Houston – Overlawyered

Toronto Blue Jays pitcher sues Houston Astros over sign scandal

Walter Olson — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 10:59:41 +0000

Relief pitcher Bolsinger, “who pitched for the Toronto Blue Jays, is now suing the Astros claiming their sign-stealing scheme is the reason his career was cut short after an August 2017 game in which he gave up four runs against the Astros.” [Amir Vera and Jill Martin, CNN, earlier on Astros scandal]

Tags: baseball, Houston

Toronto Blue Jays pitcher sues Houston Astros over sign scandal is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

September 10 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 10 Sep 2019 09:59:58 +0000

The beet grows on: some unintended consequences of mid-century sugar regulation [Chad Syverson via Bryan Caplan, EconLib]
Veteran Houston attorney charged with misdemeanor assault “for slapping a plaintiff’s attorney before a deposition.” [Angela Morris, Texas Lawyer, update]
I have a theory as to why Politico didn’t use a picture of Elena Kagan, Elizabeth Warren, Stephen Breyer, or Ruth Ginsburg speaking at Federalist Society events to illustrate Ted Olson’s piece comparing the Society’s activism heat index with that of the ABA;
Citing “misogynistic history,” state high court makes New Mexico first to abolish spousal testimonial privilege [ABA Journal, New Mexico v. Gutierrez]
Don’t go away angry, ex-sheriff Arpaio. Just go away [Jon Gabriel, Arizona Republic; our coverage over the years]
“Pro se allegation: After my friend got divorced, he refused to help set me up with his ex-wife. That’s intentional emotional abuse (also, he’s guilty of money laundering and tax evasion). Tenth Circuit: Yeah, we’re pretty sure the district court got this one right when it ruled against you.” [Institute for Justice “Short Circuit” on Anderson v. Pollard, 10th Circuit]

Tags: Federalist Society, Houston, New Mexico, privilege, pro se

September 10 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Texas Officials Were ‘In Over Their Heads’ When They Struck Deals With Opioid Lawyers”

Walter Olson — Thu, 30 Aug 2018 10:02:17 +0000

“You don’t auction professional services,” said Terry O’Rourke, assistant county attorney for Harris County (Houston), Texas, in charge of the opioid litigation, regarding the hefty 35% fee plus expenses the county has contractually agreed to pay to its contingency-fee outside counsel. Meanwhile, Dallas County for its representation in the same litigation “sets the contingent fee at the lesser of 12.5% or a “base fee,” calculated as four times hourly rates ranging from $900 an hour for partners to $200 for paralegals.” Some of the lawyers hired by Harris County have been active political donors: “It’s not uncommon for elected officials to hire their political allies for contingency fee work.”

Harris County’s contract with three outside law firms also requires the county to pay a fee based on its total recovery before expenses, while many municipal clients have negotiated more favorable deals in which the contingency fee is a percentage of the recovery after expenses….

The fact that some counties agreed to pay all of the expenses associated with their cases while others will pay fees net of expenses also shows a lack of sophistication and the potential for gamesmanship, [Cardozo emeritus professor and legal ethicist Lester] Brickman said. Lawyers in asbestos cases and securities litigation have been accused of double-billing and allocating the same expenses to multiple cases, and it can be difficult for individual clients to uncover wrongdoing unless they obtain records showing the overall distribution of expenses and recoveries – something lawyers rarely provide….

“Few of the cities and counties have required that the expenses claimed by the lawyers be detailed, including providing receipts and other supporting documents,” Brickman said. “There’s a possibility that some lawyers will emulate `The Producers’ and charge aggregate expenses that are in excess of actual expenses,” as has happened with asbestos litigation.

