]
Katrina qui tam: “Jury returns verdict for the Rigsby sisters against State Farm” [Freeland, earlier]
Probate dispute had become cause celebre in Connecticut: “Judge Rules In Favor Of Caretaker In Smoron Farm Case” [Hartford Courant]
Judge’s text message complains of “‘docket from hell,’ filled with tatted-up… gap tooth skank hoes” [Above the Law]
“FTC Clarifies Obligations of Product Reviewers, But Does Not Ease Concerns” [DMLP]
“Trump Dismisses ‘Spawn of Orangutan’ Lawsuit” [Lowering the Bar, earlier]
If you’re one of those who occasionally send me links from the Alex Jones site InfoWars, now you know why I never use ’em [Dave Weigel]

Tags: Connecticut, Dickie Scruggs, Donald Trump, FTC endorsement rules, judges, science and scientists, State Farm, wills and trusts

April 17 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

March 18 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 04:06:54 +0000

Justice done in Tewksbury, Mass. as feds won’t appeal loss in Motel Caswell forfeiture case [Institute for Justice]
Oh, FTC: “Government Now Says Tweets Have To Include ‘The Fine Print'” [Business Insider]
Judge lifts “no Facebook posts” order against class action objector [Paul Alan Levy, ABA Journal, earlier]
House Judiciary Committee hearing on litigation abuse feature Ted Frank, John Beisner [link to video, Chamber-backed LNL]
Update: minister who aided Miller-Jenkins custody-napping gets 27 month sentence [AP,earlier]
Pennsylvania high court judge convicted on charges of using state staff for campaign [AP] Also in Pa., wife/chief aide of high court justice “has received 18 payments as referral fees for connecting law firms with clients” [Philadelphia Inquirer] “Arkansas Supreme Court Justice reports $50k gift from plaintiff lawyer” [LNL]
Widow sues church for refusal to accept NASCAR-themed cemetery headstone [IndyStar]

Tags: Arkansas, forfeiture, FTC endorsement rules, Miller-Jenkins case, Pennsylvania, Ted Frank, Twitter

March 18 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

FTC endorsement rules treated disrespectfully

Walter Olson — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 18:14:03 +0000

Popehat (which you are reading for Ken’s “Anatomy of a Scam Investigation,” right?) accords the reviewer-disclosure regulations less than the expected degree of seriousness.

Tags: FTC endorsement rules

FTC endorsement rules treated disrespectfully is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

August 16 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 12:25:26 +0000

Former producer at “Oprah” show — yearning for the simpler life? — takes job at rough blue-collar outfit. One $500K harassment settlement later… [Des Moines Register]
“Insurer writing ‘loser pays’ policies to defendants” [LNL]
“$1.4 Million Award Reversed due to Attorney’s ‘Inflammatory’ Comments” [DBR]
New book examines shaky evidentiary basis of international criminal law convictions [Nancy Combs]
Litigation slush funds, cont’d: new Department of Justice rules steer public settlement money to private advocacy groups [York, Examiner]
Second Circuit upholds Judge Weinstein’s steps to curb conspiracy to evade protective order in Zyprexa case [Drug and Device Law, Dan Popeo, NYLJ] More from the busy Dr. David Egilman: “Plaintiff’s Expert Files Appeal in ‘Popcorn Lung’ Lawsuit” [On Point News and more] Also: “Being an Expert Expert Doesn’t Make You an Expert” [Zacher, Abnormal Use]
“FTC Seeks to Clarify — and Justify — Its Blogger Endorsement Guidelines” [Citizen Media Law]
“Winnebago cruise control” and suchlike urban legends are purposely devised and spread by sinister interests, or so claim L.A. Times and Prof. Turley [five years ago on Overlawyered]

Tags: cy pres, expert witnesses, FTC endorsement rules, harassment law, international human rights, Iowa, loser pays

August 16 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

May 12 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 12 May 2010 11:01:27 +0000

Charged $21K at purported “gentleman’s” club: “Plaintiff Has No Recollection of What Transpired in the Private Room” [Lowering the Bar]
Census Bureau sued for discriminating against applicants based on criminal, arrest records [Clegg, NRO] Class action against Accenture for screening job applicants based on criminal records [Jon Hyman]
Virtual indeed: “Virtual Freedom” author wants government to regulate Google’s search engine [ConcurOp]
Contingency fees for public sector lawyering could take California down dangerous path [CJAC]
“Harvard Law vs. free inquiry: Dean Martha Minow flunks the test” [Peter Berkowitz, Weekly Standard]
There’ll always be an AAJ: seminar for trial lawyers on “Injuries Without Evidence” [ShopFloor] More: The Briefcase.
Congress may expand law to enable more age-bias suits [BLT]
“FTC Closes First Blogger Endorsement Investigation” [Balasubramani, Spam Notes; Citizen Media Law]

