Overlawyered » climate change

February 24 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 05:07:47 +0000

Melissa Kite, columnist with Britain’s Spectator, writes about her low-speed car crash and its aftermath [first, second, third, fourth]
NYT’s Nocera lauds Keystone pipeline, gets called “global warming denier” [NYTimes] More about foundations’ campaign to throttle Alberta tar sands [Coyote] Regulations mandating insurance “disclosures” provide another way for climate change activists to stir the pot [Insurance and Technology]
“Cop spends weeks to trick an 18-year-old into possession and sale of a gram of pot” [Frauenfelder, BB]
Federal Circuit model order, pilot program could show way to rein in patent e-discovery [Inside Counsel, Corporate Counsel] December Congressional hearing on discovery costs [Lawyers for Civil Justice]
Trial lawyer group working with Senate campaigns in North Dakota, Nevada, Wisconsin, Hawaii [Rob Port via LNL] President of Houston Trial Lawyers Association makes U.S. Senate bid [Chron]
Panel selection: “Jury strikes matter” [Ron Miller, Maryland Injury]
Law-world summaries/Seventeen syllables long/@legal_haiku (& for a similar treatment of high court cases, check out @SupremeHaiku)

Tags: Canada, climate change, discovery, environment, global warming, Hawaii, humor, illegal drugs, jury selection, low-speed auto collisions, Nevada, North Dakota, oil industry, patent litigation, politics, Senate, United Kingdom, Wisconsin

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

January 26 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 05:01:35 +0000

Judge Edith Jones rules: 5th Circuit spanks judge who overturned result of anti-traffic-cam vote [The Newspaper, background]
“UK Nanny State: Let’s Send Gamers To Rehab” [Nick Sibilla, Reason] “If Poker Is a Public Health Issue, What Isn’t?” [Jacob Sullum]
Struggle Resolutely Against Misleaders of the People In Weather Broadcasts Everywhere! [TP; reactions from Tony Hake/Examiner, Geoff Fox, Andrew Revkin, Watts Up With That]
Jury awards $178 million in bariatric-surgery case against Jacksonville hospital, sum greater than GDP of several small island nations [Florida Times-Union]
Sikh sues Jay Leno over comparison of Romney vacation home to Golden Temple of Amritsar [Daily Mail]
Redevelopment without prerequisite “blight” akin to Hittite sack of Babylon [Gideon Kanner]
Convinced hospital broke naming promise, jury tells it to pay $1 million to country singer Garth Brooks [AP]
“Dean of law bloggers” — why, thank you, sir [Hans Bader, CEI]

Tags: accolades, climate change, eminent domain, Fifth Circuit, global warming, hospitals, India, red light cameras, videogames

January 26 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Passing along” our new tax? Tell it to the judge, mate

Walter Olson — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 19:17:57 +0000

The official Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is menacing businesses with audits, “substantiation notices” and potentially stiff fines if they tell customers — even over the phone or in emails — that future price hikes on goods or services are the result of the nation’s newly adopted carbon tax. I discuss at Cato at Liberty (& Mark Hemingway, Weekly Standard).

Tags: advertising, Australia, climate change, Federal Trade Commission, taxes

“Passing along” our new tax? Tell it to the judge, mate is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

August 3 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 05:25:12 +0000

Central Falls, R.I. lands in bankruptcy court [NYT; my Cato take]
Less efficient patdowns? Man with one arm files complaint after being turned down as TSA inspector [MSNBC via Hyman]
Don’t join the Mommy Mob [Ken at Popehat]
Montana high court upholds failure-to-warn verdict against maker of aluminum baseball bat [PoL link roundup, Russell Jackson; earlier here and here]
Finally some good news from Connecticut: state enacts law protecting municipalities from lawsuits over recreational land use [BikeRag; earlier here, etc.]
Claim: climate-change tort suits will require radical changes in tort law and that’s a good thing [Douglas Kysar (Yale), SSRN]
Attorney keen to go on TV, will take any case, either side [Balko]

Tags: baseball bats, climate change, Connecticut, recreation, Rhode Island

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

July 7 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 05:33:12 +0000

Correct result, yet potential for mischief in latest SCOTUS climate ruling [Ilya Shapiro/Cato, my earlier take]
Wouldn’t even want to guess: how the Howard Stern show handles sexual harassment training [Hyman]
Philadelphia: $21 million award against emergency room handling noncompliant patient [Kennerly]
Antitrust assault on Google seems geared to protect competitors more than consumers [Josh Wright]
“They knew there was a risk!” Curb your indignation please [Coyote]
Theme issue of Reason magazine on failures of criminal justice system is now online;
“Why Your New Car Doesn’t Have a Spare Tire” [Sam Kazman, WSJ]

Tags: antitrust, autos, broadcasters, climate change, crime and punishment, emergency medicine, global warming, Google, harassment law, Philadelphia, safety

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

May 20 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 20 May 2011 12:17:29 +0000

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]

Tags: beer and brewers, broadcasters, child abuse, climate change, colleges and universities, copyright

May 20 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Global warming as political question

Walter Olson — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 20:17:20 +0000

I’ve got a new post up at Cato at Liberty explaining why the American Electric Power v. Connecticut case — which was heard in oral argument yesterday before the Supreme Court — should be tossed for stating a fundamentally political rather than judicial claim.

