• Businesswoman takes to her blog to criticize the business practices of a video-production firm, and then the lawsuit arrives [Inc. magazine via MediaBloggers; Vision Media Television v. Leslie Richard/Oko Box]
• Litigious Minneapolis strip club owner “sued a one-time housemate for, among other things, not returning some pillows and a coat rack.” [Star-Tribune via Obscure Store]
• Really now, says judge to Coughlin Stoia class-actioneers, $1,365.95/night in travel expenses is a bit rich in this Coke settlement [Krauss, PoL]
• L.A. attorney Terry Christensen sentenced to three years in Pellicano wiretap scandal [AP/Variety] Did L.A. Times skew coverage toward Pellicano defense? [Patterico, more]
• New Louisiana lawyer-ad rules: would they restrain lawyers from blogging or posting on Facebook/Twitter? [Coleman, Ribstein vs. O'Keefe vs. Greenfield]
• Electing public defenders is bad idea to start with, and things get particularly dicey when the local cops throw their support to one candidate [Balko, Reason "Hit and Run"; Jacksonville, Fla.]
• Online carpooling service? Great idea until the bus authorities get you closed down [Save PickUpPal in Ontario via Coyote; Canada]
• Horizon Blue Cross agrees to settle suit over coverage of eating disorders, will pay $1.18 million to some policyholders to cover extended bulimia and anorexia treatments, and $2.45 million to class action lawyers led by Bruce Nagel of Roseland, N.J. [NJLJ]

• Why real estate agents make you sign 1,000 silly forms [Christopher Fountain] Michigan requires acknowledgment that nearby farms “may generate noise, dust, odors” [Land Division Act h/t Sean Fosmire]
• Albuquerque police take out want ad seeking snitches [AP]
• “A prez must know S of S has no agenda other than his own” Chris Hitchens flays the Hillary pick [Slate]
• Not all British nannies are charming: U.K. regulators may ban “happy hour” in bars [AP h/t Jeff Nolan]
• As Georgia “sex offender” horror stories go, Wendy Whitaker case may outdo Genarlow Wilson’s [Below the Beltway; more on Wilson case]
• U.K. juror polls her Facebook friends to help decide on case [AllFacebook h/t @lilyhill and @Rex7; Greenfield]
• Looking for political conservatives on Twitter? Here’s a long list [Duane Lester, All American Blogger; and I have a comment on ways to use Twitter]
• New page of auto-feeds from leading Canada & U.S. law & politics blogs [Wise Law Reader]
• Bailout’s a lot bigger than you think, try $7.8 trillion with a “t” [John Carney]. Claim: with $ sunk since ‘80, GM and Ford could have closed own plants and bought all shares of Honda, Toyota, Nissan and VW [David Yermack, WSJ via Cowen]. What if Citi gives up Mets naming rights? Gary’s Bail Bonds Stadium just doesn’t quite have the same ring to it [Ray Lehmann]
• Australian class action could derail because overseas funders didn’t register as investment managers [The Australian h/t @SecuritiesD]

Declining to hear an appeal by airlines: “Obese people have the right to two seats for the price of one on flights within Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Thursday.” (Reuters, Nov. 20; CBC). We’ve covered the issue for years, including, e.g., here, here, here (U.S.), here, and here. More thoughts: Scott Greenfield, Ann Althouse.

• Harvard’s Charles Nesson argues that Digital Theft Deterrence and Copyright Damages Improvement Act of 1999 violates Constitution by letting civil lawyers for RIAA enforce a criminal law [AP/MSNBC, Elefant]
• In some circles, bitter disappointment at reports that Obama camp probably won’t pursue Bush predecessors as war criminals [Paul Campos, Horton/Harper's; earlier]
• Latest on wrangle over “exorbitant” fee: Alice Lawrence’s deposition-skipping before her death could endanger her estate’s claim against Graubard Miller law firm [NYLJ, earlier]
• One benefit of role as law school mega-donor, as Mark Lanier is with Texas Tech, is that you get to rub (hunting-jacket) elbows with visiting Supreme Court justices [WSJ law blog]
• Lou Dobbs and Phyllis Schlafly were among those who pushed bizarre theory of secret conspiracy to merge U.S. into “North American Union” with Canada and Mexico [John Hawkins]
• Senate Dems plan to abolish secret ballot for installing unions in everyone else’s workplace, so how come they insist on one for themselves in deciding how to handle Joe Lieberman? [Dan Riehl via McArdle]
• Congrats to historian Rick Brookhiser and City Journal editor Myron Magnet, among recipients of 2008 National Humanities Medal [White House release, Brian Anderson, NRO]
• Jarek Molski, California entrepreneur of disabled-access complaints, loses bid for Supreme Court review of his designation as vexatious litigant [AP, Bashman]

Not if the city’s regulators have anything to say about it, there won’t be. (Ivan Osorio, OpenMarket, Nov. 11; Kelly McParland, National Post, Nov. 11).

