Chronicling the high cost of our legal system
From the monthly archives:
Dan Fisher notes a flurry of press releases from law firms following the decision by the board of directors of Lubrizol to accept an offer from Warren Buffett. “Never mind that the $148-a-share offer is a 41% premium to Friday’s closing price and 64% above its 1-year moving average of $90.” [Forbes]
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Don’t know whether to laugh or weep: why one local activist thinks Washington, D.C. would be better off without Wal-Mart [Mark Perry]
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An uninvited-fax case gives the judge a chance to express some views on the typicality, credibility and adequacy of class representatives. [Trask]
And one of the reasons for the title’s closure after 35 years might be surprising, at least to non-readers of this site. [Handmade Toy Alliance]
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The estate of James Joyce is disputing the right of Craig Venter and other scientists to encode a 14-word fragment of Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man into synthetic genetic code for a bacterium. [David Ewalt, Forbes via Jessa Crispin via Tyler Cowen; & see Blawg Review #305 at A Fool in the Forest]
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Donner Lake Kitchen, a popular family-owned restaurant in rural Truckee, Calif. is closing its doors following a legal battle with attorney Scott Johnson, who is said to have filed “countless” complaints of lack of handicap accessibility at California businesses. The owner estimates that $20,000-$60,000 in repairs and upgrades would have been needed to bring the dining establishment into ADA compliance. [Sierra Sun via CJAC]
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Ira Stoll notices a curious cautionary sign at a Washington, D.C. playground: “Designed for Children Ages 2 to 5 Years (18 months – 5 years for Canada).”
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Easier said than done, especially given the mandates of the Constitution about the structure of the judiciary, warns Brookings’s Russell Wheeler. Relatedly, Ed Whelan at NRO “Bench Memos” scrutinizes the ethics charges floated by some left-leaning groups against Justices Scalia and Thomas in recent weeks (parts one, two, three).
Writing on the latest usurpation of budgetary authority by a state judiciary, Hans Bader is kind enough to cite some of the related analysis in Schools for Misrule. [Examiner; Amanda Carey, Daily Caller; more on Abbott and on school finance litigation]
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More thoughts on why bonuses tied to prosecutors’ measured “accomplishments” — in this case, conviction rates at a Colorado prosecutor’s office — are such a bad idea. Very similar logic helps explain the historically prevailing ban on contingency fees for lawyers in most Western legal systems. [Tim Lynch, Cato; WSJ Law Blog; related earlier (Harris County, Tex.)](& welcome Above the Law, Truth on the Market visitors)
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Last Thursday I was interviewed on one of the nation’s great radio shows, Milt Rosenberg’s extension 720. It was a wide-ranging discussion and host Milt Rosenberg had some generous words for the book; also participating by telephone for part of the show was Dan Polsby, dean at the George Mason University School of Law. WGN has now posted the podcast of the show here. I’ve been a guest on several other shows as well in recent days, including Brian Schimming (guest-hosting for Vicki McKenna), on Wisconsin’s WIBA, BlogTalkRadio “Patriot Games” with D.R. Tucker, and “Battle Line.”
Prominent NYU legal ethicist Stephen Gillers, with whose views I’ve not always seen eye to eye in the past, was in the audience at my NYC talk earlier this month and has written up some of his reactions here. (The speech by Justice Samuel Alito to which he refers is here.) Meanwhile, a letter-writer at the WSJ enjoyed John McGinnis’s review last week, and Elizabeth Wurtzel has been wanting to read the book since she heard about it.
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Scott Greenfield thinks some legal academics may stand in need of a civil liberties refresher course.
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This time they’ve ensnared a judge accused of seducing another man’s wife. Maybe that will be enough to get the causes of action abolished at last. On John Edwards’s possible worries about legal liability, see this post from last year. [OnPoint]
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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.