Overlawyered » New York state

Unclear on the First Amendment in Albany

Walter Olson — Thu, 10 May 2012 13:46:53 +0000

More than two dozen members of the New York state assembly, including nearly half its GOP members, have signed on to a flagrantly unconstitutional bill that would empower complainants to force the takedown of anonymous online speech by claiming to have been victimized by it. To avoid takedown, the website sponsor would have to disclose information about the authorship of the supposedly offensive post including the writer’s name and home address. Eugene Volokh:

Nor would this be limited to comments that allegedly libel someone, or even insult someone (though that would be bad enough), despite all the talk of preventing cyber-bullying by the bill’s backers. Rather, the law would apply any time anyone makes a “request” that a comment be removed, even if the comment doesn’t mention anyone by name but is simply religiously or politically offensive to the “request[er].” The same would apply to anonymous material added to Wikipedia, if Wikipedia were found to be subject to New York jurisdiction, anonymous videos posted to YouTube, and so on.

The sponsors of the bill claim that it is part of a legislative effort against “cyber-bullying.” Scott Greenfield’s post has the best headline: “New York to Publius: You’re Done, Bully-Boy.” Related on “cyber-bullying” here (& welcome Above the Law readers).

Tags: bullying, New York state, online speech

Unclear on the First Amendment in Albany is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Brockovich meets Tourette’s in Leroy, N.Y.

Walter Olson — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:07:54 +0000

“In non-Western countries, demons and witchcraft are still sometimes blamed for outbreaks of fainting and fits [PDF]. Pollution, poisoning, chemical weapons, and other environmental concerns are dominant in the West (a fact that makes Brockovich something of a mass hysteria machine). Some bloggers are now claiming that the upstate New York girls fell ill because of the HPV vaccine or fracking.” [Ruth Graham, Slate]

Tags: Erin Brockovich, New York state, toxic torts

Brockovich meets Tourette’s in Leroy, N.Y. is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

New York’s “Triborough Amendment”

Walter Olson — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:19:32 +0000

A distinctively unfair bit of favoritism toward public sector unions, it legally locks in benefits after a contract expires, thus encouraging and rewarding union intransigence in negotiating the next. [Michael Allegretti, Public Sector Inc.; Empire Center for New York State Policy]

Tags: labor unions, New York, New York state

New York’s “Triborough Amendment” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Frack-tion of the truth

Walter Olson — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 13:07:19 +0000

A New York Times story criticizing natural gas fracking raises controversy. [Ira Stoll, more, Diana Furchtgott-Roth]

Tags: media bias, New York state, New York Times, oil industry

Frack-tion of the truth is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Albany’s lawyer-legislators, part CLXII

Walter Olson — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 17:31:00 +0000

“Over the past five years, New York State has awarded more than $7.4 billion in contracts to clients of law firms that employ state legislators, according to a review of court filings and other records.” [New York Times]

Tags: lawyers, New York state

Albany’s lawyer-legislators, part CLXII is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

New York backs off wiffle-ball-hazard regs

Walter Olson — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 13:11:36 +0000

Following national publicity, the state of New York has backed off regulations that defined games like wiffle ball and freeze tag as risky enough that day camps might be obliged to consider medical contingency plans. [Coyote, MSNBC]

Tags: New York state, recreation

New York backs off wiffle-ball-hazard regs is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Lindsey Lohan sues E-trade over baby commercial

Ted Frank — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:04:12 +0000

On Super Bowl Sunday, E-Trade ran one of their annoying talking-baby commercials; this one featured a blond baby named “Lindsay” (the 380th most popular baby-girl name in 2008) that another baby calls a “milk-aholic.” This, says 23-year-old Lindsay Lohan, was a violation of the rights to her “name and characterization”; she’s sued in Nassau County, New York state court, and is asking for $100 million. The advertising agency says Baby Lindsay was named after someone on the ad team. [lawsuit via TMZ; NY Post; Reuters]

Commenter Richard Nieporent reminds us of the similar Spike Lee vs. Spike TV silliness.

Tags: advertising, celebrities, Lindsay Lohan, New York state, right of publicity, Super Bowl

Lindsey Lohan sues E-trade over baby commercial is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Drunken boater crashes into pier

Walter Olson — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 22:57:09 +0000

The miscreant skipper has already pleaded guilty to manslaughter and intoxicated boating, but the family of a slain passenger is now suing the feds for not lighting the pier more brightly. [Jessica Spies, Greece (N.Y.) Post]

Tags: New York state, taxpayers

Drunken boater crashes into pier is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

New at Point of Law

Walter Olson — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 14:14:16 +0000

Stories you may be missing if you’re not following our sister site:

Administration now seeks to take credit for med-mal reform as part of health care plan. How believably? (related here, here, here, here, etc.)
Also related, if less closely: health care bill packed with goodies for labor;
Trial lawyers continue push in Congress to restore minimally demanding notice pleading standard by overturning Supreme Court’s Iqbal, Twombly decisions;
Imprisoned exec of Union Bank of Switzerland wants billions as whistleblowing bounty for assisting federal tax investigators;
“Right and Left Join Forces on Criminal Justice” — the NYT coverage;
“New Connecticut Law Tries to Trip Up ‘Runners’ and the Lawyers Who Hire Them”; Connecticut AG Blumenthal to push mandatory hospital error disclosure;
Third-party litigation finance is getting more controversial;
“The ethics counsel to the New York state senate told senators to hand-deliver ethics filings, rather than mailing them, to avoid coverage under the federal mail fraud statute.”
More on public pension funds, securities class-action lawyers, and campaign contributions.

Tags: champerty, chasing clients, Connecticut, medical malpractice, New York, New York state, pleading, Richard Blumenthal

New at Point of Law is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

$11 million verdict against pediatrician

Ted Frank — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:38:46 +0000

Two sisters were repeatedly raped and sexually abused by their older half-brother. This is, a federal jury decided, the fault of their pediatrician, Dr. Patricia Monroe, who failed to report the abuse–though there was no evidence she was aware of the scope of it. Monroe’s attorney “says that’s because the girl refused to speak to Monroe and because the incident wasn’t reportable to Child Protective Services.” The decision will be appealed. (Chris Knight, “Monroe to appeal $11M verdict”, Adirondack Daily Enterprise, Sep. 3).

A message has been sent: make defensive reports to Child Protective Services, and parents will all be worse off when CPS overreacts.

Tags: child protection, Child Protective Services, medical, New York state, third party liability for crime

$11 million verdict against pediatrician is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system