Overlawyered » Kansas

May 18 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 18 May 2012 04:14:02 +0000

Very silly Common Cause suit against Senate filibuster [Adler, Doug Mataconis, Jack Shafer (Filibuster unconstitutional? "Yes, but only when the GOP has the majority.")]
More on football concussion lawsuits [Will Oremus, Slate; Gerard Magliocca, Concurring Opinions; earlier]
Phrase I’ve heard before: Niall Ferguson says U.S. beset by the “rule of lawyers” [Business Insider]
“I have filed over a hundred lawsuits and another one will be no sweat for me. On the other hand, it will cost you a lot of time and money[.]” One blogger’s prolonged legal ordeal ["Aaron Worthing," Allergic2Bull and summary version] Plus: Ken/Popehat;
Louisiana land-taint suits: “maybe I’m just going to contend the oil companies did it, not the salt domes” [Lachlan Markay, Heritage, earlier]
Kansas differs from SCOTUS on legality of resale price maintenance. Will it make policy for the other 49 states? [Ted Frank] New Federalist Society project on state courts and how they’re picked;
A lot of lobbying went into that government-prescribed “flame-resistant” furniture [Chicago Tribune]

Tags: antitrust, bloggers and the law, CPSC, fires, football, Kansas, Louisiana, oil industry, serial litigants, state high courts, The Rule of Lawyers

May 18 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Update: convicted kidnapper’s suit against victims dismissed

Walter Olson — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:17:08 +0000

A Kansas judge “last week dismissed Jesse Dimmick’s lawsuit against the couple he kidnapped in southwest Shawnee County.” [Topeka Capital-Journal, earlier]

Tags: criminals who sue, Kansas

Update: convicted kidnapper’s suit against victims dismissed is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Man Sues Couple He Kidnapped”

Walter Olson — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 05:07:22 +0000

Jesse Dimmick, who invaded the home of Jared and Lindsay Rowley at knifepoint and held them for some time against their will, is now suing them for allegedly reneging on a promise to hide him from the police. He’s also suing the city of Topeka, one of whose officers shot him during his apprehension. [Capital-Journal via Lowering the Bar]

Tags: contracts, criminals who sue, Kansas

“Man Sues Couple He Kidnapped” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

November 2 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 11:03:45 +0000

Headline stories of the week:

Crude for sure: Law.com runs highlights of the tapes of American lawyers stage-managing the Ecuador-Chevron suit [Corporate Counsel, ShopFloor]
Why such broad gag orders in Kansas pain-doc advocacy case? [Jacob Sullum, Reason; Adam Liptak, NYT]
Spectacular fall of lawyer Adorno in Miami fire fee case [ABA Journal, PoL, earlier]
Fiscal 2010 saw biggest increase in regulatory burdens placed on US economy since measurements began [Heritage]
Watch for nonstandard definitions of “rights”: “Unions Fear Rollback of Rights Under Republicans” [NYT]
Marijuana, freedom and the California ballot [David Boaz, Cato at Liberty] Alas, text of Proposition 19 also contains “antidiscrimination” provisions that restrict private liberty [David Henderson]
New papers from U.S. Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform unveiled at last week’s Legal Reform Summit: ways to fix the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) (more on FCPA from Nathan Burney via Greenfield); Beisner-Miller-Schwartz on cy pres in class actions, via CCAF and Trask; and a new paper on asbestos claiming in Madison County, Illinois;
Will Supreme Court clients be as keen on hiring Tribe after revelation of his letter trashing Sotomayor? [Whelan, NRO]

Tags: Chevron, class action settlements, illegal drugs, Kansas, labor unions, prosecution, Sonia Sotomayor

November 2 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

OK for private school to have English-only rule

Walter Olson — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 04:07:19 +0000

“A federal judge ruled [last month] that a Wichita Catholic school policy requiring students to speak only English didn’t break any civil rights laws.” U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten still felt free to give St. Anne Catholic School a tongue-lashing over the alleged divisiveness of its policy, though he found it did not rise to the level of creating a “hostile educational environment”, which would apparently have triggered liability even in a private religious school setting. (Ron Sylvester, “School prevails in English-only lawsuit”, Wichita Eagle, Aug. 16, GoogleCached).

Tags: Kansas, language bias, schools

OK for private school to have English-only rule is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

June 16 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 04:03:30 +0000

Educator acquitted on charges of roughness toward special ed student sues Teacher Smackdown website over anonymous comments criticizing her [NW Arkansas Morning News, Citizen Media Law Project, House of Eratosthenes]

Lorain County, Ohio judge who struck down state’s death penalty has Che Guevara poster in his office, though Guevara wasn’t exactly an opponent of killing [USA Today]

Privatization of U.S. Senate food service is a parable for wider issues [Tabarrok]

Low-end strategies for acquiring criminal-law clients include trolling the attorney visiting area at the federal lockup, paying the hot dog guy in front of the courthouse [Greenfield]

A Canadian Senator on why his country’s medical malpractice law works better than you-know-whose [Val Jones MD leads to audio]

U.K.: convicted rapist sexually assaults and murders teenage girl after housing authority is told evicting him would breach his human rights [Telegraph]

No word of legal action (yet, at least) in Salina, Kansas car crash that driver blames on “brain freeze” from Sonic restaurant frozen drink [AP/K.C. Star]

In Michigan, some mysterious entity is trying to drop an electoral anvil on two of our favorite jurists [PoL]

Tags: Canada, chasing clients, judges, Kansas, medical malpractice, Michigan, Ohio, online speech, politics, restaurants, schools, United Kingdom

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

The Phelps verdict, free speech, and fighting words

Walter Olson — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 10:20:33 +0000

Eugene Volokh has an extensive analysis up at the Conspiracy (see Nov. 2). For some flavor of the Phelps group’s extreme forays into picketing and public abuse of hapless Topeka residents, and intensive lawsuit-filing against countless defendants, see SPLC’s “A City Held Hostage” and “Halting Abusive Lawyers“.

Tags: free speech, Kansas

The Phelps verdict, free speech, and fighting words is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system