Creationists apparently have no monopoly on unscientific nonsense. There’s an excellent article in the New York Times on the thimerosal controversy (Jun. 20 and links therein), though it fails to follow the money from the plaintiffs’ bar behind the pseudoscience. (Gardiner Harris and Anahad O’Connor, “On Autism’s Cause, It’s Parents vs. Research”, NY Times, Jun. 25). Meanwhile, the Huffington Post spouts irresponsible conspiracy theories for why ABC refused to endorse Robert Kennedy Jr.’s attack on the vaccine industry. The excellent Skeptico blog follows up its earlier post on the subject. And you just knew Michael Fumento would weigh in, and he shows the real costs of the plaintiffs’ bar scaremongering:
The conspiracy-mongers have scared parents into not protecting their children. “Sadly, as exemptions proliferate, disease ‘hot spots’ are cropping up across the United States,” observed an article in the Winter 2004 University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform. “Outbreaks of measles, whooping cough, mumps, rubella and diphtheria are reoccurring, costing hundreds of lives and hospitalizing thousands more.”
Remember that next time you hear the plaintiffs’ bar taking credit for safety innovations that have saved lives.
Tagged as:
hospitals,
Michigan,
product liability,
vaccines
The L.A. Times has a lengthy account of the continuing litigation against famed psychologist Elizabeth Loftus, who after publishing an article in Skeptical Inquirer casting doubt on the “recovered memory” claims of a claimed abuse victim described as Jane Doe, was sued for defamation and invasion of privacy by the real-life woman behind the pseudonym. We originally posted on the case Aug. 26, 2004. (Maura Dolan, “Memory, Pain and the Truth”, Los Angeles Times, Jun. 21)(via Nordberg). More: LawLimits (Jun. 23) has more, including the latest procedural status of the case (Calif. Supreme Court agrees to review Loftus’s attempt to get the case thrown out under the state’s “anti-SLAPP” law, which a lower court declined to do).
Tagged as:
libel slander and defamation
Once again the inevitable worldwide triumph of tobacco litigation turns out to be not so inevitable after all: “In the first case of its kind in Britain, a judge rejected Margaret McTear’s attempt to sue Imperial Tobacco over the death of her husband Alf 12 years ago. … Lord Nimmo Smith, at the Court of Session in Edinburgh, said the test case failed on every count. He ruled that Mr McTear knew what he was doing and there was no proof that his cancer was caused by a particular cigarette brand.” (Auslan Cramb, “Widow fails to pin blame on tobacco company”, Daily Telegraph, Jun. 1). Ever the gracious loser, Northeastern University lawprof-advocate and interest-nondiscloser Richard Daynard called the ruling “an extraordinarily ignorant opinion”: “The UK suffers from a conservative, narrow-minded judiciary who don’t know or don’t want to know the relevant medical and social facts,” he said. (Stephen Davis, “Smokescreen”, New Statesman, Jun. 27)($).
Tagged as:
Richard Daynard,
tobacco,
United Kingdom
The High Court of Australia has dismissed a claim against British Airways and Qantas by a businessman who suffered a stroke arising from deep-vein thrombosis (DVT), sometimes known as “economy-class syndrome”, after a long-distance flight (see Sept. 12, 2004). “If his case had succeeded, it could have opened the floodgates to dozens of DVT cases which had been prepared to go before Australian courts.” (Chris Herde, “Court throws out DVT-related case”, The Australian, Jun. 23). More: Oct. 3, 2004 and links from there.
Tagged as:
airlines,
Australia
Jacob Sullum has more on the Center for Science in the Public Interest’s lawsuit (see Feb. 25) demanding that ordinary salt be regulated as a food additive (“Suing sodium”, Reason, Jun.).
Tagged as:
salt
Retiree Diane Hutto of Fort Walton Beach, Fla. bought the giant cosmetics company’s “anti-aging” products, but aged anyway. A refund of what she paid wouldn’t do the trick, it seems; her lawyer’s asking for class action damages that could exceed $5 million depending on the size of the class. (Patrick Danner, “Retiree sues Estee Lauder over anti-aging claim”, Knight Ridder/Salt Lake Tribune, Jun. 18).
