Overlawyered » CPSC

May 18 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 18 May 2012 04:14:02 +0000

Very silly Common Cause suit against Senate filibuster [Adler, Doug Mataconis, Jack Shafer (Filibuster unconstitutional? "Yes, but only when the GOP has the majority.")]
More on football concussion lawsuits [Will Oremus, Slate; Gerard Magliocca, Concurring Opinions; earlier]
Phrase I’ve heard before: Niall Ferguson says U.S. beset by the “rule of lawyers” [Business Insider]
“I have filed over a hundred lawsuits and another one will be no sweat for me. On the other hand, it will cost you a lot of time and money[.]” One blogger’s prolonged legal ordeal ["Aaron Worthing," Allergic2Bull and summary version] Plus: Ken/Popehat;
Louisiana land-taint suits: “maybe I’m just going to contend the oil companies did it, not the salt domes” [Lachlan Markay, Heritage, earlier]
Kansas differs from SCOTUS on legality of resale price maintenance. Will it make policy for the other 49 states? [Ted Frank] New Federalist Society project on state courts and how they’re picked;
A lot of lobbying went into that government-prescribed “flame-resistant” furniture [Chicago Tribune]

Tags: antitrust, bloggers and the law, CPSC, fires, football, Kansas, Louisiana, oil industry, serial litigants, state high courts, The Rule of Lawyers

May 18 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Jacket toggles that could get caught on doorways

Walter Olson — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 15:08:01 +0000

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) stands guard against them. [Lenore Skenazy, Free-Range Kids]

Tags: apparel, CPSC

Jacket toggles that could get caught on doorways is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

February 14 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 05:08:05 +0000

“Brazil Sues Twitter in Bid to Ban Speed Trap and Roadblock Warnings” [ABA Journal]
Obama nominates Michigan trial lawyer Marietta Robinson to vacancy on Consumer Product Safety Commission, ensuring aggressively pro-regulatory majority [Bluey, Heritage]
“AMA reports show high cost of malpractice suits” [HCFN] “Average expense to defend against a medical liability claim in 2010 was $47,158″ [American Medical News, more] Survey of 1,200 orthopedic surgeons finds defensive medicine rife, at cost of billions, accounting for 7 percent of all hospital admissions [MedPageToday]
“Sue us only in Delaware” bylaws would kill off forum-shopping and what fun is that? [Bainbridge, Reuters]
Trial by media: Lefty “SourceWatch” posts, then deletes, docs from Madison County pesticide suit [Madison County Record]
Think you’ve beaten FCPA rap? Meet the obscure “Travel Act” [Mike Emmick, Reuters] Federal court expands “honest services fraud” in lobbying case [Paul Enzinna, Point of Law]
“On the horrors of getting approval for an ice-cream parlour in San Francisco” [NYT via Doctorow/BoingBoing]

Tags: Brazil, CPSC, defensive medicine, Delaware, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, forum shopping, Madison County, medical malpractice, San Francisco, small business, traffic laws, Twitter

February 14 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

November 21 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 05:14:12 +0000

Spanish government fines filmmaker for movie poster showing “reckless driving” [Lowering the Bar] Siri, distracted driving, and police discretion [Balko]
Parents taking care of their kids under Michigan program must pay $30/mo. to SEIU for representation [Joel Gehrke, Examiner]
Stretching the Fifth: Joe Francis bad deposition behavior [Legal Ethics Forum]
WaPo covers deep split on Consumer Product Safety Commission, left wants fifth seat filled ASAP;
“Threat to Student Due Process Rights Dropped from Draft of Violence Against Women Act” [FIRE, background; Cathy Young/Reason]
After $300K donation from Philadelphia trial lawyers, you may call him “Judge Wecht” [AP/WPVI]
Court reverses $43M Madison County verdict against Ford [AP/Alton Telegraph, some background]

Tags: CPSC, Ford Motor, labor unions, Pennsylvania, Spain, traffic laws

November 21 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

September 12 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 12:37:28 +0000

