- “Copyright troll Righthaven in its death throes, domain going up for auction” [Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing]
- Controversy over litigation finance continues [WaPo, NYPost]
- Presumably unrelated to above: “Unpaid Bills Land Some Debtors Behind Bars” [NPR]
- “Rent Control Violates Property Rights and Due Process” [Ilya Shapiro and Trevor Burrus, Cato, on Harmon v. Kimmel cert petition]
- Child abuse horrors result in dubious policy proposals including moves to abolish statutes of limitation, cast wider mandatory-reporting net [Howard Wasserman/PrawfsBlawg, Kyle Graham/Concurring Opinions]
- Schwab IRA class action settlement: lawyers get $500K while benefit to class is unclear [Lawrence Schonbron, Washington Times]
- “State Court Challenges to Legislatively Enacted Tort Reforms” [Andrew Cook and Emily Kelchen, Federalist Society "State Court Docket Watch"]
Posts tagged as:
child abuse
- Talking back to the “malpractice litigation is no big deal, docs should grin and bear it” theorists [David Sack, ACP via White Coat] “Worst states for medical malpractice risk” [White Coat]
- Jury awards $25 million against hospital that didn’t file abuse report after boy came in with broken wrist [Fayetteville, N.C. Observer]
- “Doctors Question Disability Decisions as Agency Moves to Speed Up Process” [WSJ via Walter Russell Mead]
- New “Federalist Society equivalents” in medicine (Benjamin Rush Society), business, foreign affairs [John J. Miller, Philanthropy]
- Fieger wins $144 million verdict blaming hospital for newborn’s cerebral palsy [suburban Detroit Tribune]
- Feds force birth control coverage on Catholic organizations, and free association suffers [Roger Pilon, Cato]
- Phone call from doc to patient’s home did not establish subsequent jurisdiction to sue there [Madison County Record] NY steps up program to streamline courts’ handling of med-mal claims [WSJ]
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A concocted “multiple personalities” tale wrecked many lives by launching a thousand bogus recovered memories of abuse, not a few of which made it to court. Debbie Nathan (”Satan’s Silence”) has a new book out, “Sybil Exposed,” telling the story. [Laura Miller, Salon (link fixed now)]
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- Michigan sex abuse prosecution of dad falls apart; it was premised on ultra-controversial technique of “facilitated communication” with autistic daughter [Detroit Free Press; Ted Frank/Point of Law]
- Do demagogy and hardball work as trial techniques? [Steve McConnell vs. Ronald Miller and Max Kennerly]
- When lawyer-pundits consent to chase cameras [Scott Greenfield]
- Lawyer dad sues middle school girls over Facebook video [Houston Chronicle]
- So-called Precautionary Principle slipping into Restatement (Third) of Torts? [David Oliver]
- U.S Attorney in Maryland didn’t think Lauren Stevens case was strong enough to indict [Sue Reisinger/Corporate Counsel, White Collar Law Prof, Legal Ethics Forum, my Cato take]
- “The SLAPP-Happy Story of Rakofsky v. Internet” [Citizen Media Law, Atlantic Wire ("Meet the Lawyer Who Sued the Internet"), Popehat, earlier here and here]
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- Interview with brewmaster of “Collaboration Not Litigation Ale” [Abnormal Use]
- New “public trust” theory emerges in climate change litigation [Sean Wajert, Jim Huffman]
- Who did the fact-checking? Questions over award to Harper’s journalist Scott Horton [Stimson, Heritage "Foundry", my '08 take]
- “Nightmare scenario for higher education”: copyright case against Georgia State seeks sweeping injunction [Duke University Libraries]
- “Vast wasteland” broadcast regulator: “Glenn Garvin scales and guts Newton Minow” [Miami Herald via @jackshafer]
- Teacher in suburban DC still devastated by false abuse charges [WaPo, Lanny Davis, David Bernstein]
- Sweetness and light: “Rising tide of litigation lifts [law] firms” [WSJ Law Blog]
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In dozens of prosecutions each year, parents or caregivers are charged after infants who died under their care have been found to display supposedly infallible indicators of abuse — in particular, subdural and retinal hemorrhage with brain swelling. Many convicted defendants stoutly maintain their innocence all along; others are sent to prison on the basis of equivocal “confessions”. Even when (as is common) there is no pattern of previous child abuse, it often happens that authorities remove other children from an alleged abuser’s home as legal action proceeds. Has the hope of using cutting-edge forensics to identify abusers wound up leading the authorities and courts to inflict new injustices? [Emily Bazelon, New York Times Magazine] More: Balko.
