Overlawyered » airlines

“JFK Airport a Foul Nest of Luggage Thieves, Claims Random Dude”

Walter Olson — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 19:22:01 +0000

Choire Sicha at The Awl reports on the latest doings of New York attorney and emerging Overlawyered favorite Kenneth Mollins, seen earlier here and here.

Tags: airlines, NYC

“JFK Airport a Foul Nest of Luggage Thieves, Claims Random Dude” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Disabled rights roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 05:06:43 +0000

ADA mills continue to extract money from California small businesses with no legislative relief in sight [Auburn Journal, Andrew Ross/S.F. Chronicle, KABC (James Farkus Cohan), WTSP (Squeeze Inn owner speaks out), CJAC (Lungren proposal) and more, Chamber (San Francisco coffee shop's woes, auto-plays video)] Profile of attorney Thomas Frankovich [California Lawyer];
EEOC sues employer for turning away job applicant on methadone program [Jon Hyman]
“Maryland high court: allergy is disability requiring accommodation” [PoL]
“Suits could force L.A. to spend huge sums on sidewalk repair” [Los Angeles Times]
Under gun from Department of Justice and SCOTUS Olmstead ruling, Virginia and other states agree to massive overhaul of services for developmentally disabled; not all families, though, are happy with the insistence on relocating residents of large facilities to smaller “community” settings [Richmond Times-Dispatch, McDonnell press release, Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, Staunton News-Leader]
“New Case from W.D. Tex. Shows Effect of ADAAA on Back Injury Claims” [Disability Law]
Lawyer leads effort to give disabled passengers wider rights to sue airlines [Toledo Free Press]

Tags: ADA filing mills, airlines, allergies, California, disabled rights, EEOC, illegal drugs, Los Angeles, Maryland, Virginia

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

February 6 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:02:14 +0000

“A 4-Page Playdate Waiver? Is This the New Normal?” [Lenore Skenazy, Free-Range Kids; our 2000 post on "Rise of the High-School Sleepover Disclaimer"]
Spirit Airlines sets what it calls DOTUC fee, for “Dept. of Transportation Unintended Consequences” [Stoll]
How fairly are fathers treated in family court? [Nina Shapiro, Seattle Weekly via Alkon]
“‘Insider’ Trading by the Representative Plaintiff in Shareholder Litigation” [Bainbridge]
“Donation controversy focuses attention on Madison County asbestos litigation” [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Chamber-backed LNL]
Update: Appeals court reinstates Duluth doc’s defamation claims [DNT, earlier here, here, here; "bedside manner" criticism]
U.K.: “‘Psychic’ Sally Morgan Sues Critics for £150,000 After Refusing $1 Million to Prove Her Powers” [D.J. Grothe, HuffPo] “She’ll be calling witnesses such as ‘an uncle, or father, or a man… with a b in his first name’.” [@thegagthief]

Tags: airlines, asbestos, divorce, family law, libel slander and defamation, Madison County, recreation, Seattle, securities litigation, United Kingdom

February 6 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

January 31 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:06:21 +0000

Latest of periodic Towers Watson (formerly Towers Perrin/Tillinghast) surveys: tort costs fell in 2010 excluding oil spill liability [Towers Watson]
“Will Newt Neuter the Courts?” [James Huffman, Defining Ideas] Obama’s high court appointees are fortunately friendlier toward civil liberties than he is [Steve Chapman]
Unanimous Cal Supremes: companies not legally responsible for other companies’ asbestos products used as replacement for theirs [Cal Biz Lit, Jackson, Beck, Mass Tort Prof]
Claim: jurors considered policy implications of verdict and you can’t have that [On Point; defense verdict in Baltimore, Maryland school-bullying case]
Airfare display mandate: “‘Protecting’ Consumers from the Truth About the Cost of Government” [Thom Lambert, TotM]
Critical assessment of AP-backed new copyright aggregator “NewsRight” [Mike Masnick] Promises not to be “Righthaven 2.0″ [Cit Media Law]
Restatement (Third) of Torts drafters vs. Enlightenment scientific views of causation [David Oliver in June]

