http://overlawyered.com Chronicling the high cost of our legal system Tue, 14 Feb 2012 18:22:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/december-12-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/december-12-roundup/#comments Mon, 12 Dec 2011 05:04:59 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26022

Liability suits bankrupt manufacturer of gasoline cans [Tulsa World]

Faces life imprisonment: “Greece’s statistics chief faces criminal probe” for “not cooking the books” [FT via @OlafStorbeck]

Man injured by runaway car can sue county on grounds bus shelter was built too close to street [Seattle Times]

Title IX trips up track teams [Saving Sports: Delaware, West Virginia, Maryland]

“‘Not gay enough’ softball players settle suit” [SF Chron]

Now it’s the Obama administration that’s upset with ABA over ratings of judicial nominees [Whelan]

Lawyer kiosks in UK newsstands [Knake, LEF] Lawyers open kiosk at Florida mall [ABA Journal]

Tags: bar associations, judicial nominations, Oklahoma, product liability, roads and streets, Title IX

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/december-12-roundup/feed/ 4 http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/buying-a-product-specifically-because-it-doesn%e2%80%99t-have-doors/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/buying-a-product-specifically-because-it-doesn%e2%80%99t-have-doors/#comments Thu, 01 Dec 2011 16:46:04 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25876 “…then suing for the same reason seems illogical.” [Nick Farr, Abnormal Use, on Yamaha Rhino cases]

Tags: autos, product liability

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/buying-a-product-specifically-because-it-doesn%e2%80%99t-have-doors/feed/ 1 http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/november-11-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/november-11-roundup/#comments Fri, 11 Nov 2011 11:56:20 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25363

Manhattan Institute’s “Trial Lawyers Inc.” series looks at cozy relations between state attorneys general and plaintiff’s bar [report, related featured discussion, Copland, Examiner] Report comes down hard on Ohio’s Richard Cordray, nominee to head CFPB [Copland, Gorodetski/PoL] Judge tosses Cordray suit against credit rating agencies [O'Brien/LNL, Krauss/American Thinker] Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller denounces report [IowaPolitics.com]

“The Tort of Internet Mobbing Is Perfect For Suing The Internet” [Popehat]

Canada faces challenge to hate speech law [Arthur Bright, Citizen Media Law] Do not put a frog down Her Majesty’s back at the county fair [Lowering the Bar]

“Markopolos eyes a fortune from BNY whistleblowing” [Felix Salmon] “Bounty hunters in Korea” and closer to home [Alex Tabarrok] “Developments in Whistleblower Laws: Advantage Whistleblower” [Larry Wood & Richard William Diaz, Federalist Society "Engage"]

As third party liability for crime anecdotes go, the case of Bonilla v. Motel 6 is on the lurid side [Point of Law]

Prospect of cyberwar: official U.S. response is commando lawyering [Stewart Baker, Foreign Policy]

Why it’s hard to stimulate manufacturing through product liability reform in one state [Rick Esenberg]

Tags: attorneys general, free speech in Canada, Iowa, Manhattan Institute, Ohio, product liability, third party liability for crime, whistleblowers

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/november-11-roundup/feed/ 0 http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/october-27-roundup-3/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/october-27-roundup-3/#comments Thu, 27 Oct 2011 12:41:10 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25293

“Table Saw without ’saw stop’ technology defective: First Circuit” [George Conk, Ted Frank, earlier here, here]

Court OKs burned patron’s flaming-rum suit against Bacardi [Reuters]

Feds won’t pursue Title IX complaint against 60 Oregon school districts [Oregonian]

IRS putting the squeeze on small tax preparers [WaPo]

How the incinerator (and decades of bad decisions) bankrupted Harrisburg [Bond Girl]

“The most thoughtful, reasonable guy in the whole symposium” — aw [Greenfield on law licensing, earlier] P.S. And similarly from David Lat;

Adam Freedman and readers on Florida “wrongful birth” case [Ricochet, earlier]

Tags: alcohol, product liability, small business, taxes, Title IX, wrongful birth and wrongful life

