Overlawyered » Delaware

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]
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

January 3 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 05:16:13 +0000

Popehat’s Ken to the rescue after Maine lawyer/lawmaker assists naturopath in bullying critical blogger [Popehat]
Newt’s “patriotism made me stray” among highlights of the year in blame-shifting [Jacob Sullum]
Nifong sidekick, now in a spot of legal bother himself, hits back with lawsuit [K C Johnson, Durham in Wonderland]
Shareholder action: “Delaware approves $285 Million in Plaintiffs’ Lawyers’ Fees” [Bainbridge, WSJ Deal Journal, WSJ Law Blog]
“Even one death is too many — WE MUST BAN NETI POTS!” [NYDN via Christopher Tozzo]
Debatable premise of Joe Nocera analysis on Stephen Glass case: bar admission turn-down = “rest of his life … destroyed” [NYT, Howard Wasserman/Prawfs, earlier]
Who says Connecticut never reforms liability? Towns won protection last year from some recreation-land tort exposure [CFPA, earlier here, here]

Tags: bar associations, bloggers and the law, Connecticut, Delaware, Duke lacrosse, recreation, safety

Delaware judges “almost” hostile toward unmeritorious suits

Walter Olson — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 12:56:56 +0000

The baseline expectations in our legal system are such that when judges cast a skeptical eye on meritless cases — going so far as to be “almost” hostile toward them — it counts as newsworthy. I discuss in my new post at Cato at Liberty. More: Bainbridge. For more on the prosperous legal niche of filing lawsuits seeking to block corporate mergers, and then collecting fees when the target agrees to settle in order to get the deal done, see Dealbreaker (”Plaintiff’s Lawyer Tax on M&A”), Fox Business and WSJ.

Tags: Delaware, settling low-merit cases

Obama administration’s Title IX activism

Walter Olson — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 05:05:36 +0000

The quota pressure in sports has been around for a while, but the idea of an enforcement push in hard academic disciplines may be getting extra encouragement from the very top:

Obama himself seems to have latched onto the idea. While praising Title IX’s impact on increasing women’s participation in athletics, he said, “If pursued with the necessary attention and enforcement, Title IX has the potential to make similar, striking advances in the opportunities that girls have in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (“STEM”) disciplines.” The nation’s university science, engineering, and mathematics departments may thus soon find themselves faced with the task of complying with a regulatory regime similar to the intercollegiate athletics three part test.

[Alison Somin, Federalist Society "Engage", PDF]

More: a John Stossel segment, and cutbacks in men’s sports at Delaware.

Tags: Delaware, John Stossel, science and scientists, Title IX

Do as we say dept.

Walter Olson — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 14:15:36 +0000

“Delaware Alcohol Enforcement Chief Resigns After DUI Arrest” [CBS Philly]

Tags: Delaware, do as we say

Delaware Republicans

Walter Olson — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 14:03:14 +0000

Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell, who’s been running even in polls leading up to tomorrow’s primary, demanded millions in a suit charging employment discrimination against her well-known conservative employer, The Intercollegiate Studies Institute. The details are worth a close look. [John McCormack, Weekly Standard] Even before the new revelations, Prof. Bainbridge was no fan.

Tags: Delaware, politics

“Delaware judge dumps frequent filer plaintiff attorneys”

Walter Olson — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 11:50:24 +0000

“When forced to defend their conduct and leadership role, original plaintiffs’ counsel approached the concept of candor to the tribunal as if attempting to sell me a used car,” wrote Vice Chancellor Travis Laster, ordering the replacement of shareholder lawyers in a case against Revlon Inc. “The lawsuit was consolidated from several complaints brought by law firms that Laster describes as ‘frequent filers’ — firms which often file cases on behalf of shareholders, sometimes within in minutes of a deal being announced.” [Reuters] More: Dave Hoffman, Concurring Opinions.

