NYC – Overlawyered

Liability roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 27 May 2020 10:25:03 +0000

Artificial intelligence dodges a legal dart: “An Algorithm for Predicting Recidivism Isn’t a Product for Products Liability Purposes” [Eugene Volokh, Jim Beck]
Powdered caffeine is hazardous stuff. Should Amazon be liable to the survivors of an Ohio 18-year-old who died after ingesting some bought online? [Associated Press/WKBN]
Overview and critique of public nuisance theories of mass tort, including vaping, opioids, climate change, and other environmental [American Tort Reform Association]
Knowledgeable review of NYC subway torts [Ross Sandler, CityLand (New York Law School]
“1 law firm gets lion’s share of $112M in NFL concussion fees” [Associated Press/WKMG]
Thanks Mark Pulliam for mentioning me in the course of reviewing a book that takes a rosier view of lawsuits than I do [Law and Liberty]

Tags: Amazon, climate change, football, NYC, opioids, product liability, public nuisance, transit

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

NYC: products and promotions in commerce must be sensitive to protected groups

Walter Olson — Thu, 05 Mar 2020 05:05:14 +0000

The New York City Commission on Human Rights, which not long ago declared an employer or landlord’s use of the term “illegal alien” to be a form of illegal discrimination punishable by a fine of up to $250,000, is now negotiating with companies to obtain legal remedies over promotions and product designs it deems insensitive to protected groups. Among its targets have been fashion lines Prada, Gucci, and Christian Dior, over displays and designs charged with having referenced blackface or “perpetrated Native American stereotypes.” [Vanessa Friedman, New York Times] Robby Soave, Reason:

Prada’s signed agreement with the commission is incredible. The company will put all New York store employees—and company executives in Milan—through racial sensitivity training. Prada will also appoint a diversity and inclusion officer, subject to the commission’s approval. This person will be tasked with “reviewing Prada’s designs before they are sold, advertised or promoted in any way in the United States,” according to the terms of the agreement.

Tags: advertising, discrimination law, NYC

NYC: products and promotions in commerce must be sensitive to protected groups is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

ADA and disabled rights roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 11:03:02 +0000

I’ve expanded the previous post in this space on Braille gift cards into a longer Cato post with a bit more on the politics and history of the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), mentioning along the way the recent closure of a popular San Jose coffee shop [Nadia Lopez, San Jose Spotlight; another San Jose deli story] Speaking of such happenings, “He says the suit could mean the end of the restaurant. ‘We would rather just close down if we have to pay that absurd amount of money,’ he says.” [Rancho Vegano in New York City’s East Harlem neighborhood; Michael Scotto, NY1 Spectrum News]
“It’s about time! New rule could have emotional support animals bumped from planes” [Lynn Norment, Memphis Commercial Appeal; Wes Siler, Outside; David Koenig, AP]
Videos on leading pornographic websites “lack enough closed captioning, claims the class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of all deaf and hard-of-hearing people.” [Noah Goldberg, New York Daily News]
“Federal Website Access Lawsuit Numbers Increase 7 Percent in 2019, With Possible Bump from Supreme Court Denial of Cert in Domino’s” [Kristina M. Launey and Minh N. Vu, Seyfarth Shaw; Vu on related litigation trends in 2019]
“White students in New York City are 10 times as likely as Asian students to have a 504 designation that allows extra time on the specialized high school entrance exams.” [Kevin Quealy and Eliza Shapiro, New York Times; Dana Goldstein and Jugal K. Patel, New York Times (“it helps to have cash” in getting pricey psychological assessments in Southern California); Education Next (“number of high school students being given special allowances for test-taking, such as extra time, has surged in recent years” with students in affluent suburbs more likely to get them)]
“Law firms settle suit accusing them of civil RICO conspiracy to collect ADA settlements” [Debra Cassens Weiss, ABA Journal; Moore and Mission law firms, California; KGO/ABC7News on some Bay Area cases]

Tags: ADA filing mills, airlines, Bay Area, disability & schools, disabled rights, NYC, service animals, web accessibility, WO writings

