And helps in avoiding heels too: “That’s the best way: You just get on with the whole thing. Never mind suing anyone. And just do something different.” — NYT’s Bill Cunningham on the Louboutin trademark litigation over red soles on fashion shoes (via Ann Althouse, who now offers an all-law-blog option).
From the monthly archives:
October 2011
“Jeffrey McCave was sentenced in a county court to thirty days in jail, two years of probation and a $1000 fine for listening to music in an undriven car parked on his father’s driveway while drunk. The Nebraska Supreme Court on Friday used the case to clarify that the charge of driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) does not apply in a personal driveway.” [The Newspaper]
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My new post at Cato at Liberty examines the latest EPA about-face following pushback against its ambitious regulatory schemes. Alarms by farmer and rancher interests over EPA’s proposed curbs on dust in the atmosphere had led to ongoing political headaches for President Obama and Senate Democrats. More: Politico; Robert VerBruggen/NRO and more; welcome Neal Boortz readers.
A human-interest story in the Times about the business of recruiting “fillers” for police lineups raises uncomfortable questions about the accuracy of eyewitness identification [Scott Greenfield].
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Lawyers who practice stress reduction techniques want discounts from their malpractice insurers [ABA Journal]
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“A whistle-blower tells how a private detective arranged for men to be arrested for drunk driving at the behest of their ex-wives and their lawyers — and that entrapment using decoys was only one of many alleged misdeeds.” [L.A. Times; Contra Costa County (Bay Area), Calif.]
A judge has ruled that the notice to class members of a class action over unsolicited faxes should be delivered by … fax [Christina Stueve, Madison County Record; related editorial]
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- “Convicted King of Class Actions Builds Aviary, Regrets Nothing” [Lerach, Bloomberg profile]
- Teva/Baxter suits: Latest Nevada you-made-the-vials-too-big propofol verdict makes no more sense than first [Glenn Lammi, Forbes; Ted at PoL]
- EPA malicious prosecution in Hubert Vidrine case won’t be “isolated” unless we change our thinking [Ken at Popehat]
- Title IX coordinator training: “How federal regulations are making college ‘risk management’ lawyers rich” [Robert Shibley, Daily Caller] A lawyer spots more problems with Department of Education regulations on campus sexual assault [Robert Smith, RCP]
- Time to admit: on consequences of protecting big banks from capitalism, “Occupy” has a point [Nicole Gelinas, City Journal]
- Lawsuits accuse Boeing of engine-air-in-cabin “fume events” [MSNBC]
- About those “Topeka decriminalizes domestic violence” stories [Lowering the Bar]
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Gordon Crovitz at the WSJ tells how muddled property rights, combined with the dependence of real estate developers on the good will of New York’s City Council, have resulted in the continuing occupation of Zuccotti Park.
The law is meant to reach anyone who buys or otherwise deals in used items at least once a month, and requires noncash payment methods. And that’s just the start: [Ackel & Associates]
…For every transaction a secondhand dealer must obtain the seller’s personal information such as their name, address, driver’s license number and the license plate number of the vehicle in which the goods were delivered. They must also make a detailed description of the item(s) purchased and submit this with the personal identification information of every transaction to the local policing authorities through electronic daily reports. If a seller cannot or refuses to produce to the secondhand dealer any of the required forms of identification, the secondhand dealer is prohibited from completing the transaction.
P.S. According to James in comments, the quoted account exaggerates the stringency of the law in question as well as its novelty. More: Volokh, Opposing Views, Greenfield, Masnick.
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The suit was just a political stunt, writes Marc Hodak:
…Last week, the Delaware Chancery Court decided that in the absence of any substantiation whatsoever, and insisting on these things called facts, that they had to dismiss the case.
I only wish that the fiduciaries who brought this fact-challenged suit could be held accountable for the far more provable waste of their investors’ resources…
“A banker is suing her former sex discrimination lawyer who she says advised her ‘to start crying’ the next time she had a meeting with her boss.” [Daily Mail]
Entrepreneurial lawyers have filed numerous suits against New York City restaurants over alleged violations of tip-splitting and overtime rules, a trend helped along by wage rulings from the state Labor Department. Now one of the town’s best-known restaurateurs says he’s had enough, per the New York Post:
“Money-hungry lawyers, through frivolous lawsuits, are shaking down the very foundation of Manhattan’s restaurant industry,” fumed Joe Bastianich, co-owner of Eataly, Del Posto and Babbo.
Bastianich said the litigation — he has been sued twice — has left such a bitter taste that he’s done with setting up new ventures in New York.
“We opened Eataly and put 700 jobs in the New York economy. Since then we haven’t opened another restaurant in New York, nor will we,” Bastianich told The Post. “We opened three other restaurants, in California and Connecticut, worth 1,000 jobs that could have been here in New York. Someone in Albany needs to understand the agenda, what this is really costing the greatest restaurant city in the world.”
Earlier here, etc.
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My new Cato post has a suggestion for Time magazine: how about prosecuting only the executives who’ve actually committed crimes? (& Kenneth Silber, RealClearPolitics “Best of the Blogs”). Related: Politico.
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- Pre-terror-attack antibiotic availability? HHS doesn’t think you’re sophisticated enough to handle that freedom [Stewart Baker]
- Uh-oh: some New York lawmakers want “a more refined First Amendment” [Slashdot, Lucy Steigerwald]
- Wal-Mart v. Dukes decision could curb certification of some wage and hour class actions [Fox]
- “Miss. Supreme Court Removes Judge from $322M Asbestos Case Because of Dad’s Lawsuits” [ABA Journal]
- Mass. town wants to seize family motel under forfeiture law, IJ objects [Jacob Sullum, Mark Perry]
- Will FDA use its new tobacco-regulatory power to stub out cigars? [DC]
- “Dole settles pesticide litigation” [WSJ Law Blog, background]
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With a “Request for Comments, Data, and Information” (PDF), the Food and Drug Administration has begun laying the groundwork for mandatory sodium reductions in food processing. Caleb Brown interviewed me for a Cato podcast on the subject. For more on the furor over H.J. Heinz’s unpopular reformulation of HP Sauce at the suggestion of the British government, see Telegraph and Daily Mail accounts.
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Ocean City, N.J., a municipality of 12,000 residents, has recently been coping with nine lawsuits filed by municipal workers. Among them: lifeguards aged 66 and 68 who alleged employment discrimination against them based on their age. [Douglas Bergen, Ocean City Patch via AnnMarie McDonald, New Jersey Lawsuit Abuse Watch; Press of Atlantic City].
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A humorous take on the news that supermarkets in the United Kingdom may soon be freed to enter the legal services market [NewsThump]:
…there are fears that the income of Britain’s lawyers could be slightly affected.
“Our members are already feeling the pinch, and in some cases we’ve had to not quite bleed people dry”, claimed Claude Darkus of the Law Society….
Consumers have already formed several support groups for struggling lawyers, with drop-in centres where they can have a quick money shower and kick some puppies.
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