Overlawyered » preemption

SCOTUS, 6-2: vaccine suits preempted

Walter Olson — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 17:51:07 +0000

James Beck explains and Orac has some strong views as well (“I’m afraid Justice Sotomayor borders on the delusional when she blithely proclaims that courts are so good at efficiently disposing of meritless product liability claims.”) More: Kathleen Seidel and footnotes.

P.S. But preemption does not carry the day in an automotive case, Williamson v. Mazda.

Tags: autos, preemption, product liability, Sonia Sotomayor, vaccines, Wyeth

SCOTUS, 6-2: vaccine suits preempted is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

November 24 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 16:20:34 +0000

Jack Park on Bruesewitz v. Wyeth vaccine preemption case at Supreme Court [Heritage]
Incidentally happening to assure lawyers more access to work: Harvard’s Tribe devises “access to justice” initiatives for Obama administration [BLT]
New Haven cops accidentally photograph themselves deleting video of an unlawful arrest [Balko]
How elite law culture miscomprehends the military [Second Circuit chief judge Dennis Jacobs speech at Federalist Society convention, YouTube]
“Later, Bad Lawyer”: a blogger heads to prison [Greenfield]
Reform medical liability? Depends on how badly you want neurosurgeons’ services [Michael Lavyne, NYDN]
“Cab-rank principle” in legal ethics explained [Lawyers' Lawyer, Australia; via Legal Ethics Forum]
$3.5 million award to unsuccessful suicide-while-in-custody is one of long series of such cases [six years ago on Overlawyered]

Tags: ethics, legal blogs, medical malpractice, military, police, preemption, suicide

November 24 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

October 14 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 14:27:12 +0000

Gulf spill fund flooded with dubious claims [Fred Smith, CEI]
If these cases go forward, it will make it economically unfeasible for anyone to make vaccines in this country” [NYT quoting Beck on Bruesewitz v. Wyeth preemption case now before SCOTUS]
Barney Frank’s evolving views on Fannie/Freddie oversight [Mankiw, Globe]
$5.2 million legal bills to Michael Jackson estate [TMZ]
Frederick, Maryland pizzeria owner asked to pay $200K for unsolicited faxes [Gazette; my WSJ take four years ago]
UK: “Migration Watch” may sue critic [David Allen Green via Richard Wilson, more]
Parody of cheesy law firm promotes TV series “Breaking Bad” ["Better Call Saul", autoplays video/audio]
N.J.: “Drowns while fleeing cops, family sues for $50M” [five years ago on Overlawyered]

Tags: Barney Frank, BP Transocean oil spill, libel slander and defamation, mortgages, preemption, restaurants, United Kingdom, vaccines

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

Sued if you do, sued if you don’t dept.: laminated vs. tempered glass

Walter Olson — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 18:50:35 +0000

As we have seen in earlier coverage, automakers will get sued over some kinds of accident if they decide to use laminated glass, and sued over others if they decide to use nonlaminated glass. Now Ted at Point of Law has details of another case, this one against Ford, in which the South Carolina Supreme Court held that NHTSA regulations resolved the issue at hand and should not be second-guessed by tort litigation. Unfortunately, as Ted notes, the trial bar and its allies in the Obama administration are doing their best to weaken the preemption defense, which would open up maximum scope for sued-if-you-do, sued-if-you-don’t litigation of this sort.

Tags: Ford, preemption, South Carolina, sued if you do, tempered glass

Sued if you do, sued if you don’t dept.: laminated vs. tempered glass is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

July 8 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 12:49:04 +0000

Federal preemption of state law: compare and contrast illegal-immigration control with auto and drug design [Ted and Carter at PoL; upcoming (Jul. 21) Cato panel discussion in DC]
Authorities in Scotland let Lockerbie bomber off on doctor’s note. How’d that work out? [Bainbridge]
Pay for your rescue: “French tourists may be billed if high-risk trips go wrong” [Guardian]
Must revoke honorific California-state-rock status of serpentine! It contains asbestos! [L.A. Times "Booster Shots" via Amy Alkon]
“Zero tolerance for bullying” — nice slogan, but think before endorsing [Helene Guldberg, Daily Mail via Skenazy]
“The New Black Panther Case: A Conservative Dissent” [Abigail Thernstrom, NRO; earlier]
$113,800 in damages in pregnancy-bias suit against Lucasfilm, but demand for attorney’s fees could reach $1.2 million [SF Chronicle]
Trial lawyers fear being cut out of BP TransOcean pie [WSJ Law Blog, Bainbridge, Calif. Civil Justice]

Tags: asbestos, attorneys' fees, BP Transocean oil spill, bullying, immigration law, preemption, pregnancy discrimination, terrorism, Voting Rights Act, zero tolerance

