- Educator: please don’t bring lawyers to parent-teacher meetings [Ron Clark, CNN] Steve Brill: what I found when I investigated NYC teacher “rubber rooms” [Reuters] “The Six Dumbest Things Schools Are Doing in the Name of Safety” [Cracked] School waterfall liability [Lincoln, Neb. Journal-Star]
- As predicted: “Dodd-Frank Paperwork a Bonanza for Consultants and Lawyers” [NYT]
- “Running out of common drugs” [Josh Bloom, NY Post] Pharmaceutical shortages: the role of Medicare price controls [Richard Epstein, Hoover; earlier here, here, etc.]
- DoT insists on exposing private flight plans online. Yoo-hoo, privacy advocates? [Steve Chapman]
- New class action law in Mexico includes loser-pays provision [WSJ]
- Newt Gingrich candidacy revives memories of his 1995 call for death penalty (with “mass executions”) for drug smuggling [NYT archive via Josh Barro; see also @timothy_watson "Sounds kinda like Shariah Law to me.")
- "Cy pres slush fund in Georgia under ethics investigation" [PoL]
Tagged as:
aviation,
class actions,
cy pres,
Georgia,
illegal drugs,
loser pays,
Mexico,
pharmaceuticals,
schools,
teacher tenure
Prosecutors in a Georgia murder trial produced a birthday cake and proceeded to sing “Happy Birthday” to the deceased child victim for the benefit of the jury as well as a national Court TV audience. The defense lawyer failed to object, and the Georgia Supreme Court declined to order a new trial. [A Public Defender, Balko]
Tagged as:
Georgia,
prosecution
Atlas carrying the law firm’s weight on his shoulders: a mobile photo from Steve Dillard of Georgia.
Tagged as:
chasing clients,
Georgia
And that’s just so unfair, according to Lester Tate, president of the State Bar of Georgia. After all, it’s not as if lawyers have a lot of power or behave aggressively or hurtfully toward anyone else, right? “Particularly abhorrent are the attacks that come from candidates who are lawyers themselves.” Where’s their professional solidarity? [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]
Tagged as:
bar associations,
Georgia,
lawyers
- Pennsylvania attorney general subpoenas Twitter in search of critics’ identities, then backs down [Volokh and more, Levy/CL&P, Romenesko, Wired "Threat Level"]
- Letting kids have unsupervised time in NYC park not actually against the law [Free-Range Kids on "Take Your Kids to the Park, and Leave Them There Day"] Related from Lenore Skenazy: Spiked Online and Salon, “The War on Children’s Playgrounds”
- Uh-oh: New York chief judge Jonathan Lippman endorses massive new Civil Gideon legal-aid entitlement [ABA Journal, and the NYT cheers]
- “Novartis Hit With $250 Million in Punitives in Gender Bias Case” [NYLJ, WSJ Law Blog (blaming bad defense trial strategy) and more, ABA Journal, Hyman]
- Med-mal law has done very well for two attorney brothers in Georgia [Atlanta Journal-Constitution via Pero]
- Kagan’s Oxford thesis revealed: judges shouldn’t make it up as they go along in quest of social justice. Sensation ensues! [WSJ Law Blog, related on political-branch deference] And were the SG’s judicial-restraint principles activated by Graham v. Florida? [Stuart Taylor, Jr., National Journal]
- Federal Elections Commission as net regulator: “How the DISCLOSE Act will restrict free speech” [Brad Smith/Jeff Patch, Reason]
- “Law Professor Confesses ‘I’m a Criminal’” [Tim Lynch, Cato]
- Argentina: “Parts of Anti-Plagiarism Bill Lifted from Wikipedia” [Lowering the Bar, TechDirt]
Tagged as:
civil gideon,
