Overlawyered » Massachusetts

From comments: web accessibility trips up a state medical board

Walter Olson — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 04:10:31 +0000

Thanks to reader Hugo Cunningham for spotting this in a new Boston Globe report on the failure of the Massachusetts state medical board to post physicians’ disciplinary problems and other performance issues online:

Another major omission has resulted from a Catch-22-like requirement in state law. Russell Aims, the … chief of staff
[of the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine], said the board used to post digital copies of its disciplinary orders [for medical malpractice]. But an online accessibility law requires that documents be available in a text-to-speech format for the visually impaired.

Because the PDF format of the disciplinary records is not compatible with text-to-speech software, Aims said, the law dictates that such records cannot appear in the database. If the visually impaired cannot access the information, then no one can.

Tags: Massachusetts, medical, web accessibility

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No one caught on

Walter Olson — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 05:51:32 +0000

A Newburyport, Mass. attorney formerly with the big personal injury firm of Kreindler and Kreindler has been suspended from practice for two years “after Suffolk County judges ruled she falsely claimed she was also a medical doctor.” The firm reportedly was unaware of the imposture (no one checked, then? ) and cited her nonexistent credential in its promotional materials. [Newburyport News]

Tags: lawyers, Massachusetts, medical

No one caught on is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

January 18 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 05:11:45 +0000

A federal fishing raid, the Pew Charitable Trusts and a biased Business Week account [Nils Stolpe on Gloucester, Mass. fisheries, via Stoll]
Intimidating the judiciary? “Group Opposing Citizens United Pushes ‘Occupy the Courts’ Protest” Jan. 20 [Debra Cassens Weiss, ABA Journal] Mob rallies at Michigan governor’s private home [Meegan Holland, MLive] “Occupy” forces Gingrich to cancel event [Daily Caller] Earlier here, here, here, etc.
“Paper Airplane? Late for School? Shouting Too Loud? You’re Under Arrest!” [Free-Range Kids, Texas]
Spielberg in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” paid homage to earlier movie sequences without sweating permissions. Oh, for those days [Joho] “Cultural gems that should be in the public domain today” [Atlantic Wire, Tabarrok]
UPS settlement exaggerates benefits to class members [Ted Frank; related, CCAF] “Federal Judges Have Harsh Words, Rulings for Class Action Plaintiffs’ Lawyers” [Lammi/WLF]
“Justice Breyer Calls Recusal Controversy a ‘Non-Issue’” [ABA Journal]
“Add Plaintiff-Lawyer Fees To The Cost Of Most Mergers” [Daniel Fisher, Forbes on Cornerstone Research report]

Tags: class action settlements, environment, Massachusetts, movies film and videos, police, recusals, schools, securities litigation, Texas

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

September 28 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 05:57:58 +0000

3M sues prominent Washington lawyer/lobbyist Lanny Davis, says threat of bad publicity improperly used as lawsuit leverage [Above the Law, more, Legal Ethics Forum]
House Oversight Committee report on expanding regulatory state;
Does lefty talking-points dispensary ThinkProgress approve of silencing affirmative action critic Roger Clegg? Decide for yourself;
Robin Fretwell Wilson and Jana Singer debate on scope of religious exemptions in law’s recognition of same-sex marriage [FedSoc Engage] New Heritage backgrounder on same topic cites my writing (in the course of disagreeing). Michael Barone on the politics of the issue, and why he supports the evolution of the law [Examiner]
California: chefs to defy foie gras ban? [LA Weekly via Alkon, earlier on Chicago]
“Massachusetts curbs lifetime alimony payments” [NY Times; Jennifer Braceras, Boston Herald] Many state child support formulas overstate cost of child raising [Bader]
In the mail: new John Fonte book on transnational legal structures, “Sovereignty or Submission” [Encounter Books]

Tags: child support, divorce, foie gras, Massachusetts, regulation and its reform, same-sex marriage

September 28 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Massachusetts: “Innovative Medical Liability Reform”

Walter Olson — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 05:21:57 +0000

A new report for the Pioneer Institute by John Biebelhausen (Colorado) and Amy Lischko (Tufts) examines a range of policy options for improving the Massachusetts medical malpractice system, including “less traditional” options such as “contract liability,” a “method for patients to contract directly with doctors or health systems to establish pre-determined rules for compensation in the case of injury due to physician negligence.” ["Innovative Medical Liability Reform: Traditional and Non-Traditional Methods"]

