Overlawyered » California

“Top Ten Reasons Why Companies Are Leaving California”

Walter Olson — Wed, 23 May 2012 15:58:09 +0000

The hassle, the tax complications, the legal risks, the permitting difficulties just go on and on. Business relocation specialist Joseph Vranich has the details [North County Times] Earlier here (on small business survey).

Tags: California

“Top Ten Reasons Why Companies Are Leaving California” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Which states are most friendly/hostile toward small business?

Walter Olson — Fri, 11 May 2012 19:53:27 +0000

I’ve got some comments on an interesting new survey from the Kauffman Foundation/Thumbtack.com. [Cato at Liberty; & welcome Neal Boortz readers]

Related: “When Julia tried to start a small business” [Coyote]

Tags: business climates, California, Maryland, small business

Which states are most friendly/hostile toward small business? is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Only 71 percent of West Coast restaurants found to violate wage/hour law

Walter Olson — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 14:08:06 +0000

Jon Hyman is surprised the number isn’t 100 percent:

What’s amazing to me is that the percentage of non-compliant employers is only 71 percent. I remain convinced, as I’ve pointed out before, that I can walk into any company and find a wage and hour violation. The FLSA and its regulations are that complex, twisted, and anachronistic.

Tags: California, restaurants, wage and hour suits

Only 71 percent of West Coast restaurants found to violate wage/hour law is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

California’s court-developed Stand Your Ground law

Walter Olson — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 22:54:09 +0000

Bob Egelko of the San Francisco Chronicle has an excellent report on California’s longstanding recognition of Stand Your Ground self-defense principles in public places, which developed through judicial rather than legislative action. He reports that “even Californians who illegally carry handguns can invoke the stand-your-ground doctrine, as shown in a 2005 ruling by a state appeals court in Santa Ana.” By contrast, compare the misleading-at-best map run in Wednesday’s news-side Wall Street Journal, which purports to show states with “stand your ground laws in place” but treats California as not having one. The WSJ lists its sources for the map as “Association of Prosecuting Attorneys; Legal Community Against Violence; National Conference of State Legislatures.” Perhaps the paper was relying overmuch on input from anti-gun groups that have sought to portray Stand Your Ground as a novelty foisted on state legislatures in recent years, thus underplaying the doctrine’s deep historical roots in much of America.

Notwithstanding tendentious efforts to politicize the issue of late, it’s also worth noting that leading Democratic governors like Janet Napolitano (Arizona) and Jennifer Granholm (Michigan) were among those to sign Stand Your Ground laws in the post-2005 wave of new legislative adoptions [Hawkins, Breitbart] Earlier on Stand Your Ground here, here, here, here, here, here, etc.

Tags: California, guns, self-defense

California’s court-developed Stand Your Ground law is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

The Times covers ADA filing mills

Walter Olson — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 04:27:45 +0000

Although you might say they’re a little late to this story, it’s still a welcome development. I discuss the piece and its background in a new Cato post (& welcome Glenn Reynolds/Instapundit readers). Hans Bader and Jacob Sullum also weigh in.

While we’re at it, here are some more links not yet blogged in this space on this busy extraction industry: Hackensack, N.J. has its own serial ADA filer [Bergen Record; letter from Marcus Rayner, NJLRA]. California small businesses continue their protests [Lodi News-Sentinel, background on George Louie; ABC L.A. (Alfredo Garcia, who's filed hundreds of ADA suits, described as "illegal immigrant and convicted felon"; background on his attorney, Overlawyered favorite Morse Mehrban)] And in case you were wondering about the enabling role of the courts, here’s a recent Ninth Circuit decision ruling it an abuse of discretion for a trial court to have cut a lawyer’s fee award in an ADA barrier case [Bagenstos, Disability Law] Much more at our ADA filing mills tag.

Tags: ADA filing mills, California, New Jersey, Ninth Circuit

The Times covers ADA filing mills is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Feinstein: California needs to crack down on ADA access-suit mills

Walter Olson — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 12:40:52 +0000

“In a March 8 letter to fellow Democrat and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, Feinstein accused plaintiffs lawyers of coercing business owners into paying five-figure settlements by threatening potentially costlier lawsuits targeting minor violations under the state’s access and civil rights laws.” Democrats in Sacramento have thus far tended to back the interests of the state’s very active ADA-mill legal sector. [The Recorder/Law.com]

More: Good column from Andrew Rose at the San Francisco Chronicle.

Tags: ADA filing mills, California

Feinstein: California needs to crack down on ADA access-suit mills is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

$17,000 restaurant dumpster ramp

Walter Olson — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 12:16:26 +0000

Because it’s important to keep future wheelchair-using employees in contention for the task of hauling the trash out back, and also because money spent on compliance doesn’t really count as money the way, say, an agency’s budget does. [Patterico](& Alkon).

Tags: California, disabled rights

$17,000 restaurant dumpster ramp is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Wisconsin’s reforms are working”

Walter Olson — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 19:59:24 +0000

Sensible changes to the ground rules on labor relations — including the option to go around the union’s monopoly provider of health care insurance — are saving local governments hundreds of millions of dollars. [John Steele Gordon]

P.S. Bill McGurn on public employee unions in the still very unreformed state of New Jersey [Hillsdale "Imprimis"] And: how some public employees “spike” their pensions in California [L.A. Times via Amy Alkon]

Tags: California, labor unions, public employment, Wisconsin

“Wisconsin’s reforms are working” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

March 15 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 14:32:11 +0000

Part III of Radley Balko series on painkiller access [HuffPo]
“Note: Add ‘Judge’s Nameplate’ to List of Things Not to Steal” [Lowering the Bar]
California’s business-hostile climate: if the ADA mills don’t get you, other suits might [CACALA]
Bottom story of the month: ABA president backs higher legal services budget [ABA Journal]
After string of courtroom defeats, Teva pays to settle Nevada propofol cases [Oliver, earlier]
Voting Rights Act has outstayed its constitutional welcome [Ilya Shapiro/Cato] More: Stuart Taylor, Jr./The Atlantic.
Huge bust of what NY authorities say was $279 million crash-fraud ring NY Post, NYLJ, Business Insider, Turkewitz (go after dishonest docs on both sides)]

Tags: ADA filing mills, bar associations, California, crash faking, insurance fraud, legal services programs, New York, pharmaceuticals, Voting Rights Act

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

Sacramento’s Bad Humor Man

Walter Olson — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 14:46:41 +0000

Assemblyman William Monning (D-Carmel) wants to ban food trucks from parking anywhere near where schoolkids might be; under legislation he has proposed, they would need to keep even farther away from schools than medical marijuana dispensaries. Since schools dot the urban scene, a side effect would be to seriously curtail adult access to the trucks, which serve a large population of working adults and have lately found new popularity among foodies. [L.A. Times via Heather Mac Donald, Secular Right, earlier]

Tags: California, obesity, schools

Sacramento’s Bad Humor Man is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system