[Daniel Fisher, Legal Newsline/Forbes]

Tags: attorneys' fees, contingent fee, Houston, opioids

“Texas Officials Were ‘In Over Their Heads’ When They Struck Deals With Opioid Lawyers” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Land use and real estate roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 16 Jul 2018 10:02:17 +0000

Political fight brewing in California over ballot initiative that would pave way for bringing back rent control [Michael Hendrix, City Journal]
“Metes and bounds” method of describing legal property boundaries has been much derided, but new archival research from American colonial period suggests its benefits then were greater and costs lower than might appear [Maureen (Molly) Brady, SSRN, forthcoming Yale Law Journal] Just for fun: street grid orientation (or lack thereof) in major cities expressed as polar charts [Geoff Boeing]
“Alexandria, Virginia Gets Housing Affordability Wrong” [Vanessa Brown Calder, Cato]
Houston does not zone but it does subsidize deed restrictions. Is that good? [Nolan Gray, Market Urbanism]
Great moments in historic preservation: “Silver Lake gas station moves toward landmark status” but connoisseurs say it’s not nearly as choice as the three service stations previously landmarked in L.A. [Curbed Los Angeles]
“America’s Ugly Strip Malls Were Caused By Government Regulation” [Scott Beyer]

Tags: California, historic preservation, Houston, land use and zoning, Los Angeles, Virginia

Land use and real estate roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“How Washington Made Harvey Worse”

Walter Olson — Sat, 02 Sep 2017 15:50:10 +0000

“A federal insurance program made Harvey far more costly—and Congress could have known it was coming.” [Michael Grunwald, Politico, more] And from July, “Reforming the National Flood Insurance Program: Toward Private Flood Insurance” [Ike Brannon and Ari Blask, Cato Policy Analysis]

More: “Lack of Zoning Is Not Houston’s Problem” [Vanessa Brown Calder, Cato; Nolan Gray, CityLab]

Tags: disasters, environment, Houston, insurance, land use and zoning

“How Washington Made Harvey Worse” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

March 29 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 29 Mar 2017 04:05:45 +0000

“SEAT Act: Top Senators Sponsoring Bill to Outlaw Low Cost Carriers, Raise Airfares” [Gary Leff, View from the Wing]
“Trump’s Safe and Sane ‘Regulatory Reform’ Idea” [Cass Sunstein/Bloomberg, earlier Sunstein on Trump regulatory initiatives]
Changing law and economics shape street protest [Tyler Cowen] Arizona’s bad idea on protestors involves racketeering charges, forfeiture, and more [Coyote]
“Rights And Reality: Georgia Cop Jails Ex-Wife For Facebook Gripe” [Ken White, Popehat]
“Opponents of same-sex marriage cynically…manufacture[d] a baseless controversy in the Texas Supreme Court” to attack City of Houston’s spousal benefits, but as the Hon. Jerry Smith of the Fifth Circuit had already stated in persuasive guidance, Obergefell “is the law of the land.” [Mark Pulliam, Law and Liberty; a second view from Josh Blackman]
Idea making some headway: adapting use of class action and similar aggregate litigation procedures to administrative adjudication [Sergio Campos, Jotwell]

Tags: airlines, are you feeling protected?, Arizona, class actions, Fifth Circuit, Houston, police, regulation and its reform, same-sex marriage, Texas

March 29 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Environment roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 14 Nov 2016 11:07:09 +0000

Feinstein-Collins bill (“Personal Care Products Safety Act”) to regulate soap, lotions, and cosmetics is best left to swirl down drain [Eric Boehm/Reason, earlier, Handcrafted Soap and Cosmetics Guild and ICMAD (mid-sized and smaller companies), Modern Soapmaking, my appearance on KPCC “AirTalk”]
Standing in the need of standing: federal judge denies motion to dismiss suit over global warming against federal government and business groups on behalf of 21 young persons and scientist James Hansen [Phuong Le, AP/ABC News]
Seattle home buyers, it’s okay to choke a little at what your money could have bought in low-regulation Houston instead [Randal O’Toole, more] Land use regs impede economic mobility: you could have read it at Cato first [David Boaz]
“Why Industrial Farms Are Good for the Environment” [Jayson Lusk]
“Suit claiming air emissions that fall to the ground constitute hazardous waste under Superfund proves too ambitious even for the Ninth Circuit” [WLF’s summary of Kevin Haroff and Zachary Kearns, Marten Law]
“State social justice groups did not feel consulted” in carbon tax proposal on Washington ballot, which failed [Coyote, AP/KIRO]

