It is forbidden to save lives except in the prescribed location and manner: “In an effort to protect rural hospitals in Louisiana, state lawmakers have passed a bill that bans the creation of most freestanding emergency rooms.” [Alia Paavola, Becker’s Hospital Review]
Posts Tagged ‘Louisiana’
Louisiana: “…an unknown third vehicle waves down an 18-wheeler”
Attorneys for Mississippi-based Whitestone Transportation “allege in court documents that their investigations have uncovered evidence of more than 30” incidents around New Orleans following a distinct pattern of “multiple people in a claimant vehicle, sideswipe allegations with commercial vehicle trailers, minimal damage to claimant vehicle, little to no damage to the insured trailer and a commercial vehicle driver who is either unaware of or denies impact, according to trucking attorneys.” “In Louisiana we estimate our insurance costs are three to five times more than the national average,” said Chance McNeely, executive director of the Louisiana Motor Transport Association, and with the legal system not well suited to defeating claims for staged or pretended accidents, companies are increasingly turning to truck-mounted cameras.
“It’s always the same thing: Four people in a sedan, and there’s always a random witness who gives a loose statement to the cops and has a random appointment and has to get away, “ McNeely said. And all too often they use the same attorneys and the same doctors, he said….
“We have a lot of billboards for attorneys, and many of them demonize our industry,” he said.
Crime and punishment roundup
- Bloodstain analysis convinced a jury Julie Rea killed her 10-year-old son. It took four years for her to be acquitted on retrial, and another four to be exonerated. Has anything been learned? [Pamela Colloff, ProPublica] Forensics’ alternative-facts problem [Radley Balko] The chemists and the coverup: inside the Massachusetts drug lab scandal [Shawn Musgrave, Reason, earlier here, here, here, etc.]
- “I would say, you know, as a parting gift, if you’d like to throw in some iPhones every year, we would be super jazzed about that…. So, you know, a hundred, 200 a year.” A window on the unusual business of prison-phone service [Ben Conarck, Florida Times-Union, state Department of Corrections]
- Should juries be forbidden to hear any evidence or argument about their power of conscientious acquittal? [Jay Schweikert on Cato amicus in case of U.S. v. Manzano, Second Circuit; related, David Boaz on 1960s-era jury nullification of sodomy charges]
- This hardly ever happens: prosecutor disbarred for misconduct [Matt Sledge, Baton Rouge Advocate; Louisiana high court revokes license of Sal Perricone following anonymous-commenting scandal]
- “Cultural impact assessments”: Canadian courts weighing whether race should play role in sentencing minority offenders [Dakshana Bascaramurty, Globe and Mail]
- “The Threat of Creeping Overcriminalization” [Cato Daily Podcast with Shon Hopwood and Caleb Brown] “Tammie Hedges and the Overcriminalization of America” [James Copland and Rafael Mangual, National Review]
Free speech roundup
- “Netherlands Prosecuting Man for Insulting Turkish President Erdogan” [Eugene Volokh]
- Among articles in the new Cato Supreme Court Review: Robert McNamara and Paul Sherman on NIFLA v. Becerra (California law prescribing speech by “crisis pregnancy” centers, earlier);
Rodney Smolla on Mansky (restrictions on political apparel at polling places, earlier); - Fifth Circuit: No, Louisiana cannot make it a crime to “intimidate” police officers by threatening to complain about them [Volokh]
- “Can the President Block You on Twitter?” Federalist Society Policy Brief video with Josh Blackman, earlier here and here;
- Roy Moore sues comedian Sacha Baron Cohen for defamation, Ken from Popehat not expecting suit to prevail [thread]
- “Billionaire Steve Wynn, Who Once Tried To Kill Nevada’s Anti-SLAPP Law, Loses Defamation Case Under That Law” [Mike Masnick, TechDirt]
Land use and development roundup
- Bay Area, L.A., and D.C. area should take an affordable housing lesson from cities that build: “Houston, Dallas, and NYC: America’s Great 3-Way Housing Supply Race.” [Scott Beyer]
- All things bright and beautiful/All
creatures great and small/All things wise and wonderful/The Commerce Clause reaches ’em all [John-Michael Seibler, Heritage, on Supreme Court’s denial of certiorari in Tenth Circuit decision upholding as constitutional federal rules requiring owners to preserve Utah prairie dog habitat on private land; earlier on PETPO v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service here, here, and here] Photo: Wikimedia Commons; - WSJ editorial takes dim view of Louisiana coastal erosion suit against oil firms, earlier here, here, here, here, here, and here;