Tags: AAJ, age discrimination, California, contingent fee, criminal records and hiring, FTC endorsement rules, Google, Harvard, search engines, strippers and exotic dancers

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

FTC blogger regs skewered in Harvard Law Review

Walter Olson — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 18:12:49 +0000

As unconstitutional (PDF). Incidentally, this may mark the first time Overlawyered (as distinct from my other writing) has been cited in the HLR — see footnotes 25 and 28. But I’m not really sure.

Tags: accolades, FTC endorsement rules, Harvard

FTC blogger regs skewered in Harvard Law Review is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

April 20 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 05:05:13 +0000

Tossed: “Zulu coconut lawsuit thrown out on appeal” [NOLA.com; earlier on this Mardi Gras tradition and the law Louisiana passed to protect it]
Maryland: “Felony Charges for Recording a Plainclothes Officer” [Rittgers, Cato at Liberty]
More on decline of local slaughterhouses under federal regulation [Zachary Adam Cohen, NYT “Room for Debate”; earlier]
“Now Brussels has declared that tourism is a human right” [Times Online via Coyote]
Three taxes that are a more immediate danger than a VAT [David Frum; my take, at National Journal blogger poll]
“WorldNetDaily Sues White House Correspondents Association Over Dinner Tables” [MediaBistro, more]
Department of Labor vs. internship programs: one target’s view [Terry Michael, Reason; earlier]
Allegedly easy way bloggers can comply with FTC endorsement regs [Chris Pirillo]

Tags: Europe, food safety, FTC endorsement rules, international human rights, Louisiana, Maryland, small business, taxes, wage and hour suits

April 20 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

February 18 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 05:08:29 +0000

Math curriculum wars in Seattle school district head for court [Seattle Times]
Stuart Taylor, Jr. reviews new Abigail Thernstrom book on the Voting Rights Act [New Republic]
Gail Wilensky: Dems could’ve gotten GOP votes for health care reform if they’d compromised on medical liability [The Hill]
Erin Brockovich swoops down on Florida cancer cluster [Fumento/CEI, more, also on Florida case]
Barry Goldwater was right: right-leaning bloggers favor lifting military gay ban by 62-37 margin in National Journal bloggers poll;
Jim Copland vs. Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter [Point of Law, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, more]
Why is there no iPod or iPhone equivalent for automobiles? Regulation might have something to do with it [Ryan Avent and more via Sullivan; McArdle and more (commenter: “Motorcycles would never, EVER be approved by NHTSA if they were invented today.”)]
So reassuring: for now FTC says it’s “unlikely to actually investigate individual bloggers” [Lewis, NYLJ] More from late last year on commission’s semi-retreat on blogger freebies [Publisher’s Weekly, GalleySmith, GalleyCat, Reason “Hit and Run”, William S. Galkin] Icons to make disclosure easy [Louis Gray]

Tags: Arlen Specter, Erin Brockovich, FTC endorsement rules, military, NHTSA, publishers, schools, Seattle, Voting Rights Act

February 18 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

January 14 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 05:09:51 +0000

Anti-vaccine activist files defamation suit over much-discussed Wired article against Dr. Paul Offit, author Amy Wallace and Conde Nast [Orac and many followup posts]
“Kid Suspended for Bringing Peppermint Oil to School” [Free-Range Kids]
Eric Turkewitz names his favorite Blawg Reviews of the year and has kind words for ours;
“New Guide to FTC Disclosure Requirements for Product Endorsements” from Citizen Media Law;
U.K. safety panel: press misreported our views, we do want businesses to grit icy public paths [update to earlier post]
Another kid trespassing on the railroad tracks, another case headed to court [Oregonian]
“Katrina negligence lawsuit has implications for all hospitals” [USA Today, earlier]
“Judicial Misconduct: The Mice Guard The Cheese” [WSJ Law Blog on this Houston Chronicle piece]

Tags: FTC endorsement rules, hospitals, judges, Katrina, legal blogs, libel slander and defamation, railroads, schools, vaccines

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