Overlawyered » Michigan

Creative class actions: gas in repossessed cars

Walter Olson — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 12:15:59 +0000

Lawyers representing a White Lake, Mich. woman say that whether or not Ally Financial was within its rights to repossess her 2006 Pontiac, it was not entitled to the half-tank of gas it carried. They are asking class-action status on behalf of Michigan customers and seek $5 million. [Detroit News]

Tags: autos, class actions, Michigan

Creative class actions: gas in repossessed cars is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

February 17 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:38:53 +0000

Mortgage robo-signing settlement not actually as punitive toward the banks as you might think, succeeds in sticking costs onto various parties not at table [FT, more (US taxpayers could wind up covering much of write-down costs through HAMP program); Felix Salmon (write-downs of underwater mortgages should not be assessed at face value); Mark Calabria, Cato and more, Bloomberg (banks managing to offload much of the cramdown onto investors such as pension funds); Daniel Fisher/Forbes one, two, three (banks get covert benefits, politicos get social engineering and fees -- shades of the collusive tobacco settlement!); Above the Law (Schneiderman steers money to legal services programs); Linette Lopez, BI (banks still exposed on many issues). More: Hans Bader, John Steele Gordon.
"Burned at mediation by my own Facebook post" [Stuart Mauney, Abnormal Use]
As anti-discrimination law advances, religious liberty retreats [Roger Pilon, Cato] Two views on the birth control mandate [Cathy Young, David Henderson] More: Adler, Frum.
Caswell Motel case from Tewksbury, Mass. heads to court, could test forfeiture law [Balko] More: Washington Post editorial.
Which is more unreasonable, OSHA regulation or FAA’s? Open to dispute [John Cochrane, Grumpy Economist]
Indiana becomes a right to work state. On to Michigan next? [Shikha Dalmia, Reason]
Warning! Tale of trial psychologists in wizard garb comes from a sinister source, namely me ["In the News," forensic psychologist Karen Franklin, handsome illustration swiped from Cato site]

Tags: aviation, banks, discrimination law, Facebook, forfeiture, Indiana, labor unions, Michigan, mortgages, OSHA

February 17 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Adventures in abortion regulation

Walter Olson — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:27:24 +0000

A proposed Michigan law would apply legal scrutiny to men’s motives for walking out of relationships. [Fathers and Families via Amy Alkon]

Tags: family law, Michigan

Adventures in abortion regulation is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Court: IVF clinic cannot turn away single customers

Walter Olson — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 14:20:17 +0000

“A single woman who was denied treatment by a west Michigan in vitro fertilization clinic can proceed with a lawsuit claiming unlawful discrimination, the state Court of Appeals ruled in a decision released today. The case against Grand Rapids Fertility and IVF was filed after a doctor there told Allison Moon that his clinic could not provide the service out of concern that Michigan paternity law is so vague that a child conceived by IVF and born to a single mother could successfully sue the clinic for child support.” [Dawson Bell, Detroit Free Press] The appeals court said Michigan’s Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act, which prohibits services of public accommodation from discriminating on the basis of marital status among other grounds, extinguishes doctors’ common law right to decide with whom to undertake a physician-patient relationship. [Michigan Health Law Link]

Tags: discrimination law, medical, Michigan

Court: IVF clinic cannot turn away single customers is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Who was that court-appointed expert again?

Walter Olson — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 15:30:10 +0000

“Macomb County Probate Court officials can’t explain how a man falsely claiming to be a medical doctor was allowed to decide whether people were mentally competent to handle their own estates and whether jail inmates needed mental health care.” [Detroit News]

Tags: expert witnesses, Michigan, psychiatry

Who was that court-appointed expert again? is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Upset Moviegoer Sues Over ‘Misleading’ Trailer”

Walter Olson — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 15:46:06 +0000

Sarah Deming has sued the distributor of the critically acclaimed Ryan Gosling thriller DRIVE under Michigan’s Consumer Protection Act, saying it was promoted “as very similar to the Fast and Furious, or similar, series of movies” but “bore very little similarity to a chase, or race action film…having very little driving in the motion picture.” The suit aims for class-action status. [Lawyerist, Guardian]

Tags: advertising, Michigan, movies film and videos

“Upset Moviegoer Sues Over ‘Misleading’ Trailer” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“How To Make A Mockery Of Your Own Law School: Sue Your Critics”

Walter Olson — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 05:55:18 +0000

Which is good advice for many other touchy sorts of plaintiffs too, not just for the Thomas M. Cooley Law School of Lansing, Michigan [Mike Masnick, TechDirt, earlier]

Tags: law schools, libel slander and defamation, Michigan, online speech

“How To Make A Mockery Of Your Own Law School: Sue Your Critics” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

July 29 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 12:47:11 +0000

Don’t: “Lawyer Disbarred for Verbal Aggression to Pay $9.8M Fine for Hiding Cash Overseas” [Weiss, ABA Journal]
Loser-pays might help: “Dropped malpractice lawsuits cost legal system time and money” [Liz Kowalczyk, Boston Globe]
“Kim Kardashian and the Problem With ‘Celebrity Likeness’ Lawsuits” [Atlantic Wire]
Kim Strassel on the Franken-spun Jamie Leigh Jones case [WSJ]
Peggy Little interviews Prof. Lester Brickman (Lawyer Barons) on new Federalist Society podcast;
Worse than Wisconsin? “Weaponizing” recusal at the Michigan Supreme Court [Jeff Hadden, Detroit News]
New York legislature requires warning labels for sippy cups [NYDN]

Tags: Al Franken, don't, Lester Brickman, loser pays, medical malpractice, Michigan, nanny state, recusals, right of publicity

July 29 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

July 25 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 18:16:01 +0000

Nice going, sex offender registries [Brian Dickerson, Detroit Free Press] And I’m quoted in a syndicated column by Lenore Skenazy (and thence by Cory Doctorow at BoingBoing) on the registries’ tendency to sweep in much wider circles of offender than many advocates originally had in mind. More: a tale of child-abuse registries [Skenazy];
New York Times exposes scandal: businessman holds seat in Congress. Quick, replace him with another lawyer! [Ribstein]
Race separation’s unlawful for school attendance. So why’s it OK for school voting districts? [Quin Hillyer, Mobile Press-Register]
Speech and property rights in peril: “Fear of a Muslim America” [Cathy Young, Reason]
Before blaming bank dereg for “Too Big To Fail,” read this [Mark Calabria, Cato at Liberty]
After fatal one-car crash, drunk driver’s survivors sue popular Irish bar that served him [NJLRA; Trenton, N.J.]
Scotland: Thief wants victim prosecuted for keeping gun in her house [Daily Record]

Tags: banks, churches, dramshop statutes, guns, Michigan, New York Times, United Kingdom, Voting Rights Act

July 25 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Law School Sues Law Firm and Bloggers for Criticizing its Placement Data”

Walter Olson — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 11:37:38 +0000

Watch what you say about lawyers — and now it seems about law schools as well, specifically Michigan’s Thomas M. Cooley Law School. [TaxProf, Above the Law]

Tags: law schools, Michigan, watch what you say about lawyers

“Law School Sues Law Firm and Bloggers for Criticizing its Placement Data” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system