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 http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/employment-law-roundup-3/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/employment-law-roundup-3/#comments Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:12:54 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=27399

Fueled by liberal foundation grants and federal money, “Restaurant Opportunities Center” launches litigation campaign against chain-eatery leader Darden [Orlando Sentinel] Still to be explained: why the Detroit Chamber of Commerce would be so happy to announce a business-backed non-profit’s funding for ROC.

Major employment plaintiff’s firm Outten & Golden promotes Hearst magazine intern class action [Romenesko, Reason]

“Retaliation Charges Pose Growing Threat to Free Speech” [Hans Bader, CEI]

Debate: “Should state outlaw requirements that job applicants be employed?” [Pia Lopez/Ben Boychuk, Sacramento Bee]

“Is it time to do away with McDonnell Douglas?” [burden-shifting test in job bias cases; Jon Hyman]

Supposed exemption from OSHA for under-10-employee businesses is mostly myth [Eric Conn, EBG]

WSJ is kind enough to pick up my item on Italian labor law professors as a “Notable and Quotable” today;

New York Times fires 23 employees after searching their emails and finding that they had forwarded blonde and ethnic jokes and other common forms of workplace humor [eleven years ago on Overlawyered]

Tags: discrimination law, Ford Foundation, hostile environment, New York Times, OSHA, restaurants, wage and hour suits, workplace

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/employment-law-roundup-3/feed/ 1 http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/courts-put-the-brakes-on-agenda-of-g-o-p/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/courts-put-the-brakes-on-agenda-of-g-o-p/#comments Tue, 06 Sep 2011 10:10:38 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24443 A. G. Sulzberger quotes me in yesterday’s New York Times on the wave of court challenges that has met legislation in state capitals on immigration, abortion, financing for Planned Parenthood, and other hot topics. Federal judges have recently issued injunctions blocking part or all of controversial state enactments on all these topics.

Tags: immigration law, New York Times

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/courts-put-the-brakes-on-agenda-of-g-o-p/feed/ 13 http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/september-6-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/september-6-roundup/#comments Tue, 06 Sep 2011 05:09:46 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24430

“For any value of x, ‘X’s Law’ is a bad idea.” [David Wagner on this Radley Balko post]

“Politicized hiring at DOJ” shoe is on the other foot now [Caroline May, Daily Caller; Hans Bader/CEI]

“THE FACTS: Nothing is unconstitutional until courts declare it to be so,” quoth AP. Whaaaa? [Taranto]

Pull back your town’s Section 8 program, get sued or investigated [James Bovard, WSJ]

New Jersey Turnpike Authority legal payouts include $150K in legal fees to ADA claimant [Press of Atlantic City]

NYT’s faux-criticism of Title IX enforcers: colleges aren’t cowed enough by them [Joshua Thompson, PLF Liberty Blog]

After silicosis-payout scandal, lawsuits aim at defrauded insurer among other parties [Brenda Sapino Jeffreys, Texas Lawyer, earlier]

Tags: constitutional law, disabled rights, fair housing, insurers, New Jersey, New York Times, Title IX

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/september-6-roundup/feed/ 0 http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/july-25-roundup-2/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/july-25-roundup-2/#comments Mon, 25 Jul 2011 18:16:01 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24008

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

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/july-25-roundup-2/feed/ 5 http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/food-law-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/food-law-roundup/#comments Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:07:00 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=23774

Texas legalizes sale of home-baked goods; “Mom can come out of hiding” [KLTV; @JohnWaggoner] New York regulators order Greenmarket cheese vendors to stop custom-slicing wedges for customers [Baylen Linnekin]

Children who take school lunch more likely to be obese than those who brown bag it [Freddoso] And is there still time to save chocolate milk? [Boston Herald on proposed Massachusetts school ban]

“Obesity policy” in theory: “High-calorie food is too cheap” argument of NYT’s Leonhardt is open to doubt [Josh Wright] “Is obesity really contagious?” [Zoë Pollock, The Dish] Knives out among scientists debating food causes of obesity [Trevor Butterworth, Forbes] Feds look to regulate food similarly to tobacco in hope of saving money on health care [Munro, Daily Caller]

…and practice: “Calorie counts don’t change most people’s dining-out habits, experts say” [WaPo, Richer/WLF] Obama nutrition campaign: eat as we say, not as we do [The Hill] Of recent USDA “recipes for healthy kids,” 12 of 15 would not have met proposed FTC ad standards [WSJ] Nanny’s comeuppance? “States rein in anti-obesity laws” [WSJ Law Blog]