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- Many of the best New Jersey sledding slopes are off limits now: “Litigators ruin pretty much everything” [Bainbridge]
- Granola bar trans-fat lawsuit leaves Russell Jackson unimpressed;
- “Criminal barbering”: license lapse gets 82-year-old Oregon hair-cutter in legal trouble [Perry]
- Tomorrow’s economy won’t thrive if municipal authorities strangle innovative businesses where they incubate [Conor Friedersdorf, City Journal]
- Need to bring property taxes under control? Try litigation reform [NJLRA]
- Convicted at height of 90s child-abuse prosecution fever, Ohio pair seek to reopen case [Briefcase] More: Balko.
- Here’s an idea: “Let the shareholders decide if SOX is worth the costs.” [Ribstein]
- Retired Massachusetts attorney found in possession of stolen art trove [five years ago on Overlawyered] Updates courtesy reader Ronald Stimbert: Legal Blog Watch 2008 (attorney convicted); Cape Cod Times 2010 (paintings returned to owner).
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- Senators and their Constitutional duties: Christine O’Donnell 1, Dahlia Lithwick 0 [Bernstein/Volokh, Shapiro/Cato, Garnett/Prawfs] More: Ted at PoL.
- 15-year-old sentenced to 20 years for killing dog, family says that isn’t long enough [USA Today]
- “Fla. man settles McDonald’s suit over hot sandwich” [AP, earlier]
- “Blasphemy laws by the back door” [Stuttaford, Secular Right, on UK Koran prosecution] “A Defense of Free Speech by American and Canadian Muslims” [The American Muslim]
- “15 new legal blogs prove the blawgosphere is alive and kicking” [Ambrogi, Law Technology News; reactions, Greenfield and Balasubramani]
- A video on your right to videotape cops [David Rittgers, Cato; Greenfield, Balko]
- “My Lie: Why I Falsely Accused My Father” [Meredith Maran interview, Salon]
- “Judge-Mandated Racial Quotas For Plaintiffs’ Law Firms” [Krauss, PoL]
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William Saletan investigates a curious genre of harassment case [Slate; more at Atlantic Wire]
- Doc self-injects with Botox, wins $15 million on failure-to-warn claim [Legal Blog Watch]
- Kindergarten teacher Tonya Craft acquitted in widely watched abuse-allegation case [Sullum and more, Greenfield, Popehat, A Public Defender, Lynch]
- Naughty Toyota, it defends itself when attacked [Fumento, Ted at PoL]
- Washington Post profiles economist/perennial blogroll favorite Tyler Cowen (Marginal Revolution) with guest appearance by fashion business mentor/outspoken CPSIA critic Kathleen Fasanella;
- Business groups oppose nomination to federal judgeship of Rhode Island trial lawyer/political kingmaker Jack McConnell [ShopFloor]
- “CEI’s FTC Complaint Against GM: A Response to Walter Olson” [Fred Smith/Open Market, earlier]
- Bad: New York’s highest court limits assumption of risk defense [NYLJ, Mura, Rapp]
- Why we can’t represent you in your suit demanding removal of your microchip brain implant [Popehat]
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“…than if she killed him.” More: Greenfield.
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Do we even have a procedure for that? And does it matter that they were cleared of the charges? [Radley Balko]
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Didn’t realize the newsman had covered the story (quite a while back, it would appear from the look and feel of the video):
Via Andrew Sullivan. On Massachusetts AG and Senate candidate Martha Coakley’s role, see this earlier post, as well as critical videos here and here, Popehat, Jury Box, and Radley Balko.
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The Massachusetts attorney general and Senate candidate poses as the guardian of justice and civil liberties. Dorothy Rabinowitz knows better (earlier on the Amirault case here and here; on Coakley’s prosecutorial record here).
More (via Memeorandum): Bronwyn’s Harbor, No Quarter (citing views of Jeralyn Merritt/TalkLeft and Arthur Leonard); Dan McLaughlin, RedState; Dan Riehl (Woodward, Souza cases). Yet more: on Coakley’s offer to a deal to one defendant on condition that the experienced defense counsel handling the deal agree not to represent a second defendant in future, see Scott Greenfield (characterizing the move as “a deliberate effort to undermine the constitutional right to counsel”), Kenneth Anderson/Volokh, and John Steele/Legal Ethics Forum.
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Martha Coakley’s record as a criminal prosecutor. [Radley Balko, Politico] More: Ed Brayton. Update: Dorothy Rabinowitz has not forgotten the Amirault case, nor should we.
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“In December, North Carolina state legislators barred sex offenders from coming within 300 feet of any place intended primarily for the use, care or supervision of minors. Three months later, Nichols was arrested at his home after attending Sunday services. He said he was ‘floored’ to learn that he had been picked up because Moncure Baptist Church has a child-care center for families attending services.” [AP/Google] More on sex offender laws: The Economist (”Unjust and ineffective”); Lenore Skenazy (predicate is often teen misconduct with other teens); Radley Balko, Reason (several Georgia offenders told to camp in woods, then told not to); earlier. Related: Oklahoma Citizens for Change.
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