• Thanks to guestbloggers Victoria Pynchon (of Negotiation Law Blog) and Jason Barney for lending a hand last week;
• Will the U.S. government need to sponsor its own motorcycle gang in order to hold on to trademark confiscated from “Mongols” group? [WSJ law blog]
• With a little help for its friends: Florida Supreme Court strikes down legislated limits on fees charged by workers’ comp attorneys [St. Petersburg Times, Insurance Journal]
• Stripper, 44, files age discrimination complaint after losing job at Ontario club [YorkRegion.com, Blazing Cat Fur via Blog of Walker] The stripper age bias complaint we covered eight years ago was also from Ontario;
• Federal judge green-lights First Amendment suit by college instructor who says he was discriminated against for conservative political beliefs [NYLJ] (link fixed now)
• Judge orders parties to settle dispute over noisy parrots after it reaches £45,700 in legal costs [Telegraph]
• How to make sure you’re turned down when applying for admittance to the bar [Ambrogi, Massachusetts]
• Questions at depositions can be intended to humiliate and embarrass, not just extract relevant information [John Bratt, Baltimore Injury Lawyer via Miller]

“A Canadian woman whose 9-year-old son tunneled [under a fence] into an electric sub-station and was badly burned is suing a Manitoba power utility for negligence.” (UPI, Oct. 22).

“Ontario vowed to overhaul its pediatric forensic pathology system yesterday following a highly critical report citing the ‘woefully inadequate’ training of pathologist Dr. Charles Smith and the inaction of his supervisors in the coroner’s office who ‘actively protected’ him despite ‘warning signs’ about errors he made that led to wrongful prosecutions.” A 1,000-page report by Justice Stephen Goudge found that Smith’s testimony blaming child deaths on family members resulted in numerous wrongful prosecutions and erroneous convictions, including that of William Mullins-Johnson of Sault Ste. Marie, who “spent 12 years in prison after he was convicted of murdering his four-year-old niece. The conviction was quashed last year after the expert evidence was dismissed as unreliable.” (Jordana Huber, “Inquiry blasts Ontario pathologist”, Ottawa Citizen, Oct. 2; CBC; ABA Journal; Goudge inquiry website and report).

Thanks to Baylen Linnekin for his guestblogging contributions last week. Be sure to check out his handsomely executed “irreverent food blog”, Crispy on the Outside, whose recent topics include bacon thefts in Lancashire, a new California menu-labeling law, and Quebec’s recent legalization of yellow margarine; of particular interest are his food law and banned categories.

One way that can happen to you is to be traveling the Canadian side of the Niagara River on your Sea-Doo jet ski, get caught in the rapids and swept over to the U.S. side. Jason Haist of Toronto was knocked unconscious and nearly drowned in the process, but his legal troubles were only beginning, as U.S. Border Patrol agents filed charges against him. They also arrested his cousin Edward, who tried to help him, for not reporting immediately on entry. After a press outcry, the two were released from their jail cell and returned to Canada. (Toronto Star, Aug. 25; Inside Toronto, Aug. 26).

P.S. Commenter “Buffalo” says the facts are more complicated than would appear from the Canadian press coverage and that “before the accident/injury, there was reportedly evidence that they landed on the US side without reporting in”.

Canada: “The family of Tim McLean is suing Greyhound, the RCMP and the man suspected of committing the gruesome killing of the 22-year-old man aboard a bus in rural Manitoba in July.” (CBC, Sept. 2).

• Lawyers’ contingency fee is temptation to ethical corner-cutting in consumer debt collection, too [Miami Daily Business Review, Popehat; Orlando's Palmer Reifler & Associates, mass mailing of demand letters to accused shoplifters]
• Discussion continues on loser-pays with me and many others at NewTalk, and note comment from Ontario lawyer [through today]
• Age bias suit by Hollywood writers gains traction. Next, actors? [Ink Slingers via Class Action Blawg weekly review]
• Class action against Quebec lottery on behalf of problem gamblers finally set for trial [CP/Yahoo, Lee Distad via Class Action Blawg, earlier]
• Should we and other commentators avoid mentioning litigants’ real names so as not to intrude on their Google legacy? [comments at Ron Miller/Md. Injury]
• California lawmakers OK feel-good “Donda West Law” but it won’t do much to keep impulsive clients from rushing into plastic surgery [GruntDoc, Cameron Turner/EURWeb, Truth in Cosmetic Surgery Blog]
• Probably not a swift career move for lawyer to tell bar disciplinary panel “Go to hell.” [ABA Journal]
• Class action forces HUD to allocate more to some Indian recipients, so it cuts other programs, bad news for North Carolina’s Lumbee tribe [Fayetteville, N.C. Observer courtesy US Chamber]
• Environmental authorities won’t press charges against man who shot protected rattlesnake that had just attacked and bitten him [eight years ago on Overlawyered]

