roads and streets – Overlawyered

Environmental roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 10 Jan 2020 11:05:10 +0000

“The Climate Debate Should Focus on How to Address the Threat of Climate Change, Not Whether Such a Threat Exists” [Jonathan Adler, whose analysis of environmental law is often quoted in this space]
“Grizzly Bears and Endangered Species Recovery” [Cato Daily Podcast with Brian Yablonski and Caleb Brown] “Property Rights as a Foundation for Conservation” [same, with Holly Fretwell and Brown]
“If an environmentalist values the land more than ranchers do, then the environmentalist should get the lease.” [Shawn Regan, Reason; related on “diligence” regulations in federal resource leasing Robert M. Nelson, Regulation, Jan./Feb. 1983]
“Litigation vs. Restoration: Addressing Louisiana’s Coastal Land Loss” [U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, earlier]
Who will build the roads? Go ask Friedrich Engels [David Henderson, Econlib] Related: Market Urbanism Report podcast on road privatization and other topics with Robert Poole, Chris Edwards and others;
“Florida Democratic Party adopts ‘rights of nature’ into platform” [Scott Powers, Florida Politics; see here, here, here, etc.]

Tags: climate change, endangered species, environment, Florida, Louisiana, roads and streets

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

Environment roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 09 Oct 2019 09:59:09 +0000

In Knick v. Township of Scott, the Supreme Court overturned a precedent that made it hard for property owners to get justice in takings cases. Ilya Somin analyzes the outcome in the new Cato Supreme Court Review [more, earlier]
But who will build the roads? “U.S. Should Adopt the Nordic Approach to Private Roads” [Giovanna da Silva, Devoe Moore Center Blog]
One of the defining regulatory controversies of the past two years has been over the effort to reverse the Obama administration’s 2015 Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule [Jonathan Adler, Cato Regulation magazine via Peter Van Doren] Another court has struck down the Obama rule [Adler]
“The Public Trust Doctrine: A Brief (and True) History” [James L. Huffman, George Washington Journal of Energy and Environmental Law]
“On Glyphosate, Who Do You Trust: UCSF Or Everybody Else?” [Alex Berezow, ACSH, earlier]
“Trophy Hunting and African Development” [Cato podcast with Catherine Semcer and Caleb Brown]

Tags: Africa, eminent domain, endangered species, environment, roads and streets

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

Liability roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 13 Sep 2019 09:58:32 +0000

As one who wrote at length about the silicone-implant litigation at the time — founded as it was on junk science theories hyped to panic potential plaintiffs — I agree that Elizabeth Warren has nothing to apologize for about her bankruptcy work for Dow Corning. Move on to better criticisms, please [Darren McKinney, WSJ] Related: Federalist Society teleforum on mass tort bankruptcies with Steven Todd Brown, Ralph Brubaker, and Dan Prieto;
“What should be the duty of public retailers whose customers have bizarre or offensive clothing, appearance, demeanor or behavior but do not actually engage in or threaten violence on the retailers’ premises? To avoid risk, should the retailers exclude them from their stores?” [Eugene Volokh quoting federal court opinion in Budreau v. Shaw’s Supermarkets, Inc. (D. Maine)]
New York residents should brace for higher taxes as trial-lawyer-backed bill in Albany exposes public authorities to more road claims [John Whittaker, Jamestown Post-Journal]
“Kansas Supreme Court Throws Out Personal Injury Damages Cap” [Associated Press]
Whose proposal for joint trial counts as triggering removal of mass action under the Class Action Fairness Act? The court’s? Choice between federal and state courts implicates fundamental questions of fairness [Eric Alexander, Drug and Device Law on Supreme Court certiorari petition in Pfizer v. Adamyan]
Glyphosate, talc verdicts suggest juries may be paying more attention to purported smoking-gun documents than to scientific evidence on causation [Daniel D. Fisher, Northern California Record; Corbin Barthold, WLF] “Inconsistent Gatekeeping Undercuts the Continuing Promise of Daubert” [Joe G. Hollingsworth and Mark A. Miller, WLF]

Tags: bankruptcy, Class Action Fairness Act, Elizabeth Warren, junk science, Kansas, New York state, roads and streets, silicone breast implants, third party liability for crime

