Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Overlawyered

August 19th, 2008 at 5:37 pm

Lowering drinking age to 18

A good idea. And from college presidents! (Baltimore Sun, Seattle P-I blog). MADD, of course, is having a fit. (Philadelphia Inquirer). More (via comments): Adler @ Volokh.


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August 6th, 2008 at 2:48 pm

U.K. medical student: multiple-choice exams unfair to disabled

“Naomi Gadian, 21, from Manchester, claims that multiple choice testing discriminates against people with dyslexia” and is suing Britain’s General Medical Council and her college, the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry in Plymouth, under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, the U.K. equivalent of the Americans with Disabilities Act. (”Dyslexic medical student takes legal action against multiple choice exams”, Plymouth Herald, Jul. 30).


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August 6th, 2008 at 9:20 am

Limiting docs’ work hours

The story of well-meaning regulation, part 37,281: “Is an ignorant doctor really better than a tired one?” (Sandeep Jauhar, “The Nightmare of Night Float”, Slate, Jul. 30).


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July 25th, 2008 at 12:19 am

July 25 roundup


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July 15th, 2008 at 11:10 am

Title IX quotas for science?

Federal civil rights enforcers wouldn’t be crazy enough to wreak havoc in science programs the way they’ve wrought havoc in men’s college athletic programs, would they? Don’t assume they wouldn’t. (John Tierney, “A New Frontier for Title IX: Science”, New York Times, Jul. 15).


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July 13th, 2008 at 2:32 pm

July 13 roundup

  • Nothing new about lawyers stealing money from estates, but embarrassing when they used to head the bar association [Eagle-Tribune; Lawrence, Mass., Arthur Khoury]
  • Unusual “reverse quota” case: black job applicant wins $30K after showing beauty supply company turned her down because it had a quota of whites to hire [SE Texas Record]
  • Who knew? Per class action allegations, pet food contains ingredients “unfit for human consumption” [Daily Business Review]
  • U.K.: “A divorcee who won a £1.4million payout from her multi-millionaire husband is suing her lawyers because she claims she should have got twice that amount.” [Telegraph]
  • UW freshman falls from fourth-floor dorm window after drinking at “Trashed Tuesday”, now wants $ from Delta Upsilon International as well as construction firm that put in windows [Seattle P-I, KOMO]
  • After giant $103 million payday, current and former partners at Minneapolis law firm are torn by feuds and dissension — wasn’t there a John Steinbeck novella about that? [ABA Journal and again, Heins Mills]
  • Small firm that used to make Wal-Mart in-house videos sets up shop at AAJ/ATLA convention hawking those videos for use in suits against the retailer [Arkansas Democrat Gazette, earlier]
  • When the judge’s kid gets busted [Eric Berlin; Alabama]


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April 10th, 2008 at 10:09 am

Will litigation kill academic tenure?

As universities grow apprehensive of lawsuits filed by junior faculty hired for tenure-track positions but then passed over for tenure, they are accelerating the trend toward classifying more junior positions as non-tenure-track — hastening, perhaps, the eventual demise of the tenure system entirely. (Robert Weissberg, Minding the Campus, Apr. 10). P.S. Our post has prompted a discussion at Workplace Prof Blog.


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October 18th, 2005 at 12:57 am

Student: dorm’s ferret ban violates ADA

At Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, 19-year-old freshman Sarah Sevick has filed a complaint with the U.S. Justice Department saying her rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act were violated by the dorm’s ban on her pet ferret, which she says she needs at hand to calm her during panic attacks related to a physical disability. (”Disabilities complaint filed after ferret banned from dorm”, AP/Houston Chronicle, Oct. 14). For more on claims to accommodation of companion animals under disabled-rights law, see May 5, etc.


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