Chronicling the high cost of our legal system
From the monthly archives:
From Dog Scoop, a followup on that “hazardous pet door” story we covered last week (with a hat tip to the skill of Overlawyered readers in, well, digging).
Incidentally, Consumer Reports was really impressed with the dog-door-dangers story, promoting it on at least three of its blogs, with no hint whatsoever of the law-firm provenance of the PetAccessDangers.org website or any other trial-lawyer connections to the story.
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He’s currently Mayor Bloomberg’s public health czar in NYC, and he wants to control your lifestyle because you haven’t been doing a good enough job of it. Earlier coverage of Frieden: Sept. 27, 2006 and again, Mar. 3, Mar. 4 and Mar. 9, 2007
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From Joe Weisenthal at Business Insider, the story of the Long Island retail developer who was comfortable in a nice $40 million loan, until the lenders began waving their tempting if predatory offers to borrow more than that.
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Plenty of news in recent days:
We are compelled to deny the petition because the language of the statute does not give us the flexibility to do otherwise, even though our staff does not believe that lead exposure from using bicycles and related products presents a risk that they would recommend the Commission regulate. The risk assessment methods traditionally used by the Commission in evaluating exposure to lead are no longer available to us under the CPSIA.
Nevertheless, we also recognize, as we did when presented with a similar petition filed by the All Terrain Vehicle industry, that safety requires the presence of some lead in the metal used in the product to insure structural integrity. I am also mindful of the staff’s findings that the contact children may have with the parts of the products that contain lead is not extensive and would not present a risk as we have traditionally understood the term—that is, would not increase blood lead levels in any measurable way. Presented with the dilemma of inflexibility in the law vs the need for regulatory action that recognizes safety and good sense considerations, we are opting to stay enforcement.
This course of action is becoming all too frequent for the CPSC. It is needed to avoid market disruptions and to protect consumers. However, it is not the optimal way to implement a statute.
McGovern [Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass.] said the federal agency is not being onerous, and businesses should work with it to resolve their worries.
In a written statement, Sen. John Kerry’s office said the measure is meant to keep dangerous products off the shelves, and it needs a chance to work before it is changed.
Public domain paper doll images courtesy Karen’s Whimsy.
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Today’s New York Times carries an article sounding alarms about packaged and frozen food safety. I didn’t at all care for the article, which I thought went out of its way to characterize as new and “increasing” a number of safety problems that are neither new nor necessarily on the increase. (A sample of the piece’s breathless, accusatory tone: “Increasingly, the corporations that supply Americans with processed foods are unable to guarantee the safety of their ingredients. … almost every element, not just red meat and poultry, is now a potential carrier of pathogens, government and industry officials concede.” You’d never guess that depending on which years you look at, food poisoning rates are either declining or flat.) At any rate, the editors at the Times generously invited me to discuss the general topic at their popular “Room for Debate” online feature, and the results are here.
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It’s behind a pay screen, so I may never find out, but I have a sinking feeling this is not a parody.
In a Times (U.K.) column two and a half years ago, I should note, I scoffed at the idea that suits over technology “addiction” would get anywhere. That piece begins:
“Tech addicts may sue,” read the headline. Thus last month did an academic predict that obsessive devotees of handheld communications devices will at some point begin demanding damages from American employers. As one news account put it, “a corporation handing someone a BlackBerry on his first day of work could be seen as enabling, even accelerating, a serious addiction to technology.” …
[Updated/edited to reflect restoration of previously missing first paragraph in reprinted column]
Lawyers for the family of Robert Ogle say it was negligent for David Jaber to leave his running car unattended outside a Queens, N.Y. deli. The Kia Spectra was then stolen by Kenneth Guyear who proceeded to run down Ogle. [New York Daily News via Miller]
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According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Mary Bassi was 56 when she was allegedly subjected to age-based discrimination at the Cover Girls club where she waited tables. “According to the lawsuit, which was filed last week in federal court, she was frequently called ‘old’ by managers and endured comments about experiencing menopause and showing signs of Alzheimer’s disease.” Younger waitresses were also given shifts that Bassi had customarily worked. An EEOC lawyer says Bassi had been a successful waitress and is now working in that capacity for a competitive club; Cover Girls burned down in 2007 and has not been rebuilt. [Houston Chronicle via Tim Eavenson; Richard Connelly, Houston Press "Hair Balls"] We’ve covered earlier age-bias complaints by exotic dancers themselves (as opposed to support staff) in 2000 and last year (both in Ontario, Canada).
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Chuck Hurley withdrew not because of the many liberty-hostile positions taken by Mothers Against Drunk Driving, but because of one of the issues on which he was right, namely, recognizing that there’s a tradeoff between fuel-economy-regulation-driven downsizing of vehicles and occupant safety, an inconvenient truth some environmental and consumer groups would rather not acknowledge. [National Journal, Fleet Owner, AP/Tacoma News Tribune]
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“The family of a Sycamore High student who hanged herself after nude pictures she took on her cell phone were disseminated without her permission is suing the school, the city of Montgomery and several students they believe are involved.” [Cincinnati Enquirer] Jessica Logan was 18 and on spring break at the time. Patrick at Popehat, and earlier Scott Greenfield, have some relevant things to say about both the civil and criminal law angles of the problem.
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The Food and Drug Administration wants to protect you, whether you’d like it to or not. Don Surber: “Next they will tell me that Lucky Charms are not magically delicious, but rather manufactured like any other cereal.”
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Brian Shean, Sr., 37, of Derry Township, Pennsylvania, was killed by a falling tree in February, as he, his father Terry, and a third man attempted to keep it from toppling. Shean family lawyer Jason Hines “said Monday that the lawsuit was only a means to ensure the future of the Sheans’ son, Brian Jr.” [Pittsburgh Tribune-Review]
A New York Daily News compilation; I don’t see any stories we’ve overlooked previously.
The Connecticut institution dropped men from its sports rosters, but apparently not in numbers great enough to keep it from being sued.
How “safety” news gets shaped: a litigation consultant “at the request of trial lawyers … combed through hundreds of coroner’s reports and media accounts” and before long ABC had an alarming story to run. More: Check our comments, where readers have been digging up further interesting information about “PetAccessDangers.org”.
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It’s in this morning’s paper; I call attention to a few highlights at Point of Law.
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