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]
Chronicling the high cost of our legal system
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Point of Law- Around the web, November 23Tide turning against drug-pricing suits? Glaxo SmithKline beats back Kentucky case [Longstreth, AmLaw Daily] Court in Australia deems litigation funding pact improper as "unregistered managed investment scheme" [New Lawyer] Should docs be careful what they ask for? Michelle Mello... […]Walter Olson
- Latest Labaton pension fund controversy: MissouriAn "uproar" has broken out over the state employee pension fund's prospective hiring of lawyers to file securities suits. "At least six firms from around the country have been courting the board of the Missouri State Employees Retirement System, or... […]Walter Olson
- In Congress, promoting the return of notice pleadingsRep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) has introduced H.R. 4115, the Open Access to Courts Act of 2009, to restore notice pleadings, i.e., the status quo ante Twombly and Iqbal. Nadler's news release announced the bill, "Nadler, Johnson, and Conyers Introduce Bill... […]Carter Wood
- "'Sick Leave' Mandates We Can Ill Afford"Diana Furchtgott-Roth warns of another labor-backed bill gathering steam in Congress. Earlier here and here.... […]Walter Olson
- "Jury rejects prosecutor's rigged game"Our own Marie Gryphon on the Bear Stearns acquittals.... […]Walter Olson
- Around the web, November 23
- Volokh
- Reading Kindle Books on the Ipod TouchI got tired of hauling so many books around on plane flights, and decided to try downloading some Kindle books to my Ipod Touch. I don’t yet have a Kindle, although apparently if I am very, very good ... I know that Glenn Reynolds prefers the Ipod to read Kindle over the Kindle, but then [...] […]Kenneth Anderson
- Spelling Out Numbers vs. Writing Them Using DigitsAny thoughts on what the rule should be here? My sense is that numbers written using digits are much easier to quickly absorb, so I tend to write them that way whenever they refer to something that people might want to use in calculations or comparisons. I’d say, for instance, that “These books [...] […]Eugene Volokh
- Yoo v. Goldsmith on the KSM TrialLast week, former OLC deputy John Yoo argued in the WSJ that the decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York was a major mistake. Trying KSM in civilian court will be an intelligence bonanza for al Qaeda and the hostile nations that will view the U.S. intelligence methods and sources that such a trial [...] […]Jonathan H. Adler
- The Really Traditional Socratic MethodYou ask people hard questions. Then they kill you. Copyright © 2009 This feed is for personal, non-commercial use only. The use of this feed on other websites breaches copyright. If this content is not in your news reader, it makes the page you are viewing an infringement of the copyright. (Digital Fingerprint: ) […]Eugene Volokh
- Poll on political bloggers and the media:This week’s National Journal poll of political bloggers started off by asking them to rank the importance of various media that the political blogger himself uses to stay informed. On both the Right and the Left, “websites/blogs” came in first. However, on the Left, daily print newspapers were second, while on the Right, they were [...] […]David Kopel
- Reading Kindle Books on the Ipod Touch
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i think that case is ridiculous. i bet only 1 out of 10 people even know it is possible to die this way. so why should we require these dj’s to know? and why should they be expected to know and the victim isn’t? of course in comparitive negligence states you can still lose millions of dollars even if you are only 10% to blame, which seems wrong to me.
Umm — because they were actually warned? A caller identified themselves as a registered nurse and said that this contest could lead to death.
Besides that they were warned, since they were running the thing, it was their responsibility to look into its safety. This is business law 101 stuff. (I may have a distorted view of this because my business law 101 professor used to advise radio stations in this capacity.) I think they were lucky to escape manslaughter charges considering the warning, which pushed it from negligence to gross negligence.
spud
Fair enough. and now i read it a little more, they mentioned it repeatedly on the air that there was a possiblity of this happening. and so she knew too. that’s called assumption of risk.
ultimately we have a duty to watch out for ourselves. now i feel awful that this woman died, but i don’t see how you say that the DJ’s were negligent but she wasn’t.
And there is the very real possibility that she signed a release.
The release she signed only was to appear on the radio and releases don’t protect you in cases of negligence, anyway. It’s not clear the contestants were actually listening to the broadcast and her mental capacity may have been impaired by then, anyway. Have you actually heard the recordings, she’s clearly no longer rational by the time she leaves. Besides, it’s reasonable to assume that a radio station won’t have you risk your life for a contest and not even warn you about it.
> reasonable to assume that a radio station won’t have you risk your life for a contest and not even warn you about it
Have you even listened to these morning shows? no, i would never trust the average radio guy with two nickels let alone my life.
Sorry, she should have known better.
And most of the evidence that they were warned should have alerted her, too.
Seriously, take care of yourself. don’t just assume everyone knows something you don’t.
Hopefully the jury won’t use all 10 digits….
I’m just happy they’re not suing the water bottler for failure to warn.