Posts Tagged ‘Missouri’

Watch what you say about police officers

Court order muzzles gun advocate after his arrest [ACLU of Missouri]:

To express his opinion that Officer [Jerry] Bledsoe was using his position to harass him for exercising his Second Amendment rights, [Jordan] Klaffer posted recordings of the May 1 encounter on YouTube and Facebook. And, on Instagram, he posted a picture of Bledsoe alongside a photo of Saddam Hussein, with the caption “Striking Resemblance.”

Officer Bledsoe retaliated by obtaining a court order that prevented Mr. Klaffer from posting videos, pictures, and text data criticizing Officer Bledsoe on the Internet. “A government order prohibiting criticism of government is the worst kind of censorship,” explains Tony Rothert, legal director of the ACLU of Missouri.

Meanwhile: Virginia state trooper sues police activist in small claims court over his actions and statements following a traffic stop of his car in which she participated, the videos of which wound up on YouTube.

Filed under: libel slander and defamation, Missouri, police, Virginia, YouTube

Kansas City hit with multiple discrimination suits

And the curious thing is, they’re from prosecutors. “The prosecutors’ office replaced part-time assistant prosecutors with full-time positions in 2011. Eight of the part-time employees who were replaced sued the city for age, race and/or gender discrimination, The Kansas City Star reported. … The eight former assistant city prosecutors filed their lawsuits individually and alleged different circumstances.” [Claims Journal]

Filed under: discrimination law, Missouri, prosecution, public employment

Jovan Belcher’s mother sues Kansas City Chiefs

“Jovan Belcher’s mother has filed a wrongful-death suit against the Chiefs, seeking unspecified damages after the former linebacker killed his girlfriend and himself in December 2012. The lawsuit… also alleges that the team … knew, or should’ve known, that Belcher showed signs of cognitive and neuro-psychiatric impairment.” [Kansas City Star]

Filed under: football, Missouri, third party liability for crime

Medical roundup

“In a nationally representative sample, higher patient satisfaction was associated with…increased mortality.” [White Coat/BirdStrike]
Low premiums! Few glitches! Larger states “working faithfully to implement the law with as few glitches as possible”! New Yorker’s Oct. 7 “Talk of the Town” on ACA’s smooth launch is a retrospective hoot;
Massachusetts Nurses Association goes all Venezuelan on hospital governance [Ira Stoll]
“Can a healthcare provider make an arbitration agreement with patients for resolving future malpractice disputes?” [Alex Stein]
“FDA Proposal To Curb Painkiller Overdose Deaths Would Add Burdens For Pain Patients” [Radley Balko]
Georgia DUI expert in hot water [PennLive] “Deconstructing the mechanical engineer” [Manhattan; Eric Turkewitz]
“FDA Suspension of Ponatinib: Serious Problem, Wrong Solution” [Richard Epstein, leukemia drug]
“Missouri Lawmakers Override Veto to Enact Good Samaritan Law” [Michael Cannon, Cato]

Filed under: arbitration, expert witnesses, FDA, hospitals, Massachusetts, Missouri, ObamaCare, volunteers

Update: Kansas City flung-hot-dog case

A mascot for the Kansas City Royals threw a wrapped hot dog into the stands, which injured a fan. A jury rejected his claim, but an appeals court reinstated it, and the Missouri Supreme Court is now considering whether the traditional principle that cuts off liability for foul balls and other expected projectiles should cover even the wurst case. [AP, earlier] More: Lowering the Bar.

Filed under: baseball, Missouri

Wrong-person arrests: “Mistakes happen”

“Shannon Renee McNeal was torn from her screaming children by police who were seeking a woman with a similar name — a woman who they should have known had been murdered seven months before.” [St. Louis Post-Dispatch via Radley Balko]

More of the week’s awful-police-happenings coverage: Atlantic City beating and canine attack [Tim Lynch, Cato]; Ames, Ia. police shoot and kill son after dad calls to report he’s taken truck without permission [Des Moines Register]; “Man Dies In Jail Cell After Misdemeanor Pot Offense” [Snohomish County, Wash., severe allergies; Radley Balko again]; New Mexico man’s lawsuit alleges “worst traffic stop ever” [Jalopnik, Popehat, Lowering the Bar and more, Orin Kerr, Michelle Meyer/Faculty Lounge]

