Overlawyered » Disney

January 21 roundup

Walter Olson — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 14:52:42 +0000

Because judges should decide cases the way clamoring crowds want them to: “Occupy the Courts” [Althouse, Somin, earlier] Pittsburgh lawprof: bank’s office park has become public forum and is ours to seize [Daily Caller]
Some reactions to Megaupload indictment [Julian Sanchez, Ken at Popehat]
Kozinski, others trade quips at oral argument in Disneyland Segway ADA case [Courthouse News via Disabilities Law, earlier] “Ouch! Judge Posner eviscerates both a damages expert and the trial judge who let him testify against FedEx” [Technology Law Notes]
Victim of NYC gun laws: “Free Meredith Graves” [NRO] “NYC Business Bled To Death Over Toy Guns” [Moonbattery]
“Old Enough to Fight, Old Enough to Swipe: A Critique of the Infancy Rule in the Federal Credit Card Act” [Andrew Schwartz (Colorado), SSRN, via Ted Frank]
Federal drug cops unapologetic about role in Adderall shortage [Rob Port] A failure of central planning [Reuters, Jacob Sullum and more ("Does the DEA know what 'quota' means?")] Some trial lawyers pushing to ban the drug [via Ted Frank].
Go, my child, and steal no more: TSA agents who pilfered $40K from luggage get six months [AP via Balko]

Tags: Alex Kozinski, crime and punishment, debtor-creditor law, Disney, guns, NYC, pharmaceuticals, Pittsburgh, Richard Posner

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

Enviro groups: beware brass at Disneyland

Walter Olson — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 14:26:53 +0000

Several environmental groups say objects accessible to visitors at Disney parks, such as brass knobs, test positive for lead. “The groups filed suit against Disneyland in April based on a California law that requires businesses to post warnings when lead levels in fixtures and other items exceed certain levels.” Lead in brass and similar stable alloys is often regarded as posing little or no danger as compared with lead in more readily ingestible forms, but has nonetheless been swept in for similar treatment under various ill-conceived laws. [Orlando Sentinel]

Tags: Disney, Prop 65

Enviro groups: beware brass at Disneyland is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

May 16 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 16 May 2011 12:12:29 +0000

The Economist on the future of the legal business;
Hairpin reversals of fortune in long-running Barbie v. Bratz doll fight [Cal Biz Lit, earlier]
As I note in Schools for Misrule, institutional reform litigation is alive and well: Reinhardt says 9th Circuit should take over VA’s mental health efforts, Kozinski dissents [LAT, AP, The Recorder]
Court rejects Koch suit over spoof website posing as Koch’s to make political points [EFF, earlier]
“Romeo and Juliet” amendment could soften harsh Texas sex-offense laws [Lenore Skenazy] Law isn’t especially protective of teen boys persuaded to sign paternity declarations [Amy Alkon]
“Disney Trademarks ‘Seal Team 6′” [Atlantic Wire]
Great moments in human rights law: UK high court rules airplane hijackers should have been admitted to country as refugees [five years ago on Overlawyered]

Tags: Alex Kozinski, child support, Disney, libel slander and defamation, Ninth Circuit, trademarks

May 16 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Suit charges slow evacuation of broken Disneyland ride

Walter Olson — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 12:36:48 +0000

A quadriplegic man says Disney took 40 minutes to evacuate him from a stalled ride at its California theme park, prompting dangerous high blood pressure, and that had it followed Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards it would have gotten his wheelchair out more quickly. The pain and suffering were exacerbated, the plaintiff says, by “the continuous, ‘small world’ music in the background.” [Orange County Register]

Tags: disabled rights, Disney, music and musicians

Suit charges slow evacuation of broken Disneyland ride is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Sick Duck: Did Tigger and Donald Duck grope women at Disney World?”

Walter Olson — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 14:47:14 +0000

William Saletan investigates a curious genre of harassment case [Slate; more at Atlantic Wire]

Tags: amusement parks, child abuse, Disney, harassment law

“Sick Duck: Did Tigger and Donald Duck grope women at Disney World?” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

May 5 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 05 May 2010 19:04:11 +0000

Jury rules for Disney in case of man who said Tower of Terror theme park ride caused him to have stroke [Orlando Sentinel]
The most dangerous place on earth is getting caught between Dick Blumenthal and a television camera.” Craigslist snipes back against demagogic Connecticut AG [Craigslist blog, Antle/American Spectator, earlier]
U.K.: prisoner falls from bunk bed, wins £4.7m [Times Online]
New York Times jealously guards its own sources’ right to speak with anonymity, doesn’t feel quite that way about others’ [Stoll]
SUNY Buffalo mathematician/HuffPo blogger: why’d they let that awful Eugene Volokh into the country? [Volokh vs. Jonathan David Farley, Greenfield, background]
College journalist won’t face criminal trespass charges after all in showdown over photographing escaped cows [Romenesko and update]
Regulating “the American palate” — by what authority? [Healy, Examiner] More links on FDA salt regulation [Compton/CEI, ShopFloor (on CSPI), earlier here, here, etc.]
Why one putative beneficiary decided not to file $2 claim after settlement of AT&T class action [Chidem Kurdas, Christian Science Monitor]

