Overlawyered » legal profession

“Defamation of the legal profession”

Walter Olson — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:11:28 +0000

Following the filing of a defamation action in the Indian courts, Bollywood* producers agreed to apologize and remove scenes from a Tamil-language movie that the lawyer-plaintiffs had decried as “opprobrious visual artistic work designed against lawyers and the legal profession” [Times of India and IndiaGlitz via Stephanie West Allen, Idealawg and Robert Ambrogi, LegalBlog Watch; "Sivakasi"]

* Or in this case more accurately “Kollywood” — see comments.

Tags: India, legal profession, libel slander and defamation, movies film and videos

“Defamation of the legal profession” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Obama Presidency is Good News for the Legal Profession”

Walter Olson — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 03:57:09 +0000

The “light at the end of the tunnel for law firms”! Tons more regulation, no more attempts to limit lawsuits, a “boom” in financial disputes, new union contracts to negotiate all over the place! Let’s hope Larry Bodine is proved wrong (Legal Marketing Blog, Nov. 5)

Tags: legal profession, politics

“Obama Presidency is Good News for the Legal Profession” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Insulting Halloween tombstone display

Walter Olson — Thu, 15 May 2008 21:25:19 +0000

Judge Diane Sykes, on behalf of a three-judge Seventh Circuit panel, disposing of a suit that arose over whether the plaintiffs’ Halloween display of “wooden tombstones with epitaphs describing, in unflattering terms, the demise of their neighbors” was or was not Constitutionally protected, and if so what the consequences were for their suit against police:

In closing, a few words in defense of a saner use of judicial resources. It is unfortunate that this petty neighborhood dispute found its way into federal court, invoking the machinery of a justice system that is admired around the world. The suit was not so wholly without basis in fact or law as to be frivolous, but neither was it worth the inordinate effort it has taken to adjudicate it–on the part of judges, jurors, court staff, and attorneys (all, of course, at public expense). We take this opportunity to remind the bar that sound and responsible legal representation includes counseling as well as advocacy. The wiser course would have been to counsel the plaintiffs against filing such a trivial lawsuit. . . . Not every constitutional grievance deserves an airing in court. Lawsuits like this one cast the legal profession in a bad light and contribute to the impression that Americans are an overlawyered and excessively litigious people.

No live link to this site, though, apparently. (opinion link fixed now, sorry)(via Bashman). More: WSJ law blog, SkepticLawyer (Australia).

Tags: about the site, Australia, Diane Sykes, legal profession

Insulting Halloween tombstone display is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Yet more from the publicity file

Walter Olson — Fri, 02 Jan 2004 19:32:24 +0000

Your editor was recently quoted in Reason (Brandon Turner, “Citings: Snow Job”, Jan., not online), where he predicted (in an interview conducted this fall) that the U.S. Supreme Court would overturn the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Hernandez v. Hughes Missile Systems, the ADA right-to-return-after-drug-misconduct case. (How accurate was this prediction? See Dec. 13). I also contributed a quote this fall when the New York Times took a look at New Jersey’s office charged with cracking down on unethical attorneys, which it’s fair to say has its hands full (John Sullivan, “In New Jersey, Rogue Lawyers Are on the Rise”, New York Times, New Jersey edition, Oct. 19, not online). And the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, covering local attorney Elliot Rothenberg’s challenge to a rule requiring all Minnesota attorneys to enroll in “elimination of bias” classes, mentions this website and our description of the program as “compulsory chapel” (see Nov. 21) (“Attorney challenging state requirement of anti-bias classes for lawyers” Jan. 2).

Back in October, we were quoted by Legal Times’s Jonathan Groner in an interesting piece on a little-publicized crusade by “public interest” lawyers to extend the constitutional right to taxpayer-provided counsel, ushered in with Gideon v. Wainwright for persons facing criminal prosecution, to civil matters such as child custody fights (“On a Crusade for a ‘Civil Gideon’”, Legal Times, Oct. 20). The idea, quietly promoted by the Soros-backed Public Justice Center and by NYU Law’s Brennan Center, is far-reaching and actually quite scary in its implications. See George Liebmann, “‘Civil Gideon’: An idea whose time has passed”, Daily Record, Jul. 18, reprinted at Calvert Institute site. Advocates were hoping to convince the Maryland high court to embrace civil Gideon, in what would have been the first such ruling in the nation, but this month the court dodged the issue in ruling on the case, Frase v. Barnhart. (Ann W. Parks, “Top court sidesteps ?Civil Gideon? issue, strikes down custody conditions”, Daily Record, Dec. 12; Jonathan Groner, “Inadmissible — No ‘Civil Gideon’ — for Now”, Legal Times, Dec. 15).

Tags: about the site, civil gideon, disabled rights, legal profession, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey