Overlawyered » judicial elections

“Madison County judge reassigned after receiving campaign contributions”

Walter Olson — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:14:35 +0000

“Madison County Circuit Judge Barbara Crowder was dropped Tuesday from hearing all asbestos cases less than a week after her campaign committee received $30,000 in contributions from three metro-east asbestos law firms.” [Belleville News-Democrat, followup (says she'll return money); Chamber-backed Madison/St. Clair Record, followup]

Tags: asbestos, Illinois, judicial elections, Madison County

“Madison County judge reassigned after receiving campaign contributions” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

November 1 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 11:58:30 +0000

Election edition:

On Oklahoma ballot: grossly overbroad measure to ban use of foreign law [Atlantic Wire, Transplanted Lawyer, earlier Volokh]
Michigan race: “Dems cross the line with bigoted Supreme Court ad” [Stephen Henderson, Freep; earlier on attacks on Justice Robert Young]
Jacob Sullum is another non-fan of Andrew Cuomo’s record;
What was the exact nature of that Vancouver fundraiser so many Senate hopefuls attended? Carter Wood wishes he could add a footnote to an already strong column by George Will on the Linda McMahon-Richard Blumenthal Senate race in Connecticut;
Speaking of which, Will’s latest election roundup column is just out, while Nate Silver at the NYT’s Five Thirty Eight blog offers an outstanding hour-by-hour election-night guide;
Iowa poll shows former AAJ/ATLA president Roxanne Conlin, of SomePeopleJustNeedToBeSued.com fame, trailing far behind in bid to unseat Sen. Chuck Grassley [WHO-TV via Carter Wood's PoL election roundup;
Trial lawyers pour cash into California insurance commissioner race [CJAC]
Latest effort by New York Times to lionize activist AGs as “next Eliot Spitzers” recalls earlier Times pieces written to same formula, in the most amusing of which it lionized as the next Spitzer Ohio’s since-disgraced Marc Dann. Yet (the shaky electoral performance of such Times favorites as Massachusetts’ Martha Coakley aside) there’s reason to suspect voters this year will return a roster of AGs that’s less inclined toward business-bashing, not more [Jack Fowler at NRO].
Government a threat to liberty? Doesn’t just depend on whether “our” team’s in charge [Gene Healy, Examiner]

Tags: Andrew Cuomo, attorneys general, California, Connecticut, Iowa, judicial elections, Michigan, Oklahoma, politics

November 1 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Michigan Supreme Court Justice Robert Young

Walter Olson — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 15:04:22 +0000

One of the most highly regarded right-of-center state court jurists is up for re-election this year in my native state, and drawing some of the slimiest attacks from Democratic strategists. A sample: they’re hyping still photos of Young with his eyes closed on the bench, supposedly “sleeping,” when videotape context from moments before and after reveals the Justice to be simply blinking or glancing down. Instance #87,231, I’d say, of why it’s dubious to go to the mat in principle for the notion of selecting judges by partisan contested election. More: Tim Skubick/Oakland Press, The Blog Prof.

Tags: judicial elections, Michigan

Michigan Supreme Court Justice Robert Young is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Illinois high court election fight

Walter Olson — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 05:43:36 +0000

Imagine that: the court’s decision to strike down a duly enacted medical malpractice law was controversial enough that Justice Thomas Kilbride might actually have a retention fight on his hands. [Chicago Tribune]

Tags: Illinois, judicial elections, medical malpractice

Illinois high court election fight is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

August 19 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 11:27:15 +0000

Judge bans $1.35 billion sugar beet crop for lack of environmental impact statement [NY Times]
Brennan Center, Justice at Stake attracting attention with new report on money in state court judicial races [report in PDF, Kang/ConcurOp]
Obama signs “libel tourism” bill into law [Levy, CL&P]
“Zach Scruggs claims new evidence clears him” [Patsy Brumfield, NE Mississippi Daily Journal via YallPolitics]
Second Circuit panel blasts 1980s abuse-accusation panic in ruling on Friedman case [opinion via NYT and Bernstein/Volokh]
Famed Cincinnati lawyer Stanley Chesley may face disciplinary action before Kentucky bar over role in fen-phen scandal [Courier-Journal via Dan Fisher and PoL]
Sexual harassment verdict against California casino “amounts to 2/3 of the company’s net worth” [Fox, Jottings]
Every White House needs to hire some partisan brawlers. But with “ethics czar” duties? [Matt Welch, Reason]

Tags: Barack Obama, child abuse, damages, Dickie Scruggs, environment, ethics, harassment law, judicial elections, Kentucky fen-phen settlement fraud, libel slander and defamation, Stan Chesley