Filed under: illegal drugs, Iowa, Missouri, New Mexico, police, traffic laws

Medical roundup

Sen.-elect Cory Booker (and Mayor Bloomberg too) on liability reform and fixing health care [NJLRA] How plaintiff’s lawyers get around caps [Alex Stein, Bill of Health] Missouri protects health volunteer workers [John Ross]
Like an Ayn Rand novel: Massachusetts ballot initiative pushes confiscation of private hospital profits [Ira Stoll, NY Sun]
Advice: plan now to lower your 2014 income to get valuable ObamaCare subsidies [San Francisco Chronicle]
Medicare comes off poorly: “Quality Of Care Within Same Hospital Varies By Insurance Type” [Tyler Cowen]
Revisiting a panic over alleged mass drug injury: “Avandia’s posthumous pardon” [David Oliver, earlier here and at Point of Law]
Louisiana lawmakers use malpractice statute to discourage abortion [Alex Stein, Bill of Health]
Georgia committee looks at plan to replace med-mal suits with administered compensation [Georgia Report via TortsProf, Daily Report Online (constitutionality), Insurance Journal]
Uwe Reinhardt on professional licensure and doctors’ monopoly [David Henderson]

Filed under: Avandia, Georgia, hospitals, Louisiana, Massachusetts, medical, medical malpractice, Medicare, Missouri, ObamaCare, pharmaceuticals

“Jack in the Box ordered to pay St. Louis beating victim $20 M”

At 5 a.m., although the seating area of the fast-food restaurant was closed, the drive-through window was still filling orders. Some people were partying in the parking lot when Ali Aziz and a friend arrived. The friend got into an altercation with the partiers, Aziz stepped in and was beaten and nearly killed, suffering brain damage. Lawyers proceeded to argue that the fast-food chain should have trained its employees better and failed to follow its own procedures for handling disruptive customers. “The jury award was actually for $25 million but was reduced to $20.5 million because jurors found Aziz was partially to blame for his involvement in the fight.” [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

Filed under: Missouri, restaurants, third party liability for crime

Labor and employment roundup

On minimum wage these days, Krugman lets politics sit in for economics [David Henderson] Minimum wage hikes don’t cost jobs? A notion so ideologically convenient just has to be true [Steve Chapman]
“Is employment a ‘human right'”? [Richard Epstein, Hoover “Defining Ideas”]
Project labor agreements are an unjustified giveaway in New Jersey’s post-Sandy reconstruction [Trey Kovacs, CEI Open Market]
Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake proposes public pension reform [Baltimore Sun] Reality check on sunny New York projections [@NYDNHammond]
Peter Kirsanow on EEOC crackdown on criminal background checks [Employee Screen]
Three Missouri Dems favor bill making it felony for lawmakers to propose bills limiting union powers [Robby Soave, Daily Caller]
Meet the brothers who are standing up to union violence in Philadelphia construction [Jillian Melchior, NR, earlier]

Filed under: Baltimore, criminal records and hiring, EEOC, labor unions, minimum wage, Missouri, New Jersey, Paul Krugman, Philadelphia

Torts roundup

Officials: “36% of car-insure claims bogus” in NYC [NY Post]
Unseen but looks promising: “Cultures of Tort Law in Europe” [Journal of European Tort Law via TortsProf]
“The Limits of Texting Accident Lawsuits” [Ronald Miller]
Lawmakers wonder whether there’s some way around Missouri Supreme Court’s “no med-mal reform on our watch” attitude [Kansas City Star]
Trial lawyers unhappy as Michigan high court toughens standards on slip-fall suits [AP/Detroit News]
Fast track: Illinois legislature moves to increase fees lawyers can recover in med-mal cases [Madison-St. Clair Record]
New Jersey municipalities have stake in litigation reform [NJLRA]

Filed under: Illinois, medical malpractice, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, slip and fall, tort reform