Overlawyered » New Orleans

October 3 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 05:13:55 +0000

Arizona officials say “accents were never the focus” of teacher fluency monitoring suspended at feds’ insistence [NYTNS, earlier] Reactions to my piece last week include columnist “Johnson” at The Economist (taking issue) and Hans Bader and Carrie Lukas (favorable);
Another highlight of new “jobs” bill: financial institution customers would help pay for auto bailouts [John Berlau]
Key New Orleans Police Department officer in charge of integrity of traffic-cam program accused of altering own plates [WWL] Red light cameras defended [Noah Kristula-Green, FrumForum] Why Massachusetts won’t raise the speed limit on Route 3 north of Burlington (NMA blog via @radleybalko)
Eight bad reasons for going to law school [Campos] Law schools have demographic but not socioeconomic diversity [Richard Sander, Denver U. Law Review via Legal Ethics Forum] And besides my own contribution on law school reform at the recent Truth on the Market symposium, check out the contributions by Hans Bader and Larry Ribstein;
Fellow federal agency FERC worried that EPA’s power-plant crackdown could lead to outages [WSJ] EPA’s plan to regulate dust from farmers’ fields led to public opinion blowback for President Obama [Diane Katz/Heritage, Environmental Legal Blogs, Radley Balko] Shutting down EPA isn’t likely under GOP reign, but reforming EPA might be [Adler, NYT "Room for Debate"]
Left rallies around New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman [Ben Smith, Politico]

Tags: agriculture and farming, attorneys general, Environmental Protection Agency, language bias, New Orleans, New York, red light cameras

October 3 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Reminder: New Orleans speeches

Walter Olson — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 05:10:45 +0000

Just a reminder for those in the area: on Monday afternoon at 5:30 I’ll be speaking at Tulane Law School, debating Prof. George Strickler on the role of the legal profession with Prof. Michael Pappas moderating, and a reception to follow. The next day, Tues. Oct. 19, I’ll give a lunchtime talk at Loyola-New Orleans on employment law and the ADA, with Prof. Craig Senn commenting (update: video). Both events are sponsored by student chapters of the Federalist Society and are open to the public.

Tags: live in person, New Orleans

Reminder: New Orleans speeches is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Upcoming New Orleans speeches

Walter Olson — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 05:08:11 +0000

I’ll be speaking at Tulane law school late in the afternoon of Mon., Oct. 18, and then at Loyola-New Orleans at lunchtime on Tues., Oct. 19. Both events are sponsored by student Federalist Society chapters; my topics will be legal ethics/lawyer unpopularity and employment law/ADA litigation, respectively. To bring me to your campus, convention or group, drop me a line at editor – at – thisdomainname – dot – com or, if you prefer, work through the Cato Institute’s speaker service (202-789-5226) or the national office of the Federalist Society. And don’t forget that early next year I’ll start touring to speak on my new book on law schools, Schools for Misrule.

Tags: live in person, New Orleans, Walter Olson

Upcoming New Orleans speeches is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

August 5 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 14:00:03 +0000

Wouldn’t it be nice if Congress lifted the ban on Internet gambling [Steve Chapman]
Design of New Orleans shotgun houses is an adaptation to tax laws [Candy Chang]
Lawyer-enriching Costco class action settlement draws an objection from a blogger often linked in this space [Amy Alkon]
“Fourth Circuit slaps down N.C. attorney general’s suit against TVA” [Wood/PoL, Jackson]
South Carolina jury’s $2.375 million award based on premise that Nissan should have followed European, not U.S. crashworthiness standards [Abnormal Use]
City of Cleveland won’t take no for answer in dumb lawsuit against mortgage lenders [Funnell]
Charles H. Green at TrustMatters hosts Blawg Review #275;
Duke lacrosse fiasco: Nifong’s media and law-school enablers [three years ago at Overlawyered]

Tags: attorneys general, autos, class action settlements, Cleveland, gambling, mortgages, New Orleans, taxes

August 5 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

May 22 roundup

Walter Olson — Sat, 22 May 2010 05:08:49 +0000

No answer at 911? “Florida Verdict May Threaten EMS Availability” [White Coat]
New Orleans politico Steve Theriot drops suit seeking identities of online critics [Times-Picayune and more, NYT "Media Decoder", Slabbed, earlier]
On a vial of anesthetic: “One patient use only.” Nevada jury finds that warning inadequate to prevent multiple patient use and awards $500 million in punitives [Carter at Point of Law, Abnormal Use] More: Ted at PoL.
Floodgates to litigation? “Parent Can Sue Ex for Turning Children Against Him” [NJLJ]
Lawyer who isn’t honest is a threat to the social order: noted Allentown, Pa. attorney gets 6 1/2 years for fraud [Legal Intelligencer, earlier]
“Another European Prosecution for Insulting Religion” [Volokh; pop star Dorota Rabczewska, Poland]
A lawyer’s advice: try to get those Rand Paul types off your jury [Turkewitz]
If SEIU craves respectability, maybe it shouldn’t send mobs to besiege bank execs at their homes [Nina Easton, Fortune, cross-posted from Cato at Liberty; related from PoL last year; more from Big Journalism including role of D.C. police, but note denials on last point]

Tags: emergency medicine, failure to warn, family law, hate speech, labor unions, Nevada, New Orleans

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

New Orleans coroner’s race ad

Walter Olson — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:59:47 +0000

One for the hardball-campaign-ad Hall of Fame. Background: Times-Picayune (incumbent Minyard says ad is so over-the-top that it may actually be helping him), ProPublica.