ADA and disabled rights roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Wave of ADA suits over retailer gift cards lacking Braille version

Walter Olson — Thu, 23 Jan 2020 11:05:24 +0000

Over a period of eight days last fall, four law firms and associated clients who had earlier filed hundreds of web accessibility suits in New York launched a new wave of more than 100 putative class actions charging that retailers are violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by offering gift cards but failing to provide Braille versions. [Minh N. Vu and John W. Egan, Seyfarth Shaw]

Typically, according to the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York (LRANY), “a successful plaintiff in [a local web accessibility] settlement will receive only $500 per case, but attorney’s fees average many times that amount, approximately $16,000 per case or more, depending on the law firm, the court and other factors, thereby giving plaintiff’s lawyers ample incentive to file as many cases as possible.” One attorney has made about a million dollars a year this way over eight years. “The targets selected by plaintiffs in this new wave run the full gamut of retail establishments, including big box retailers, grocery stores, movie theaters, restaurants, clothing brands, and online gaming and other services.” [Ryan P. Phair, M. Brett Burns & Torsten M. Kracht, Hunton Andrews Kurth]

Tags: ADA filing mills, NYC, web accessibility

Wave of ADA suits over retailer gift cards lacking Braille version is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Honestly, when I told my brother, he laughed at me”

Walter Olson — Sat, 18 Jan 2020 17:05:53 +0000

After a fall on stairs, a woman is suing New York City’s Stumble Inn [Reuven Fenton and Kate Sheehy, New York Post]

Tags: NYC, slip and fall

“Honestly, when I told my brother, he laughed at me” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Wage and hour roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 06 Dec 2019 10:52:25 +0000

“Bernie Sanders and Bad Justifications for Minimum Wage Hikes” [Cato Daily Podcast with Ryan Bourne and Caleb Brown]
Oregon senator wants to give CEOs a pay incentive to automate, contract out, or otherwise eliminate low-compensation jobs faster than they would otherwise [Hans Bader]
“Mayor Pete Wants To Destroy the Gig Economy in Order To Save It” [Nick Gillespie on Buttigieg plan to limit independent contractor status] More on California independent contractor battles [Federalist Society podcast with Bruce Sarchet, earlier here, etc.]
Not many states do this: “New York State Passes Bill Allowing Employees to Place a Lien on Employer’s Property For Accusation of Wage Violations” [Employers Association Forum]
With hand-made tortillas no longer economic, the Upper West Side restaurant began going downhill [Jennifer Gould Keil, New York Post]
The myth of stagnant real wages [Scott Sumner]

Tags: Bernie Sanders, minimum wage, New York, NYC, wage and hour suits

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

November 20 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 20 Nov 2019 11:01:53 +0000

Full Fifth Circuit agrees to rehear challenge to constitutionality of Indian Child Welfare Act; a three-judge panel, reversing district court, had upheld the law [Timothy Sandefur, my post with Nathan Harvey from earlier this year]
On basis of lack of complainant standing, but without reaching First Amendment issue, Kentucky high court rules in favor of Lexington t-shirt maker who had been ordered by the city’s Human Rights Commission to print shirts with messages he disagreed with and attend diversity training [ABA Journal, earlier on Hands-On Originals case]
“Never-ending net neutrality litigation means lawyers always win” [Roslyn Layton, AEI]
Online political ads and the First Amendment, Frosh and Bloomberg, red flag laws, Orioles as lobbying tool, and more in my latest Maryland roundup at Free State Notes;
Are hate crimes up or down in number? The government has no idea [Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe, I’m quoted; earlier]
New York City Council adopts foie gras ban to take effect in 2022 [Baylen Linnekin] If you’ve assumed that production of this delicacy is unethical, this article might change your mind [J. Kenji López-Alt, Serious Eats]

Tags: animal rights, Federal Communications Commission, Kentucky, Maryland, NYC

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

Some election results

Walter Olson — Thu, 07 Nov 2019 11:05:39 +0000

* As expected, Democrats took over both houses in the Virginia legislature, sweeping the D.C. and Richmond suburbs where they successfully nationalized the issues. Virginia has been a badly gerrymandered state, which figured as an issue in the campaign. Now that they are fully in charge of the process, Virginia Democrats will need to decide whether they actually believe in moving toward neutral and impartial redistricting methods that take the power of line-drawing out of the hands of interested parties.