crime and punishment,
Elena Kagan,
Georgia,
medical malpractice,
online speech,
Pennsylvania,
sex discrimination,
Twitter,
Wikipedia
- Lawmakers in Georgia vote for bill to forbid forced micro-chipping after listening respectfully to “this happened to me” story [Popehat]
- “Why does the Wall Street regulation overhaul give FTC authority over the Internet?” [Morrissey and WaPo via Gillespie]
- “Woman alleges termination due to gender, not sleeping on the job” [SE Texas Record]
- Writers’ Union of Canada surprisingly unfriendly toward writers’ freedom regarding fair use/fair dealing [BoingBoing]
- Despite purported bar on strategic use, Senate bill to stay deportation of illegal aliens while workplace claims are pending would create incentive to come up with such claims [Fox, Employer's Lawyer]
- “California Magistrate Scoffs at Plaintiff’s MySpace Page, But Awards Damages Anyway” [Abnormal Use]
- State of free speech in Britain: police confront man over political sign in window of his home, arrest preacher over anti-gay remarks [Mail and more, Telegraph via Steyn, related from Andrew Sullivan and MWW]
- “Should Tort Law Be Tougher on Lawyers?” [Alex Long, TortsProf]
Tagged as:
Canada,
copyright,
Federal Trade Commission,
free speech,
Georgia,
MySpace
A Hall County, Georgia jury has awarded $100,000 in damages to a woman who said that a character in the best-selling novel “The Red Hat Club” was recognizably based in part on herself, and was falsely portrayed as an “alcoholic slut.’ The lawsuit also named New York-based St. Martin’s Press (which, I should mention, is the publisher of my own book The Rule of Lawyers). [Gainesville Times, OnPoint News, decision in PDF]
More: Fulton County Daily Report (per defense counsel, jurors “were essentially instructed that, in Georgia, modeling a fictional character after a real person is a strict liability offense.”)
Tagged as:
Georgia,
libel slander and defamation,
publishers
Prosecutors accuse Benjamin Eichholz of varied misdeeds, among them diverting pension fund moneys into inappropriate outlays that include a $56,100 Flora Danica fine china set on display at his home. “Eichholz maintains the china was an investment by the pension plan, according to News3OnYourSide.” Eichholz’s Savannah firm, like many others, has used actor Robert Vaughn as a TV pitchman. [ABA Journal; Tom Barton, Savannah Morning News ("probably Savannah's best-known lawyer" owing to "cheesy" ads)]
Tagged as:
chasing clients,
ethics,
Georgia
Family disputes between a wife and the mistress over a will are probably one of the few times when the “not about the money” saying really is true. But after a two-week trial and two trips to the Georgia Supreme Court, it’s hard to imagine that attorneys aren’t going to get the majority of the $6 million at stake in the five-year battle over Harvey Strother’s will. A penalty clause calling for the disinheritance of anyone who challenged the will appears to have been successfully challenged by the wife’s family. (AP/Washington Post, Apr. 13; Talia Mollett, “Millionaire’s will trial begins today”, Marietta Daily Journal, Jul. 15; Tom Opdyke, “Life’s final chapter to play out in court”, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Jul. 13; Melican v. Parker, 283 Ga. 253 (2008)).
Tagged as:
family law,
Georgia,
Jarndyce redux,
wills and trusts
- Wisconsin lawyer pressing bill to allow punitive damages against home resellers over claimed defects [Wisconsin State Journal] More: Dad29.