Tagged as:
class actions
Advice for employers, at job interviews (“Interview questions you shouldn’t ask”, HRHero.com, Jun. 17, adapted from Louisiana Employment Law Letter)(via Michael at George Lenard’s).
More: reader Mark Moss comments:
The first item on the list of questions you can’t ask prospective employees is, “What is your age?” But sitting on my desk right now is a memo from HR about “I-9 Compliance Update”. The DHS requires me to show my employer documents showing citizenship or right to work in this country — either 1 from list A (e.g., a passport), or one each from list B and C (e.g., driver’s license and Social Security card).
Apparently, HR is on their honor to skip over the date of birth listed on these documents.
And: George Lenard writes in to say:
Regarding the above observation, as I noted in our comments section, there is a distinction between illegal and unwise questions.
ASKING about age when it’s irrelevant is a red flag, smoking gun or whatever, not to mention divisive. (Response: “What’s it to you, youngster? How old are YOU, son?”).
KNOWING about age incidentally, whether from passport, birth certificate, drivers license, or gray hair, wrinkles, and baldspot, is inevitable at some point. I’d look to keeping such information out of the early screening process at least, so the early rejects can’t claim age discrim (OK, you and I both know they can CLAIM and SUE for anything whatsoever; I’m talking about doing so without confronting a strong defense — employer’s ignorance.)
Tagged as:
Louisiana,
workplace
We covered this case in detail Nov. 24 and Dec. 21. The court reduced punitive damages from $98 million to $20 million, which means that the total injustice is $23.75 million instead of $101.75 million. The AP version of the story doesn’t even acknowledge the auto company’s defense. (Randy McClain, “Judge slashes damages against carmaker”, The Tennessean, Jun. 21; AP, Jun. 21).
Lawyers Weekly USA has more details about the trial, including the fact that the jury wasn’t allowed to hear that, with 7.1 million vehicles on the road, there were only three deaths from collapsing seatbacks. Moreover, the judge permitted plaintiffs to argue liability based on a post-sale duty to warn of (allegedly) improved technology, unprecedented in Tennessee and most other states: thus, according to plaintiffs, when Chrysler merged with Mercedes, Chrysler had a legal duty to inform every single one of its car owners of any safety features on Mercedes vehicles that weren’t on Chrysler vehicles (and, one would imagine, vice versa). How this would have prevented a pick-up truck from slamming into the rear of a minivan at twice the speed limit, one wonders, but too many judges have stopped requiring causation to be an element of a tort. (Reni Gertner, “Parents Of Baby Killed In Seatback Collapse Win $105.5M”, Lawyers Weekly USA, Jan. 2005).
Tagged as:
autos,
Chrysler,
deep pocket,
punitive damages,
seat backs,
Tennessee
“I like employment law because it revolves entirely around crazy people,” explains the anonymous “Opinionistas,” who claims to be a junior associate at a prominent New York firm, at least until senior partners discover her cynical blog:
“Honey, how was your day?” “Um, well, actually I got pissed off and peed all over the floor of the ER, in front of 2 potential cardiac arrests and a trauma victim, so I’m kinda fired. But it was discrimination! They actually fired me because I’m one-fifteenth Native American on my mother’s side!” So the guy gets a scummy lawyer to take his case, he sues the hospital, and the hospital calls us for help. Then we demand to see the Urinator’s (I come up with little nicknames for all of them) personal email account. Then the real fun begins. Hours spent reading about his extramarital flirtation with Marta, the 3rd floor nurse anesthetist, his anger with his boss for not permitting 3 20-minute coffee breaks each morning, his wife’s current interest (or lack thereof) in sex.
She also has summer associate gossip (via Legal Reader).
Tagged as:
hospitals,
workplace
Auburn, Washington dentist Robert Woo mysteriously thought it would be funny to photograph a staff assistant who was under anesthesia with a pair of fake boar tusks in her mouth. When confronted with the photos, she quit and sued for “post-traumatic stress disorder” allegedly triggered by the battery, eventually settling for a quarter-million dollars. Any argument Woo has to victimhood for the ridiculous damages claimed is obliterated, however, because he himself turned around and sued his insurance company for emotional distress for failing “in bad faith” to cover the incident as “dental services.” A judge let the matter get to trial, and a jury hit Fireman’s Fund Insurance for three times the amount of the original law suit, $750,000, plus another $600,000 in attorneys’ fees, before the Washington Court of Appeals threw the case out last week. (Maureen O’Hagan, “Appeals court rules against dentist”, Seattle Times, Jun. 16; Woo v. Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co. (Wash. App. Jun. 13, 2005); Romensko blog, Jun. 20). Other stories of bad-faith-insurance litigation: Sep. 7 and May 5, 2004.
