Overlawyered » overwarning

Skate park bristling with signs

Walter Olson — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 15:41:16 +0000

Would you want to play in it? [Kaboom via Free-Range Kids]

Skate park bristling with signs is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Legal boilerplate appended to email

Walter Olson — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 12:46:06 +0000

It probably isn’t accomplishing much: “Lawyers and experts on internet policy say no court case has ever turned on the presence or absence of such an automatic e-mail footer in America, the most litigious of rich countries.” [The Economist; & note comments that take issue with the above assertion, and also point out the uses of such footers in pre-trial discovery]

Tags: overwarning, technology

Legal boilerplate appended to email is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

American exceptionalism in playground warnings?

Walter Olson — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 14:59:40 +0000

Ira Stoll notices a curious cautionary sign at a Washington, D.C. playground: “Designed for Children Ages 2 to 5 Years (18 months – 5 years for Canada).”

Tags: Canada, overwarning

American exceptionalism in playground warnings? is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Why are there so many “danger” signs?

Walter Olson — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 12:40:57 +0000

Australian writer David Broadbent explains to his daughter. [Free-Range Kids] Plus: Australian lawmaker told not to change lightbulb in his office.

Tags: Australia, overwarning

Why are there so many “danger” signs? is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

September 23 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 14:59:55 +0000

Could bald employees sue under genetic-bias law? [Delaware Employment Law]
EPA under pressure in bedbug battle [Atlantic Wire, Time]
“Child Safety Advocates Push for Changes to Prevent Hot-Car Deaths” [Fair Warning]
Proof of Living Constitution Theory? iPhone Constitution app is now on version 1.3.8 [Magliocca, Co-Op]
“North Carolina’s Corrupted Crime Lab” [Radley Balko]
“The folly of needless alcohol laws” [Conor Friedersdorf, The Daily Dish]
“Judge Posner opinion on overwarning” [PoL, Drug and Device Law]
Annals of zero tolerance: No scissors allowed at ribbon-cutting ceremony at Pittsburgh airport [eight years ago on Overlawyered]

Tags: alcohol, autos, discrimination law, Environmental Protection Agency, North Carolina, overwarning, Richard Posner

September 23 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

San Francisco cellphone radiation warnings

Walter Olson — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 05:24:05 +0000

Study after study finds no health effects to worry about, but the city by the Bay wants warnings anyway. [Bruce Nye, Ted Frank/PoL]

Tags: cellphones, overwarning, San Francisco

San Francisco cellphone radiation warnings is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

January 16 roundup

Ted Frank — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 08:01:48 +0000

Caution: Warning label overload. Why wacky warnings matter. [Ted Frank @ Sphere]
Further evidence of efficiency of product liability limits when federal safety regulation is already in place. [Philipson/Sun/Goldman NBER Working Paper No. 15603]
Army seeks to court-martial soldier in Afghanistan for possessing “child pornography” when his mother sends him family photos that include a four-year-old in a swimsuit. [AP/WaPo via Riehl; WQAD]
Burger King coffee is hot, too. [Virginian-Pilot]
The “slush pile” disappears, in part because of fear of plagiarism litigation. [WSJ]
Schwarzenegger faces fight on his proposed tort reforms. [Legal Newsline (I'm quoted)]
I’m speaking at NYU Law January 21 at an American Constitution Society panel on class action issues. [NYU Law]
Off topic, but I believe that this may be the first time I’ve been listed in the index of a book.

Tags: Burger King, California, class actions, crime and punishment, hot coffee, overwarning, product liability, Sarah Palin, Ted Frank, wacky warnings

January 16 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“The lethal dangers of sand”

Walter Olson — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 04:05:26 +0000

Wear appropriate protective clothing, “do not let this chemical enter the environment”, and if you come in contact with it, “immediately flush skin with plenty of water for at least 15 minutes while removing contaminated clothing and shoes”. It’s ocean sand! MSDSs (Material Safety Data Sheets) are by and for lawyers: “Very few chemists, in my experience, spend much time with these forms at all, preferring to get their information from almost any other source.” [Derek Lowe via Virginia Postrel]

More: Interesting comments, including one on ionized water (if exposed, “flush the contaminated area with water”) and this from reader John: “Good news: if the sand is intended for use by children under 12, as of August 14 the sand itself will have to be permanently labeled with a batch number so it can be easily recalled.”

Tags: CPSIA, environment, overwarning

“The lethal dangers of sand” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Warning: “milk bottle contains, er, milk”

Walter Olson — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 17:07:21 +0000

The warning on a bottle from Asda, a large U.K. grocery chain, is “indicative of a policy by supermarkets and food manufacturers to liberally stamp warnings on products to avoid legal complications.” [Daily Mail]

Tags: food safety, overwarning, United Kingdom

Warning: “milk bottle contains, er, milk” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Mirapex jackpot justice – literally

Ted Frank — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:41:35 +0000

Gary Charbonneau had a gambling history, including substantial wins, which devolved into compulsive gambling in 2002. He blames this on his Parkinson’s disease medication, Mirapex, which he started taking in 1997. Mirapex changed its warning label to include reports of a correlation while Charbonneau was taking the drug; Charbonneau’s doctor kept prescribing the drug. Nevertheless, Charbonneau was able to persuade a jury that the failure to warn was what was responsible for his $200,000 gambling losses (much of which came from gambling illegally) and resulting marital troubles. The jury verdict even awarded $8 million in punitive damages, giving a whole new meaning to jackpot justice (though one would expect the trial court to reduce this substantially). The only press coverage of this lawsuit, aside from a handful of blogs (Pharmalot; TortsProf; InjuryBoard), is in an op-ed I wrote for today’s Examiner about the case and about how a Supreme Court case and Congressional legislation could affect it. (Theodore H. Frank, “Jackpot justice gets new meaning,” DC Examiner, Aug. 19).

Tags: compulsive gambling, failure to warn, jackpot justice, Mirapex, overwarning, pharmaceuticals, preemption, product liability, punitive damages, Supreme Court, Ted Frank

Mirapex jackpot justice – literally is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system