Italy – Overlawyered

November 13 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 05:05:02 +0000

Italian appellate court overturns conviction of seismologists on manslaughter charges following 2009 L’Aquila earthquake [Lowering the Bar, earlier]
“The most ominous outcome in last week’s election: A band of big-bucks civil attorneys almost picked off an Illinois Supreme Court justice because they believe he’s a threat to their big paydays.” [Chicago Tribune on Karmeier retention] More: lawyers aren’t through with him yet [Madison County Record]
They were expecting any different? “Landlords Say de Blasio Ignores Their Plight” [New York Times]
“Liberties,” they said: New York Civil Liberties Union represented complainants who got couple fined $13,000 for not renting farm for a same-sex wedding [Ann Althouse]
Michael Greve on citizen suits, deadline-forcing consent decrees, and “sue and settle” [Liberty and Law] Why Germany rejects the citizen-suit device [same]
Harry Reid planning to push through large number of nominees in lame duck session, few more controversial than Sharon Block at NLRB [On Labor] (7 a.m. Thursday update: White House withdraws Block)
Maricopa County, Ariz. sheriff and perennial Overlawyered favorite Joe Arpaio sues building owners after sidewalk trip/fall “as he headed to a restaurant to get a bowl of soup” [AP/Yuma Sun]

Tags: consent decrees, Italy, judicial elections, National Labor Relations Board

November 13 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

A tale of St. Bernardine of Siena

Walter Olson — Tue, 20 May 2014 16:35:21 +0000

Some consider the Renaissance Italian cleric (whose feast day is today) to be patron of p.r. practitioners and lobbyists, and at least one comic tale, prefiguring the later Public Choice theme of “Bootleggers and Baptists,” tends to back them up. I explain at Cato at Liberty.

Tags: Christmas and other holidays, competition through regulation, Italy, lobbyists

A tale of St. Bernardine of Siena is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Qui tam suit against Taiwan-owned pipe maker

Walter Olson — Sun, 11 May 2014 16:06:52 +0000

Daniel Fisher at Forbes gives the manufacturer’s side of the story behind a massive whistleblower suit seeking billions from J.M. Eagle over its supply of plastic pipe to public water and utility systems. Qui tam lawyers Phillips & Cohen give their side of the story here. Here’s Fisher on the law firm’s success:

The firm was founded by John Phillips, who as a congressional staffer helped draft a 1986 law that made it easier to pursue whistleblower cases. He subsequently earned enough to become a major Democratic Party donor and now serves as the U.S. Ambassador to Italy.

Update: Phillips & Cohen writes to say that the above quotation “contains an error: John Phillips was never a congressional staffer.”

Tags: Italy, qui tam, whistleblowers

Qui tam suit against Taiwan-owned pipe maker is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Eat, drink and be merry roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 19 Sep 2013 04:05:08 +0000

More details on my panel discussions on food issues next week at the Heritage Foundation [Monday, Sept. 23] and at Vermont Law School [Friday, Sept. 27];
“A Ban on Some Italian Cured Meat Is Ending” [Glenn Collins, N.Y. Times] “Market Forces Lead to Better Treatment for Farm Animals” [Steve Chapman]
“Tempering temperance: Puritan attitudes on alcohol still linger decades after Prohibition” [National Post]
Dozens of class-action suits: “Bay Area courts center of legal battle against food industry” [Mercury-News]
“Plain and/or Terrifying Packaging Considered for Junk Food in New Zealand (and Australia)” [Katherine Mangu-Ward]
If the dangers of rice aren’t enough to alarm even today’s Margaret Hamburg-headed FDA, they’re probably not very serious [ACSH]
North Carolina: home visits to make sure Medicaid recipient kids are eating their veggies? [Rick Henderson video]

Tags: alcohol, Australia, eat drink and be merry, food safety, Italy, live in person, New Zealand, North Carolina, obesity

Eat, drink and be merry roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Costa Concordia captain sues for wrongful termination”

Walter Olson — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 15:13:32 +0000

“Francesco Schettino, former captain of the Costa Concordia, has sued, claiming wrongful termination from his job after the accident, according to his lawyer.” [L.A. Times] “As you may recall, there were a few questions about whether Schettino’s conduct was entirely up to snuff on the night of the accident. First, there was the whole running-into-a-rock problem, of course, but he was also criticized for then fleeing the ship before all the passengers were evacuated.” [Lowering the Bar]

Tags: cruise ships, employment at will, Italy

“Costa Concordia captain sues for wrongful termination” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

