Overlawyered » Connecticut

But there’s no more room to cut the budget

Walter Olson — Wed, 09 May 2012 11:23:36 +0000

“There are plenty of charities that do good work without including Weather Underground co-founders on their boards of directors and openly praising prison rioters on their websites.” [National Review's Robert VerBruggen on $400,000 in U.S. Department of Justice grants to the W. Haywood Burns Institute, its board adorned by Northwestern lawprof Bernardine Dohrn; more, Chicago Sun-Times] Speaking of gruesome austerity in public expenditure, there’s clearly no room left to cut the state of Connecticut’s budget either [Chris Powell on $300,000 for the New Haven People's Center]

Tags: Bernardine Dohrn, Connecticut

But there’s no more room to cut the budget is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Chimp mauling victim wants to sue state

Walter Olson — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 11:16:41 +0000

A Bridgeport attorney for Charla Nash says the attack could have been avoided had Connecticut been tougher in enforcing its regulations. [WCBS]

Tags: animals, Connecticut, sovereign immunity

Chimp mauling victim wants to sue state is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Medical roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 11:02:10 +0000

Primer on “severability”: would ObamaCare fall if individual mandate struck down? [Loyola, Epstein, Shapiro, American Interest] Maybe the President picked the wrong fight: “Supreme Court’s Ratings Jump Following Health Care Hearings” [Randy Barnett]
Heritage on med-mal reform and federalism [Hans von Spakovsky; my take] A case for New Hampshire’s “early offer” med-mal proposal [Robinette, TortsProf] “Ohio’s tort reform has curbed soaring malpractice costs” [Columbus Dispatch editorial]
Madison County: plaintiff’s lawyer seeks gag order in med-mal case [MC Record]
Academics debate whether authorities should crack down on medical tourism [Cohen et al, Opinio Juris]
Shortage of physician volunteers at marathon sports events, readers of this site can guess the reason [Outside mag via White Coat]
Connecticut Gov. Malloy proposes letting home health workers rather than nurses administer pills to homebound patients, major savings foreseen [Connecticut Mirror] Related, David Henderson;
Governments now often cite HIPAA as reason not to release information regarding accidents, crimes and disasters [Glenn Cook, Las Vegas Review-Journal] How HIPAA implementation can keep patient history out of emergency medical responders’ hands [EP Monthly]
London: Red Ken has pay doc, NHS being Not His Style [Marian Tupy, Cato at Liberty]

Tags: Connecticut, emergency medicine, HIPAA, medical, medical malpractice insurance, New Hampshire, Ohio

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

Labor and employment law roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 04:08:22 +0000

Court rebukes EEOC in big sex harassment class action against trucking firm [Memphis Commercial Appeal]
Union protects some dodgy educators: “Found to Have Misbehaved With Pupils, but Still Teaching” [New York Times]
Spain changes its labor law [Global Post]
Employment-law blogs debate employment at will [Jon Hyman]
James Sherk of Heritage on proposed Employee Rights Act;
Unlawful under Contracts Clause to alter public employee pensions? Really? [Secunda, Workplace Prof; Barnes v. Arizona State Ret. Sys., Ariz. Super. Ct., No. CV-2011-011638, 2/1/12]
Coalition challenges Connecticut governor’s executive order aimed at unionizing home health aides [Michael Tremoglie, Legal NewsLine]

Tags: Arizona, Connecticut, constitutional law, EEOC, employment at will, Europe, labor unions, Spain, teacher tenure

Labor and employment law roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Labor and employment roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 04:03:55 +0000

“Increasing Employment Discrimination Awards to Take Account of Adverse Tax Consequences” [TaxProf]
NRA’s wrong on this: “Bill to bar employer bias against gun owners gets OK from Missouri House” [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
ALJ: “we are an at-will employer” handbook statement violates NLRA [Duane Morris Institute]
“What the EEOC’s Strategic Plan Means for Employers” [Laura Harshbarger, NYLELR]
Connecticut bill would require public schools to teach organized labor history [Raised S.B. No. 304; background from a supporter, PDF; h/t Fountain]
SEIU hand seen in “Occupy”-allied sit-ins targeting GOP politicians [Richard Pollack, Daily Caller]
Wage and Hour Litigation is Big—and Getting Bigger” [Shannon Green, Corporate Counsel]

Tags: Connecticut, EEOC, guns, labor unions, Missouri, schools, taxes, wage and hour suits, workplace

