Be a guestblogger for Overlawyered is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Jason Barney, a claims investigator and insurance professional in the Northwest, has guestblogged for us several times, some high points being a case of drunken equestrianism; aide to politician fails to secure Pennsylvania workers’ comp benefits after panel rules that “media criticism of him did not constitute ‘abnormal working conditions'”; man sues 1-800-FLOWERS after it sends him a thank you note for buying flowers for his mistress, which note wound up in the hands of his wife [archive]

Peter Morin, Boston-area land use lawyer, joined us over two stints to discuss an ethics complaint by a Rhode Island woman against two lawyers she said sidled up to her and pitched her services as she was standing at her dead son’s casket; whether an offer to send text messages to the NBC game show “Deal or No Deal” in hopes of winning a prize was an unlawful lottery for which participants should be permitted to seek damages; and a classic Massachusetts judicial opinion about liability for “a fish bone lurking in fish chowder.” [archive]

* * *

I’ve worked my way less than halfway through the list and have missed many superb talents as well as many of my best friends, so there’s room for me to come back another time should I repeat this idea. Those I missed include guestbloggers Hans Bader, James Copland, Steven Erickson, Andrew Grossman, Keymonk, Kip Esquire, Steven Hantler, Dave Kopel, Jim Leitzel, Jeff Lewis, Leah Lorber, Warren Meyer, Skip Oliva, Victoria Pynchon, Gerald Russello, Greg Skidmore, SSFC, and Kevin Underhill. Participant-blogger Ted Frank, a lawyer of many interests best known these days for his efforts on class action reform, contributed between 2003 and 2010; his posts are archived here. I’m not sure why anyone would want to check out my own archives, but if you do, they’re here.

Guestblogger archive week: V is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Guestbloggers have sometimes brought a scholarly and research perspective, as with Michael DeBow, a law professor at Cumberland School of Law at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala. He wrote (presciently!) about a Massachusetts attorney general’s ventures into outsourced enforcement and how it wound up sluicing money to some ideologically engaged private outfits; the importance in comparative international development of secure property rights; and Alabama’s fitful progress toward being less of a “judicial hellhole” for defendant corporations than it once was. [archive]

James Maxeiner teaches at the University of Baltimore School of Law and has practiced and written extensively in legal matters in both American and German courts. The German system of civil litigation, which includes the loser-pays principle, is often compared favorably with our own. His insight into the comparative performance of the two systems of law helped inform posts on what foreign clients say about American law, how Germany does civil legal aid, and some mild puffery from the German justice ministry about the advantage of its version of continental law. [archive]

Guestblogger archive week: IV is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

When blogs rose to popularity in the early 2000s there was a flowering of medical blogs written by practicing physicians. Among its highlights was an Ohio family physician’s MedPundit. Although she quit blogging around 2006 that was not before she had dropped by Overlawyered to talk about shotgun defendant selection and the plaintiff attorney’s “standard of care”; a long-shot failure-to-diagnose case; and what it means that malpractice insurance rates vary so sharply within individual states, as between Cleveland and Columbus in Ohio. [archive]

Donald Boudreaux, founder of Cafe Hayek and professor of economics at George Mason U., has few contemporary peers as an exponent of sound economics for the intelligent reader. He joined us to write about (timely!) Hillary Clinton’s proposal for a restored national maximum speed limit of 55 miles per hour, popular misunderstanding of the concept of the “trade deficit” (timely again!), and where if anywhere the federal government might draw the constitutional authority to regulate the treatment of pets. [archive]

Don’t forget: we’re inviting volunteers (and of course repeat volunteers) to propose yourself for a weeklong guestblog stint in this space some time this summer or fall. Email editor – (at) – overlawyered – (dot) – com.

Guestblogger archive week: III is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Wisconsin political writer Christian Schneider is now a regular contributor to USA Today as well as the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, and has been having fun writing up this year’s campaign. He wrote for us on an Ontario court’s order that a 24 year old man not have a girlfriend for three years, whether tattoo-edness should place you in a protected category in employment law, and the legal barriers to frozen beer on a stick. [archive/Twitter]

Baylen Linnekin, expert on food law and policy, has a new book coming out in September called Biting the Hands That Feed Us: How Fewer, Smarter Laws Would Make Our Food System More Sustainable. His topics for us included CSPI’s war on caffeinated alcohol beverages, odd doings in England after a Jack Russell terrier “allegedly bit off the tip of the leafleteer’s finger as he pushed election paraphernalia through a front-door letterbox,” and an Illinois couple’s nonmarital “agreement for an exclusive relationship.” (archive/Twitter).

Guestblogger archive week: II is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Ron Coleman, an IP and media law attorney attorney in greater New York, writes the excellent and longstanding Likelihood of Confusion blog on trademarks, copyrights, Internet law and free speech, from which I’ve learned a lot over the years. He’s guestblogged for us twice, covering such issues as a New York male attorney’s discrimination suit against ladies’ night discounts at bars; a suit in Romania by a prison inmate purportedly against God Himself (“He has some issues, only not justiciable ones, it seems”); and a lawsuit by NBA players over depictions of their lady interests on a VH1 show called “Basketball Wives.” His full archive is here (law-oriented and personal Twitter).

When he guestblogged for us, Will Baude was a student at the University of Chicago Law School. He’s now on its faculty, teaching federal courts and constitutional law, after doing things like clerking for appellate judge Michael McConnell and Chief Justice John Roberts. Last week he was a guestblogger at Volokh Conspiracy about his work on the law of interpretation, statutory and otherwise; sample posts here and here. During his guest week at Overlawyered he covered a dispute over whether a California city should sue over a reference to its citizens as “white trash” on a popular TV show, “The O.C.”, and wrote on popular schemes (popular in philosophical circles, at least) “to extend the right to vote to children of any age.” Full archive here (Twitter).

Pasadena attorney George M. Wallace wrote the excellent insurance law blog Declarations and Exclusions through 2013, and continues to blog on non-legal subjects at A Fool in the Forest. In his time with us he covered an advisory in the L.A. city attorney’s office on “how they should recognize a newsworthy legal case. Public safety? Important public issue at stake? Nah, this is L.A. Number one is any case involving a celebrity — ‘no matter how minor’ — followed closely by a politician. Death, mutilation, child molestation or animal cruelty are also sure bets.” And he wrote — this nearly ten years ago — about the legal showdown between TV personality Rosie O’Donnell and Donald Trump. Full archive here (Twitter).

Because I’m expecting some down time in my own blogging in coming months, I invite volunteers (and of course repeat volunteers) who might like to guestblog in this space this summer and fall. Email editor – (at) – overlawyered – (dot) – com.

Guestblogger archive week: I is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Guestblogger thanks is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Guestblogging season is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Guestblogging thanks is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Welcome guestblogger Ron Coleman is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system