- Research by Todd Henderson et al. suggests that lawyers may often do well as CEOs, and anticipating and reducing litigation risk may be a key mechanism [Stephen Bainbridge]
- Canada: Couple sues neighbors for $2.5 million for copying their house’s architecture [Rain Noe, Core77]
- Abraham Lincoln on public choice and the aligning of interest with ethical duty [David Henderson]
- Redistricting, Anne Arundel county executive allies with trial lawyers to file opioids suit, Baltimore police, Montgomery County minimum wage in my latest Maryland policy roundup [Free State Notes]
- Black smokers in the U.S. are more likely than whites to prefer menthol, and prohibitionists frame foiling their wishes as a matter of racial justice [Christian Britschgi]
- Here come the trustbusting conservatives back again, no more convincing this time around [Steven Greenhut]
Posts Tagged ‘real estate’
Spending $40K in legal fees to defend a garage
After a six-year battle that went to the Delaware Supreme Court, and spending what says was $40,000 on legal fees, car enthusiast Charles Williams has finally prevailed in a legal battle with neighbors over his construction of the garage a judge called “auto tinkerer’s Taj Mahal” [Cape Gazette]
Zillow cease-and-desist closes McMansion Hell blog
23-year-old Kate Wagner has at least temporarily shuttered McMansion Hell, a popular blog on which she posted photos of modern houses overlaid with sarcastic comments about their perceived design shortcomings. Real estate aggregator Zillow sent Wagner a cease and desist order because she used photos taken from its site. (Zillow itself borrows photos from other providers under license.) Jim Dalrymple, BuzzFeed:
Ken White, an attorney who writes for the legal blog Popehat, agreed that McMansion Hell would qualify as fair use. Because Zillow and McMansion Hell aren’t competing businesses, he said, “all of the fair use factors are in the bloggers’ favor.”
Zillow appears to have been trying to “make a satirical blogger shut up rather than face the costs of vexatious litigation,” White told BuzzFeed News.
June 7 roundup
- “Copyright Troll’s Tech ‘Experts’ Can Apparently Detect Infringement Before It Happens” [Tim Cushing, TechDirt] “Judge Alsup Threatens To Block Malibu Media From Any More Copyright Trolling In Northern California” [Mike Masnick, same]
- “The Truth About Seattle’s Proposed Soda Tax and its Ilk” [Baylen Linnekin quoting my piece on the Howard County, Maryland campaign against soft drinks; my related on Philadelphia soda tax] Update: measure passes;
- “Judge calls attorney a ‘lowlife’ in tossing defamation suit, says ‘truth is an absolute defense'” [Julia Marsh, New York Post]
- Rent control in Mumbai, as closer to home, brings strife, litigiousness, and crumbling housing stock [Alex Tabarrok] “How Germany Made Rent Control ‘Work'” [Kristian Niemietz, FEE]
- Together with Judge Alex Williams, Jr., I wrote an op-ed for the Baltimore Sun on the Maryland legislature’s misbegotten scheme to require a six-state compact before fixing its gerrymander-prone redistricting system;
- Inefficient land title recording leaves billions on table, but lawmakers show scant interest in reform [Arnold Kling]
“Class-action suit aims to halt Zestimates in Illinois”
“A family of northwest suburban builders filed legal action last week to stop Zillow from posting its estimates of the value of Illinois homes. The Zestimates that Zillow posts are misleading and pose as accurate appraisals in violation of Illinois’ legal description of an appraisal,” according to the suit, which also alleges that the estimates violate homeowners’ right to “seclusion.” [Dennis Rodkin, Crain’s Chicago Business] Earlier attempts to ban Zillow estimates here and here (Arizona) and here (community-activist National Community Reinvestment Coalition).
Ed Glaeser for Brookings on reforming land-use regulation
Self-recommending, as Tyler Cowen likes to say.
How regulation drives up housing costs in Minnesota
“Outside coastal states like New York and California, the Twin Cities was No. 1 in housing costs among the nation’s 20 largest metro areas, according to 2014 U.S. Census data. And they have remained at or near the top of other cost-comparison surveys since then. Statewide, Twin Citians pay an average of 26 percent more than neighboring states. That price gap explodes when compared with southern states like Texas.” And regulation, broadly defined — from hyper-detailed building codes with energy efficiency mandates, to methods of land use planning and fee exaction, to the complexity of permit processes — is central to why [Bob Shaw and Tad Vezner, St. Paul Pioneer Press] As Anthony Sanders points out, some of the regulation advocates quoted in the piece seem almost proud that Minnesota laws make things more expensive compared with neighboring states. “Only thing I would have added is Milton Friedman’s adage that licensing tries making everything a Cadillac, when most can only afford a Buick.”
Austin, Tex. proposal: $600 million housing fund earmarked for minorities
They might want to check ahead of time on whether this is constitutional: “A task force set up [by Mayor Steve Adler] to evaluate institutional racism in Austin is recommending the city create a fund with a goal of raising $600 million to buy and preserve affordable housing for minorities — giving preference to those previously displaced from gentrified areas.” [Elizabeth Findell, Austin American-Statesman]
Environment roundup
- How regulators dismiss economists’ advice: the case of CAFE fuel economy regs [David Henderson]
- Other auto manufacturers appear to have an emissions cheating problem, raise your hand if you’re surprised [Coyote]
- “You can end up getting a platinum LEED certification and still have the highest energy consumption density in the city of Chicago, as it turns out.” [same, sequel]
- “The Disconnect Between Liberal Aspirations And Liberal Housing Policy Is Killing Coastal U.S. Cities” [Shane D. Phillips] “California Housing Crunch Prompts Push to Allow Building” [Chris Kirkham, WSJ]
- Tyler Cowen takes a look at the stream protection rule;
- Well, natch: staff of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman was in touch with Rockefeller Family Fund campaigners before he launched climate advocacy subpoenas [New York Post]
Closing costs and cartel capture
Pulling up stakes and moving is tough enough. Regulations that drive up closing costs make things worse [Naomi Schaefer Riley/New York Post, thanks for quotes]
Cato Institute Senior Fellow Walter Olson says that it’s not just the taxes that make some states more expensive than others. “States regulate real-estate transfers so as to require additional stages and the involvement of certain professionals’ services, like lawyers’, at more stages.” He says New York is “particularly bad.”
Olson notes: “The title-insurance industry is also regulated in ways that make consumers pay much more in some states, independent of any difference in underwriting risk.”
And the “high-cost methods required in some states are stoutly defended by lobbies of professionals who make a living from the expensive way of doing things.”