Overlawyered » aviation

February 17 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:38:53 +0000

Mortgage robo-signing settlement not actually as punitive toward the banks as you might think, succeeds in sticking costs onto various parties not at table [FT, more (US taxpayers could wind up covering much of write-down costs through HAMP program); Felix Salmon (write-downs of underwater mortgages should not be assessed at face value); Mark Calabria, Cato and more, Bloomberg (banks managing to offload much of the cramdown onto investors such as pension funds); Daniel Fisher/Forbes one, two, three (banks get covert benefits, politicos get social engineering and fees -- shades of the collusive tobacco settlement!); Above the Law (Schneiderman steers money to legal services programs); Linette Lopez, BI (banks still exposed on many issues). More: Hans Bader, John Steele Gordon.
"Burned at mediation by my own Facebook post" [Stuart Mauney, Abnormal Use]
As anti-discrimination law advances, religious liberty retreats [Roger Pilon, Cato] Two views on the birth control mandate [Cathy Young, David Henderson] More: Adler, Frum.
Caswell Motel case from Tewksbury, Mass. heads to court, could test forfeiture law [Balko] More: Washington Post editorial.
Which is more unreasonable, OSHA regulation or FAA’s? Open to dispute [John Cochrane, Grumpy Economist]
Indiana becomes a right to work state. On to Michigan next? [Shikha Dalmia, Reason]
Warning! Tale of trial psychologists in wizard garb comes from a sinister source, namely me ["In the News," forensic psychologist Karen Franklin, handsome illustration swiped from Cato site]

Tags: aviation, banks, discrimination law, Facebook, forfeiture, Indiana, labor unions, Michigan, mortgages, OSHA

February 17 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

September 19 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 05:34:48 +0000

Educator: please don’t bring lawyers to parent-teacher meetings [Ron Clark, CNN] Steve Brill: what I found when I investigated NYC teacher “rubber rooms” [Reuters] “The Six Dumbest Things Schools Are Doing in the Name of Safety” [Cracked] School waterfall liability [Lincoln, Neb. Journal-Star]
As predicted: “Dodd-Frank Paperwork a Bonanza for Consultants and Lawyers” [NYT]
“Running out of common drugs” [Josh Bloom, NY Post] Pharmaceutical shortages: the role of Medicare price controls [Richard Epstein, Hoover; earlier here, here, etc.]
DoT insists on exposing private flight plans online. Yoo-hoo, privacy advocates? [Steve Chapman]
New class action law in Mexico includes loser-pays provision [WSJ]
Newt Gingrich candidacy revives memories of his 1995 call for death penalty (with “mass executions”) for drug smuggling [NYT archive via Josh Barro; see also @timothy_watson "Sounds kinda like Shariah Law to me.")
"Cy pres slush fund in Georgia under ethics investigation" [PoL]

Tags: aviation, class actions, cy pres, Georgia, illegal drugs, loser pays, Mexico, pharmaceuticals, schools, teacher tenure

September 19 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

The cost of light planes

Walter Olson — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:37:40 +0000

The cost of buying a Piper Cub or similar sport/light aircraft has risen very steeply as measured in constant dollars or labor hours since 1947, in contrast to the cost of most other engineered goods. Economists David Henderson and W. Kip Viscusi know why.

Tags: aviation, product liability

The cost of light planes is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

February 7 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 05:13:26 +0000

Paper by Lester Brickman previews his much-anticipated new book Lawyer Barons [Mass Tort Lit, SSRN] More: Sheila Scheuerman, TortsProf.
“A Players’ Class Action Against the NFL for Concussions?” [Russell Jackson]
C’mon, DoJ, stop spreading domestic violence myths [Christina Hoff Sommers, USA Today]
“Historians as Experts: A Plea for Help” [Bill Childs, TortsProf; related, Nathan Schachtman]
Might not really work, though: “A call for aviation liability reform in South Dakota” [PoL]
“Chevron Turns Tables on Ecuador Plaintiffs; Sues Them” [WSJ Law Blog, ShopFloor, more, yet more, NYLJ]
Hedge funder plays race card against NYC’s famed Dakota co-op. How plausibly? [Business Insider]
N.C. official: citizen who challenged road plans might be practicing engineering without a license [N&O]

Tags: aviation, Chevron, domestic violence, expert witnesses, football, Lester Brickman, real estate, South Dakota

February 7 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Houston: lawyer forgets his $800 jacket at airport food court

Walter Olson — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:52:49 +0000

And now someone must pay [The Smoking Gun]

More: Jon Coppelman consults Ogletree’s “settlement calculator”.