July 8 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

June 11 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 11:11:47 +0000

Automakers fight Bruce Braley/trial lawyer effort on Capitol Hill to overturn NHTSA preemption [Dow Jones, WSJ Law Blog, David Freddoso/Examiner, Carter Wood and more at PoL]
Twombly/Iqbal can curb sue-’em-all, sort-’em-out-later charges of civil conspiracy [Sachse/Drug & Device Law, earlier]
Claim: Obama, Kagan, Sotomayor typify “postradical” law school generation [David Fontana, Chronicle of Higher Ed via Wasserman/Prawfs (counter: "there are a lot of us liberal doctrinalists out here ...And students are learning that vision in law school"), Althouse ("Spare me! There are plenty of strongly liberal and lefty lawprofs and if you want theoretical ambition you can find it.")]
FTC report contemplates much wider federal intervention in media business [Jarvis/BuzzMachine, Tapscott/Examiner, Coyote, Steele/LEF, Stoll/Future of Capitalism, LA Times, ShopFloor, Jarvis/NY Post, Pethokoukis/Reuters, Suderman/Reason] Is scary McChesneyite “Free Press” making headway in administration? [Riggs, Daily Caller]
“Law and Society Boycott Resolution Gets Arizona Immigration Law Wrong” [Chin, Prawfs]
“Appeal of Crunch Berries Case Dismissed” [Lowering the Bar, earlier]
“Senior U.N. official” demanding end to U.S. use of drones against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan also happens to be NYU lawprof [NY Times, 16th/last paragraph of story]
Unintended consequences: 1932 cut in judges’ pensions changed Supreme Court history [Magliocca, ConcurOp]

Tags: Federal Trade Commission, international human rights, law schools, newspapers, NHTSA, pleading, preemption, Supreme Court

June 11 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

November 16 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 05:04:20 +0000

German law firm demands that Wikipedia remove true information about now-paroled murderers [EFF] More: Eugene Volokh.
“Class Actions: Some Plaintiffs’ Lawyers Fed Up, Too?” [California Civil Justice]
Drop that Irish coffee and back away: “F.D.A. Says It May Ban Alcoholic Drinks With Caffeine” [NYT]
Profile of L.A. tort lawyers Walter Lack and Thomas Girardi, now in hot water following Nicaraguan banana-pesticide scandal [The Recorder; my earlier outing on "Erin Brockovich" case]
Federalist Society panel on federalism and preemption [BLT]
Confidence in the courts? PriceWaterhouseCoopers would rather face Satyam securities fraud lawsuits in India than in U.S. [Hartley]
Allegation: Scruggs continuing to wheel and deal behind bars [Freeland]
Not much that will be new to longtime readers here: “Ten ridiculous lawsuits against Big Business” [Biz Insider] P.S.: Legal Blog Watch had more lists back in June.

Tags: alcohol, banana pesticide litigation fraud, Dickie Scruggs, Erin Brockovich, FDA, federalism, Federalist Society, Germany, India, preemption, Thomas Girardi, Wikipedia

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

Heritage panel on preemption

Ted Frank — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:32:52 +0000

I may have a new job as what David Lat calls the “Class Action Avenger” and a new blog to go with it, but that doesn’t mean I won’t be speaking about more general legal reform issues. A Heritage Foundation panel on preemption, featuring Kyle Sampson, former NHTSA and DOT general counsel Jeffrey Rosen, and myself is now viewable online. It’s only fair to note that I cribbed a lot from Michael Greve’s Bradley Lecture on federalism (video), which I can’t recommend enough.

Tags: CCAF, federalism, preemption, Ted Frank

Heritage panel on preemption is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Obama Regulatory Review Could Spur Product Lawsuits”

Walter Olson — Thu, 21 May 2009 13:42:40 +0000

The plaintiff’s bar scores a big victory with a White House policy reversal on preemption. [Business Week].

Tags: Barack Obama, preemption

“Obama Regulatory Review Could Spur Product Lawsuits” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

March 15 roundup

Walter Olson — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 15:05:09 +0000

“Intellectual Easter egg hunt”: great Michael Kinsley column on Wyeth v. Levine and FDA drug preemption [Washington Post]
Negligent for the Port Authority to let itself get bombed: “Jury Awards $5.46M to 1993 WTC Bomb Victim” [WINS, earlier]
“How following hospital quality measures can kill patients” [KevinMD]
Owner of Vancouver Sun suing over someone’s parody of the paper (though at least it drops the printer as a defendant) [Blog of Walker]
Court dismisses some counts in Billy Wolfe bullying suit against Fayetteville, Ark. schools [NW Arkansas Times, court records, earlier here and here]
Law bloggers were on this weeks ago, now Tenaha, Tex. cops’ use of forfeiture against motorists is developing into national story [Chicago Tribune, earlier here and here]
Can hostile blog posts about a plaintiff’s case be the basis for venue change? [IBLS]
Calls 911 because McDonald’s has run out of chicken nuggets [Lowering the Bar]

Tags: bullying, forfeiture, free speech in Canada, McDonald's, parody, Port Authority, preemption, terrorism

March 15 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system