Chronicling the high cost of our legal system
From the monthly archives:
Matthew Heller of OnPoint News and AnnMarie McDonald of the New Jersey Lawsuit Reform Alliance have roundups on Hallowe’en litigation.
P.S. Also holiday-related: a Hallowe’en sighting of lawyers’ tongues [Robert Burns, Tam O'Shanter at Scots law blog Absolvitor via LEF]
Really, Washingtonians could do without a grandstanding politico type as chief city legal officer, argues Carter Wood at Point of Law.
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A California court rules that attorneys who file unjustified suits aimed at speech or political activity can’t be made to pay the other side’s fees. If you’re a victim of such an action, you still might get lucky and collect from the client who instigated it. [Cal Attorneys Fees]
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How Mayor Bloomberg’s Health Department decides how far to go in its food-scare advertising. [New York Times] I’ve got much more in a new post at Cato at Liberty.
P.S. Gothamist: “in the end, it was decided that going viral was more important than going accurate.”
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Lenore Skenazy debunks the scare: there’s no evidence that any American child has ever been killed by poisoned candy from a stranger.
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An “Only in America” story? Not this time: “A Brazilian court ruled this week that McDonald’s must pay a former franchise manager $17,500 because he gained 65 pounds while working there for a dozen years.” [AP/USA Today] More: Lowering the Bar.
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“Citing cases dating back as far as 1928, a judge has ruled that a young girl accused of running down an elderly woman while racing a bicycle with training wheels on a Manhattan sidewalk two years ago can be sued for negligence.” [New York Times] Earlier: suit against 8 year old skier in Colorado. More: Eugene Volokh and Eric Turkewitz on the legal background.
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Many employers find the practice helpfully predictive, but the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is stepping up pressure against it. [WSJ Law Blog, Hyman]
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Katherine Mangu-Ward at Reason “Hit and Run” provides two snapshots of the continuing damage being done by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, including the rage-and-despair reaction of Rick Woldenberg (AmendTheCPSIA.com), who says that the new regulations “will jack up Learning Resources’ annual compliance costs to $15 million, FAR in excess of our profits. We have no Plan B — so we are trying to get a new government.” And a commenter points to the “Criticism” and (very partial) “List of Companies Whose Closure Is Linked To CPSIA” sections of the Wikipedia entry.
Related: “Not available because of the CPSIA“: wood-and-beeswax Selecta Spielzeug Rhonda dollhouse dining room, formerly imported from Germany. Why pay a whopping testing bill to clear an innocuous product that’s at best going to sell modestly on this side of the Atlantic? [EuroToyShop.com]
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“The color PURPLE is a trademark of 3M” [BoingBoing; earlier on Cadbury's claims; image via]
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The backstop was located only 15 feet behind home plate and should have been 25 feet instead, according to the plaintiff’s lawyer suing the Connecticut town. [Greenwich Time]
Australian writer David Broadbent explains to his daughter. [Free-Range Kids] Plus: Australian lawmaker told not to change lightbulb in his office.
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Annals of unusual criminal defenses: the lawyer defending Hiccup Girl Jennifer Mee on murder charges says he may blame her actions on Tourette’s Syndrome, a medical condition not ordinarily linked to violence or criminality. [CBS News/WFOR/AP, Lowering the Bar]
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$1 billion so far in lawyers’ and other professional fees, and counting. [Reuters]
Taxes and guns, eminent domain and public employee benefits: from Dan Mitchell at Cato-at-Liberty.
Age of accommodation, cont’d: “in Reedy v. Schneider National, Inc. (E.D. Pa. filed Oct. 15, 2010). Vasant Reddy says that he has ‘a sincerely held religious belief that he cannot consume, possess, or transport alcohol or tobacco,’ and that he informed Schneider National of this. …Nonetheless, he says, he was ordered to transport a load with alcohol, and was fired because he refused to transport it.” [Eugene Volokh] (cross-posted at Secular Right).
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The North Country Gazette does not put its articles behind a paywall, but insists that visitors not read more than one unless they subscribe. According to BoingBoing, a notice on the site (now apparently taken down, or at least inaccessible to many visitors) contained the following menacing wording:
A subscription is required at North Country Gazette. We allow only one free read per visitor. We are currently gathering IPs and computer info on persistent intruders who refuse to buy subscription and are engaging in theft of services. We have engaged an attorney who will be doing a bulk subpoena demand on each ISP involved… and will then pursue individual legal actions.
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