The liberalization of contingency fees in England has brought about a marked rise in pothole claims against local government authorities; it’s not clear whether that necessarily translates into an improvement in the target value of actual road safety. “Officials complained that a compensation culture has been created by no-win, no-fee lawyers and said legislation needed tightening to prevent ‘spurious’ claims.” (Independent (U.K.), Oct. 8).
Posts Tagged ‘United Kingdom’
The great circle of influence
The British government is apparently paying out money for the purpose of lobbying itself on tobacco issues. (The Debatable Land, Oct. 17).
October 15 roundup
- Litigants’ “not about the money” assertions: Mark Obbie has further thoughts on reporters’ uncritical deployment of this cliche, and kind words for our archive of posts on the subject [LawBeat]
- Lawyer on the other side of that much-circulated “I’m sorry” deposition-dispute letter has his say [Markland and Hanley via Turkewitz and Above the Law]
- Local authority in England tells gardener to remove barbed wire from wall surrounding his allotment, thieves might get hurt on it and sue [Never Yet Melted, Steyn/NRO Corner]
- Same-sex marriage in Connecticut through judicial fiat? Jonathan Rauch says no thanks [IGF]
- Lawyers are back suing despite reform of FACTA, the credit-card-receipt “gotcha” law, but insurance might just dry up [Randy Maniloff at Point of Law]
- “Racing to the trough” — auto lenders latest to ask bailout though original TARP rationale of liquidity fix seems remote [Naked Capitalism]
- “To be a green-certified property (pretty important in crunchy Portland) there must be an absolute prohibition on smoking, including outdoor spaces.” [Katherine Mangu-Ward, Reason “Hit and Run”]
- (Failed) claim in trademark case: “the term ‘electric’ is not commonly used by the general public to describe a source of power for watches” [TTAB via Ron Coleman]
October 14 roundup
- Don’t miss Roger Parloff’s tour de force coverage in Fortune blowing whistle on that dodgy suit in Moscow against Bank of New York Mellon, adorned by participation of lawprofs Dershowitz and Blakey [PoL overview, main article]
- Digital remixes and copyright law [Lessig, WSJ]
- Surgeon at Connecticut’s Greenwich Hospital revealed as drug abuser, Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder now pressing suit on behalf of general class of patients, which sounds like it means “whether harmed or not” [Greenwich Time, Newsday via TortsProf weekly roundup]
- Chicago sheriff halting foreclosures, or maybe not, reportage is confused [Reuters, big discussion at Steve Chapman blog] And is Obama taking the idea national with bid for 90-day moratorium on foreclosures? [AP]
- Foie gras-style financial gavage? “None of banks getting government money was given a choice about it, said one of the people familiar with the plans.” [Bloomberg, Bernstein @ Volokh] More: Ann Althouse, Kuznicki/Cato at Liberty.
- Trey Allen law firm in Dallas agrees to pay $840,000 restitution after profiting from staged car crash scheme, but Allen’s lawyer says client wasn’t aware of any fraud [ABA Journal]
- Smoking bans, alcohol taxes contributing to steep decline of English village pubs [Newsweek]
- Bias-law panel rules Wal-Mart within its rights not to hire a female applicant for Santa Claus position [eight years ago on Overlawyered]
U.K.: Great moments in international human rights law
Fowzi Badavi Nejad, the only survivor among six terrorists who seized the Iranian Embassy and 26 hostages in London 28 years ago, “has reportedly been assured he will not be deported back to his native Iran because of human rights laws, and will instead stay in Britain at taxpayers’ expense.” (Chris Irvine, “Iranian Embassy terrorist to be freed this month can claim benefits”, Daily Telegraph, Oct. 9).
U.K.: Tories vow to roll back police workplace-safety rules
Shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve said if the Conservatives return to power they will amend the Health and Safety at Work Act of 1974, sections of which have applied to police work since 1997. The much-criticized results have included refusals to allow police officers to venture into potentially dangerous crime scenes and rescue situations. The party also pledges to curtail a trend toward the filing of official charges against citizens who intervene in efforts to stop crimes. (James Kirkup, “Tory conference: Dominic Grieve promises to scrap police health and safety laws”, Telegraph, Sept. 30). See also Jun. 30, 2003 (police not warned that climbing on roofs was dangerous).
U.K.: Footballer sues over “negligent” tackle
It’s “like a climber suing a mountain”, writes Rod Liddle of the U.K. case of Manchester United trainee Ben Collett, awarded £4.5 million for the injury. (“Footballer” does not signify American football, but soccer). (The Spectator, Aug. 13; Times Online, Telegraph).
U.K.: “Government to ban suicide-promoting websites”
One assumes that in the U.S., the First Amendment would restrain the government from regulating this variety of online content. Not so in Britain, where parliamentarians frankly avow their intent to shut down websites that morbidly encourage notions of self-destruction. “I would recommend that publishers who moderate all comments on their forums or chat rooms should silence discussions that encourage suicide, and sites that rely on others to complain about material before they review it should take down such discussions if complaints are received,” said technology lawyer Struan Robertson. What would have happened to Goethe’s Sorrows of Young Werther? (Out-Law News, Sept. 18, via @lawtweets).
Keep my finger, vote Labour
Newcastle, England leaflet distributor (and former Labour Party council member) Mark Hunter is suing a dog owner whose Jack Russell terrier, the imaginatively named Jack, allegedly bit off the tip of the leafleteer’s finger as he pushed election paraphernalia through a front-door letterbox. While both Hunter and dog owner Mark Monroe seem to agree that part of Hunter’s bloody finger did indeed end up on the floor of Monroe’s home, it’s unclear how Jack could have bitten Monroe through the letterbox–which boasts a contraption known as a “letterbox guard”. Also unclear: why Monroe put Hunter’s finger in his freezer (keeping it for several months before ultimately tossing it in the rubbish), and why neither Hunter nor Monroe immediately reported the incident to police. Hunter is seeking about $25,000.
Though Monroe froze the finger, he was kind enough not to toss it in the chili. (“Labour campaigner’s ‘finger bitten off by dog’ as he pushed leaflet through letterbox”, The Daily Mail, Sept. 22).
September 15 roundup
- Saying fashion model broke his very fancy umbrella, N.Y. restaurant owner Nello Balan sues her for $1 million, but instead gets fined $500 for wasting court’s time [AP/FoxNews.com, NY Times]
- Spokesman for Chesapeake, Va. schools says its OK for high school marching band to perform at Disney World, so long as they don’t ride any rides [Virginian-Pilot]
- More on Chicago parking tickets: revenue-hungry Mayor Daley rebuffed in plan to boot cars after only two tickets [Sun-Times, Tribune]
- Too old, in their 50s, to be raising kids? [Houston Chronicle via ABA Journal].
- Britain’s stringent libel laws and welcome mat for “libel tourism” draw criticism from the U.N. (of all places) [Guardian]
- Beaumont, Tex.: “Parents sue other driver, bar for daughter’s DUI death” [SE Texas Record, more, more]
- “Three pony rule”: $600,000 a year is needlessly high for child support, even if mom has costly tastes [N.J.L.J., Unfiltered Minds]
- Advocacy groups push to require health insurers and taxpayers to pay for kids’ weight-loss camps [NY Times]
- Lester Brickman: those fraud-rife mass screening operations may account for 90 percent of mass tort claims [PoL]