Overlawyered » illegal drugs

“Wisconsin Cops Confiscate Families’ Bail Money”

Walter Olson — Sun, 20 May 2012 14:55:35 +0000

Another infuriating extension of asset forfeiture law. [Radley Balko, Huffington Post]

Tags: forfeiture, illegal drugs, Wisconsin

“Wisconsin Cops Confiscate Families’ Bail Money” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Your seven-day pill box is illegal”

Walter Olson — Tue, 01 May 2012 12:36:42 +0000

Ted Frank and Heather L. Finley of the Times-Georgian of west Georgia explain why.

Tags: illegal drugs, pharmaceuticals

“Your seven-day pill box is illegal” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

April 3 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 04:02:19 +0000

In time for Easter: egg prices soar in Europe under new hen-caging rules [AP]
For third time, the Environmental Protection Agency backtracks on claims of harm from gas “fracking” [Adler; U. Texas study on drinking water safety, CBS Dallas] Yes, there’s a plaintiff’s lawyer angle [David Oliver] Don Elliott, former EPA general counsel, on why his old agency needs cutting [Atlantic] Blow out your candles, coal industry, and so good-bye [Pat Michaels/Cato, Shikha Dalmia]
Following the mad logic wherever it leads: “State Legislators Propose Mandatory Drug Testing of Judges and Other State Officials” [ABA Journal]
Proposal: henceforth no law may run to greater length than Rep. Conyers’s copy of Playboy [Mark Steyn]
Creative American lawyers: “Carnival cruise ship briefly seized in Texas” [AP]
“Overlawyered” is the title of a new commentary in The New Yorker, not related to a certain website [Kelefa Sanneh]
Repressive Connecticut “cyber-harassment” bill [Volokh, Greenfield, Popehat] And now, not to be outdone, Arizona… [Volokh]

Tags: agriculture and farming, animal rights, Arizona, bullying, Connecticut, cruise ships, Environmental Protection Agency, harassment law, illegal drugs, oil industry

April 3 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Restricting helium sales to prevent squeaky-voice foolery?

Walter Olson — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:23:05 +0000

A group called the National Inhalant Prevention Coalition, with support from federal agencies SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) and NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse), held a press conference yesterday to promote wider restrictions on the sale and use of helium, the familiar balloon-filling gas that as most people know will make one’s voice squeaky if inhaled. Although helium has low toxicity, it can pose dangers to the user, especially when inhaled directly from a pressurized container, the dangers “mostly related to the mechanical damage of introducing a highly compressed gas into your lungs,” as a doctor put it in a 1997 publication from NIPC (“Helium: Not a Laughing Matter”). The Washington Times reports on the coalition’s demands and quotes me for balance: “Small risk is worth knowing about, but it’s not worth rearranging our whole lives around.” It’s one thing to make sure kids know it’s unacceptably dangerous to breathe gases from pressurized containers, and another to make it unlawful for responsible 17-year-olds to pick up the balloon supplies for the family wedding.

P.S. Several readers wrote to say that because of current federal policy helium winds up artificially underpriced, encouraging its use for frivolous purposes; more on that here.

Tags: illegal drugs, safety

Restricting helium sales to prevent squeaky-voice foolery? is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

February 29 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 14:17:27 +0000

Jackpot justice and New Jersey pharmacies (with both a Whitney Houston and a Ted Frank angle) [Fox, PoL, our Jan. 3 post]
New Mexico: “Trial lawyers object to spaceport limits” [Las Cruces Bulletin]
Dodd-Frank: too big not to fail [The Economist] Robert Teitelman (The Deal) on new Stephen Bainbridge book Corporate Governance After the Financial Crisis [HuffPo] Securities suits: “trial lawyers probably won’t be able to defend a defective system forever” [WSJ Dealpolitik]
Uh-oh: U.K. Labour opposition looks at unleashing U.S.-style class actions [Guardian] “U.K. Moves ‘No Win, No Fee’ Litigation Reforms to 2013″ [Suzi Ring, Legal Week]
More on controls on cold medicines as anti-meth measure [Radley Balko, Megan McArdle, Xeni Jardin, earlier here, here, here]
Recognizable at a distance: “In Germany, a Limp Domestic Economy Stifled by Regulation” [NY Times]
Fewer lawyers in Congress these days [WSJ Law Blog]

Tags: Germany, illegal drugs, New Jersey, New York Times, pharmaceuticals, regulation and its reform, securities litigation, Senate, spac, U.S. House of Representatives, United Kingdom

