Chronicling the high cost of our legal system
From the monthly archives:
Cheltenham, U.K.: “A businessman is facing a £300,000 legal bill after losing a boundary battle with his neighbour – over an area of land of just seven square yards.” About half of that represents the loser-pays bill that will be handed to Martin Charalambous and his partner for pursuing a legal campaign through appeal whose cost far exceeded the value of the land. [Daily Mail, Telegraph, This Is Gloucestershire]
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CPSIA has come at a steep price for the Northwest Denver Toy Library, which has had to throw out nearly 400 of the 500 toys in its stock because it has no way of being sure that they comply with the 2008 federal law. [9News.com Denver]
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Outlaw meats in Chicago [The Reader] And Katherine Mangu-Ward at Reason reports on the continuing legal travails of food trucks.
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An Oregon broadcast executive threatens a blogger who had put out a request for information. [Romenesko/Poynter, Oregon Media Central]
A new state law doesn’t seem to have curbed their activities as much as some were hoping, but at least it may have put a crimp in some of their bigger monetary demands. [California Civil Justice]
A New Mexico court has upheld state-levied fines against a photographer who refused a job taking pictures at a same-sex wedding (Elane Photography v. Willock). Eugene Volokh, who has written about the case previously, now has a series of posts on the implications of the court’s effort to force creators to “create speech that they don’t want to create.” He also adds posts on the religious accommodation angle, the inevitable what-about-racists objection, and the role of state laws prohibiting “discrimination” against customers based on their political beliefs. More: Timothy Kincaid, Box Turtle Bulletin (”time for New Mexico to change its law. …ultimately what kind of freedom will we have won to live our lives as we see best if it costs the freedom of others to do the same?”).
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The High Timber restaurant in London is seeking to protect 
itself because it follows the traditional practice of including the occasional coin or silver charm for lucky diners to happen upon. [Zincavage] Similarly in this 2005 dispatch (supermarket pudding); for the parallel custom of baking figurines into New Orleans king cake, see these posts.
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A “rags-to-riches-to-rags-because-of-too-much-litigation story”; the entrepreneur famous for Guess jeans insisted on pursuing lawsuits against former employees even when his own forensic accountants failed to back up his charges against them. [WSJ Law Blog, Los Angeles Times]
Objectors, including the offices of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and 25 other AGs, say the coupons, free instructional DVD and other benefits to the class aren’t very valuable. Lawyers are slated to get $2.95 million. [Christopher Jensen, NYT "Wheels" blog; Center for Class Action Fairness (h/t Ted in comments)]
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One reason it’s not definitive: there are still fifteen days left. [Erin Geiger Smith, Business Insider]
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Clothing maker North Face sues humorous knock-off clothing maker South Butt. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Columbia Missourian, ABA Journal] Plus: Ann Althouse on the disclaimer that didn’t work as a lawsuit deflector.
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The state’s high court “voted to uphold lower-court decisions barring cigarette use in performances. … a coalition of state and national theater groups [had] argued in multiple courts that the ban infringed on free-speech rights and interfered with their abilities to accurately produce plays.” [Denver Post, OnPoint News (outspoken dissent by Justice Gregory Hobbs), Michelle Minton/CEI "Open Market", Declarations and Exclusions]
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Following thirty years of battles, the Obama Administration signaled that it would extend federal recognition to the Shinnecock tribe. Of particular interest: “The tribe is also hoping to resolve more than $1 billion worth of land disputes in the Hamptons, including its claim to the site of the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, which has played host to the U.S. Open several times.” [NYT] Backed by casino promoters, the tribe filed a massive land claim in 2005 which I wrote about at the time in the NYT; a federal judge rejected the case the next year, following a turn against Indian land claims at the Second Circuit level.
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An Oklahoma district attorney issues a subpoena in search of the identities of critical online commenters. Events don’t develop in the way he was hoping, though, and he’ll be leaving office at the end of his term. [Eric Robinson, Citizen Media Law; McAlester, Okla.]
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