Overlawyered » Madison County http://overlawyered.com Chronicling the high cost of our legal system Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:11:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 February 14 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/february-14-roundup-2/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/february-14-roundup-2/#comments Tue, 14 Feb 2012 05:08:05 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=27567
  • “Brazil Sues Twitter in Bid to Ban Speed Trap and Roadblock Warnings” [ABA Journal]
  • Obama nominates Michigan trial lawyer Marietta Robinson to vacancy on Consumer Product Safety Commission, ensuring aggressively pro-regulatory majority [Bluey, Heritage]
  • “AMA reports show high cost of malpractice suits” [HCFN] “Average expense to defend against a medical liability claim in 2010 was $47,158″ [American Medical News, more] Survey of 1,200 orthopedic surgeons finds defensive medicine rife, at cost of billions, accounting for 7 percent of all hospital admissions [MedPageToday]
  • “Sue us only in Delaware” bylaws would kill off forum-shopping and what fun is that? [Bainbridge]
  • Trial by media: Lefty “SourceWatch” posts, then deletes, docs from Madison County pesticide suit [Madison County Record]
  • Think you’ve beaten FCPA rap? Meet the obscure “Travel Act” [Mike Emmick, Reuters] Federal court expands “honest services fraud” in lobbying case [Paul Enzinna, Point of Law]
  • “On the horrors of getting approval for an ice-cream parlour in San Francisco” [NYT via Doctorow/BoingBoing]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/february-14-roundup-2/feed/ 1     Illinois court: don’t blame railroad for asbestos delivery http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/illinois-court-dont-blame-railroad-for-asbestos-delivery/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/illinois-court-dont-blame-railroad-for-asbestos-delivery/#comments Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:43:21 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=27383 “This January, the justices stopped [attorney James] Wylder’s argument dead in its tracks once again, concluding that the McLean County Circuit Court should have dismissed his three negligence suits against Illinois Central Railroad. Wylder had argued that Illinois Central was responsible for the alleged asbestos-related injuries of workers at an asbestos plant because the asbestos had arrived there by rail.” [Chamber's Madison County Record, more; background on "asbestos conspiracy" line of Illinois cases, LNL]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/illinois-court-dont-blame-railroad-for-asbestos-delivery/feed/ 0     February 6 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/february-6-roundup-3/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/february-6-roundup-3/#comments Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:02:14 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=27368
  • “A 4-Page Playdate Waiver? Is This the New Normal?” [Lenore Skenazy, Free-Range Kids; our 2000 post on "Rise of the High-School Sleepover Disclaimer"]
  • Spirit Airlines sets what it calls DOTUC fee, for “Dept. of Transportation Unintended Consequences” [Stoll]
  • How fairly are fathers treated in family court? [Nina Shapiro, Seattle Weekly via Alkon]
  • “‘Insider’ Trading by the Representative Plaintiff in Shareholder Litigation” [Bainbridge]
  • “Donation controversy focuses attention on Madison County asbestos litigation” [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Chamber-backed LNL]
  • Update: Appeals court reinstates Duluth doc’s defamation claims [DNT, earlier here, here, here; "bedside manner" criticism]
  • U.K.: “‘Psychic’ Sally Morgan Sues Critics for £150,000 After Refusing $1 Million to Prove Her Powers” [D.J. Grothe, HuffPo] “She’ll be calling witnesses such as ‘an uncle, or father, or a man… with a b in his first name’.” [@thegagthief]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/february-6-roundup-3/feed/ 1     “Madison County judge reassigned after receiving campaign contributions” http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/madison-county-judge-reassigned-after-receiving-campaign-contributions/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/madison-county-judge-reassigned-after-receiving-campaign-contributions/#comments Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:14:35 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26256 “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]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/madison-county-judge-reassigned-after-receiving-campaign-contributions/feed/ 3     That should take care of the annoyance problem http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/that-should-take-care-of-the-annoyance-problem/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/that-should-take-care-of-the-annoyance-problem/#comments Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:06:41 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25177 A judge has ruled that the notice to class members of a class action over unsolicited faxes should be delivered by … fax [Christina Stueve, Madison County Record; related editorial]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/that-should-take-care-of-the-annoyance-problem/feed/ 2     September 27 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/september-27-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/september-27-roundup/#comments Tue, 27 Sep 2011 05:35:58 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24686
  • Unauthorized practice of law (UPL) regulation tends to serve interests of lawyers, not consumers [Thomas Morgan, Gillian Hadfield and more, Eric Rasmusen, George Leef, William Henderson, all at last week's Truth on the Market symposium; Bader/Examiner; related Greenfield on "lawyer practitioner" idea] In which I am described as a “voice of reason” on the notion of lawyer-deregulation [Greenfield, Bader/Open Market, earlier]
