Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Posts Tagged ‘United Kingdom’

U.K.: Maypole fetes and village greens

Maypole.JPGBy recognizing its own limitations, a judicial system can assist in welcoming in the Spring:

The traditional English village fete received the backing of senior judges [last month] after they threw out a £150,000 damages claim made by a woman who broke her leg in a hole left by a maypole.

The Court of Appeal heard that villagers must be allowed to uphold their centuries-old celebrations without worrying that they will be sued if accidents happen.

Lord Justice Scott Baker said: “If the courts were to set a higher standard of care than what is reasonable, the consequences would quickly be felt.

“There would be no fetes, no maypole dancing and no activities that have come to be a part of the English village green for fear of what might go wrong.”

(Martin Beckford, ” Legal victory for village fetes and maypoles”, Daily Telegraph, Mar. 2).

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“Where there’s blame, there’s a claim”

Obituaries detail the life and fast times of Mark Langford, the British entrepreneur who founded The Accident Group and rode it to a fortune advertising for “no-win, no-fee” injury claimants, becoming closely identified with the U.K.’s emergent U.S.-style “compensation culture”, before the group collapsed in ignominy four years ago. When his company found itself unable to pay its bills, Langford famously sacked 2,500 employees via text message; “While thousands were left without a penny following TAG’s collapse, Langford and his wife, a fellow director of the firm, were not. As staff began ransacking the company’s offices in Manchester, the couple headed for the Spanish sun.” (“Mark Langford”, The Telegraph, Apr. 11; David Brown & Jon Clarke, “Fugitive boss who sacked his staff by text is killed in Costa car crash”, Times Online, Apr. 11).

Perhaps the most successful instigator of injury litigation in his nation’s history, Langford appeared not to have fully internalized in his own conduct the tort system’s norms about avoidance of needlessly unsafe conduct:

He was at the wheel of his red Ferrari 355 F1 Spider three years ago [i.e., circa 2000] when he hit a 73-year-old war veteran who was crossing the road. The impact that killed Bill Thornley hurled him 15ft into the air and ripped his clothes off, a jury was told at Manchester crown court. However, they cleared Langford of causing death by dangerous driving and convicted him of the lesser offence of careless driving. He was fined £1,000 but retained his driving licence.

Langford, who criticised the dead man in court for trying to cross a busy, wet road in twilight, insisted he was abiding by the 40mph limit, contradicting witnesses who claimed he was doing 55mph. Some jury members, unaware that he had a conviction for drink-driving, covered their faces with their hands on learning he had served a 22-month ban and recovered his licence only six months before the fatal crash.

(“Profile: Mark Langford”, Times Online, Jun. 1, 2003). Our earlier coverage appeared Aug. 5, 2003.

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UK: Teen-B-Gone noise device a human rights violation?

“A black box emitting a high pitched pulsing sound designed to deter loitering teenagers is being used in thousands of sites around Britain just a year after its launch, prompting warnings from civil liberties campaigners that it is a ‘sonic weapon’ that could be illegal.” The so-called Mosquito device emits a disagreeable though harmless noise at frequencies that can be heard by most persons younger than 25 but not by most of those older. “Liberty [a legal-rights campaign] suggests the device may fall foul of article eight of the European convention on human rights, conferring the right to a private life, or article 14 on the grounds that it is discriminatory on grounds of age. The organisation also believes it may contravene environmental health legislation – a suggestion dismissed by inventor Howard Stapleton on the ground that many devices, including cars, are louder.” (Lucy Ward, “3,300 sales and rising – ultrasonic answer to teenage gangs sets alarm bells ringing”, Guardian, Mar. 17).