- “You’re Not a Progressive If You’re Also a NIMBY” [Robert Gammon, East Bay Express] “Density Is How the Working Poor Outbid the Rich for Urban Land” [Nolan Gray, Market Urbanism] “The absence of gentrification causes displacement” [Michael Lewyn, same]
- “Let’s Make America a Mineral Superpower” [Stephen Moore and Ned Mamula, Bakersfield.com/Cato]
- Backing off from a bad law: Washington, D.C. considers ending tenant purchase rights for single-family homes [Carolyn Gallaher, Greater Greater Washington]
Liability roundup
- Poster case for cy pres abuse: Cato files amicus brief in Google referral header privacy class action settlement [Ilya Shapiro, earlier]
- “California Court Decision Offers Hope for Procedural Brake on Lawyer-Driven Class Actions” [Glenn Lammi, WLF on Noel v. Thrifty Payless]
- New book details Tampa attorney Brian Donovan’s frustrations with multi-district litigation (MDL) in Transocean spill case [Amanda Robert, Legal NewsLine]
- West Virginia: “House moves to limit Attorney General’s use of settlement funds” [Brad McElhinny, WV Metro News]
- “2017 Civil Justice Update” [Mark Behrens and Sarah Goggans, Federalist Society white paper]
- “Here’s why you’ll be paying more for car insurance if you live in Baton Rouge, New Orleans” [Dan Fagan, The Advocate]
Environment roundup
- Current Louisiana governor has brought back parishes’ coastal-erosion suits against oil companies [Erin Mundahl, Inside Sources]
- Roundup saga: EPA says glyphosate not likely to be carcinogenic to people [Tom Polansek, Reuters, earlier]
- “Can Land Uninhabitable by an Endangered Species Nonetheless Be ‘Critical Habitat’ Under the Endangered Species Act?” Supreme Court grants cert in Weyerhaeuser v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service [Jonathan Adler]
- “Oakland Would Pay 23.5% Of Recovery From Its Global Warming Lawsuit To Private Lawyers” [John O’Brien, Legal Newsline; more, John Burnett, Washington Examiner]
- Does this mean casually picking a feather up off the ground will no longer merit prison time? Department of Interior announces new interpretation of migratory bird law meant to bring sense to “incidental take” issue;
- For elephant conservation, sustainable use based on property rights might lead to better results than trade bans [Branden Jung, Wisconsin Law Review/SSRN]
Liability roundup
- Florida, California, St. Louis, New York asbestos courts, and Philadelphia top this year’s annual ATRA “Judicial Hellholes” list;
- Also getting attention, Louisiana, with legal climate ranked last among US states in business survey thanks in part to car-crash litigation, government-backed suits [Dee Thompson/Louisiana Record, local reform groups Louisiana Lawsuit Abuse Watch and Coalition for Common Sense]
- Survey of last year’s (i.e. 2016’s) civil justice landscape [Andrew C. Cook, Federalist Society]
- “Wheels come off fundamentally dishonest minibus claim” [John Hyde, Law Gazette (U.K.)]
- “Phoney Lawsuits: How To Sue Your Way Out Of College Debt” [John O’Brien, Legal NewsLine/Forbes] Cold calls: insurers and agents wary of TCPA litigation [Cyril Tuohy, InsuranceNewsNet]
- Reform package introduced in Wisconsin legislature includes changes to discovery, class actions, statute of limitations [Emily Zantow, Courthouse News]
December 6 roundup
- Torts class hypotheticals come to life: tipsy axe-throwing, discussed in this space last June, is coming to D.C. [Jessica Sidman, Washingtonian] One guess why Japanese “slippery stairs” game show might not translate easily to Land O’ Lawyers [Dan McLaughlin on Twitter]
- “California lawyer pleads guilty in $50M visa scam” [Debra Cassens Weiss, ABA Journal]
- Claim: longstanding practice in Louisiana and Oregon of not requiring jury unanimity for felony convictions reflects states’ racial past [Angela A. Allen-Bell, Washington Post]
- “Judge Halts Copyright Troll’s Lawsuit Against A Now-Deceased Elderly Man With Dementia And An IP Address” [Timothy Geigner]
- David Henderson reviews Richard Rothstein book on history of federal encouragement of housing segregation, The Color of Law [Cato Regulation magazine]
- Class action: sellers of cold-pressed juice should have disclosed that it was high-pressure-processed [Elaine Watson, Food Navigator USA]
Update: Louisiana sheriff’s raid on blogger’s home
We reported last year on how the sheriff of Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, relying on the state’s old and constitutionally infirm criminal-libel law, had raided the house and seized the computers of a local man suspected of being responsible for a gadfly blog that had criticized the sheriff and other community figures. Now, unsurprisingly, a federal judge is allowing a lawsuit to go forward seeking damages for the search: “Some qualified immunity cases are hard. This case is not one of them.” [Eugene Volokh]