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legal services programs

October 14 roundup

by Walter Olson on October 14, 2009

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]

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

Class actions, courtesy U.S. taxpayers

by Walter Olson on March 30, 2009

Now that they’re in the saddle Senate Democrats are planning to strip away various long-fought restrictions on federally funded legal services programs. For the moment, at least, the class actions are supposed to be based at least ostensibly on existing law (litigation aimed at “law reform” was a specialty of the early legal services programs) and the programs will need to keep their books in such a way that federal taxpayer funds do not appear to be going toward their lobbying of legislators.

Tagged as: legal services programs, taxpayers

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Point of Law
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