Tags: class actions, Delaware, securities litigation

By reader acclaim: school suspends Cub Scout over camping utensil

Walter Olson — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:50:15 +0000

Annals of zero tolerance: in Newark, Delaware, 6-year-old Zachary Christie took “a camping utensil that can serve as a knife, fork and spoon to school. He was so excited about recently joining the Cub Scouts that he wanted to use it at lunch. School officials concluded that he had violated their zero-tolerance policy on weapons, and Zachary was suspended and now faces 45 days in the district’s reform school.” In other Delaware cases, a school district “expelled a seventh-grade girl who had used a utility knife to cut windows out of a paper house for a class project,” and “a third-grade girl was expelled for a year because her grandmother had sent a birthday cake to school, along with a knife to cut it.” [New York Times]

The policies do have their defenders: “‘There is no parent who wants to get a phone call where they hear that their child no longer has two good seeing eyes because there was a scuffle and someone pulled out a knife,’ said George Evans, the president of the Christina district’s school board. …Charles P. Ewing, a professor of law and psychology at the University at Buffalo Law School who has written about school safety issues, said he favored a strict zero-tolerance approach.” Blog reactions (some via Memeorandum): Sullum/Reason “Hit and Run”, Q and O, BoingBoing, Kate Harding/Salon “Broadsheet”, Below the Beltway, Tom Freeland/North Mississippi Commenter, Lowering the Bar.

P.S. He’s on the Today Show (via Skenazy). Scott Greenfield wants to call it a knife. After worldwide press attention and a large show of local support, the school board reversed its policy and allowed Zachary back (h/t comments). And now: “A 17-year-old Eagle Scout in upstate New York has been barred from stepping foot on school grounds for 20 days — for keeping a 2-inch pocketknife locked in a survival kit in his car.” [Fox News]

Tags: Delaware, zero tolerance

Microblog 2008-11-06

Walter Olson — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 04:59:59 +0000

Expects to have to fight Obama on policy, wept anyway when he came to podium for victory speech [Jonathan Blanks] #
Every self-respecting insider-trading ring should include an exotic dancer and a Croatian underwear seamstress [Bainbridge] #
New panel discussion: why are schools so bureaucratized and what can we do about it? [NewTalk] # @sekimori “Bureaucracy is to protect the system from litigation.” Not cynical to think this is one big part of the problem. #
@bschuelke: “Why is it so difficult to get clients’ medical records? Should be easy but is often the hardest part of the case.” #
Primer on role of Delaware in corporate law [NY Times] #
Ways to find good, underrated people [Ben Casnocha h/t Tyler Cowen] #
Cluelessness alert: U.K. cabinet minister criticizes blogs for not “allowing new voices” [Massie] #
Dems swept races for judge in Houston — unless their names were too unusual [Houston Chronicle] #

Tags: Barack Obama, Delaware, Houston, judicial elections, on other blogs

White House race roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 14:23:57 +0000

High-profile trial lawyer and Hillary fundraiser John Coale now backing McCain, believes plaintiff-friendly Sen. Lindsey Graham, a confidant of the GOP candidate, will sway him on liability issues [Gerstein, NY Sun, Tapper/ABC, Haddad/Newsweek] More on McCain-Graham friendship [New Republic]
Reasonably neutral evaluation of contrasting McCain and Obama positions [Chris Nichols, NC Trial Law Blog]
No Naderite he? Sen. Biden has generally taken a “protect the golden goose” approach toward his state’s niche as provider of corporate law [Pileggi, Bainbridge]
Palin’s views on legal reform mostly unknown; Alaska (like Delaware) has one of the most highly regarded state legal systems, and wouldn’t it be fun if the state’s distinctive and longstanding (if somewhat attenuated) loser-pays rule got mentioned in the campaign?
Lending spice to campaign: prospect that victorious Dems might criminally prosecute Bush officials [Guardian (U.K.), Memeorandum, OpenLeft ("we'll put people in prison" vows whistleblower trial lawyer/Democratic Florida Congressional candidate Alan Grayson)] Some differences of opinion among Obama backers on war crimes trials [Turley (Cass Sunstein flayed for go-slow approach); Kerr @ Volokh (Dahlia Lithwick doesn't think it has to be Nuremberg or nothing); earlier]
If anyone’s keeping track of these things, co-blogger Ted is much involved with the McCain campaign this fall, I am not involved with anyone’s, so discount (or don’t discount) accordingly.

Tags: Alaska, Barack Obama, Biden, Dahlia Lithwick, Delaware, Joe Biden, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, loser pays, Sarah Palin

Overlawyered » Delaware

February 14 roundup

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January 3 roundup

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Delaware judges “almost” hostile toward unmeritorious suits

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Obama administration’s Title IX activism

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“Delaware judge dumps frequent filer plaintiff attorneys”

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By reader acclaim: school suspends Cub Scout over camping utensil

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Microblog 2008-11-06

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