More: Adam Chandler at SCOTUSBlog rounds up reporting on the “chilly reception” the case got yesterday before the high court and the “uphill battle” it may face in convincing the justices. As Andrew Grossman recounts, Peter Keisler had a very good day before the court representing the utilities, with Justices Kennedy and Breyer both signaling disapproval of plaintiff arguments, raising the likelihood of a lopsided or even unanimous defense victory. And Jonathan Adler recounts skeptical questioning from Kagan and Ginsburg as well. (& ShopFloor, Trevor Burrus @ Cato)

Tags: climate change, constitutional law, global warming

Global warming as political question is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

February 13 roundup

Walter Olson — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 14:15:25 +0000

Rules for Growth: Promoting Innovation and Growth Through Legal Reform is new book from Kauffman Foundation in which “formidable” contributors including Henry Butler, George Priest, and Peter Schuck prescribe pro-growth policy changes across a variety of fields [available at Kauffman or on SSRN via contributor Larry Ribstein, Diana Furchtgott-Roth/Real Clear Markets]
Nick Farr is awfully apologetic (not really) for saying those mean things about Hot Coffee, the new documentary film presenting Lawsuit Lobby view of the world [Abnormal Use, earlier] Related: TBD, more. More: Bob Dorigo Jones.
AEP v. Connecticut global warming case invites courts to supplant other branches’ role [Ilya Shapiro, Cato]
Washington jury awards $46 million to victim of shooting spree at Denny’s who charged negligent security [Kent Reporter, KOMO, Seattle Times, earlier]
New bipartisan Congressional Civil Justice Caucus forms on Capitol Hill [BLT, PoL]
Oh, Professor Tribe, your rhetorical moves on the Supreme Court and Obamacare are so transparent [Ann Althouse] (& Ilya Shapiro letter in NY Times)
DRI says “if you [defend] Med Mal cases the news isn’t good,” new filings show a drop; clients may take different view [For the Defense] James Pinkerton on med-mal reform [Serious Medicine Strategy] Jan. 20 medical liability hearing in the House [PoL]
Jury: “customer of size” not victim of airline bias [five years ago on Overlawyered]

Tags: climate change, global warming, medical malpractice, restaurants, Senate, Stella Liebeck, third party liability for crime, U.S. House of Representatives

February 13 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

January 26 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 13:50:39 +0000

Cato Institute scholars liveblog reaction to State of the Union speech and GOP response, plus video on Facebook with Gene Healy and Julian Sanchez, more video;
Private store owners get beaten up for lack of ADA ramps. On the other hand, when the federal government is building courthouses… [Sun-Sentinel; earlier here and here]
“Securities suits filed in 2010 again a record” [Business Insurance]
Do mass tort “claims facilities” enable participants to bypass the strictures of legal ethics? [Monroe Freedman, Legal Ethics Forum]
Latest workplace-retaliation ruling once more undermines “pro-business Supreme Court” narrative [Bader, Examiner, more]
Jacob Sullum reviews Daniel Okrent book on Prohibition [Reason]
Another “lawyers excited about coming wave of bet-the-company climate change suits” article [AFP]
Dickie Scruggs: “It was never about the money for me, this litigation” [four years ago on Overlawyered]

Tags: alcohol, Cato Institute, climate change, disabled rights, ethics, global warming, securities litigation, Supreme Court

January 26 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

High Court declines to hear Gulf Coast-climate change case

Walter Olson — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 16:23:51 +0000

Having agreed to hear a different global warming case this term, the Supreme Court has declined to review the dismissal of a case blaming thirty energy companies (via greenhouse gas emissions) for Hurricane Katrina damage. [NOLA.com, earlier here and here] The case had reached a curious procedural posture following the recusal of half the judges on the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. My Cato colleague Ilya Shapiro has details on that and other cases that notably won’t be appearing on the Supreme Court’s docket this term.

Tags: climate change, global warming, Supreme Court

High Court declines to hear Gulf Coast-climate change case is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system