Tagged as:
Alabama,
emotional distress,
Seattle
A senior associate at megafirm Baker & McKenzie’s London office fails to understand that he’s outranked by his secretary, tries to bill her four pounds for stain dry-cleaning costs, and finds himself the laughingstock of Britain. (Jon Ashworth and Martin Waller, “How a few ketchup splashes, a £4 bill and an e-mail have become the talk of the City”, London Times, Jun. 17; Jonathan Brown, “Lawyer in argument over £4 ketchup stain quits firm”, The Independent, Jun. 22) (via Leiter).
Amusement park managements in California are unhappy about a new 4-3 decision by the state’s supreme court holding that operators of park rides constitute “common carriers” akin to bus and trolley lines for safety purposes, thus exposing them to a higher standard of care in injury lawsuits. Of particular concern: given that passengers on ordinary conveyances are supposed to be protected from dangers that would occasion acute personal fear and emotional distress, what are the implications for roller coasters and other thrill rides in which conveying sensations of that sort is the whole idea? Maybe the brass at Disney (which was the defendant in the suit at hand) weren’t being entirely overcautious when they slowed down the Mad Hatter’s spinning teacups (see Mar. 4 and Mar. 9, 2004). (Maura Dolan and Kimi Yoshino, “High Court Raises Bar for Safety of Thrill Rides”, Los Angeles Times, Jun. 17)(via Ken Masugi, Claremont).
Tagged as:
amusement parks,
California,
Disney,
emotional distress
The interests of a fair trial come first, rules New York’s highest court. The New York State Defenders Association, for one, had weighed in with an amicus brief in favor of the no-camera policy. The ruling “was a total loss for Court TV”, which “had attempted to achieve through litigation what its lobbyists at Ostroff, Hiffa & Associates of Albany could not achieve legislatively. Records maintained by the state Lobbying Commission indicate Court TV has spent next to nothing on lobbying the last few years as its attorney, David Boies of Boies, Schiller & Flexner in Armonk, N.Y., pursued the legal case.” (John Caher, In Loss for Court TV, N.Y. Judges Continue Ban on Cameras in Courts, New York Law Journal, Jun. 17).
Tagged as:
procedure
Jim DeLong surveys the terrain and finds that many significant proposals being considered command a fairly broad consensus; the two most important categories of reform are those aimed at “(1) Reducing the transaction costs of the system, especially litigation; (2) The ‘patent quality’ issue”. (“Patent Reform Hits the Hill”, TechCentralStation, Jun. 21).
Tagged as:
technology
Jonathan Turley is fond of claiming (without any real basis) that litigation reform advocates make up stories to promote tort reform. The reality is that the plaintiffs’ bar provides us with stories far more entertaining than any fictional Winnebago lawsuit.
Remember the day of June 21, 2005, because that’s the day that a sufficient number of the world’s problems were solved that a “public-interest group” has nothing better to do than to troll for plaintiffs to sue the dairy industry for not putting warning labels on milk about lactose intolerance. This is yet another publicity stunt of Dan Kinburn and the misnamed Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, over 95% of whom are not physicians; last time they asked for publicity, we gave it to them. The American Medical Association has called PCRM a “fringe organization” that uses “unethical tactics” and is “interested in perverting medical science.” (via Taylor, who is waiting for vegetarians to sue over beef commercials)
Tagged as:
animal rights,
failure to warn,
food safety
Mostly of interest to other webmasters: the continued assault of trackback spam (hundreds a day now) is making it increasingly hard to maintain our trackback function, especially given the tendency of this site to comment on matters involving casinos, obesity, pharmaceuticals, and other chronic spam-magnet topics. Rather than disabling trackback entirely, I’m going to experiment with turning it off for older posts that are heavily affected. If you happen to link to an older post on which trackback has been turned off, consider sending me an email to alert me (can’t guarantee a response, though, I’m afraid).
Tagged as:
blog mechanics