Tags: amusement parks, class action settlements, Craigslist, Disney, prisoners, Richard Blumenthal, salt, United Kingdom

May 5 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Disneyland’s babysitter list

Walter Olson — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 05:13:17 +0000

Cory Doctorow describes what sounds like a heavily lawyered-up recommendation process. [Flickr]

Tags: amusement parks, Disney

Disneyland’s babysitter list is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

October 8 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 10:57:04 +0000

Judge rules Segways not necessary to accommodation at Disney World, throws out settlement negotiated by disabled rights group [Bloomberg, WSJ Law Blog; background here and here] More: OnPoint News (disputing claims of Disney victory).
“Too Many Lawyers or Too Many Laws?” [Somin, Volokh, on Scalia; earlier]
More on the $500K award to woman who escaped first WTC bombing and broke ankle ten days later [John Hochfelder in comments]
$3 million race bias suit against Martha Stewart Living magazine seems to have followed protest over home furnishing item often described as “coolie-hat” lampshade [NY Post]
Skyboxes for the mayor and city councilors who approved the stadium — and this is ethically OK? [Coyote]
Getting kind of meta: “Lawyer Says Lawyer Defamed Him in Press Release About Defamation Suit” [NLJ]
“Free credit score” firm backs off legal effort to identify critical blogger — but who’s this they’ve identified as their foe? [Paul Levy, Consumer Law & Policy, Felix Salmon, earlier]
EEOC says Catholic college “discriminated against women by removing coverage for prescription contraceptives from [its] health insurance plan” [Gaston, N.C. Gazette via LaborProf]

Tags: bloggers and the law, Catholic Church, disabled rights, Disney, EEOC, libel slander and defamation

October 8 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Update: Tonstant Witigator Fwowed Out

Walter Olson — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:00:18 +0000

After 18 years of litigation, a judge has dismissed all remaining infringement claims by “Winnie the Pooh” heirs against Disney [American Lawyer; earlier here, here, etc.]

Tags: copyright, Disney

Update: Tonstant Witigator Fwowed Out is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

CPSIA chronicles, September 20

Walter Olson — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 12:19:31 +0000

Rep. Michael Burgess (R-Tex.) doesn’t think Rep. Waxman’s pretend hearing Sept. 10 was enough, and writes a letter to Reps. Waxman and Rush (PDF courtesy Motorcycle Industry Council) explaining why a real hearing is needed (including as an addendum my WSJ piece from last Monday).

Speaking of CPSIA author Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), he’s praised the new rhinestone ban [Woldenberg]
At the Wall Street Journal, a letter to the editor regarding my op-ed of last week generally agrees with its thrust but claims that I “[err] when assigning blame to consumer groups” among others for the enactment. I find this charge baffling, since groups like Public Citizen, PIRG and the Consumer Federation of America 1) were routinely cited in the press during the bill’s run-up to enactment as key advocates of its more extreme provisions, 2) have loudly claimed credit for enacting those provisions and the overall bill ever since, 3) have been routinely cited this year in the press as key opponents of any effort to revisit the law in Congress. Why strive to excuse them from a responsibility that they gladly shoulder? Carter Wood at ShopFloor also notes that labor unions unwisely cheered on their purported consumer-group allies, a stance one hopes they are rethinking in light of the statute’s actual effects on American employers and jobs.
BoardGameGeek had a discussion of the law again this summer, mostly focusing on the tracking label rules and the burden they pose to makers of new games, but also noting the thrift/reseller effects (earlier). Meanwhile, Handmade Toy Alliance activist Dan Marshall notes on Twitter, “Just spoke with guy who invented a board game about dinosaurs. He’s paying $2400 to get it tested 4 #CPSIA and is mad as hell about Mattel.”
So let’s all panic now: NPR reports minute amounts of lead alloy in a Disney-branded zipper.
Before CPSIA came along, Illinois lawmakers enacted their own lead law which, stunt-like, sets an even lower permissible lead level often flunked by common substances such as ordinary garden dirt, according to Rick Woldenberg (earlier on dirt, and related on rocks). More: Wacky Hermit.

PUBLIC DOMAIN IMAGES from Ethel Everett, illustrator, Nursery Rhymes (1900), courtesy ChildrensLibrary.org.

Tags: CPSIA, CPSIA and Congress, Disney, PIRG, Public Citizen

CPSIA chronicles, September 20 is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system