* New York City voters overwhelmingly approved a proposal to adopt ranked choice voting (RCV) in primary and some other elections. While I know this isn’t a universally shared view, I see a lot of merit in ranked choice voting and look forward to seeing more large jurisdictions experiment with it.

* Jim Hood, whose doings as Mississippi Attorney General have long furnished grist for this blog, looks to have fallen short in his bid for Mississippi governor.

* The “crime victims’ rights” package known as Marsy’s Law was on the Pennsylvania ballot. My piece on why it’s a really, really bad idea.

Tags: Jim Hood, Mississippi, NYC, Pennsylvania, redistricting reform, Virginia

Some election results is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Protecting (and hiding the ball on) cops gone wrong

Walter Olson — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 16:16:27 +0000

The city of Phoenix quietly erases police misconduct records: “The practice, which the Department refers to as ‘purging,’ has been standard for more than two decades under the police union’s contract, but the public has been unaware of it.” [Justin Price, Arizona Republic; Tim Cushing, TechDirt]

Although the Supreme Court’s Brady doctrine requires prosecutors to inform defense counsel of evidence undermining the credibility of police witnesses, the right can amount to little if matters are so arranged that past instances of officer dishonesty never come to their attention in the first place [Steve Reilly and Mark Nichols, USA Today] In Baltimore, following the conviction of several officers in the notorious Gun Trace Task Force scandal, the state’s attorney has begun throwing out nearly 800 convictions tainted by the wrongdoers’ testimony [my Free State Notes post]

Meanwhile: “The former New York police officer who was fired in August for using a chokehold during Eric Garner’s deadly arrest five years ago is suing to be reinstated.” [Doha Madani, NBC News] Earlier, New York’s Police Benevolent Association said the city’s police commissioner would “lose his police department” if he followed a judge’s recommendation and fired Daniel Pantaleo [Jonathan Blanks, Cato; Joel Mathis, The Week]

Tags: NYC, Phoenix, police, police unions

Protecting (and hiding the ball on) cops gone wrong is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Discrimination law roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 07 Oct 2019 10:01:45 +0000

Supreme Court reconvenes for new term and tomorrow will hear cases over whether Title VII ban on sex discrimination extends to sexual orientation and gender identity [SCOTUSBlog symposium with contributors including Richard Epstein, William Eskridge; Will Baude, Volokh Conspiracy; George Will; earlier here, here, here, etc.]
New York City Commission on Human Rights declares it a violation of anti-discrimination law to use the term “illegal alien” in workplace, rental, or public accommodation contexts “with the intent to demean, humiliate, or offend a person or persons.” Does it complicate matters that both federal law and the U.S. Supreme Court use “illegal alien” as a neutral descriptive? [Hans Bader]
Minneapolis passes law restricting landlords’ taking into account of tenants’ past criminal histories, evictions, credit scores [Christian Britschgi, Reason]
Obama-era Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) mandated burdensome pay data reporting by employers. Will courts allow a course correction? [Federalist Society teleforum with G. Roger King and James A. Paretti Jr., earlier here and here]
Professor who directs social justice center at Washington, D.C.’s American University proposes new federal Department of Anti-Racism that would wield ample power to order everyone around along with preclearance authority over all “local, state and federal public policies”; also “no political appointees” [Politico via Amy Alkon; Kelefa Sanneh, The New Yorker with more on work of Prof. Ibram X. Kendi]
Late in its tenure, Obama administration began warning Fannie Mae that discouraging some of the riskiest mortgages (>43% debt-to-income) “could be seen as a violation of the Fair Housing Act.” Fannie and Freddie “quickly complied” and brought the punch bowl back out [Damian Paletta, Washington Post/MSN]

Tags: discrimination law, EEOC, immigration law, landlord tenant law, Minnesota, mortgages, NYC, sexual orientation, transgender

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