Labor and employment roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

April 3 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 04:02:19 +0000

In time for Easter: egg prices soar in Europe under new hen-caging rules [AP]
For third time, the Environmental Protection Agency backtracks on claims of harm from gas “fracking” [Adler; U. Texas study on drinking water safety, CBS Dallas] Yes, there’s a plaintiff’s lawyer angle [David Oliver] Don Elliott, former EPA general counsel, on why his old agency needs cutting [Atlantic] Blow out your candles, coal industry, and so good-bye [Pat Michaels/Cato, Shikha Dalmia]
Following the mad logic wherever it leads: “State Legislators Propose Mandatory Drug Testing of Judges and Other State Officials” [ABA Journal]
Proposal: henceforth no law may run to greater length than Rep. Conyers’s copy of Playboy [Mark Steyn]
Creative American lawyers: “Carnival cruise ship briefly seized in Texas” [AP]
“Overlawyered” is the title of a new commentary in The New Yorker, not related to a certain website [Kelefa Sanneh]
Repressive Connecticut “cyber-harassment” bill [Volokh, Greenfield, Popehat] And now, not to be outdone, Arizona… [Volokh]

Tags: agriculture and farming, animal rights, Arizona, bullying, Connecticut, cruise ships, Environmental Protection Agency, harassment law, illegal drugs, oil industry

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

Lawyer: ER “simply not permitted to discharge” without ruling out life-threatening conditions

Walter Olson — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 12:41:18 +0000

That’s what Connecticut plaintiff’s lawyer Craig Yankwitt said on filing a lawsuit against Stamford Hospital’s Tully immediate-care unit for allegedly missing pulmonary embolisms in a Greenwich man who came in complaining of flank pain. [Connecticut Post] White Coat analyzes what it would mean for emergency departments to hold on to patients until any possible life-threatening conditions had been ruled out.

Tags: Connecticut, emergency medicine

Lawyer: ER “simply not permitted to discharge” without ruling out life-threatening conditions is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Connecticut: officials behaving badly

Walter Olson — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 13:09:30 +0000

“Deputy Commissioner Jonathan Schrag of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection was forced to resign his position in the Malloy administration over his involvement in a menacing phone message left at the home of a conservative activist.” After a group calling itself Conservative Women’s Forum alerted its supporters to the threat to property rights posed by a pending coastal management bill, a late-night phone message from Schrag’s phone to the home of the forum’s leader, Cynthia David, warned that the group’s emails were being “observed.” You can listen to the phone message here. Schrag is a Harvard graduate and Fulbright scholar. [Kevin Rennie, Hartford Courant; editorial]

Tags: Connecticut, environment

Connecticut: officials behaving badly is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Labor and employment roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 05:21:00 +0000

Two retaliation cases that should scare employers [Robin Shea via Jon Hyman]
Maryland law redefining independent contractors as employees vexes flooring business [Bethany Rodgers, Frederick News Post, editorial, earlier] New York Times on minimum wage 1987 vs. 2012: 1987 made more sense [Mark Perry] E-discovery drives up cost of wage and hour litigation [Jon Hyman]
Irony alert: “Unionized workers organize against National Labor Relations Board” [Adam Jablonowski, Daily Caller]
Proposals to create new rights for public employee unions [Ivan Osorio/CEI, federal; Jack Mann/CEI, California] Courtesy LA taxpayers, garage monitor at L.A. Department of Water & Power makes $74K/year as compared with $21K elsewhere [L.A. Times via Amy Alkon] Connecticut governor proceeds with plans to herd personal care attendants into union [Trey Kovacs/CEI]
Colorado measure regulating use of credit records in hiring is solution in search of problem [Mark Hillman, Colorado Springs Gazette]
Connecticut proposal to ban unemployment discrimination heats up [Daniel Schwartz]
German high court orders universities to raise salaries for starting professors [Walter Russell Mead]

Tags: Colorado, Connecticut, discrimination law, Germany, labor unions, Los Angeles, Maryland, public employment, wage and hour suits, workplace

Labor and employment roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Democrats vs. Teacher Unions: The Battle Heats Up”

Walter Olson — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:11:22 +0000

Walter Russell Mead notes a reformist initiative on teacher certification with perhaps an unexpected sponsor, the Democratic governor of Connecticut. [The American Interest; CTNewsJunkie.com]

P.S. On the ultimate frontier of teacher reform — the firing of bad teachers — see new reports from Troy Senik [Public Sector Inc.] and Marcus Winters [NY Post].

Tags: Connecticut, labor unions, schools, teacher tenure

“Democrats vs. Teacher Unions: The Battle Heats Up” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system