Chronicling the high cost of our legal system
From the monthly archives:
A Massachusetts woman isn’t getting a huge amount of local sympathy after suing the town of Danvers over the $300 ticket its officers wrote her for briefly parking her Mercedes SUV in a handicapped zone. She says the ticket was soaked by the rain and she was sort of disabled that day anyway, having her arm in a sling and being on medication following surgery. [WHDH]
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Coyote looks at a tax collection ploy in Arizona — as well as cash-for-clunkers — and suspects not.
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“A year after ‘Kung Fu’ actor David Carradine died from a dangerous sex practice, his wife has filed suit, claiming he would still be alive if he hadn’t been left alone in a hotel that night.” California attorney and Overlawyered favorite Mark Geragos is representing Anne Carradine. [ABC News]
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An emeritus University of Western Ontario law professor by the name of Robert Martin is nothing if not outspoken about his view “that Canadian law schools are far too focused on teaching niche legal issues and being politically correct.” [Brian Baxter, AmLaw Daily]
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We were as surprised as anyone else by the turn of events in our class action suit over allegedly defective televisions, says the big plaintiff’s firm. Sorry we drove into your window, no need for anything drastic like fee shifting under Rule 11, right? [NYLJ]
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The manufacturer would more than likely have found it cheaper to settle the case, but decided to stand its ground instead. [Abnormal Use]
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Get ready for the rise of firms whose business plan is to bankroll lawsuits. [NYLJ]
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Do studio lawyers think it’s too dangerous to use real newspapers because they haven’t been rights-cleared? [Doctorow, BoingBoing]
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In perhaps a gingerly manner, the Boston Globe profiles Howard M. Cooper, who has established a busy niche as the go-to lawyer for judges who want to sue news outlets for alleged defamation, after getting good results for Judge Ernest Murphy.
“She will hold a press conference at the drop of a panty” [Jezebel]
A lawsuit over a hot coffee mishap in the fast-food drive-through lane turns out to be barred by California’s financial responsibility law, which “prohibits uninsured motorists … from collecting noneconomic damages in any action arising out of the operation or use of a motor vehicle.” [Pat Murphy, Lawyers USA "Benchmarks"]
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What a bad precedent it set. [Prof. Bainbridge] More: Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, WSJ (via Stoll).
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…on the item about the 13 year old in Florida whose parents have filed an age bias complaint against a community college that won’t admit her. I am regularly surprised by which posts here turn out to stir the most reader interest.
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I’ve got a new post up at Cato at Liberty calling attention to the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute’s unusual advice on how to handle Wall Street traders, CEOs and investment bankers.
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Individual liberty, free markets, and peace: the world's premier libertarian think tank. Publishes Cato at Liberty, where I blog on contemporary policy issues.