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UK: Thousands face pay slashes under comparable worth

“Hundreds of thousands of men working in the public sector are facing salary cuts of up to £15,000 a year as equal pay agreements take effect, The Times has learnt. Compensation claims for up to 1.5 million workers could cost the taxpayer more than £10 billion and mean that male staff lose up to 40 per cent of their salary.” According to commenters on the article, the agreements are based on the principle known in the U.S. as comparable worth — that is to say, not equal pay for doing the same job, but equal pay for doing jobs that some evaluator decides are equally difficult or meritorious or socially productive, such as (hypothetically) librarian and garbage collector. (Jill Sherman, “Thousands face pay cut under new equality law”, Times Online, Mar. 12)

Interestingly, while unions have apparently sought in many cases to minimize disruptions by phasing in the new principles, entrepreneurial lawyering is destabilizing the situation: “aggressive no-win, no-fee lawyers are now unpicking the agreements by winning higher compensation payments for thousands of individual claimaints.” This appears to be leading to tension between the unions and the private employment lawyers. Some highly paid women, as well as many men, are expected to be hit with pay cuts.

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U.K. roundup

Because you were clamoring for one:

  • Police warn householders of three convicted burglars but say they cannot describe them for fear of violating their human rights [Telegraph]

  • Eight year old Connor McCreaddie is very fat indeed, so North Tyneside officials are considering taking him from his mum into protective custody [Gillespie, Reason “Hit and Run”]

  • Sounds promising but haven’t seen: author Simon Carr has published compendium of legal horror stories entitled “Sour Gripes” [Telegraph]

  • As in the U.S., prospect of discrimination suits has deterred efforts to keep unhealthily thin fashion models off the catwalk [Guardian]

  • Ban on fox hunting not only is widely evaded but in fact has led to renaissance of the sport [Telegraph]

  • “An incompetent expert [witness] can cause more misery than a psychotic gang member.” [Slapper/Times]

  • Vacationing cop busted for Swiss Army knife [Daily Mail]

  • In hospitals, perhaps a surfeit of privacy [Huddersfield Daily Examiner via KevinMD] and sensitivity [Daily Mail via ditto]

  • Man obsessed by sex after motorcycling injury expected to get multi-million-pound award [Telegraph]

  • Children’s sack race scrapped for lack of liability insurance [Telegraph]; industrialist says inordinate playground risk-aversion is bad omen for economy [ditto]

  • Convicted armed robber “given legal aid to sue over a telephone message that reveals that his phone calls come from prison” [Telegraph]

  • Familiar ring? Controversy mounting over “ambulance chasing”, allegations of sharp practices as no-fee-no-win injury work makes fortunes for some well placed solicitors [Times here, here, here, here]

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Prince Charles v. McDonald’s

You don’t want to know how many calories are in one of HRH’s Cornish pasties. The authentic Cornish style of pasty always did seem heavy to me, as one raised on the Upper Peninsula Finnish kind. (Rebecca English and Sean Poulter, “The Royal pasty that’s unhealthier than a Big Mac”, Daily Mail (UK), Feb. 28; “Prince Charles says ban McDonald’s food”, AP/Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Feb. 28).

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Northern Ireland: jury awards £25K for bad restaurant review

“The Irish News must pay £25,000 plus court costs to a west Belfast Italian restaurant owner after a jury found a food critic’s review to be defamatory.” (“£25K for food critic’s poison pen”, BBC, Feb. 8). Journalist Caroline Workman, in a review of Ciaran Convery’s restaurant Goodfellas, had “described his staff as unhelpful, his cola as flat, and his chicken marsala ‘so sweet as to be inedible'”. Guardian restaurant critic Matthew Norman described the jury verdict as “very worrying news”: “You really cannot overstate the imbecility of a libel jury: what we really need now is a sustained campaign against our ludicrous libel laws.” (Maev Kennedy, “Critics bite back after restaurant reviewer sued for calling chicken too sweet”, Guardian, Feb. 10).

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New Times column — warning labels everywhere

My new column is up at the Times Online on the problem — long familiar to readers of this site and Americans in general, somewhat less so in the U.K. — of overzealous warning labels. My jumping-off point is the new book Remove Child Before Folding, earlier mentioned here and for sale here. (Walter Olson, “Keep your children away from open flames”, Times Online, Jan. 28).

Today is also the day the Times unveiled its redesign: check out the front page, the law page, and this interview with the designers.

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