Overlawyered » cellphones http://overlawyered.com Chronicling the high cost of our legal system Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:11:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 When companies’ hot products are stolen http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/when-companies-hot-products-are-stolen/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/when-companies-hot-products-are-stolen/#comments Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:44:10 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=27089 Toronto lawyer Michael Deverett thinks a bad guy must have followed him home from the Apple Store; at least someone smashed his hatchback car window when he stepped away for a couple of minutes and made off with what he said was a well concealed bag of new electronics purchases worth C$2,200. The company — which gave him a store credit plus a small extra for legal fees — is also facing criticism from theft victims who say it should do more to help owners retrieve stolen cellphones. [Toronto Star](& welcome Elie Mystal, Above the Law readers)

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/when-companies-hot-products-are-stolen/feed/ 8 January 5 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/january-5-roundup-3/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/january-5-roundup-3/#comments Thu, 05 Jan 2012 05:57:22 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26560
  • Big business vs. free markets again: light bulb makers “fuming” over GOP effort to restore consumer choice [Sullum] Large grocery chains like DC’s bag tax [Tim Carney]
  • Eeeuw! Bystander can sue train fatality victim whose body part flew through air and hit her [Chicago Tribune]
  • “Recommended Cell-Phone Ban Comes as ‘Shocking,’ ‘Heavy-Handed’ To Some” [Josh Long, V2M]
  • “Exploding churros are newspaper’s fault, Chilean court rules” [AP]
  • In New Jersey and North Carolina, GOP friends of trial bar block legal reform bills [Armstrong Williams, Washington Times]
  • Kozinski vs. ill-prepared lawyer in case of Sheriff Arpaio vs. newspaper that covered him [The Recorder; Phoenix New Times case]
  • Federal judges block cuts to in-home personal care services in California, Washington [Disability Law, San Francisco Chronicle, KQED]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/january-5-roundup-3/feed/ 4     Ban hands-free car phone use? Who, us? http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/ban-hands-free-car-phone-use-who-us/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/ban-hands-free-car-phone-use-who-us/#comments Tue, 27 Dec 2011 05:13:41 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26411 Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, who has made “distracted driving” his “signature safety issue,” is putting distance between himself and the NTSB’s call for a sweeping ban. [Reuters, Tina Korbe/Hot Air, earlier here and here]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/ban-hands-free-car-phone-use-who-us/feed/ 4     “It’s what happened to more than 3,000 people last year…” http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/it%e2%80%99s-what-happened-to-more-than-3000-people-last-year/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/it%e2%80%99s-what-happened-to-more-than-3000-people-last-year/#comments Mon, 19 Dec 2011 19:08:15 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26333 Might it be time to abolish the National Transportation Safety Board? It’s supposed to serve as an authoritative source on the causes of accidents, but last week its chief, calling for a nationwide ban on cellphone use by drivers, was not just non-authoritative but actively misleading. I explain in a new post at Cato at Liberty (& Instapundit, Balko, Stoll, Adler).

    More on misleading government public health advisories here.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/it%e2%80%99s-what-happened-to-more-than-3000-people-last-year/feed/ 39     Hands off that handsfree phone! http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/hands-off-that-handsfree-phone/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/hands-off-that-handsfree-phone/#comments Wed, 14 Dec 2011 21:25:53 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26239 As Washington launches a new crusade against “cognitive distraction” behind the wheel, it no longer seems to matter whether your eyes and hands are in correct driving position. I explain in a new Cato post.