Tags: agriculture and farming, climate change, cosmetics, environment, Houston, land use and zoning, Ninth Circuit, Seattle, Washington state

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

Environment roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 09 Aug 2016 04:05:13 +0000

An extraordinary tale of fraud and justice: Second Circuit puts definitive kibosh on tainted $9 billion Chevron/Ecuador judgment [decision, Debra Cassens Weiss, ABA Journal, our coverage over many years] “Attorney Who Took Chevron to Court for $18 Billion Suspended by Amazon Defense Front” [Roger Parloff, Fortune]
New Zealand accords legal personality to river and former national park through treaty settlements with Maori groups [New York Times]
“The looting of Volkswagen: The company deserves a fine, but politicians keep demanding more” [WSJ editorial]
Property owners have constitutional rights against NYC landmarks-law NIMBYism [Ilya Shapiro and Randal John Meyer] Where court protection of owners is weaker, cities designate more properties as historic [Nick Zaiac, Market Urbanism] “Against Historic Preservation” [Alex Tabarrok]
“The growing battle over the use of eminent domain to take property for pipelines” [Ilya Somin]
“How Anti-Growth Sentiment, Reflected in Zoning Laws, Thwarts Equality” [Conor Dougherty, New York Times, via John Cochrane] Life without zoning goes on in Houston [Scott Beyer, The Federalist]

Tags: Chevron, eminent domain, historic preservation, Houston, land use and zoning, New Zealand, NYC, oil industry, Volkswagen

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

Gate Guard v. Perez: the sequel

Walter Olson — Fri, 11 Mar 2016 05:05:06 +0000

Last month we told the story of a Texas business that managed to clobber the U.S. Department of Labor in court over its challenge to the company’s use of independent contractors. The Fifth Circuit granted the company a substantial award in legal fees to punish the department for its bad faith in litigation.

Now, Coyote relates a personal encounter in which he runs into a man at a Houston steakhouse who turned out to be the owner of that company, Gate Guard:

I refused to believe him until he showed me a picture of him with the check. He had had it blown up into one of those huge golf tournament checks. I told him he was my hero and tried to buy him drinks the rest of the night, but when I got up to leave, I found he had actually paid my tab. I drank that evening on the Department of Labor’s dime, I guess.

Tags: Fifth Circuit, Houston, sanctions, wage and hour suits

Gate Guard v. Perez: the sequel is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Environment roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 29 Sep 2015 04:05:27 +0000

I own a Volkswagen clean diesel myself, and can recommend its terrific fuel economy and peppy performance. It’s almost too good to be true [Clive Crook on policy background] Class action lawyers expect huge payday from scandal, but their emissions might not be very reliable either [Daniel Fisher] More from Fisher: will VW owners actually take their vehicles in for the recall? and more on litigation prospects [More: Car and Driver];
Housing advocates looking for plaintiffs to sue Bay Area town that refuses to make its housing supply denser [CityLab]
Behind court’s strikedown of NYC Styrofoam ban [Erik Engquist, Crain’s New York; Entrepreneur]
“Did Flint, Michigan Just Lead Poison Its Children? Doctors Think So.” [Russell Saunders, The Daily Beast]
“Global regulatory norms” favored by pontiff “would globalize Argentina’s downward mobility.” [George Will]
After long silence, Hillary Clinton declares opposition to Keystone XL pipeline [Politico, more]
Houston: “For the most part, we don’t look all that different from other big cities that do have zoning.” [The Urban Edge; Kinder Institute, Rice U.]

Tags: autos, Bay Area, environment, Houston, land use and zoning, NYC

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