Overlawyered » AAJ http://overlawyered.com Chronicling the high cost of our legal system Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:28:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 July 18 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/july-18-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/july-18-roundup/#comments Mon, 18 Jul 2011 13:13:46 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=23889
  • Per New Jersey court, overly sedentary home office job can result in valid worker’s comp claim [Courier-Post, NJLRA]
  • Trial bar’s AAJ denies it played “direct” role in backing “Hot Coffee” [WaPo, some background]
  • “Cop repeatedly harasses waitresses, never disciplined. Feds defend their civil rights by . . . suing the restaurant.” [Palm Beach Post via Radley Balko]
  • On “unauthorized practice of law” as protective moat around profession’s interests, Britain does things differently [Gillian Hadfield via Andrew Sullivan; related, Larry Ribstein] Forthcoming book by Robert Crandall et al urges lawyer deregulation [Brookings]
  • “The Treaty Clause Doesn’t Give Congress Unlimited Power” [Ilya Shapiro, Cato on Golan v. Holder case headed to Supreme Court]
  • The small bank regulatory shakedown blues [Kevin Funnell] Why is the Department of Justice including gag orders as part of its enforcement decrees against banks on race and lending? [Investors Business Daily via PoL] “Emigrant fights back against mortgage-discrimination suits” [Fisher, Forbes] Dodd-Frank squeezing out community banks [Funnell]
  • “North Carolina to Seize Speeding Cars That Fail to Pull Over” [The Newspaper] “With what, a tractor beam?” [James Taranto]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/july-18-roundup/feed/ 3     Susan Saladoff documentary “Hot Coffee” at Sundance http://overlawyered.com/2011/01/susan-saladoff-documentary-hot-coffee-at-sundance/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/01/susan-saladoff-documentary-hot-coffee-at-sundance/#comments Mon, 24 Jan 2011 17:15:09 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=21131 At Abnormal Use, Nick Farr brings some scrutiny to what’s looking like the big trial-bar media venture of the season.

    P.S. And a follow-up that really stands on its own as a resource: “The Stella Liebeck McDonald’s Hot Coffee Case FAQ“