    More: Glenn Reynolds (NTSB “distracted” by its own pre-existing agenda and oversimplifying causes of Missouri accident) and more, Chapman, Marc Scribner/CEI (even bans on texting don’t seem to have worked as intended), Amy Alkon, (two years back) Radley Balko, and Ira Stoll (per IIHS, quoted on NPR, “states with cellphone bans have seen no real decrease in accident rates”). And: drivers’ use of portable GPS and MP3 devices to be included in contemplated ban? [NMA]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/hands-off-that-handsfree-phone/feed/ 13     August 29 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/august-29-roundup-2/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/august-29-roundup-2/#comments Mon, 29 Aug 2011 16:44:12 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24306
  • Even before federal raid on Gibson, Lacey Act scared owners of vintage instruments: “I don’t go out of the country with a wooden guitar.” [Eric Felten/WSJ, AW, PoL, Trevor Burrus/Cato]
  • Dear NYT contributor Bakan: getting your kids’ attention may not require overthrowing world corporate economy [Nancy French, NR "Home Front"] More: Sullum.
  • “West Memphis Three” freed [Damon Root, Greenfield]
  • Forest Labs case: after outcry, feds drop effort to force firing of drug company CEO not charged with wrongdoing [WSJ, WLF] Background: Charles Hooper & David Henderson, Hoover (”The FDA’s War on Drugs”), The Economist (”The government seeks to sack an innocent boss”, Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Steve McConnell/Drug and Device Law, Josh Wright/Truth on the Market]
  • Google paid dearly in smartphone deal for our dysfunctional patent system [Gordon Crovitz] “Google Should Publicly Oppose Software Patents” [Timothy Lee, Forbes]
  • Lawyer’s suit: Kasowitz firm ignored his “superior legal mind” [Lowering the Bar, Above the Law]
  • “In Chicago, You Need a License To Help Others Get a License” [Mark Perry]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/august-29-roundup-2/feed/ 1     Who’s suing whom in the mobile business http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/whos-suing-whom-in-the-mobile-business/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/whos-suing-whom-in-the-mobile-business/#comments Wed, 03 Aug 2011 12:05:17 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24133 A pretty graphic depicting a not-so-pretty situation [Design Language News; more, FlowingData] Related: “When Patents Attack,” NPR; Will Wilkinson, “Patents Against Prosperity”, The Economist; “Good Defensive Patents Are Bad Patents,” Julian Sanchez.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/whos-suing-whom-in-the-mobile-business/feed/ 3     June 2 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/june-2-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/june-2-roundup/#comments Thu, 02 Jun 2011 14:17:02 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=23209
  • “Italian Seismologists Charged With Manslaughter for Not Predicting 2009 Quake” [Fox, earlier]
  • “With context in place, it appears the WHO isn’t saying cell phones are dangerous” [BoingBoing, Atlantic Wire, Orac]
  • Wrongful convictions and how they happen — new book “Convicting the Innocent” by Brandon Garrett [Jeff Rosen, NY Times]
  • SEC to Dodd-Frank whistleblowers: no need to go through company’s internal complaint route [D&O Diary, WSJ Law Blog]
  • “British Press Laws Facing Twitter Challenge” [AW]
  • Despite legislated damages cap, jackpot awards continue in Mississippi [Jackson Clarion-Ledger] More problems with that $322 million Mississippi asbestosis verdict [PoL, earlier]
  • Golf club erects large net to comply with legal demands to prevent escape of errant balls, is promptly sued by neighbors who consider net too ugly [five years ago on Overlawyered]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/june-2-roundup/feed/ 3     Court dismisses suit blaming cellphone firms for driver distraction http://overlawyered.com/2011/03/court-dismisses-suit-blaming-cellphone-firms-for-driver-distraction/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/03/court-dismisses-suit-blaming-cellphone-firms-for-driver-distraction/#comments Fri, 18 Mar 2011 16:39:29 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=22083 A novel lawsuit theory that obtained more-than-respectful coverage in the New York Times did not succeed in convincing the Oklahoma courts, notes Russell Jackson. “The Court of Civil Appeals’ decision in Doyle is a strong demonstration that trying to use civil legal duties to make the US a Nanny State is simply wrongheaded.”

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/03/court-dismisses-suit-blaming-cellphone-firms-for-driver-distraction/feed/ 0     A Ban On “Walking While Wired”? http://overlawyered.com/2011/02/a-ban-on-%e2%80%9cwalking-while-wired%e2%80%9d/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/02/a-ban-on-%e2%80%9cwalking-while-wired%e2%80%9d/#comments Fri, 04 Feb 2011 17:28:59 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=21299 [cross-posted from Cato at Liberty]

    New York state senator Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn) is crusading to ban pedestrians’ use of cellphones and other mobile devices while crossing the street. It’s for your own good, you must understand:

    “When people are doing things that are detrimental to their own well being, then government should step in.”

    The Daily Caller asked me to write an opinion piece about this proposal so I just did. Excerpt:

    Phone use on the street has become near-ubiquitous in recent years, yet over nearly all that time — nationally as in Gotham — pedestrian death rates were falling steadily, just as highway fatalities fell steadily over the years in which “distracted driving” became a big concern.

    In the first half of 2010, the national statistics showed a tiny upward blip (0.4 percent), occasioned by a relative handful of fatalities in a few states. Even a spokesman for the Governor’s Highway Safety Association, Jonathan Adkins, seems to agree it’s premature to jump to conclusions: “You don’t want to overreact to six months of data,” he told columnist Steve Chapman.

    Like others who seek quasi-parental control over adults, Sen. Kruger tends to infantilize his charges. He told the Times: “We’re taught from knee-high to look in both directions, wait, listen and then cross. You can perform none of those functions if you are engaged in some kind of wired activity.”

    This drew proper scorn from columnist Chapman: “Actually, you can perform all those functions and dance an Irish jig, even with text messages or rock music bombarding you.” That some ear bud devotees don’t take due caution is no reason to pretend they can’t.

    C.S. Lewis, Lily Tomlin and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood all get walk-on parts as well.

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