Overlawyered » AAJ

Torts roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 04:03:39 +0000

“Targeting the red plastic gas can”: how product liability bankrupted Oklahoma manufacturer Blitz [editorial, earlier]
Summers v. Tice, the famous “which hunter shot him?” California tort case, re-examined [Kyle Graham, Green Bag/SSRN]
Paul Taylor of House Judiciary makes a case for the constitutionality of broad federal tort reform [Suffolk University Law Review via Point of Law]
New Ken Feinberg book on compensation plans in lieu of litigation [Scheuerman, TortsProf]
Hot propaganda: filmmaker Susan Saladoff faces off against Victor Schwartz on “Hot Coffee” [TortsProf]
Studies of tort reform’s effects underestimate effects of durable reforms by mixing them in with the many that are struck down by hostile courts [Martin Grace and Tyler Leverty, SSRN via Robinette, TortsProf]
Membership in AAJ, the trial lawyers’ lobby, said to be on the decline [Carter Wood, PoL]

Tags: AAJ, constitutional law, hot coffee, product liability, tort reform

Torts roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Politics roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 04:07:24 +0000

Vice President Biden raises at least hundreds of thousands of dollars at AAJ annual convention in Chicago [PoL] Romney’s law and legal policy team [Brian Baxter, AmLaw Daily]
Law star Ted Cruz advances toward Senate [David Lat, AtL]
Can Republicans make hay out of Democrats’ platform endorsement of same-sex marriage? New Pew poll, as well as May polling round, offers reasons to doubt that [my new post at Maryland for All Families]
“Why Citizens United Has Nothing to Do with What Ails American Politics” [Ilya Shapiro, The American, more]
Bridgeport mayor Joseph Ganim, of gun-suit fame, a step closer to getting law license back after serving 7-year prison term for corruption [Courant] Eight more indictments as the Connecticut corruption scandals roll on [Conn Post]
Rob McKenna’s star on rise in Washington; he’s pursued public-liability reform as the state’s attorney general [Daily Caller, earlier]
Bypassing public financing, West Virginia judicial candidates pour their own injury-law fortunes into races [Richie Heath, Charleston Daily Mail]
“How hot is it in DC today? Congressman Paul is using a paper money substitute because his actual money melted.” [Tim Carney]

Tags: AAJ, Connecticut, Joe Biden, Maryland, same-sex marriage, West Virginia

Politics roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

February 27 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 05:08:07 +0000

Department of Transportation cracks down on distraction from cars’ onboard information and entertainment systems; Mike Masnick suspects the measure won’t work as intended, as appears to have been the case with early texting bans [Techdirt; earlier here, etc.] “Feds Push New York Toward Full Ban On Electronic Devices In Cars” [Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit; Truth About Cars]
Oh no: Scott Greenfield says he’s ceasing to post at his exemplary criminal defense blog after five years [Simple Justice, Dave Hoffman]
California not entitled to pursue its own foreign policy, at least when in conflict with rest of nation’s: unanimous “blockbuster” decision by en banc 9th Circuit strikes down law enabling insurance suits by Armenian victims [AP, Alford/OJ, Recorder, related, Frank/PoL]
Playboy model’s $1.2M award against Gotham cops is a great day for the tabloids [NYDN]
To hear a pitch for fracking-royalty suits, visit the American Association for Justice convention, or just read the New York Times [Wood, PoL]
What the mortgage settlement did [John Cochrane, earlier]
Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978 blows up an adoption: “She’s a 2-year-old girl who got shoved in a truck and driven to Oklahoma with strangers.” [Reuters, SaveVeronica.org]

Tags: AAJ, adoption, autos, California, Indian tribes, insurance, legal blogs, mortgages, oil industry, reparations

February 27 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

July 18 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 13:13:46 +0000

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]

Tags: AAJ, banks, constitutional law, harassment law, hot coffee, international law, mortgages, New Jersey, North Carolina, traffic laws, workers' compensation

July 18 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Susan Saladoff documentary “Hot Coffee” at Sundance

Walter Olson — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 17:15:09 +0000

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“

Tags: AAJ, hot coffee, litigation lobby, movies film and videos, Stella Liebeck

Susan Saladoff documentary “Hot Coffee” at Sundance is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Bowles-Simpson commission proposes med-mal reform

Walter Olson — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 13:13:50 +0000

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]

Tags: AAJ, defensive medicine, medical malpractice

Bowles-Simpson commission proposes med-mal reform is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Counsel shall not make any derogatory remarks generally about trial lawyers”

Walter Olson — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 21:14:37 +0000

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]

Tags: AAJ, banks, lawyers

“Counsel shall not make any derogatory remarks generally about trial lawyers” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

July 15 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:49:02 +0000

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]

Tags: AAJ, Apple, asbestos, attorneys general, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, international human rights, Rhode Island, sanctions, taxes, terrorism

July 15 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

July 14 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:14:04 +0000

“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]

Tags: AAJ, asbestos, banana pesticide litigation fraud, copyright, debtor-creditor law, forum shopping, Harry Reid, taxes, terrorism, Thomas Girardi

July 14 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

May 12 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 12 May 2010 11:01:27 +0000

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]

Tags: AAJ, age discrimination, California, contingent fee, criminal records and hiring, FTC endorsement rules, Google, Harvard, search engines, strippers and exotic dancers

May 12 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system