Overlawyered » Houston

Update: adult clubs to settle EEOC age-bias suit

Walter Olson — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 13:30:50 +0000

“Two Houston adult entertainment clubs this week agreed to settle a federal age discrimination case with a former waitress who alleged younger, male managers called her ‘old’ and said she showed symptoms of memory loss. The owners of Centerfolds and Cover Girls agreed to pay $60,000 to Mary Bassi. She was 56 when she was fired in 2006 ‘without provocation or explanation,’ according to a lawsuit the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed on Bassi’s behalf.” [Houston Chronicle; earlier]

Tags: EEOC, Houston, strippers and exotic dancers

Update: adult clubs to settle EEOC age-bias suit is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

June 16 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 13:07:33 +0000

Shameless: House leadership exempts NRA lest it sink bill to regulate political speech [John Samples, Cato]
Employment law: “Arbitration Showdown Looms Between Congress, Supreme Court” [Coyle, NLJ]
“Wake Up, Fellow Law Professors, to the Casualties of Our Enterprise” [Tamanaha, Balkinization]
Move to allow international war crimes trials over “aggression,” a notoriously slippery term [Anderson, Brett Schaefer/NRO "Corner" via Ku]
Litigation slush funds: “Cy pres bill in Ohio House” [Ted Frank, CCAF]
“Recent Michigan Prosecutions for ‘Seducing an Unmarried Woman’” [Volokh]
Scalia: “…least analytically rigorous and hence most subjective of law-school subjects, legal ethics” [LEF]
Silicosis settlement scandal update: “As 2 Insurance Execs Admit Bribes, PI Lawyer Says He Can’t Be Retried” [Houston Chronicle via ABA Journal, earlier]

Tags: arbitration, campaign regulation, cy pres, ethics, Houston, insurance, international human rights, law schools, Michigan, Ohio, silicosis

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

Houston: lawyer forgets his $800 jacket at airport food court

Walter Olson — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:52:49 +0000

And now someone must pay [The Smoking Gun]

More: Jon Coppelman consults Ogletree’s “settlement calculator”.

Tags: aviation, Houston, nastygrams

Houston: lawyer forgets his $800 jacket at airport food court is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“I’ve always thought people would be very concerned if they knew what we were doing”

Walter Olson — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:15:16 +0000

A Texas DWI lawyer speaks incautiously to the press, and fun ensues [Houston Press, Above the Law, Defending People and more]

Tags: alcohol, chasing clients, defense lawyers, Houston, prosecution

“I’ve always thought people would be very concerned if they knew what we were doing” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

October 14 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 04:44:05 +0000

Uh-huh: new report from federal Legal Services program calls for gigantic new allocation of tax money to, well, legal services programs [ABA Journal]
“Judge: Man’s a ‘vexatious litigator’” [Cincinnati.com]
Wisconsin governor signs bill requiring prescription to buy mercury thermometer [Popehat]
“Injured by art?” Woman sues Museum of Fine Arts Houston after fall in artist-designed light tunnel [Mary Flood, Houston Chronicle "Legal Trade"]
On Carol Browner and the cry of “environmental racism” (a/k/a “green redlining”) [Coyote]
New York: “Lawyers implicated in $9 million mortgage fraud” [Business Insider]
In Canada, as in the U.S., medical privacy rules hamper police investigations [Calgary Herald]
Stalin’s grandson loses lawsuit in Russia against newspaper that supposedly defamed the dictator [WSJ Law Blog, Lowering the Bar, Volokh]

Tags: art and artists, Canada, Cincinnati, environment, HIPAA, Houston, legal services programs, mortgages, redlining, Russia, serial litigants, Wisconsin

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

September 23 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 04:53:02 +0000

There are “almost certainly” many innocent persons in prison today wrongly convicted of shaking a baby to death [Radley Balko, Reason] Harris County, Texas forensic examiner under scrutiny [same, Reason "Hit and Run"] L.A. Times on forensics reform [same]
Feds order large private insurer Humana to pull criticisms of Obama health plan from its website [David Henderson, Eugene Volokh and followup]
Why would anyone market lawyers’ services through blog comment spam? Especially at Popehat? [first and second posts]
“Revolving door” for officials of regulatory agencies tends to lead to law firms [Naked Capitalism]
Tenure trouble: teacher’s union head “would protect a dead body in the classroom” [Ron Bailey, Reason on Brill "Rubber Room" article, earlier]
Google asked to unmask user in another defamation suit (Turks & Caicos developer) [Brian Kumnick, FindLaw "Injured"]
“Fired Ave Maria Law Prof Gets Tenure in Whistle-Blower Settlement, Lawyer Says” [ABA Journal, background Washington Monthly]
Ted Frank on Ameritrade settlement [Center for Class Action Fairness, earlier]

Tags: class action settlements, free speech, Google, Houston, law schools, teacher tenure, Ted Frank

September 23 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Developer: we don’t want an unregulated land-use climate like Houston

Walter Olson — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:25:59 +0000

Because without some sort of barriers to entry, how are you supposed to make the really big bucks? [Antiplanner via Coyote]

Tags: Houston, land use and zoning

Developer: we don’t want an unregulated land-use climate like Houston is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“EEOC says age bias behind firing of strip-club waitress”

Walter Olson — Thu, 14 May 2009 10:02:10 +0000

According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Mary Bassi was 56 when she was allegedly subjected to age-based discrimination at the Cover Girls club where she waited tables. “According to the lawsuit, which was filed last week in federal court, she was frequently called ‘old’ by managers and endured comments about experiencing menopause and showing signs of Alzheimer’s disease.” Younger waitresses were also given shifts that Bassi had customarily worked. An EEOC lawyer says Bassi had been a successful waitress and is now working in that capacity for a competitive club; Cover Girls burned down in 2007 and has not been rebuilt. [Houston Chronicle via Tim Eavenson; Richard Connelly, Houston Press "Hair Balls"] We’ve covered earlier age-bias complaints by exotic dancers themselves (as opposed to support staff) in 2000 and last year (both in Ontario, Canada).

Tags: age discrimination, Houston, strippers and exotic dancers

“EEOC says age bias behind firing of strip-club waitress” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Teacher’s ordeal began when cops found two pills in her car

Walter Olson — Fri, 01 May 2009 11:07:57 +0000

59-year-old Melinda Herrick, an art teacher who had been a Teacher of the Year honoree in the Houston schools, was charged with violating the “drug-free zone” law after cops found two Xanax pills in her car; the drug is often prescribed for panic disorder. Herrick protested that the car had been in the shop for repairs for more than a month before the incident; her daughter also drove the car. Students rallied on her behalf and the charges were finally dropped after she underwent a drug test which indicated that she did not use drugs. [Houston Chronicle via Obscure Store]

Tags: Houston, illegal drugs, schools, zero tolerance

Teacher’s ordeal began when cops found two pills in her car is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Update: Insurance law Hall of Fame

Walter Olson — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 14:15:50 +0000

“An insurance company with a potential $25 million liability from a fatal 2007 Houston office fire announced [Jan. 21] that it will drop its legal argument” that it shouldn’t have to pay for smoke inhalation deaths because they supposedly resulted from “pollution”, a risk excluded under the policy, as opposed to the actual flames. [Houston Chronicle; earlier].

Tags: fire, Houston, insurance

Update: Insurance law Hall of Fame is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system