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/october-27-roundup-3/feed/ 5 http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/october-7-roundup-2/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/october-7-roundup-2/#comments Fri, 07 Oct 2011 05:39:50 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24535

Prodded by UNICEF and the Hague Convention, countries cut back on international adoption, leaving kids to future of orphanage life [Reason.tv video, interviewing among others Harvard's Elizabeth Bartholet; more]

Critics: lawyers are main winners in NYC rent settlement [NYDN] NYC rent stabilization rules gave landlords incentive to do luxury conversions [FWIW]

Breast-aurant rivals in court: “Hooters Suing Twin Peaks, Which Previously Sued Grand Tetons” [Lowering the Bar, earlier]

Jonathan Chait: it’ll be “useful” for debate if CEOs “fear for their personal safety” [Matt Welch, related, similar (see "Patterns of Intimidation"), also related to "occupation" as tactic]

Ethics complaint charges that boilerplate affidavits led to fee approval for lawyer in Bronx Surrogate’s Court [ABA Journal]

“Widow allowed to sue tobacco companies [whose products] husband didn’t use” [Florida, DBR] Appeals court: manufacturer not under legal duty to warn of asbestos injury caused by another manufacturer’s products [Business Insurance]

Debit card fee: made in D.C. [Glenn Reynolds; related, Joe Weisenthal]

Tags: asbestos, banks, family law, NYC, product liability, tobacco

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/october-7-roundup-2/feed/ 1 http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/the-cost-of-light-planes/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/the-cost-of-light-planes/#comments Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:37:40 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24381 The cost of buying a Piper Cub or similar sport/light aircraft has risen very steeply as measured in constant dollars or labor hours since 1947, in contrast to the cost of most other engineered goods. Economists David Henderson and W. Kip Viscusi know why.

Tags: aviation, product liability

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/the-cost-of-light-planes/feed/ 2 http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/invacare-wheelchair-not-equipped-with-flags/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/invacare-wheelchair-not-equipped-with-flags/#comments Wed, 27 Jul 2011 05:02:38 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24035 Illinois: “The daughter of a St. Clair County man killed while crossing a DuQuoin street in his wheelchair is suing the makers of the wheelchair and the driver of the car that allegedly hit him. … [Candess] Higgerson claims the wheelchair, made by Invacare and sold by The Scooter Store, was defective because it was not equipped with flags or other devices to make it visible to motorists.” [Madison County Record]

Tags: product liability

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/invacare-wheelchair-not-equipped-with-flags/feed/ 7 http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/suit-seeks-15000-for-rose-thorn-prick/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/suit-seeks-15000-for-rose-thorn-prick/#comments Fri, 03 Jun 2011 11:44:27 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=23227 “The suit [by a Florida man against the Winn-Dixie supermarket chain and a flower importer] states the roses should have been stripped of their thorns and the stems should have been wrapped more carefully.” [UPI]

Tags: assumption of risk, Florida, product liability

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/suit-seeks-15000-for-rose-thorn-prick/feed/ 2 http://overlawyered.com/2011/05/clap-on-clap-off-case-dismissed/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/05/clap-on-clap-off-case-dismissed/#comments Sat, 21 May 2011 05:19:46 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=23062 Kevin at Lowering the Bar recalls an unsuccessful product liability action by a plaintiff who “managed to injure herself when attempting to activate ‘The Clapper,’ the famous as-seen-on-TV device that promised to permanently eliminate that tiresome chore of actually crossing a room and operating a light switch.”

Tags: personal responsibility, product liability

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/05/clap-on-clap-off-case-dismissed/feed/ 3 http://overlawyered.com/2011/05/revisiting-the-unreasonably-dangerous-undergarment/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/05/revisiting-the-unreasonably-dangerous-undergarment/#comments Tue, 10 May 2011 14:51:53 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=22915 More developments in “the case of the dangerously defective bra.” [Kevin Couch, Abnormal Use]

Tags: product liability, South Carolina

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