  • Trial lawyer stimulus: Obama jobs bill requires states to waive defenses to lawsuits [Joel Griffith, Big Government]
  • Because it’s done such a great job with drugs: government panel calls for heavier FDA hand in restricting availability of medical devices [Wajert, Beck, FairWarning] Better idea: “Moving to a Safety-Only [FDA] System” [Tabarrok on Boldrin/Swamidass]
  • “Do we really need a breastfeeding discrimination law?” [Hyman]
  • Welcome forum-shoppers: “St. Clair County [Ill.] Courthouse overflowing with out-of-towner law suits” [Madison County Record]
  • Lawyers in black-farmer action deploy Cornell’s Theodore Eisenberg in quest for $90.8 million payday [BLT]
  • “Ohio Man Sues Coworkers Who Won’t Share Mega Millions Lottery Win” [AOL; more on the evergreen lawsuit genre of co-worker lottery suits]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/september-27-roundup/feed/ 0     Chicago neurosurgeons pay $4500/wk in med-mal premiums http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/chicago-neurosurgeons-pay-4500wk-in-med-mal-premiums/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/chicago-neurosurgeons-pay-4500wk-in-med-mal-premiums/#comments Mon, 11 Jul 2011 09:33:44 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=23788 Neurosurgeons in Cook and four other counties pay nearly $230,000 a year, obstetricians nearly $140,000, and general surgeons nearly $100,000. The legislature in Springfield had voted liability limits, but last year the Illinois Supreme Court, in a decision hailed by organized plaintiff’s lawyers but condemned as lawless by many others, struck down those limits. [Heather Perlberg, Medill]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/chicago-neurosurgeons-pay-4500wk-in-med-mal-premiums/feed/ 12     December 16 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2010/12/december-16-roundup-3/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/12/december-16-roundup-3/#comments Thu, 16 Dec 2010 05:22:16 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=20649
  • Judge Kozinski blasts prosecution of McAfee exec Probhat Goyal [Ribstein, Greenfield; related on federal overcriminalization, Rittgers/Cato]
  • “If only laws were like sausages” [Robert Pear, NY Times]
  • “Public Radio Looks at California ADA Lawsuits” [Frith, CJAC on "This American Life," Thomas Mundy and Morse Mehrban]
  • Guitar maker described as “litigation-addled”: “Gibson continues its IP-based business plan” [Coleman]
  • Judge who heard Madison County, Ill. asbestos docket retires, is picked by lawyers as trustee of asbestos bankruptcy trust [Chamber-backed MC Record]
  • Ted Frank’s Center for Class Action Fairness objects to Classmates.com class action settlement [CCAF, more, yet more]
  • New Labor Department regs could chill management speech to workforce [Russ Brown, Open Market]
  • Too bad there weren’t legal blogs around in 2000, some light might have been shed on Bush v Gore [Legal Blog Watch, Ann Althouse] Hey wait a minute [ten years ago on Overlawyered]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/12/december-16-roundup-3/feed/ 0     April 6 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2010/04/april-6-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/04/april-6-roundup/#comments Tue, 06 Apr 2010 05:06:50 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=16809
  • “Trademark Infringement Suit by AAJ Against Another Trial Lawyer Group to Go to Trial” [Qualters, NLJ]
  • NPR covers SLAPP suits [On the Media]
  • Wi-fi, junk science, loser-pays and lawsuit lunacy [Popehat, Chicago Tribune, earlier here and here]
  • Metro-East Illinois attorney Rex Carr told to pay $635K in sanctions for bad faith suits against former partners [Belleville News-Democrat, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Courthouse News]
  • Sheep with the bends: “Animal Rights Groups Getting Clever With the Law” [WSJ Law Blog]
  • Canada: “Comedian Charged With Human Rights Violation By Lesbian Insulted At Club” [Turley]
  • Princeton freshman sues after being denied extra time to complete test [Princeton Packet via Obscure Store]
  • Eric Turkewitz: why my April Fool’s prank wasn’t an ethical violation under NY rules [New York Personal Injury Law Blog] Update: Colin Samuels recounts the whole affair at Infamy or Praise.
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/04/april-6-roundup/feed/ 2     March 16 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/march-16-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/march-16-roundup/#comments Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:22:39 +0000 Ted Frank http://overlawyered.com/?p=16506
    • Are you a member of Tyson chicken or H&R Block Express IRA class action settlements?

    • Jim Copland on Harry Reid and the trial bar. [NRO]

    • Jim Copland on the Ground Zero settlement, which may pay lawyers $200 million—but the judge plans fee scrutiny. [NY Post; NY Daily News]

    • Kevin LaCroix interviews the Circle of Greed authors. [D&O Diary]

    • Judgeships: Rhode Island lead paint trial lawyer in despite mediocre rating, but Sri Srinivasan out because of his clients—not Al Qaeda, but, heaven forfend, eeeevil corporations like Hertz.

    • There’s no evidence that workers on automotive brakes (which sometimes contain asbestos) get mesothelioma at a greater rate than the rest of the population, but auto companies still get sued over it. Ford fought one in Madison County, rather than settle, and won. [Madison County Record]

    • Overview of defensive medicine at work. [AP]

    • Pantsless Rielle Hunter on John Edwards: “He’s very honest and truthful.” [GQ]
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