Overlawyered » alcohol

Spokane: we won’t pay off cop over DUI hit-run

Walter Olson — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 04:49:11 +0000

“The Spokane City Council voted [unanimously Feb. 27] against a settlement in which a Spokane police officer fired in 2009 after a DUI and hit and run, would have been rehired and received $275,000. … Councilmember Mike Fagan said during the City Council meeting, ‘I not only say no, but I say hell no.’” [KREM] Attorney Bob Dunn, representing former officer Brad Thoma, said “his client was fired after the city refused to accommodate Thoma following a doctor’s diagnosis of alcoholism. ‘Disability law clearly identifies that alcoholism is just that a disability. Washington follows the ADA.’ The case started in 2009 when Thoma hit another vehicle while driving drunk then fled the scene.” Dunn said he would file a $4 million suit on behalf of Thoma. [same]

Tags: alcohol, disabled rights, police, Washington state

Spokane: we won’t pay off cop over DUI hit-run is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

April 9 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 04:12:25 +0000

Forfeiture-happy customs agents bedevil family flying to Ethiopia [Volokh]
Lawmakers, ABA ex-bigs back campaign to grant law license to illegal alien [Miami Herald]
“NYT reports the FDA is stunned democracy requires they answer to elected political leaders as part of enacting laws” [@CraigBruney]
When did doghouses become a crime? [Alex Ballingall/Maclean's via @amyalkon]
Why Tennessee, famous for distilleries, used to have so few of them [Nashville City Paper via @radleybalko]
ESPN tells only one side of Title IX story [Eric McErlain, Daily Caller; Saving Sports]
Greece: “At the health department they were told that all the shareholders of the company would have to provide chest X-rays” [Mark Perry]

Tags: alcohol, animal rights, bar associations, FDA, forfeiture, immigration law, regulation and its reform, Tennessee, Title IX

April 9 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

ABA Journal on divorce DUI setup scandal

Walter Olson — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 14:39:32 +0000

Brian Sullivan in the ABA Journal recounts the Northern California saga (earlier) of fake winery events, honeytrap Match.com paramours and other ploys by which detectives hired by angry spouses would try to entrap hubbies into DUI arrests, with police connivance.

Tags: alcohol, divorce

ABA Journal on divorce DUI setup scandal is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Recent rehab history no bar to school-bus-driver employment

Walter Olson — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 15:54:26 +0000

In Jefferson County, Colorado, police have filed misdemeanor charges against a substitute bus driver for allegedly heading into a crosswalk against the right of way, hitting three middle school students. After questions were raised about the school’s having hired the driver in October — “He was convicted on a DUI in 1992 and he was going through alcohol rehabilitation treatment as recently [as] 2009″ — a spokesman for the school district cited the following: “It is illegal under state and federal disability laws to deny employment solely on the basis of a history of treatment for alcohol or substance abuse.” There is no indication in the article that alcohol was a factor in the bus accident. [KDVR via Brian Martinez]

Tags: alcohol, disability & schools, disabled rights

Recent rehab history no bar to school-bus-driver employment is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Oglala Sioux tribe sues beer companies over alcoholism

Walter Olson — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 05:07:43 +0000

“An American Indian tribe sued some of the world’s largest beer makers today, claiming they knowingly contributed to devastating alcohol-related problems on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.” The Oglala Sioux tribe is asking for $500 million. [AP; Lincoln Journal-Star; Don Surber] More: Jacob Sullum, Ted Frank.

Tags: alcohol, beer and brewers, Indian tribes, Nebraska, South Dakota

Oglala Sioux tribe sues beer companies over alcoholism is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Judge rejects injured beer-pong champ”

Walter Olson — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:11:27 +0000

“A New Jersey man who got so drunk playing beer pong at a Greenwich Village pub that he thought walking across a busy highway was a good idea cannot sue the bar over his injuries, a judge has ruled.” [Dareh Gregorian, NY Post]

Tags: alcohol, dramshop statutes, NYC, personal responsibility

“Judge rejects injured beer-pong champ” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

February 3 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:10:50 +0000

Judge blocks California budget cuts re: in-home services for disabled [Mercury News]
Media exploited her daughter for titillation, claims suit by mother of “Toddlers & Tiaras” star [Above the Law]
Narrower definition of autism ahead? [Althouse]
“Police Charge Canadian Blogger With Criminal Libel for Criticizing the Police” [Sullum, Popehat]
Prince George’s County, Maryland, wants to ban liquor deliveries; no harm linked to them, but you can’t be too sure [Ben Giles, Washington Examiner] Centers for Disease Control’s curious definition of “binge” drinking [Sullum]
The law of authors’ liability for inaccurate memoirs [Mark Fowler, Rights Of Writers; earlier here, etc.]
“Diagnosing Liability: The Legal History of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder” [Deirdre M. Smith, SSRN via TortsProf]

Tags: alcohol, autism, Canada, Maryland, publishers

February 3 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

October 27 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 12:41:10 +0000

“Table Saw without ‘saw stop’ technology defective: First Circuit” [George Conk, Ted Frank, earlier here, here]
Court OKs burned patron’s flaming-rum suit against Bacardi [Reuters]
Feds won’t pursue Title IX complaint against 60 Oregon school districts [Oregonian]
IRS putting the squeeze on small tax preparers [WaPo]
How the incinerator (and decades of bad decisions) bankrupted Harrisburg [Bond Girl]
“The most thoughtful, reasonable guy in the whole symposium” — aw [Greenfield on law licensing, earlier] P.S. And similarly from David Lat;
Adam Freedman and readers on Florida “wrongful birth” case [Ricochet, earlier]

Tags: alcohol, product liability, small business, taxes, Title IX, wrongful birth and wrongful life

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

“Charlie Davies sues nightclub, Red Bull”

Walter Olson — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 15:11:21 +0000

“D.C. United’s Charlie Davies is suing the owners of a Washington nightclub and the drink company Red Bull for $20 million, claiming they are responsible for a fatal car crash that ended the MLS player’s hopes of joining the 2010 U.S. World Cup team. Davies, now 25, was a passenger in the car driven by a woman who has since pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and drunken driving in the 2009 one-car crash that killed a second passenger.” Perhaps his theory will be that the nightclub had an obligation to assess how drunk the woman was, but he didn’t. [AP/ESPN]

Tags: alcohol, dramshop statutes, personal responsibility

“Charlie Davies sues nightclub, Red Bull” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Nebraska Supreme Court: No DUI in a Private Driveway”

Walter Olson — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 05:13:57 +0000

“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]

Tags: alcohol, Nebraska, traffic laws

“Nebraska Supreme Court: No DUI in a Private Driveway” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system