Ninth Circuit: Holland America cruise line not responsible for customer’s swimming mishap at Mexican beach [Metropolitan News-Enterprise]
“President Perry would mean high noon for trial lawyers” [Kurt Schlichter, Washington Examiner; Politico; Prof. Bainbridge ("If the trial lawyers hate Rick Perry, maybe I should reconsider him")] Christie praises Perry’s “laudable” record on liability reform [PolitickerNJ] “Perry’s ‘loser pays’ is an economic winner” [Patrick Gleason and Jason Russell, Washington Times; Mass Tort Prof; background] Missing the point on the Texas med-mal experience [Coyote, earlier here, here, etc.] A bad sign: Gov. Perry reaches out to Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio [NRO, background] Another: courting social conservative vote, he pledges interference in state marriage law Houston Chronicle.
Alan Lange and Tom Dawson discuss their Dickie Scruggs book [Above the Law, background]
Hospital pays $25M to settle lawsuit charging lack of Katrina preparedness [White Coat]
Democratic majority on CPSC plans to ram through burdensome CPSIA testing and certification rule next month [Commissioner Nancy Nord, more]
For matching willing buyers with sellers through Canadian pharmacy ads, Google agrees to pay fine of $500 million, a forfeiture geared to the revenue the pharmacies (not it) took in from the ads [Atlantic Wire, Chris Fountain]
“Woman Won’t Have to Pay for Her Own Cavity Search” [Lowering the Bar]

Tags: advertising, CPSC, CPSIA, cruise ships, Dickie Scruggs, forfeiture, Google, hospitals, Katrina, Rick Perry, same-sex marriage, Texas

September 12 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

July 19 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 13:52:12 +0000

More on CPSC’s crib ban train wreck [Commissioner Anne Northup, more, earlier]
One man’s nightmare of false accusation [LA Times via PoL]
How many plaintiff’s-side flicks is HBO going to air this summer, anyway? ["Mann v. Ford," Abnormal Use]
Apple granted “incredibly broad patent” over screen gesture technology [Tabarrok]
Will Congress reverse this term’s much-attacked SCOTUS decisions? [Alison Frankel] Podcast on Wal-Mart v. Dukes with Brian Fitzpatrick [Fed Soc] “Wal-Mart ruling no knock-out blow for class actions” [Reuters] Contrary to some assertions, current law does strongly incentivize individual job-bias claims [Bader] More on case: Dan Bushell, and welcome Craig Newmark readers.
Mississippi stops proceedings in $322 million asbestos case to consider judge’s possible conflict [JCL, earlier here, here]
Nice coat, where’dja get it? [annals of incompetent crime, UK Daily Mail]

Tags: CPSC, environment, Ford Motor, Mississippi, patent law, recusals, Wal-Mart v. Dukes

July 19 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

House committee votes to defund CPSC database

Walter Olson — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 18:43:13 +0000

The House Appropriations Committee, following the lead of Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.), is disinclined to throw more money at a flawed public denunciation box. Sean Wajert has more, while a L.A. Times columnist hyperventilates in a style not untypical of much of that newspaper’s consumer affairs coverage.

Tags: CPSC

House committee votes to defund CPSC database is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Bungling nanny trashes 100,000 cribs

Walter Olson — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 13:52:20 +0000

Around the country today, CPSC regulations are forcing retailers to throw out new, unused baby cribs — estimates of the number range higher than 100,000 — that the federal government itself considers safe enough to be used in day cares. I explain the latest Nanny State snafu in a new post at Cato at Liberty.

More: Quin Hillyer, CFIF; Katherine Mangu-Ward, Reason. And CPSC commissioner Anne Northup corrects a misimpression in some parts of the press:

The new standards ban drop-side cribs. But the standards also prohibit the sale, new or used, of all cribs – both drop-side and fixed-side – that are not tested to the new standards by a private laboratory. Because very few cribs that were not originally manufactured to the new standards will ever be tested, the new standards essentially ban all such cribs – drop-side and fixed side. As reported in today’s press, millions of drop-side cribs have been recalled. On the other hand, tens of millions of fixed side cribs manufactured to previous standards have never been recalled, never been found to be unsafe, and now also cannot be sold new or resold used.

Tags: CPSC, CPSIA, small business

Bungling nanny trashes 100,000 cribs is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

CPSC: never mind

Walter Olson — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 12:21:15 +0000

“Thanks for standing by for eight months after we told you to stop selling your infant slings pending a recall. We’ve decided no recall is needed. What, you’re out of business? Never mind.” [Commissioner Nancy Nord] (& Greenfield)

Tags: CPSC

CPSC: never mind is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“The phenomenon of lower extremity impacts into furniture is not unusual”

Walter Olson — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 15:24:46 +0000

Thanks to Ben S., discussing the CPSC product-safety database, for the week’s drollest comment.

Tags: CPSC

“The phenomenon of lower extremity impacts into furniture is not unusual” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system