Continuing our theme, Frances Woodard has now lodged a complaint against the public transit authority in Canada’s capital city for barring the diminutive, weasel-like predator whose companionship, according to her psychiatrist, helps her stave off panic attacks. “A letter from OC Transpo customer relations sent in May said the decision was a result of fears about allergic reactions and phobias from other passengers and reactions from other animals, such as guide dogs.” (CBC News, Jul. 23). Monday’s post on the “service monkey” lawsuit from Springfield, Mo. is here.

But Quebec courts have ruled that’s no reason Jean-Alix Miguel should lose his job as a teacher at a Montreal vocational school. Miguel spent seven years in prison for the murder. (Julia Kilpatrick, “Law says convicted killers can teach and practise law — but experts disagree”, Canwest/Victoria (B.C.) Times Colonist, Jul. 13)(via Wingless).

• Texas probate and estate lawyers seldom prosecuted when they steal funds, clients told they should just sue to get it back [Austin American-Statesman investigation]
• About a third of the way down the center strip, then just a bit to the right, you’ll find us on this much-linked map of the campaign season’s most influential websites [Presidential Watch '08]
• Given the enormous liability exposure, would a doctor rationally want a major celebrity as a client? [Scalpel or Sword via KevinMD]
• The loser-pays difference: Canadian franchisees pursue failed class-action claim against sandwich shop Quiznos, judge orders them to pay costs of more than C$200,000 [BizOp via ClassActionBlawg]
• Annals of extreme incivility: judge condemns “heartless attack” at deposition on opposing lawyer’s pin honoring son killed in Iraq [Fulton County Daily Report]
• You keep an open wi-fi connection at home and your neighbor uses it to download music improperly. Are you an infringer too? [Doctorow via Coleman]
• As you’ve probably heard if you read blogs (but maybe not otherwise), one Canadian “human rights” tribunal has dropped action against Mark Steyn and Maclean’s; another still pursuing case [SteynOnline]
• Prison-overcrowding lawsuit could lead to early release of 27,000 California inmates [TalkLeft]
• “He absolutely would’ve gotten this DOJ job but for the anti-liberal bias … and he can’t land any other jobs?” [commenter KenVee on lawsuit over politicized Department of Justice Honors/Intern programs, Kerr @ Volokh, background]

The father wouldn’t let her go on a school trip because he said she’d been acting up, including using a friend’s account to post inappropriate pictures on a dating site. “But [Quebec Superior Court] Justice Suzanne Tessier, who was presiding over the case, found the punishment too severe.” The mother, who is divorced from the father, was supporting the girl; the school’s policy was that both parents’ permission was required for such trips. According to a lawyer involved in the case, the father has legal custody but the girl has been living with her mother for the past month. (AFP/FoxNews.com, Globe and Mail, Eugene Volokh). Plus: Token Conservative suggests a new writ of “habeas bratus”.

• Educator acquitted on charges of roughness toward special ed student sues Teacher Smackdown website over anonymous comments criticizing her [NW Arkansas Morning News, Citizen Media Law Project, House of Eratosthenes]
• Lorain County, Ohio judge who struck down state’s death penalty has Che Guevara poster in his office, though Guevara wasn’t exactly an opponent of killing [USA Today]
• Privatization of U.S. Senate food service is a parable for wider issues [Tabarrok]
• Low-end strategies for acquiring criminal-law clients include trolling the attorney visiting area at the federal lockup, paying the hot dog guy in front of the courthouse [Greenfield]
• A Canadian Senator on why his country’s medical malpractice law works better than you-know-whose [Val Jones MD leads to audio]
• U.K.: convicted rapist sexually assaults and murders teenage girl after housing authority is told evicting him would breach his human rights [Telegraph]
• No word of legal action (yet, at least) in Salina, Kansas car crash that driver blames on “brain freeze” from Sonic restaurant frozen drink [AP/K.C. Star]
• In Michigan, some mysterious entity is trying to drop an electoral anvil on two of our favorite jurists [PoL]

“The provincial agency that regulates casinos in Ontario, Canada, is being sued by registered problem gamblers who claim they aren’t being refused entry. The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. said the $3.5 billion suit was filed Tuesday in Toronto against the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp., on behalf of ‘thousands of addicted gamblers.’” Canadian litigation rules were historically highly restrictive of class actions, but have been liberalized lately. (UPI; Reuters; OGPaper). Similarly earlier here, here, here, etc.