October 31 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 04:07:24 +0000

Not the norm yet, fortunately: “Playgroup suspended for lack of insurance” [Lenore Skenazy, Free-Range Kids]
Chicago pol’s idea for bullet tax may sound clever but isn’t [Steve Chapman]
UK: “Litigation culture draining billions from hospitals and schools” [Telegraph, Independent, Spiked Online; Center for Policy Studies]
Yielding to feds, Oakland will adopted “targeted reductions” in discipline for minority students [Bader]
Judge: Italian businesses should sue over Costa Concordia in Italy, not here [USA Today]
“Deep pockets files: Greensboro apartment complex murder” [Ted Frank, PoL]
Funniest Posner parody ever? [Kyle Graham, Non Curat Lex]

Tags: cruise ships, forum shopping, guns, humor, insurance, Italy, recreation, Richard Posner, school discipline, third party liability for crime, United Kingdom

October 31 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Italy: scientists sent to prison for faulty earthquake predictions

Walter Olson — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 11:59:34 +0000

“Six Italian scientists and an ex-government official have been sentenced to six years in prison over the 2009 deadly earthquake in L’Aquila. A regional court found them guilty of multiple manslaughter. Prosecutors had said the defendants gave a falsely reassuring statement before the quake after studying tremors that had shaken the city.” [BBC, earlier] More: Orac.

Speaking of science and the Italian courts, Italy’s Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a litigant claiming cellphone use caused his brain tumor; most authorities have found no such link [Telegraph]

Tags: cellphones, crime and punishment, Italy, science and scientists

Italy: scientists sent to prison for faulty earthquake predictions is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Labor and employment roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 04:04:28 +0000

Why is the U.S. Department of Labor funding Restaurant Opportunities Center United (ROC), a group that stages protests in front of restaurants and has “harassed” patrons? Rep. Darrell Issa wants to know [Chamber-backed Legal NewsLine, Daily Caller]
Connecticut public workers who wrongly took food stamps get their jobs back, and no, you can’t read the arbitration decisions [Raising Hale]
Michael Fox’s pioneering employment law blog turns 10;
“Why Defending Employment Lawsuits Can Be So Expensive” [Daniel Schwartz]
What lawprofs are up to: proposal to gut the employee-misconduct defense [Pandya, Workplace Prof]
Hans Bader of the Competitive Enterprise Institute explains why he sees no contradiction in opposing the Employment Non-Discrimination Act [ENDA] while supporting gay marriage. Related: Jacob Sullum;
Hyper-regulation of employment in Italy cries out for reform [John Cochrane, Tom Smith, one deterrent]

Tags: Connecticut, discrimination law, Italy, on other blogs, public employment, restaurants, workplace

Labor and employment roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

March 21 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 04:11:06 +0000

Shame on DoJ: “Systematic concealment” of evidence when feds prosecuted Sen. Ted Stevens [WaPo, Caleb Mason/Prawfs] NYT notes feds’ losing streak in Foreign Corrupt Practices Act prosecutions [NYT, our latest]
Italy: tax officials stop luxury cars, demand drivers’ most recent tax returns [Secular Right]
Pinterest: casual users (perhaps especially casual users) might be opening themselves to copyright liability [DDK Portraits, WSJ Law Blog] And in case you needed a reminder not to publish photos grabbed from random web sources… [Webcopyplus]
In new Atlantic special report, Philip K. Howard collects papers on outdated government law and regulation from contributors Robert Litan, Julie Barnes, Mark Warner, Jim Cooper;
Institute for Justice sues IRS over its new licensing requirements for tax preparers [Ilya Shapiro and Chaim Gordon/Cato, Paul Caron/TaxProf, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Barton Hinkle]
“It is acceptable to refer to all court proceedings as a ‘trial,’ because seriously, you ever sat through one of those things?” [@FakeAPStylebook]
Christopher Booker series on child-snatching by UK authorities [Telegraph: first, second, third]

Tags: Child Protective Services, humor, Italy, Philip K. Howard, photography, prosecutorial abuse, taxes, taxpayers, United Kingdom

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

Some heroes for our time

Walter Olson — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:53:06 +0000

My new post at Cato at Liberty is on Italian labor law professors Pietro Ichino and Carlo Dell’Aringa, who live under police protection because of their support for liberalization of the job market; two other professors, Massimo D’Antona and Mario Biagi, have been killed by Red Brigades gunmen. More: Coyote.

Tags: employment at will, Italy, law schools, terrorism

Some heroes for our time is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system