Overlawyered » NYC

Labor and employment roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 17 May 2013 04:05:58 +0000

Gov. Christie vetoes bill enabling workers and job applicants to sue employers who asked about Facebook use [NJLRA, Star-Ledger, more]
“Shockingly a British pub might want to hire British employees,” NYC Human Rights Commission sees things differently [Amy Alkon]
Anticlimax: despite fears, NLRB won’t ban at-will disclaimers in employee handbooks [Jon Hyman]
“Equally injurious to the children of the laboring classes is their utilization by their parents in theatrical and operatic shows” [Kyle Graham]
Senate confirms plaintiffs’ class action attorney as newest appointee to EEOC [Stoel Rives]
Public accounting: “Two advances for pension transparency” [Josh Barro]
At least there’s one category of young worker for whom job prospects remain bright, namely kids of Andrew Cuomo’s friends [David Boaz]

Tags: Andrew Cuomo, discrimination law, EEOC, Facebook, New Jersey, NYC

Labor and employment roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

NYC proposes expansion of black market

Walter Olson — Wed, 08 May 2013 12:06:18 +0000

“Young New Yorkers would not be able to buy cigarettes until they were 21, up from the current 18, under a proposal advanced [last month] by Dr. Thomas A. Farley, the city’s health commissioner, and Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker.” [New York Times via J.D. Tuccille] Or at least would not be able to buy them legally: according to estimates from the Mackinac Institute, New York state already has the nation’s highest rate of smuggled cigarette consumption, at more than 60 percent of its total market. [Catherine Rampell, NYT; Mackinac; Tax Foundation; Christopher Snowdon, "The Wages of Sin Taxes" (CEI, PDF)]

More: As the legal drinking age has been pushed upward in recent years, the average age of first use of alcohol has fallen markedly [Tuccille]

Tags: alcohol, NYC, taxes, tobacco

NYC proposes expansion of black market is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

NYC battle: can employers consider job applicants’ credit records?

Walter Olson — Sat, 04 May 2013 04:05:30 +0000

Sometimes, when food choices are not involved, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is actually on the right side of controversies. One instance of that is the series of battles he’s having with the New York City Council on various bills to regulate employers. The Council recently overrode his veto of a bill creating unemployment status as a new protected class, and has pressed a paid-sick-leave bill as well. A third proposal: forbidding employers to consider job applicants’ credit records in hiring. Eight liberal-leaning states have already enacted similar measures but as the Proskauer Rose law firm explains, the NYC proposal goes further:

Unlike the vast majority of laws in effect and in legislation pending across the nation, however, the Proposal does not explicitly enumerate exceptions for managerial positions, or positions with access to bank or credit card information, Social Security numbers, significant amounts of cash, or confidential or proprietary information. Although the Proposal exempts employers required by law to run credit checks on their applicants and employees, its silence as to these other standard exceptions should give New York City employers particular pause should the Proposal become law.

Tags: discrimination law, NYC, workplace

NYC battle: can employers consider job applicants’ credit records? is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

New York City Gothic

Walter Olson — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 04:15:09 +0000

Suit charges Brooklyn woman covered up aunt’s death so as to live in rent-stabilized apartment [NYPost]

Tags: landlord tenant law, NYC

New York City Gothic is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Class action against NYC’s Met Museum

Walter Olson — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 12:45:37 +0000

The cultural institution doesn’t make clear enough to visitors that its admission donation is only recommended, according to the lawyers [NY Daily News]

Tags: art and artists, class actions, NYC

Class action against NYC’s Met Museum is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

If you think complying with Dodd-Frank is complicated…

Walter Olson — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 13:25:51 +0000

…try opening a wood-fired pizza restaurant just off the gritty Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in Brooklyn [Ira Stoll]

Tags: NYC, regulation and its reform, restaurants

If you think complying with Dodd-Frank is complicated… is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Schools roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 04:06:50 +0000

Disabled kids and their parents among chief losers in NYC school bus strike [Richard Epstein]
“School District to Spend $2.4 MILLION on Guards? A Mom Protests” [Free-Range Kids, N.C.] “Our Schools Are Safe Enough: A Movement to Stop Overreacting to Sandy Hook” [same] Shame that NRA would decide to push big government mandate at taxpayer expense [Brian Doherty]
LSAC challenges new California law banning flagging applicants’ extra time on LSAT [Karen Sloan, NLJ]
One year on job, 13 years in rubber room for NYC teacher accused of sexually harassing students [NY Post]
Missouri lawmaker introduces bill criminalizing failure to report gun ownership to child’s school [Caroline May, Daily Caller]
Suing for edu-bucks: “Court says Kansas must increase school funding, slams tax cuts” [Reuters, Severino/NRO]
“Yay for Recess: Pediatricians Say It’s as Important as Math or Reading” [Bonnie Rochman, Time]

Tags: guns, Kansas, labor unions, NYC, schools

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

“Brooklyn attorney disbarred for ‘severe and gross’ violations”

Walter Olson — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 20:44:08 +0000

“A Brooklyn attorney was disbarred Wednesday for a range of misconduct, from fabricating court orders to making misrepresentations to secure third-party litigation funding. … ‘The severe and gross violations committed by the respondent fully merit the special referee’s conclusion that the respondent is “morally corrupt and intellectually bankrupt,”‘ the appellate court wrote in a per curiam opinion.” [Reuters; Mr. Tanella's happier, award-winning days]

Tags: ethics, NYC

“Brooklyn attorney disbarred for ‘severe and gross’ violations” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Baleful brownstones: serial ADA complainant hits Upper West Side

Walter Olson — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 17:32:03 +0000

New York Post:

Wheelchair-riding Linda Slone, 64, is suing 39 shops in her neighborhood for not being handicapped-accessible.

The legal crusade is netting her thousands, but Slone, who cannot walk because of polio, insists she is simply championing the rights of the disabled.

“If you think this is a money-making scheme, you’re dead wrong,” said Slone, a speech pathologist.

The Florida-based Weitz Law Firm, which represents Slone, “also represents Zoltan Hirsch, a Brooklyn double amputee who The Post revealed last year filed 147 suits citing the Americans with Disabilities Act.”

Scott Greenfield wonders what the brownstones of Columbus Avenue will look like by the time the shopowners and landlords somehow manage to completely ADA-proof them.

Tags: ADA filing mills, historic preservation, NYC, serial litigants

Baleful brownstones: serial ADA complainant hits Upper West Side is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Hurricane Sandy recovery and occupational licensing

Walter Olson — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 15:24:04 +0000

To get your power turned back on in the Rockaways, according to a spokesman for the Long Island Power Authority, you’re going to need a pre-inspection for your house not just from a licensed electrician, but from one licensed in NYC — nearby Nassau County, or upstate, won’t do. If occupational licensure makes any sense at all — and Milton Friedman had a thing or two to say about that — it certainly needs to be reconsidered under conditions of public emergency and disaster recovery, or so I argue in my new post at Cato at Liberty.

For more background on the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) as a political football, by the way, check out Nicole Gelinas in the New York Post. Also on disaster recovery, why this might be a good time to rethink municipal ordinances barring property owners from removing old trees [Chris Fountain]. And: “Can customers sue power companies for outages? Yes, but it’s hard to win” [Alison Frankel, Reuters]

Tags: Long Island, New York, NYC, trees, utilities, workplace

Hurricane Sandy recovery and occupational licensing is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system