Tags: airlines, asbestos, Baltimore, Barack Obama, bullying, California, deep pocket, juries, Newt Gingrich, RightHaven, taxes, Tillinghast, toxic torts

January 31 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Suit: cabin noise deafened man

Walter Olson — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 14:16:00 +0000

“An Oregon man who was flying home from the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport pleaded with a Delta Airlines flight attendant about the ‘extreme discomfort’ he was enduring because of a loud noise during the nearly four-hour flight.” Kent Neilson says he suffered permanent hearing loss and tinnitus and wants $2 million. [Oregonian]

Tags: airlines

Suit: cabin noise deafened man is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

November 22 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 05:35:53 +0000

Furor continues over insider trading by Congress [Roger Parloff/Fortune, Bainbridge ("unimpressed" with reform proposal entitled STOCK Act), earlier] Rep. Bachus disputes claims in Peter Schweizer book [AW, Perry]
“Fort Hood victims’ families seek $750M from feds” [Kenneth Timmerman, Daily Caller]
“Chicago Lawyer Sues Southwest, Says Airline Breached Free-Drink Coupon Contract” [ABA Journal]
“Lawyer Solicitation: Penn State Sex Abuse Edition” [Turkewitz] Slate slags Merck CEO [Ted Frank]
Akaka Hawaii-racialization bill, smuggled in through the back door? [Ilya Shapiro, background]
Suits over Hurricane Irene electrical outages expected to spread [Connecticut Law Tribune, Chris Powell]
Fiasco envy? “RIAA Thinking Of Backing Righthaven” [Masnick, TechDirt] “Righthaven ordered to pay nearly $120,000 in attorney fees, court costs” [VegasInc., Ars Technica, American Power Blog]

Tags: airlines, contracts, Hawaii, military, RightHaven, Senate, terrorism, U.S. House of Representatives, Vioxx

November 22 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Feds punish tarmac delays, airlines cancel flights instead (redux)

Walter Olson — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:53:52 +0000

The Washington Post reports further developments on a regulatory-backfire story aired in this and many other places nearly two years ago.

Tags: airlines

Feds punish tarmac delays, airlines cancel flights instead (redux) is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Couple sues airline over cockroaches on plane”

Walter Olson — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 05:13:36 +0000

Attorney Harry Marsh and his fiancée, Kaitlin Rush, are “suing AirTran Airways, claiming they saw cockroaches coming out of air vents and storage areas on a recent flight and that attendants ignored their concerns…. They’re suing for more than $100,000, plus the price of their tickets.” The airline denies some of the allegations in the suit and says it takes precautions against bugs. [Charlotte Observer]

Tags: airlines

“Couple sues airline over cockroaches on plane” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Great moments in airline law

Walter Olson — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 05:16:42 +0000

From Canada’s National Post:

The Federal Court of Canada on Wednesday ordered Air Canada to pay $12,000 to Ottawa French-language rights crusader Michel Thibodeau in part because when he asked an English-speaking flight attendant for 7Up in May 12 of 2009, he got Sprite.

“The applicants’ language rights are clearly very important to them and the violation of their rights caused them a moral prejudice, pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of their vacation,” Justice Marie-Josee Bedard wrote in her judgment.

The bulk of the lawsuit, filed by a frequent language-law litigant, contended that the airline failed to assign French-speaking flight attendants to several flights and failed to make a baggage announcement in French despite a federal law requiring alternative-language use “where there is significant demand for those services in the minority language and where it is warranted by the nature of the office or facility.”

Tags: airlines, Canada

Great moments in airline law is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Lawsuit planned by family of teen who fell from airplane”

Walter Olson — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 12:47:50 +0000

Hoping to ride for free, 16-year-old Delvonte Tisdale stowed away in the landing gear of a US Airways flight but fell to his death in the Boston area. Now his family is suing, represented by Florida attorney Christopher Chestnut, who argues that the lad “should never have successfully gained access to that airplane. Had airport security been up to par, he would be alive and well with his family today.” [Boston Globe and more via TortsProf, BoingBoing]

Tags: airlines, personal responsibility

“Lawsuit planned by family of teen who fell from airplane” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system