And now police have charged mom with a felony. [AP/Hartford Courant]
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From the monthly archives:
October 2009
Commentary’s Jennifer Rubin notices:
A friend points out a little nugget of absurdity and political mendacity in the Pelosi health-care bill. Remember Obama’s effort to try a “test” for tort reform? (We don’t actually need a test, since it has worked to lower medical malpractice coverage and help increase access to doctors in states that have tried it.) Well, Pelosi’s bill has an anti-tort-reform measure. On pages 1431-1433 of the 1990-page spellbinder, there is a financial incentive for states to try “alternative medical liability laws.” But look — you don’t get the incentive if you have a law that would “limit attorneys’ fees or impose caps on damages.”
In other words, Congress is providing a financial incentive to uncap damages. Marvelous.
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Concern is raised over bisphenol-A (BPA) in printed cash register receipts [Gordon Gibb, Lawsuits and Settlements] Adds reader Rogers Turner: “Brilliant…what does almost every single person in the U.S. touch multiple times a day?”
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A Sacramento jury has told a radio station to pay $16.6M in the “Hold your wee for a Wii” contest death [Radio Online, earlier here; via Bill Childs, TortsProf].
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Boston lawyers recall a very strange sexual harassment lawsuit in which the defendant’s CEO “wore a different Halloween costume to each day of his [six-day] deposition”. [Zach Lowe, AmLaw Daily]
The comedian once served as an expert witness on pie-throwing. [Danny Jacobs/Maryland Daily Record, CAAFlog via Legal Blog Watch; L.A. Times]
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A Montana jury decided that the aluminum baseball bat manufactured by “Louisville Slugger” maker Hillerich & Bradsby was not a defective product, but that the company should have warned of the dangers from its hitting balls at a higher speed, and awarded a family $850,000 for the 2003 death of their son at a baseball game. [Helena Independent Record, AP] Early commentary: Russell Jackson (doubting that a warning would actually have altered the behavior of those in the game) and Eugene Volokh (before verdict). Earlier here. More: Jim Copland discusses on CNN; Above the Law.
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I don’t agree with every one of the suggestions proposed by this Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform document authored by Victor Schwartz and Cary Silverman, but I agree with more than 90% of them, and it’s a good starting point for any discussion of tort reform.
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So reports the Houston Chronicle (via ABA Journal). The Texas plaintiffs’ attorney has provided this site with a lot of fodder over the years, and one suspects that the circumstances of his untimely death will be litigated as well.
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A case before the Nevada Supreme Court aims to open up new vistas of liability. [WSJ Law Blog].
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When jurors ask for and receive a ten-digit adding machine to assist in their deliberations [Sacramento Bee, on the "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" trial, via Miller]
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In England, the Watford Borough Council now bars parents from supervising their own kids at playgrounds unless they undergo criminal record checks. Council-vetted “play rangers” are still allowed to move among the kids, but parents who have not undergone checks must “watch from outside a perimeter fence.” [Telegraph via BoingBoing]
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The Federalist Society chapter at Columbia Law School is having me in for a lunchtime talk there tomorrow (Thursday, Oct. 29) on problems with the changing (and seemingly ever-more-aggressive) role of state attorneys general. James Tierney, former attorney general of the state of Maine and director of Columbia’s program on state AGs, will be on hand to offer a contrasting point of view. Hope to see a few readers there.
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Class action plaintiffs claim that all three of Nintendo’s designs are defective [Colin Miller, Evidence Law Prof]
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