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

Homeless encampments will stay put under Los Angeles settlement

Walter Olson — Tue, 12 Mar 2019 09:58:49 +0000

“The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday agreed to settle a pivotal and contentious case on the property rights of homeless people — a decision that is likely to limit the seizure and destruction of encampments on skid row.” Since 2016 the city has been in litigation with civil rights lawyers representing homeless persons “and two Skid Row anti-poverty groups.” Subsequently, “U.S. District Judge S. James Otero in Los Angeles issued an injunction [that] barred the city from seizing and destroying homeless people’s property on skid row unless officials could show it had been abandoned, threatened public health or safety, or consisted of contraband or evidence of a crime.” [Gale Holland, L.A. Times; Susan Shelley, L.A. Daily News] An estimated 2,000 persons live in the downtown L.A. encampments, and diseases little seen in peacetime in the modern era, including flea-borne typhus, have been making a comeback. [Anna Gorman, Kaiser Health News/The Atlantic; KCOP; earlier]

L.A. should have put the Skid Row encampments under the authority of the California Coastal Commission. That would have ended all chance that anyone could successfully assert property rights in them.

Tags: Los Angeles, property law, roads and streets

Homeless encampments will stay put under Los Angeles settlement is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Creator royalties on art in public spaces

Walter Olson — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 09:59:47 +0000

Creators of art displayed in parks and other public spaces have been using assertions of copyright to demand cash from, or play favorites among, private persons and groups seeking to carry on video or photography in those spaces. Aaron Renn: “Any city installing public art should ensure that the agreement with the artist provides for unconditional royalty free pictures and videos, or the art shouldn’t be installed.”

Tags: art and artists, copyright, photography, roads and streets

Creator royalties on art in public spaces is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Ligonier woman’s lawsuit blames Trump House for pre-election wreck”

Walter Olson — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 04:05:21 +0000

Pennsylvania: “A Ligonier woman claims a car crash less than two weeks before the 2016 presidential election was caused by the likeness of Donald Trump.” Trump House, a residence painted by its owner in flag colors and bearing a 12-foot-high cutout likeness of the 45th President, has become a local attraction and the lawsuit says another driver was distracted by it and struck the plaintiff’s Honda Civic. Plaintiff Kellie Roadman “claims property owner Leslie Baum Rossi was negligent for failing to properly mark the driveway and not receiving a permit from PennDOT…. The driver of the second car was not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.” [Rich Chodolofsky, PennLive]

Tags: Donald Trump, roads and streets

“Ligonier woman’s lawsuit blames Trump House for pre-election wreck” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“How Overdue Parking Tickets Took Over an Innocent Person’s Life”

Walter Olson — Sun, 08 Apr 2018 15:59:13 +0000

Tickets — with penalties, reaching an absurd $105,761.80 — all part of a man’s apparent ploy “to get revenge on his ex-girlfriend via the Chicago government.” And it didn’t exactly fail at that aim, either; she wound up paying quite a bit to put the matter behind her. [Dan Lewis, Now I Know]

Tags: Chicago, petty fines and fees, roads and streets, traffic laws

“How Overdue Parking Tickets Took Over an Innocent Person’s Life” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Man sues 10-year-old girl after jogging into her bike”

Walter Olson — Sat, 07 Apr 2018 14:13:53 +0000

British Columbia, Canada: “A man who sued a young girl and her grandparents after he was injured when he jogged into the back wheel of her bike has lost his case in B.C. Supreme Court.” The jogger “also included the girl’s grandparents, Wendy and Patrick Marlow, in the lawsuit on the basis that they didn’t properly teach her to ride a bike safely. The judgment also clears them of liability.” [Maryse Zeidler, CBC]

Tags: Canada, deep pocket, roads and streets

“Man sues 10-year-old girl after jogging into her bike” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Court rejects claim of liability for lobbying

Walter Olson — Sun, 14 Jan 2018 17:05:52 +0000

A Florida appeals court has rejected a car-crash victim’s lawsuit against a retailer for allegedly lobbying county lawmakers for bad roadway design [Eugene Volokh]

Tags: lobbyists, roads and streets

Court rejects claim of liability for lobbying is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Forward, into the past!

Walter Olson — Mon, 01 Jan 2018 17:04:31 +0000

San Francisco Board of Supervisors bans most delivery robots [Kevin Underhill, Lowering the Bar (“Experts believe this to be only a temporary measure, largely because the hearing concluded with the disassembly and replacement of the existing carbon-based supervisors by gleaming new legibots.”)] Earlier here (sponsor concerned to save delivery jobs).

Tags: roads and streets, San Francisco

Forward, into the past! is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system