Tags: freedom of contract, Massachusetts, medical malpractice

Massachusetts: “Innovative Medical Liability Reform” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

July 22 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 11:30:14 +0000

Illinois prisoner sues for land to start his own country [AP]
“Have you got a piece of this lawsuit?” Important Roger Parloff piece on litigation finance [Fortune, now out from paywall] “Hedge Funds Finance Medical Malpractice Claims” [Jeff Segal, Michael Sacopulos and Wayne Oliver, Forbes via White Coat]
Criminalizing bad parenting: more scrutiny of “Caylee’s Law” proposals [Steve Chapman, L.A. Times and Boston Globe editorials, New Scientist]
Deal with ADA complainant averts closure of popular Popponesset Marketplace in Mashpee, Mass. [Cape Cod News]
Because it’s not as if NYC needs electricity or anything: Bloomberg gives $50 million to Sierra Club campaign to stop coal burning by utilities [WaPo] “Environmental justice” arguments deployed against pipeline that would bring Alberta tar sands oil to U.S. [John Kendrick, WLF]
Unimpaired have permanent right to sue: Fla. high court throws out asbestos-reform law [PBP]
Red tape demanded by quality-of-life progressivism suffices to strangle poorer urban economies [Walter Russell Mead]

Tags: asbestos, Chevron, disabled rights, environment, Florida, litigation finance, Massachusetts, medical malpractice, Michael Bloomberg, prisoners, regulation and its reform

July 22 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Blogger forced off school committee after teacher’s union threatens suit

Walter Olson — Thu, 26 May 2011 17:40:14 +0000

Massachusetts: “Robert C. Cirba, a member of the Spencer-East Brookfield Regional School Committee and former candidate for state representative, has resigned from the committee after the state Department of Labor Relations found that comments he made on his blog interfered with teacher negotiations.” Cirba had written disrespectfully on his blog about the Spencer-East Brookfield Teachers Association and says the teacher’s union had threatened to sue him personally as well as pursue a legal complaint against the board over the writings. [Worcester Telegram]

Tags: bloggers and the law, labor unions, libel slander and defamation, Massachusetts, schools

Blogger forced off school committee after teacher’s union threatens suit is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

New Massachusetts restraining-order law

Walter Olson — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 05:01:35 +0000

A new Massachusetts law that went into effect last year allows neighbors and other unrelated complainants to seek restraining orders against each other, a legal remedy formerly confined mostly to use between family members. But there’s been a surge of filings seeking the new “harassment prevention orders,” and according to the clerk of the Boston municipal court, the law has wound up empowering “every kook in the world” to “file a harassment order against their neighbor or landlord or someone who just annoys them.” Among cases: “One man took his neighbor to Malden District Court for allegedly blowing leaves on his property, and a woman in Boston Municipal Court insisted that actor Chuck Norris used high frequency radio transmissions to harass her at home.” [Boston Globe]

Tags: domestic violence, harassment law, Massachusetts

New Massachusetts restraining-order law is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

An Easter egg for Massachusetts employers

Walter Olson — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 05:15:22 +0000

A “new change to [Massachusetts] law now requires companies to notify employees about any potentially negative information added to their files. The amendment, which Gov. Deval Patrick signed into law on August 5, was tucked away in an ‘economic development’ bill laden with higher-profile items like the recent sales-tax holiday. …. this new personnel-records rule is going to lead to more employee lawsuits.” [Gruntled Employees via Susan Cartier Liebel]

Tags: Massachusetts, workplace

An Easter egg for Massachusetts employers is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Suit: music festival didn’t deter underage drinking in parking lot

Walter Olson — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 05:03:15 +0000

In 2008 a one-car accident killed a Mansfield, Mass. 19-year-old and her 20-year-old friend; their car hit a tree. Now a lawyer for the passenger’s family has sued the town of Foxboro and the Kraft Group, saying the operators of the New England Country Music Festival did not do enough to deter underage drinking in the parking lot outside Gillette Stadium. [Boston Globe]

Tags: alcohol, Massachusetts, recreation

Suit: music festival didn’t deter underage drinking in parking lot is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system