February 29 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

February 24 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 05:07:47 +0000

Melissa Kite, columnist with Britain’s Spectator, writes about her low-speed car crash and its aftermath [first, second, third, fourth]
NYT’s Nocera lauds Keystone pipeline, gets called “global warming denier” [NYTimes] More about foundations’ campaign to throttle Alberta tar sands [Coyote] Regulations mandating insurance “disclosures” provide another way for climate change activists to stir the pot [Insurance and Technology]
“Cop spends weeks to trick an 18-year-old into possession and sale of a gram of pot” [Frauenfelder, BB]
Federal Circuit model order, pilot program could show way to rein in patent e-discovery [Inside Counsel, Corporate Counsel] December Congressional hearing on discovery costs [Lawyers for Civil Justice]
Trial lawyer group working with Senate campaigns in North Dakota, Nevada, Wisconsin, Hawaii [Rob Port via LNL] President of Houston Trial Lawyers Association makes U.S. Senate bid [Chron]
Panel selection: “Jury strikes matter” [Ron Miller, Maryland Injury]
Law-world summaries/Seventeen syllables long/@legal_haiku (& for a similar treatment of high court cases, check out @SupremeHaiku)

Tags: Canada, climate change, discovery, environment, global warming, Hawaii, humor, illegal drugs, jury selection, low-speed auto collisions, Nevada, North Dakota, oil industry, patent litigation, politics, Senate, United Kingdom, Wisconsin

February 24 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Disabled rights roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 05:06:43 +0000

ADA mills continue to extract money from California small businesses with no legislative relief in sight [Auburn Journal, Andrew Ross/S.F. Chronicle, KABC (James Farkus Cohan), WTSP (Squeeze Inn owner speaks out), CJAC (Lungren proposal) and more, Chamber (San Francisco coffee shop's woes, auto-plays video)] Profile of attorney Thomas Frankovich [California Lawyer];
EEOC sues employer for turning away job applicant on methadone program [Jon Hyman]
“Maryland high court: allergy is disability requiring accommodation” [PoL]
“Suits could force L.A. to spend huge sums on sidewalk repair” [Los Angeles Times]
Under gun from Department of Justice and SCOTUS Olmstead ruling, Virginia and other states agree to massive overhaul of services for developmentally disabled; not all families, though, are happy with the insistence on relocating residents of large facilities to smaller “community” settings [Richmond Times-Dispatch, McDonnell press release, Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, Staunton News-Leader]
“New Case from W.D. Tex. Shows Effect of ADAAA on Back Injury Claims” [Disability Law]
Lawyer leads effort to give disabled passengers wider rights to sue airlines [Toledo Free Press]

Tags: ADA filing mills, airlines, allergies, California, disabled rights, EEOC, illegal drugs, Los Angeles, Maryland, Virginia

Disabled rights roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

N.J.: overdoses on Xanax, collects $4.1 million

Walter Olson — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 05:06:56 +0000

“A man who overdosed on stolen drugs he ingested at a party in 2007 has settled his lawsuit with a pharmacy, several guests, the party’s host and the host’s mother for $4.1 million. … [Scott] Simon sued the pharmacy for not taking proper precautions to avoid the theft of drugs. He also sued several guests, the party’s host and the host’s parents, who were away for the weekend.” [AP via NJLRA, Schepisi & McLaughlin]

Tags: illegal drugs, New Jersey, personal responsibility, pharmaceuticals, social host

N.J.: overdoses on Xanax, collects $4.1 million is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Prosecution roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 16:08:03 +0000

Six-year-old charged with sexual assault [Channel3000.com, Wisconsin; Radley Balko]
“Beware: Cities Hunting You Down For Reagan-Era Parking Tickets” [David Kiley, AOL]
Waco, Texas: “McLennan DA fights DNA testing because exonerations override juries” [Grits for Breakfast] Robert Mosteller, “Failures of the Prosecutor’s Duty to ‘Do Justice’ in Extraordinary and Ordinary Miscarriages of Justice” [Legal Ethics Forum]
Controlled substances: “Could a US lawyer lawfully counsel clients about this proposed new law?” [John Steele, LEF]
Mens rea erosion a “deeply troublesome trend” [Kevin LaCroix on WSJ] “Trial penalty,” long sentence minimums give prosecutors muscle to extract plea deals [NYT, Sullum] “Settlements feed U.S. prosecutor overreach” [Reynolds Holding, Reuters BreakingViews] “Responsible corporate officer doctrine” worries pharma defense lawyers [WSJ Law Blog] “The continuing quest to criminalize business judgment” [Kirkendall]
“More than three-quarters of turn-of-the-century Chicago homicides led to no criminal punishment — not because the perpetrator could not be identified, but because no jury would convict.” [William Stuntz's posthumous book via Cowen]
“Scalia criticizes narcotics laws” [for over-federalization] [WSJ]

Tags: Chicago, crime and punishment, illegal drugs, prosecution, traffic laws

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

“Admitted Drug Dealer Sues Doctor Who Prescribed Painkillers”

Walter Olson — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 05:38:35 +0000

Pennsylvania: “A York man who pleaded guilty to illegally selling prescription drugs is suing the doctor who prescribed the painkillers to him for medical malpractice and medical negligence.” [York Daily Record]

And from the same state: veteran who broke into a pharmacy to steal drugs sues Veterans Administration for not having given him better mental health counseling. [Times-Leader]

Tags: criminals who sue, illegal drugs, medical malpractice, Pennsylvania

“Admitted Drug Dealer Sues Doctor Who Prescribed Painkillers” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system