Tags: aviation, Houston, nastygrams

Houston: lawyer forgets his $800 jacket at airport food court is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

February 24 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 05:08:26 +0000

Adventures of a 28-year-old California foreclosure attorney [McSweeneys]
National Enquirer ruled eligible for Pulitzer Prize consideration for John Edwards coverage [ABC, Guardian]
Las Vegas attorney agrees to plead to unspecified charges in tort-mill scheme initially described by prosecutors as massive [ABA Journal, earlier here and here]
Expect demands for greater regulation of general aviation after Austin attack [Skating on Stilts]
Dear firm colleagues: does Morocco has an extradition treaty with the U.S.? Need to know quickly [Lowering the Bar] Related on Scott Rothstein: do not purchase investment advice from persons with gold toilets;
Is a Texas prosecutor seeking to criminalize workplace accidents? [Bennett, Defending People]
Cold comfort dept.: lawprof tired of people carrying on about being dragged through litigation, it’s not as if they’re being held liable [Howard Wasserman, Prawfsblawg]
Iceland’s free-press project “is largely symbolic – which is not to say unimportant” [N.Y. Times quoting David Ardia, earlier]

Tags: aviation, California, crime and punishment, mortgages, Nevada, Rielle Hunter, Scott Rothstein, workplace

February 24 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Airline turbulence injury blamed on weather forecasters

Walter Olson — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:19:24 +0000

“Two Alaska Airlines flight attendants who were injured when a 2007 flight from Seattle to California encountered turbulent air have filed a legal claim against a national weather forecasting service and against the U.S. government.” [Seattle Times/Belleville News-Democrat]

Tags: aviation, proximate cause, taxpayers

Airline turbulence injury blamed on weather forecasters is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Claim: air crash caused drug overdose death

Walter Olson — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:43:39 +0000

A suit by the estate of the late DJ AM says a 2008 plane crash that he survived helped cause his 2009 drug overdose death [ET Online, TortsProf]

Tags: aviation, illegal drugs, proximate cause

Claim: air crash caused drug overdose death is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Buys house near SFO, sues many parties over jet noise

Walter Olson — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:47:37 +0000

California: “Stanley Hilton, 60, of Hillsborough, said in unique court papers that his wife of 13 years divorced him and took their young triplets with her last year because of ‘around-the-clock’ jet noise at SFO. …Hilton last week sued (PDF) SFO, Hillsborough, the counties of San Mateo and San Francisco, dozens of airlines and jet manufacturers, and the real estate agents and couple that sold him his home on Darrell Road for $1.475 million in April 2003.” Hilton, who is representing himself pro se, “is a former civil litigation attorney with a law degree from Duke University and was an active member of the State Bar of California for most of the past three decades, records show. However, the Bar said courts deemed Hilton ineligible to practice law in August.” [San Mateo County Times, SF Chronicle "The Scavenger", Lowering the Bar.]

Tags: airlines, aviation, pro se, San Francisco, shotgun defendant selection

Buys house near SFO, sues many parties over jet noise is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

October 22 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:13:54 +0000

Unsafe at any read: new Ralph Nader novel panned by Chris Hayes, Washington editor of The Nation [Barnes and Noble Review via Suderman, Reason]
Microsoft says “most, if not all” customer data from T-Mobile Sidekick smartphones has been recovered, but class action lawyers say they’re undeterred [Seattle P-I]
Sue them all and sort things out later? Lawsuit over Air France Airbus crash off coast of Brazil names long list of aerospace suppliers as defendants [Reuters]
“No cash for this clunker”: opposition mounts to proposal for Massachusetts public law school [Boston Herald editorial via Legal Blog Watch, earlier link roundup at Point of Law]
Ralph Lauren experiences Streisand Effect over skinny-model nastygram [Althouse, earlier]
High-profile L.A. plaintiff’s lawyer Walter Lack speaks under questioning about role in Nicaraguan banana-worker suit against Dole [Recorder, earlier, background] And: “Dole on a Roll: Court Declines to Enforce $97M Judgment” [WSJ Law Blog, Bloomberg]
Miller-Jenkins lesbian custody case, much meddled in by conservative religious groups, recalls the ways divorced dads get cut out of their kids’ lives [Glenn Sacks/Ned Holstein via Amy Alkon, background]
Daniel Kalder speculates on why the New York Times editorially “purred with approval” of the new FTC blogger regulations in such an “impressively superficial” way [Guardian Books Blog]. More on FTC’s semi-backtracking on the controversy: Media Bistro “Galleycat”, Publisher’s Weekly, Galleysmith. And having been hoping for ages to get a link some day from blogging legend Jason Kottke, this one will go in the souvenir file [Kottke.org]

Tags: aviation, banana pesticide litigation fraud, cellphones, child custody, class actions, FTC endorsement rules, Microsoft, Miller-Jenkins case, Ralph Nader, shotgun defendant selection, Streisand effect

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