Overlawyered » Georgia

September 19 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 05:34:48 +0000

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]

Tags: aviation, class actions, cy pres, Georgia, illegal drugs, loser pays, Mexico, pharmaceuticals, schools, teacher tenure

Annals of prosecutorial stunts

Walter Olson — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 06:40:49 +0000

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]

Tags: Georgia, prosecution

Best law firm sign?

Walter Olson — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 05:13:32 +0000

Atlas carrying the law firm’s weight on his shoulders: a mobile photo from Steve Dillard of Georgia.

Tags: chasing clients, Georgia

Claim: it’s “open season” for saying bad things about lawyers

Walter Olson — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 05:04:20 +0000

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]

Tags: bar associations, Georgia, lawyers

May 24 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 24 May 2010 13:11:21 +0000

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]

Tags: civil gideon, crime and punishment, Elena Kagan, Georgia, medical malpractice, online speech, Pennsylvania, sex discrimination, Twitter, Wikipedia

May 3 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 03 May 2010 11:15:12 +0000

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]

Tags: Canada, copyright, Federal Trade Commission, free speech, Georgia, MySpace

New at Point of Law

Walter Olson — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 17:32:59 +0000

Things you’re missing if you’re not following my other site:

Rick Esenberg on health care reform and the Constitution (with Mark Steyn link, no less). And Peggy Little on shifting views of state AGs’ role;
A first: attorneys nailed in asbestos fraud (more: Law.com)
Jonathan Wilson: Georgia high court strikes down medical malpractice damages cap, while upholding offer of judgment rule and emergency room liability standard.
“That nice Mr. Smith does not have to pay this personally, does he?” Jurors and insurance;
James Copland on the friends of Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid;
Lawyers up, lobbyists down, which creates opportunities for arbitrage in D.C.

Tags: asbestos, Georgia, Harry Reid, insurance, lobbyists, Washington D.C.

March 2 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:12:51 +0000

“Trial Lawyers vs. Toyota” [Holman Jenkins, Jr./WSJ] Rep. Towns’s hearing didn’t even pretend to be other than showcase for trial bar [Wood, PoL; Henry Payne coverage in National Review here, here, here, and here] And make way for the inevitable investor suits [Daily Breeze]
“Obama open to curbing medical malpractice suits” [AP/WaPo] Related: The Hill; advice from Newsweek’s Evan Thomas [Jim Pinkerton]
Why doesn’t the Securities and Exchange Commission hire finance people? “They’re overlawyered. They’re poisoned by lawyers.” [Harry Markopolos interviewed by Deborah Solomon, N.Y. Times]
“Plaintiffs Lawyer’s ‘Reptile’ Strategy Bites Back” [Fulton County Daily Report] Plus: Max Kennerly wonders why it was admitted into evidence;
“Facebook plus divorce equals flammable situation” [Tampa Bay Online]
Officials get wined, dined and more: “Paying public pensions to sue” [Forbes]
Parents sue many defendants in Colorado ice cream shop crash [Denver Post]
Called for jury duty yesterday, and Tweeting the results: arts critic/biographer Terry Teachout and conservative writer Michelle Malkin.

Tags: Bernard Madoff, Colorado, divorce, Facebook, Georgia, medical malpractice, securities litigation, shotgun defendant selection, Toyota, Twitter

December 31 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 15:04:33 +0000

“Court to Plaintiffs: You Have Zero Forum Shopping Days until Xmas” [Jackson; New Yorker seeks to refile pharmaceutical case in Minnesota to overcome statute of limitations defense]
Miller-Jenkins battle: Mathew Staver of whimsically named Liberty Counsel won’t comment on whether client has kidnapped child in pursuit of continued defiance of court order [BTB, WSJ Law Blog, background]
“How many college football coaches have law degrees?” [Above the Law; Mike Leach vs. Texas Tech] More: Michael McCann, Sports Law; Carter Wood at Point of Law.
“Struck by a restaurant’s decor” good if it’s just a figure of speech, bad if it’s falling taxidermy [Lowering the Bar]
Trial lawyer message in support of med-mal litigation falls on some credulous ears in media [White Coat]
On airport whole-body imaging, some privacy advocates seem to have changed tune [Stewart Baker]
“Litigant Guru of Gwinnett, Georgia Loses Lawsuit” [sanctioned over defamation claim; Bad Lawyer via AtL]
Step right up and win cash for your vote in the ABA’s blogospheric beauty pageant [Scott Greenfield] Update: contest wraps up [Legal Blog Watch]

Tags: football, forum shopping, Georgia, legal blogs, Miller-Jenkins case, Minnesota, privacy, restaurants

“Red Hat Club” author loses suit over portrayal

Walter Olson — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:28:22 +0000

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.”)

Tags: Georgia, libel slander and defamation, publishers

Overlawyered » Georgia

September 19 roundup

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