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/01/susan-saladoff-documentary-hot-coffee-at-sundance/feed/ 7     Bowles-Simpson commission proposes med-mal reform http://overlawyered.com/2010/12/bowles-simpson-commission-proposes-med-mal-reform/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/12/bowles-simpson-commission-proposes-med-mal-reform/#comments Fri, 03 Dec 2010 13:13:50 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=20455 Like others who’ve looked at the question of how to close the federal government’s vast budget deficit, it finds promise in the idea of curbing liability payouts and defensive medicine. Trial lawyers are vowing to fight. [National Law Journal, Point of Law]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/12/bowles-simpson-commission-proposes-med-mal-reform/feed/ 2     “Counsel shall not make any derogatory remarks generally about trial lawyers” http://overlawyered.com/2010/12/counsel-shall-not-make-any-derogatory-remarks-generally-about-trial-lawyers/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/12/counsel-shall-not-make-any-derogatory-remarks-generally-about-trial-lawyers/#comments Thu, 02 Dec 2010 21:14:37 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=20453 A breach-of-contract trial under way in D.C. this week “pits the trial lawyers group American Association for Justice against its would-be lender, Wachovia Bank.” [ABA Journal]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/12/counsel-shall-not-make-any-derogatory-remarks-generally-about-trial-lawyers/feed/ 1     July 15 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2010/07/july-15-roundup-2/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/07/july-15-roundup-2/#comments Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:49:02 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=18176
  • More outcry over report of big new Treasury tax break for injury lawyers [Chris Moody, Daily Caller, Wood/ShopFloor]
  • Geologists’ annoyance over bill to oust asbestos-containing serpentine as California state rock makes NYT front page [yesterday; Dan Walters, Facebook group, Calif. Civil Justice, Bailey via Adler, earlier]
  • Great moments in international human rights: “Known al-Qaeda Operative Could Not Be Deported [from UK]” [Foster, NRO]
  • “Is the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act a Government Cash Cow?” [Koehler, FCPA Professor]
  • Franklin Mint case cont’d: “Manatt Tries to Beat Back Malicious Prosecution Lawsuit” [Baxter/American Lawyer, earlier]
  • “Washington’s parasites take aim at Apple” [David Boaz, Philadelphia Inquirer]
  • Gubernatorial bid by Rhode Island attorney general Patrick Lynch seems to have fizzled [Jessica Taylor, Politico via Law and More]
  • Go explicit or go home: Georgia abolishes implied private rights of action [PoL, my Reason take years ago]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/07/july-15-roundup-2/feed/ 1     July 14 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2010/07/july-14-roundup-2/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/07/july-14-roundup-2/#comments Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:14:04 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=18178
  • “Sources: Trial lawyers expect tax break from Treasury Department” [Legal NewsLine, PoL, earlier; measure would reportedly replicate contents of bill that didn't pass Congress]
  • No doubt totally unrelated: eight Dem Senate candidates journey to Vancouver for AAJ fundraiser [The Hill, David Freddoso, ShopFloor, more]
  • Report: elderly man jailed after making “bomb” joke about carry-on at airport [NBCNewYork]
  • New York debt collection law firm files 80,000 actions a year, critics say errors and lack of documentation inevitable [NYT]
  • Kimberly-Clark: quit letting asbestos plaintiffs forum-shop against us [SE Texas Record] How a new asbestos defendant can get “passed around” among claimants [Global Tort, scroll] Prosperity of one Cleveland asbestos law firm I’d never heard of [Briefcase]
  • North Carolina court of appeals: employee rushing to bathroom after getting off work not acting within scope of employment [Matthews v. Food Lion, PDF]
  • “Curse of the greedy copyright holders” [Woodlief, WSJ, via de Rugy, NRO; TechDirt]
  • Update: “Ninth Circuit suspends Walter Lack, reprimands Thomas Girardi” [famed California lawyers tripped up in Dole suit; Legal Ethics Forum, PoL, earlier]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/07/july-14-roundup-2/feed/ 2     May 12 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2010/05/may-12-roundup-3/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/05/may-12-roundup-3/#comments Wed, 12 May 2010 11:01:27 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=17334
  • Charged $21K at purported “gentleman’s” club: “Plaintiff Has No Recollection of What Transpired in the Private Room” [Lowering the Bar]
  • Census Bureau sued for discriminating against applicants based on criminal, arrest records [Clegg, NRO] Class action against Accenture for screening job applicants based on criminal records [Jon Hyman]
  • Virtual indeed: “Virtual Freedom” author wants government to regulate Google’s search engine [ConcurOp]
  • Contingency fees for public sector lawyering could take California down dangerous path [CJAC]
  • “Harvard Law vs. free inquiry: Dean Martha Minow flunks the test” [Peter Berkowitz, Weekly Standard]
  • There’ll always be an AAJ: seminar for trial lawyers on “Injuries Without Evidence” [ShopFloor] More: The Briefcase.
  • Congress may expand law to enable more age-bias suits [BLT]
  • “FTC Closes First Blogger Endorsement Investigation” [Balasubramani, Spam Notes; Citizen Media Law]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/05/may-12-roundup-3/feed/ 1     April 6 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2010/04/april-6-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/04/april-6-roundup/#comments Tue, 06 Apr 2010 05:06:50 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=16809
  • “Trademark Infringement Suit by AAJ Against Another Trial Lawyer Group to Go to Trial” [Qualters, NLJ]
  • NPR covers SLAPP suits [On the Media]
  • Wi-fi, junk science, loser-pays and lawsuit lunacy [Popehat, Chicago Tribune, earlier here and here]
  • Metro-East Illinois attorney Rex Carr told to pay $635K in sanctions for bad faith suits against former partners [Belleville News-Democrat, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Courthouse News]
  • Sheep with the bends: “Animal Rights Groups Getting Clever With the Law” [WSJ Law Blog]
  • Canada: “Comedian Charged With Human Rights Violation By Lesbian Insulted At Club” [Turley]
  • Princeton freshman sues after being denied extra time to complete test [Princeton Packet via Obscure Store]
  • Eric Turkewitz: why my April Fool’s prank wasn’t an ethical violation under NY rules [New York Personal Injury Law Blog] Update: Colin Samuels recounts the whole affair at Infamy or Praise.
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/04/april-6-roundup/feed/ 2     “Interest in Toyotas Starts to Revive” http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/interest-in-toyotas-starts-to-revive/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/interest-in-toyotas-starts-to-revive/#comments Fri, 26 Mar 2010 05:05:50 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=16653 According to Kelley’s Blue Book, consumers are trending back toward the Japanese maker in their buying plans. [New York Times "Bucks" blog] That’s despite the menace of rays from outer space, as denounced by one anonymous informant to NHTSA. [Detroit Free Press, which has a PDF of the submission from "A Concerned Scientist"]

    More: On a more serious note, Holman Jenkins has a good column today [WSJ, sub-only] tracing the key role of bandwagon effects in sudden acceleration consciousness (which is one reason waves of complaints tend to occur in clumps, by carmaker and otherwise). Excerpt:

    …In 2001, at least four papers were presented at the annual meeting of the Trial Lawyers Association urging a revival of sudden unintended acceleration litigation, insisting that such cases could prevail in absence of evidence of a defect, and even amid evidence of driver error, simply by harping in front of a jury on a record of “Other Similar Incidents” (OSI).

    That’s the roadmap being followed now, as lawyer Randy Roberts told CNBC this week: “Toyota is very good at taking one consumer complaint about sudden unintended acceleration and dissecting it and convincing you that it may have been a floor mat or driver error or a sticky pedal. But when you put all those complaints out on the table, then you can see the big picture. That’s how you connect the dots.”

    Huh? The logic here is ridiculous. To wit: 15 examples of X causing Y are proof that something other than X must cause Y.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/interest-in-toyotas-starts-to-revive/feed/ 4     Blogging “Trial Lawyers Inc. — K Street” http://overlawyered.com/2010/02/blogging-trial-lawyers-inc-k-street/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/02/blogging-trial-lawyers-inc-k-street/#comments Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:40:47 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=16116 Last week my colleagues at the Manhattan Institute put out a report in their Trial Lawyers Inc. series taking a look at the lobbying clout of the plaintiff’s bar in Washington and elsewhere. It’s full of interesting details and vignettes, and now Jim Copland, who presided over the compiling of the report, will be blogging it all week at Point of Law. His first installment is here.

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