August 19 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

January 22 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 13:27:16 +0000

Early reactions to Supreme Court’s blockbuster Citizens United ruling striking down ban on independent election advocacy [Point of Law, more, yet more]
Vision Media Television Group continues its legal push against online critics, Section 230 or no [Consumer Law & Policy, earlier]
Big FBI sting operation could leave firearms business “wounded”, some say [Point of Law]
Runaway’s suit against McKeesport, Pa. school district dismissed on statute of limitations grounds [AP/Law.com]
“Sandra Day O’Connor Backs Campaign to End Judicial Elections” [Schwartz, NY Times, my two cents]
“Sheriff Joe’s Enabler” [Radley Balko on Maricopa County D.A. Andrew Peyton Thomas; earlier here, here, etc.]
Why some D.C. lawyers make so much money year in, year out [Hill & Lat, Washingtonian, quotes Ted; Ribstein and more]
“Hampshire woman jailed for false rape claim” [BBC]
P.S. At this point, politically, Dems almost have to pass something labeled health care reform whether or not the resulting legislation makes any sense [my comment in National Journal blogger's poll, more]

Tags: campaign regulation, free speech, guns, judicial elections, online speech, Phoenix, Sandra Day O'Connor

January 22 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

November 4 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:41:20 +0000

Four California lawyers accused in what prosecutors say is giant insurance fraud ring employing staged or “paper” car wrecks, Mark Geragos is defending [Metropolitan News-Enterprise, Glendale News-Press via ABA Journal]
“Civil Gideon law could overwhelm civil courts”, Ted is interviewed again [Legal NewsLine, earlier]
“Is that a popularly-elected state judge in your pocket?” [What About Clients?, earlier]
Audit Integrity, sued by Hertz over financial risk assessment, takes case to SEC [Felix Salmon, earlier]
OSHA nominee David Michaels, SKAPP and the right to bear arms, continued [David Kopel/America's First Freedom, earlier and more]
NJ case raises knotty questions of press liability for reporting allegations in lawsuits [WSJ Law Blog]
Washtenaw Jail Diary, which made splash on Twitter earlier this year, now reprinting at Ann Arbor Chronicle (earlier);
“Not every country bubblewraps its kids” [Free-Range Kids on Germany] Background checks for senior-center pen pals and more school overprotectiveness [same]

Tags: child protection, civil gideon, crash faking, David Michaels, insurance fraud, judicial elections, libel slander and defamation

November 4 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Microblog 2008-11-06

Walter Olson — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 04:59:59 +0000

Expects to have to fight Obama on policy, wept anyway when he came to podium for victory speech [Jonathan Blanks] #
Every self-respecting insider-trading ring should include an exotic dancer and a Croatian underwear seamstress [Bainbridge] #
New panel discussion: why are schools so bureaucratized and what can we do about it? [NewTalk] # @sekimori “Bureaucracy is to protect the system from litigation.” Not cynical to think this is one big part of the problem. #
@bschuelke: “Why is it so difficult to get clients’ medical records? Should be easy but is often the hardest part of the case.” #
Primer on role of Delaware in corporate law [NY Times] #
Ways to find good, underrated people [Ben Casnocha h/t Tyler Cowen] #
Cluelessness alert: U.K. cabinet minister criticizes blogs for not “allowing new voices” [Massie] #
Dems swept races for judge in Houston — unless their names were too unusual [Houston Chronicle] #

Tags: Barack Obama, Delaware, Houston, judicial elections, on other blogs

Microblog 2008-11-06 is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“South again leads nation in nasty, expensive judicial races”

Walter Olson — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:27:04 +0000

Alabama, Mississippi and Texas all host hotly fought races with a strong plaintiff-vs.-defendant dimension tomorrow: Democrat Deborah Bell Paseur vs. Republican Greg Shaw in Alabama, three challengers vs. three incumbents on the Mississippi Supreme Court, and Democratic challengers Jim Jordan, Linda Yanez and Sam Houston in races for the Texas Supreme Court. (Tom Baxter, Southern Political Report, Nov. 3).

Tags: Alabama, judicial elections, Mississippi, Texas

“South again leads nation in nasty, expensive judicial races” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

New at Point of Law

Walter Olson — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 18:25:58 +0000

If you’re not visiting my other site — or subscribing to it in your RSS reader, or following its Twitter feed — here’s some of what you may have missed lately:

Sen. Obama’s “I voted for tort reform” talk: maybe not so serious;
Assaults on arbitration and pre-emption are just the start of the Litigation Lobby’s big plans for next year;
A new featured column by Richard Epstein on the peculiarly named Employee Free Choice Act;
Manhattan Institute’s Trial Lawyers, Inc. project is out with a new report on West Virginia;
U.S. Department of Commerce: foreign investors fear our litigation climate;
Albany plaintiff’s firm Powers & Santola ladles out campaign money to judges it practices before;
Through the wringer? Judge Posner is quite severe on a clothes-dryer class action.

Tags: arbitration, Barack Obama, card check, class actions, judicial elections, Manhattan Institute, New York state, Richard Epstein, Richard Posner, Twitter, West Virginia

New at Point of Law is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system