Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Posts Tagged ‘United Kingdom’

New Times column — Katrina verdict

My new column at the Times (U.K.) Online is on last week’s Mississippi Katrina insurance verdict. (Walter Olson, “Insurers can breathe easier over Katrina lawsuits”, Aug. 30). Concluding paragraph:

Major coverage issues remain to be resolved (and appealed), but at least we can take note at this point that America is not Zimbabwe or Bolivia. As Dickie Scruggs said before the Leonard ruling, “If you win it, it’s a huge win. If you lose it, you spin it the best way you can.”

Also, I was a guest last evening (6:30 p.m. Eastern) on Marc Bernier’s high-rated radio show, “The Talk of Florida” to discuss the article.

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UK: saving bagpipers from themselves, cont’d

To a chorus of dismay from many of those affected, health and safety inspectors have issued strict new guidelines intended to protect soldiers who play the Scottish bagpipes from suffering hearing loss. “As well as wearing ear protectors, the guidelines insist that pipers should only play for a maximum of 24 minutes a day outside, and only 15 in practice rooms….The tests were run because the military feared the possibility of having to pay compensation to soldiers who might argue that their hearing had been damaged by too much pipe-playing. The Ministry of Defence already makes special payments to personnel whose hearing has been affected by working on rifle ranges or in other loud environments.” Aficionados of the beloved Scottish instrument called the rules “silly” and “just ridiculous”; an aspiring piper who wants to excel should be spending more than 15 minutes a day on practice, said one. “The pipes should be played loudly, that’s how they inspire soldiers and scare the enemy,” said Bill Lark, 85, “a veteran Black Watch piper who led his comrades into action against the Japanese in 1944”. (Murdo MacLeod, “Army pipers can’t believe their ears”, Scotland on Sunday/The Scotsman, Jul. 23)(via Dave Zincavage). Earlier coverage: Dec. 22-25, 2000; Mar. 8-10, 2002; Jan. 12, 2004; Nov. 19, 2005.

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London’s (and Belfast’s) libel-shoppers

Britney Spears has resorted to the courts of justice in Belfast, Northern Ireland, to slap down the National Enquirer, while singers Paula Abdul and Whitney Houston are reported to be contemplating similar trips in search of the plaintiff-friendly libel laws of the United Kingdom. Aren’t they just a little bit ashamed of themselves? The “speedy results and whopping damages” of defamation suits in the U.K. “might be nice for the celebrity claimants. But it’s bad for those of us who live in Britain permanently. These libel tourists are helping to prop up our illiberal, antidemocratic, and ‘repugnant’ libel laws, which are an offense to free speech and open debate.” (Brendan O’Neill, “Throwing our judicial junk in Britain’s backyard (or courts)”, Christian Science Monitor, Jul. 24). But actually, reports Mark Stephens in The Times (London) Online, it is global business magnates rather than entertainment figures who are nowadays the busiest libel tourists in the British courts. They come from America, Russia and the Middle East to squelch the naughty insinuations of the financial press that not everything about their business dealings is on the up and up (“New celebrities of the libel courts”, Jul. 18).

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BetOnSports.com prosecution, cont’d

The arrest of company CEO David Carruthers while changing planes in Dallas, writes Jacob Sullum, “is part of a larger attempt by the U.S. government to impose its brand of repressive paternalism on countries with more tolerant policies.” (syndicated/Reason.com, Jul. 26)(earlier coverage, Jul. 20 here and here). More on online gambling, and bans on promoting it: Steve Chapman, “Who’s Afraid of Online Gambling?”, Chicago Tribune/Real Clear Politics, Jul. 23; Walter Williams, “Truly disgusting”, syndicated/Jewish World Review, Jul. 26.

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Changing planes in U.S.? “Travel with a lawyer”

The feds arrested BetOnSports chief executive David Carruthers while he changed planes at Dallas/Fort Worth en route to Costa Rica, charging that his company accepts bets from U.S. residents in violation of federal law. One British view of the implications: “it now looks as if chief executives need ‘lawyerguards’ especially when venturing into risky legal territory such as the US.” (Times (UK) law blog, Jul. 18; Philip Robinson, Dominic Walsh and James Doran, “FBI and tax officials in BetOnSports probe”, The Times Online, Jul. 18; Jacob Sullum, Reason “Hit and Run”, Jul. 18 and Jul. 19; Radley Balko, Cato at Liberty, Jul. 18; Kirkendall, Jul. 19). More on the authorities vs. online gambling: Jun. 19; Nov. 18, 2005, Aug. 9, 2004, etc.

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“If something went wrong, we could be sued”

In Great Britain, a nursing home spokeswoman explains why visitors are allowed to bring in cakes and other baked goods only when they’re store-bought, not homemade. (Nanny Knows Best (U.K.), Jun. 14)(via Nobody’s Business). Other food menaces averted: Dec. 13, 1999 (homemade pies), Jan. 29, 2001 (cookies), Feb. 1-3, 2002 (figurines in New Orleans king cake), Apr. 15, 2004 (potluck dinners).

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UK: “Police won’t chase if thief has no helmet”

In Bath, England, a “teenager was shocked when police refused to chase joyriders who had just stolen his moped – because the thieves were not wearing helmets…. An officer told him they could not give chase in case the unprotected thieves fell off the bike and sued the police.” (“Police ruled out joyrider chase”, BBC, Jun. 30). The Association of Chief Police Officers confirmed that police on “most forces” would call off chases where a suspect fleeing on a motorbike was unhelmeted. “Sharon Ball, a Liberal Democrat councillor in Bath, said: ‘There is a terrible bike theft problem in this area, and this crazy approach means the issue will just get worse.'” (Richard Savill, “Police won’t chase if thief has no helmet”, Daily Telegraph, Jun. 30).

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“Making Civil Justice Sane”

In the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal, Philip K. Howard, president of Common Good and a longtime friend of this site, contributes an essay on fixing our litigation system. Among his topics: the need for a robust principle of assumption of risk; lessons from the U.K., where a “compensation culture” has spread despite a set of legal procedures that is the dream of reformers on this side of the Atlantic; the role of summary judgment and Daubert review; and the role of predictable law in maintaining the principle of the rule of law (Spring).

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