- Longer than her will? NY Times posts ten-page jury questionnaire in Brooke Astor inheritance case ["City Room"] “Supreme Court: No Constitutional Right to Peremptory Challenge” [Anne Reed]
- Georgia’s sex offender law, like Illinois’s, covers persons who never committed a sex crime [Balko]
- “The lawsuits over TVA’s coal ash spill have come from all over Roane County – except the spots closest to home.” [Knoxville News]
- Bootleg soap: residents smuggle detergents after enactment of Spokane phosphate ban [AP/Yahoo]
- UK: Elderly Hindu man in religious-accommodation bid for approval of open-air funeral pyre [Telegraph]
- No DUI, no one hurt, but harsh consequences anyway when Connecticut 18 year old is caught buying six-pack of beer [Fountain]
- Only one or two not covered previously at this site ["12 Most Ridiculous Lawsuits", Oddee]
Tagged as:
alcohol,
Connecticut,
environment,
Georgia,
Illinois,
jury selection,
punitive damages,
real estate,
religious discrimination,
Wisconsin
- Why real estate agents make you sign 1,000 silly forms [Christopher Fountain] Michigan requires acknowledgment that nearby farms “may generate noise, dust, odors” [Land Division Act h/t Sean Fosmire]
- Albuquerque police take out want ad seeking snitches [AP]
- “A prez must know S of S has no agenda other than his own” Chris Hitchens flays the Hillary pick [Slate]
- Not all British nannies are charming: U.K. regulators may ban “happy hour” in bars [AP h/t Jeff Nolan]
- As Georgia “sex offender” horror stories go, Wendy Whitaker case may outdo Genarlow Wilson’s [Below the Beltway; more on Wilson case]
- U.K. juror polls her Facebook friends to help decide on case [AllFacebook h/t @lilyhill and @Rex7; Greenfield]
- Looking for political conservatives on Twitter? Here’s a long list [Duane Lester, All American Blogger; and I have a comment on ways to use Twitter]
- New page of auto-feeds from leading Canada & U.S. law & politics blogs [Wise Law Reader]
- Bailout’s a lot bigger than you think, try $7.8 trillion with a “t” [John Carney]. Claim: with $ sunk since ‘80, GM and Ford could have closed own plants and bought all shares of Honda, Toyota, Nissan and VW [David Yermack, WSJ via Cowen]. What if Citi gives up Mets naming rights? Gary’s Bail Bonds Stadium just doesn’t quite have the same ring to it [Ray Lehmann]
- Australian class action could derail because overseas funders didn’t register as investment managers [The Australian h/t @SecuritiesD]
Tagged as:
agriculture and farming,
alcohol,
Australia,
autos,
Canada,
Crisis of 2008,
Facebook,
Georgia,
juries,
New Mexico,
police,
real estate,
restaurants,
Twitter,
United Kingdom
A veterinary malpractice suit aims to overturn Georgia’s adherence to the traditional rule barring damage recovery for intangible pet companionship value. Not that it’s about you-know-what: “Money is not the object here,” says Kathryn Sutton about 13-year-old miniature Schnauzer Marshall. (D.L. Bennett, “Animal rights drive dog lawsuit”, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Sept. 15). Earlier here, here, here, here, here, etc.
Tagged as:
damages for animal companionship,
Georgia,
not about the money
Wayne Gibbs and RoseMary Shell were engaged to be married. Gibbs gave Shell an expensive engagement ring, and $30,000 to pay off her debts, but discovered that her financial situation was considerably more precarious, and broke off the engagement. (Shell also alleges that Gibbs was cheating on her.) Shell sued, and a jury awarded $150,000. (”Hall Co. jury awards jilted bride $150,000″, WDUN, Jul. 23; ABC News, Jul. 23).
Of course, if the two married, and Gibbs filed for a no-fault divorce a couple of days later, Shell would have no cause of action. One of many reasons that breach of promise to marry suits are especially absurd in twenty-first century America.
Tagged as:
breach of promise to marry,
family law,
Georgia
Updating a Feb. 28 post:
The Supreme Court of Georgia has said “no deal” to a team of Columbus lawyers representing a proposed class of people seeking to recover money they spent participating in a feature of the NBC hit show “Deal or No Deal.”
The suit filed in federal court had contended that the Lucky Case Game — in which viewers, like the contestants on “Deal or No Deal,” try to pick a lucky suitcase — ran afoul of Georgia law because participants were charged 99 cents to play through their cell phones. The plaintiffs based their suit on a colonial-era Georgia statute that allows gamblers to recover their losses through lawsuits.
(Alyson M. Palmer, “Luck Runs Dry for ‘Deal’ Plaintiffs in Lawsuit Against NBC”, Fulton County Daily Report, Apr. 22).
Tagged as:
broadcasters,
class actions,
Deal or No Deal,
gambling,
Georgia