“Food safety chief defends raw milk raids” [Carolyn Lochhead, SF Chronicle, earlier]

“It’s Time to End the War on Salt: The zealous drive by politicians to limit our salt intake has little basis in science” [Melinda Wenner Moyer, Scientific American]

After talking with experts, NYT’s Mark Bittman walks back some assertions about the European e. coli outbreak, now blamed on Egyptian fenugreek seeds [Science Mag; related, Kolata/NYT]

“If anything, China’s food scandals are becoming increasingly frequent and bizarre.” [LATimes]

Public criticism of activist food policy often calls forth a barrage of letters defending government role in diet. Ever wonder why? [Prevention Institute "rapid response" talking point campaign; how taxpayers help]

Tags: agriculture and farming, China, eat drink and be merry, FDA, food safety, New York Times, obesity, salt

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/food-law-roundup/feed/ 14 http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/frack-tion-of-the-truth/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/frack-tion-of-the-truth/#comments Thu, 07 Jul 2011 13:07:19 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=23727 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

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/frack-tion-of-the-truth/feed/ 0 http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/dear-new-york-times/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/dear-new-york-times/#comments Wed, 22 Jun 2011 20:43:25 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=23511 “…I Don’t Think ‘Moderate’ Means What You Think It Means” [David Lat, Above the Law]

Tags: New York Times, Supreme Court

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/dear-new-york-times/feed/ 3 http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/june-22-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/june-22-roundup/#comments Wed, 22 Jun 2011 05:20:49 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=23497

Supreme Court disbars Bill Lerach [Richard Samp, WLF] And check out the byline of the former class-action king’s recent contribution to The Nation; do you think it omits anything material? [h/t Bob Lenzner]

Ted Frank guessed right on outcome of Wal-Mart case but still lost big betting on it [PoL]

After feds seize online bettors’ money, Anne Arundel County, Maryland police department crows over windfall [CEI] And c’mon Maryland, surely we in the home state of H.L. Mencken and Frederick Douglass can do better in the liberty rankings than this;

“Wrongful-Death Lawsuit Filed After Man Killed by Rooster” [Lowering the Bar]

Hotel union behind California bill mandating fitted sheets [Daily Caller, earlier]

Fifth Circuit upholds constitutionality of Texas law banning barratry (stirring up litigation) [Christian Southwick, Legal Ethics Forum]

A Linda Greenhouse column I agree with? One of us must be slipping [vagueness in criminal statutes, see related Harvey Silverglate]

Tags: animals, Bill Lerach, chasing clients, crime and punishment, gambling, hotels, Maryland, New York Times, Ted Frank, Texas

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/june-22-roundup/feed/ 0 http://overlawyered.com/2011/05/why-the-times-is-wrong-about-the-att-class-action-case/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/05/why-the-times-is-wrong-about-the-att-class-action-case/#comments Mon, 16 May 2011 16:02:59 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=23007 Contractually stipulated arbitration works less poorly than the NYT editorialists seem to think — and lawyer-driven class action litigation not nearly as well [Daniel Fisher, Forbes, more]

Tags: arbitration, class actions, New York Times

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/05/why-the-times-is-wrong-about-the-att-class-action-case/feed/ 2 http://overlawyered.com/2011/04/gulf-spill-i-never-signed-up-with-anybody/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/04/gulf-spill-i-never-signed-up-with-anybody/#comments Mon, 25 Apr 2011 10:44:42 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=22735 Campbell Robertson and John Schwartz of the New York Times find that many Vietnamese-Americans who are listed as law firm clients in the BP Transocean spill proceedings would rather not be law firm clients. “Like [Tim] Nguyen, some maintain that they never signed up with lawyers, but found that claims had been filed on their behalf (about 50 people have made formal complaints to the claims facility along these lines).” Nguyen found himself a client of lawyer Mikal Watts, “and to his further surprise, as a Louisiana shrimper rather than a Mississippi shipyard worker.” Watts, a big-league Texas tort lawyer, has reported having 43,000 spill clients, many mass-recruited from minority and poorer communities; he says he has a “signed contingency-fee contract with every client,” and that he has released clients who changed their mind about representation. “People familiar with the claims process [of one 26,000-claimant subgroup] said nearly every submission was listed as a deckhand with identical earnings.” Watts says the claims fund, administered by Kenneth Feinberg, has kept changing the documentation it asks for.

Tags: BP Transocean oil spill, Mikal Watts, New York Times

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