Tags: New Orleans

New Orleans coroner’s race ad is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Update: FDA backs off raw oyster ban

Walter Olson — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 18:25:21 +0000

Following a huge outcry in Louisiana and elsewhere (see Oct. 28; Slashfood, Washington Times, Ryan Young/CEI), the agency will reconsider the rule. The uber-nannyish Center for Science in the Public Interest was dismayed at the delay [BayouBuzz], while the New Orleans publication Gambit, which calls the episode “a glaring example of bureaucratic overkill,” warns that after finishing further study the FDA “could still return with its faulty reasoning.” Nancy Leson at the Seattle Times passes on word from a Northwest shellfish official: “We were told by FDA officials that initially, they were planning to mandate post-harvest treatment of all oysters, and at the last minute they decided to just stick to Gulf oysters — for now.” And ubiquitous food-poisoning lawyer Bill Marler, whose publicity juggernaut rolls on* (recent Seattle Times profile — “I represent poisoned little children against giant corporations”), feels like he’s been wasting a fortune:

…let me make clear that I dumped a lot of “change” into the Democratic change wagon – I have given or raised millions of dollars for Democratic candidates over the last several years. My goal was to put people in office that did good public policy. Well, I guess I needed to wake up literally and figuratively. … Now, the FDA runs and hides from the Oyster industry. … Democratic candidates – do not bother calling, this “change” machine is out of order.

*Marketing disclosure for the FTC’s benefit: when I spoke at the recent AEI food safety panel an employee of one of Marler’s journalistic enterprises presented me with one of his promotional t-shirts.

Tags: FDA, food safety, FTC endorsement rules, Louisiana, New Orleans

Update: FDA backs off raw oyster ban is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

August 17 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:40:12 +0000

Liability protection for doctors, premised on “best-practices” medicine: a proposal to address the federalism difficulties [Bernstein/MacCourt, MI Center for Medical Progress, PoL]
Fraud in immigration law victimizes both U.S. and aspiring immigrants [NYT]
Paralyzed while tackling opponent, high school footballer now suing Barre, Vt. school system [Barre-Montpelier Times Argus]
Memo to Sen. Edwards: voters forgave Grover Cleveland the paternity, but they do mind lies [Mickey Kaus]
Issue in New Orleans case: defamatory to call tour guides “thugs”? [Times-Picayune]
No more Lux et Veritas: Yale press wimps out on Mohammed cartoons [NYT, Moynihan/Reason "Hit and Run", Steyn/NRO "Corner", Hitchens]
More on NYC woman’s “wasted-tuition” suit against college [Mark Gimein, NY Mag via Genova, earlier]
Do we really want to let CPSIA’s drafters within a mile of redesigning our health care system? [Inoculated]

Tags: colleges and universities, federalism, football, immigration law, John Edwards, libel slander and defamation, medical, medical malpractice, New Orleans, schools, Vermont

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

July 14 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:32:31 +0000

Is it OK if Boulder County prosecutor Tweets the murder trial while in progress? [Colorado Daily]
Pierce O’Donnell terms his gigantic Katrina/New Orleans lawsuit a “crapshoot” [Hiltzik, L.A. Times]
Massachusetts hospital not responsible for third-party injuries from just-released colonoscopy patient’s auto accident [Ronald Miller]
Controversial “citizen suit” provision was removed from environment bill as one of the compromises to obtain House passage [Global Climate Law Blog and more, earlier] More: Coyote.
“I was shocked at the number of cases the neurologist, radiologists, and especially the neurosurgeon had against them.” [ER Stories with a first-person lawsuit tale]
I liked Dole Food better when it was a victim of the litigation system rather than an aggressor [L.A. Business Journal, NLJ, L.A. Times "The Envelope" on company's suit against Swedish documentary filmmaker; underlying banana-worker pesticide litigation scandal; CJAC]
Virginia Postrel on kidney donation, altruism, and policy [The Atlantic]
Grown kids appear in court to exonerate dad who spent nearly 20 years in prison on false charges of abusing them [The Columbian, Wash., via Obscure Store] More: Coyote.

Tags: banana pesticide litigation fraud, bullying businesses, child abuse, climate change, hospitals, Katrina, libel slander and defamation, medical malpractice, movies film and videos, New Orleans, Twitter

July 14 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

New Orleans: Five-fingered FOIA request?

Walter Olson — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 14:21:46 +0000

If it’s too much trouble to go through the prescribed channels to request information, you can just ask the city’s sanitation director:

At the same time New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin’s administration was citing storage problems as its reason for erasing all but about a dozen of the mayor’s e-mail messages from 2008, another administration official was providing an activist lawyer with thousands of electronic messages written by or sent to at least four City Council members and their staffers during the past three years.

The council said sanitation director Veronica White, without any involvement by the city attorney or the council itself, handed over emails that may have included materials falling under attorney-client privilege, personal correspondence and communications from constituents, and details on pending lawsuits and criminal investigations, as well as council members’ private opinions on pending ordinances. Lawyer Tracie Washington, who obtained the messages, has clashed with the council on various issues including its attempt to demolish some public housing projects. [Times-Picayune/NOLA.com]

Tags: New Orleans, privacy

New Orleans: Five-fingered FOIA request? is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system