Overlawyered » Prop 65

Prop 65: how serious are Gov. Brown’s reforms?

Walter Olson — Wed, 22 May 2013 04:15:00 +0000

Not very, fears Bruce Nye at Cal Biz Lit, who notes that “The Chanler Group, the self-described ‘Largest Proposition 65 Citizen Enforcement Law Firm,’ wasted no time in announcing its support for the Governor’s proposals.” Prop 65, of course, is the famous California enactment under which an army of bounty-hunters have set forth to file suits and collect settlements from California businesses for failing to warn of the carcinogenic or mutagenic ingredients in hundreds of common products, from matches (which emit carbon monoxide) to brass knobs to roasted coffee to grilled chicken to billiard cue chalk. Gov. Brown’s reforms omit several stronger recommendations, such as “moving the burden of proof to the plaintiff to show that exposures exceed the applicable no significant risk level (‘NSRL’) or maximum allowable dose level (‘MADL’).”

Most importantly, would the private enforcer bar support Assembly Member Gatto’s AB 227, allowing a company receiving a 60 day notice to avoid prosecution by curing the violation within 14 days? Or better still, Cal Biz Lit’s proposal to allow sixty days to cure violations?

Those measures would be real reform.

More: Amanda Robert, Legal NewsLine.

Tags: Jerry Brown, Prop 65

Prop 65: how serious are Gov. Brown’s reforms? is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Environment roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 08 May 2013 04:05:13 +0000

Can EPA use subregulatory guidance to dodge judicial review of formal notice-and-comment rulemaking? Appeals court says no [Allison Wood, WLF]
“Outhouse blues: Salisbury Twp. tells 77-year-old to install $20,000 septic system he doesn’t want” [Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Online]
Denying attorney fee in oil spill case, Texas judge questions authenticity of client signature [ABA Journal, Chamber-backed Southeast Texas Record]
Why “climate justice” campaigns fail both the environment and the poor [Chris Foreman, The Breakthrough]
Does the Yale Alumni Magazine often side with plaintiffs who sue to muzzle critics? [Neela Banerjee on Michael Mann lawsuit against National Review, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Mark Steyn, etc.]
Anti-science, anti-humanity: Milan animal rights action trashes years of psychiatric research [Nature]
Parody Tom-Friedman-bot must be at it again: “best place to start” response to Boston attack “is with a carbon tax” [Tim Blair] Too darn hot: “Dems warn climate change could drive women to ‘transactional sex’” [The Hill]
Some California lawmakers seek to curb shakedown lawsuits under notorious Prop 65 chemical-labeling law [Sacramento Bee; Gov. Brown proposes reform]

Tags: administrative law, animal rights, Brent Coon, climate change, Environmental Protection Agency, Prop 65, Yale

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

Environment roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 04:05:13 +0000

Better hope a Portland municipal arborist never takes an interest in you [Tod Kelly, League of Ordinary Gentlemen]
California’s Prop 65 and Gresham’s Law of Warnings (bad warnings drive out good) [David Henderson]
Bombshells just keep on coming in the Ecuador Lago Agrio story: “Litigation finance firm in Chevron case says it was duped by Patton Boggs” [Roger Parloff, Fortune; last Saturday's bombshell] Grounds for embarrassment at CBS “60 Minutes” [CJR]
Brad Plumer interview with Jonathan Adler, “What conservative environmentalism might look like” [WaPo]
“The light-bulb law was a matter of public policy profiteering” [Tim Carney via @amyalkon] To get ahead in D.C., a well-known conservative group adopts some concrete priorities [same]
“No one’s tried that. It’s not worth taking the risk.” Social-conservative, environmentalist themes have much in common [A. Barton Hinkle]
“BP Loses Bid to Block ‘Fictitious’ Oil Spill Claims” [Amanda Bronstad, NLJ; more]

Tags: BP Transocean oil spill, Chevron, Oregon, Prop 65, trees

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

Environment roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 11:06:11 +0000

Judge Kozinski, writing for Ninth Circuit panel, declares Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s harassment of whaling ships to fall under piracy law as covered by international treaty [Trial Insider, Julian Ku, Kevin Jon Heller, Eugene Kontorovich and more and yet more, SSCS's black skull flag via Wikipedia]
California Assemblyman Mike Gatto [D-Silver Lake] introduces AB 227, which would reform notorious Prop 65 by giving business 14 days to fix lack of warning before entitling lawyer to bounty [his blog, Dem caucus, Burbank Leader]
Unintended, unsanitary consequences of plastic bag bans (Ramesh Ponnuru/ Bloomberg) And theft too? [Seattle Times]
Writer who joined the circus for several days reports on Ringling Bros. elephant controversy: [Bill McMorris/Washington Free Beacon (quotes me), earlier]
Study finds new CAFE fuel economy standards far less efficient than taxes in promoting conservation [Alex Tabarrok]
Now Mark Bittman is being alarmist about cosmetics [ACSH, background]
Overcriminalization looms large for Gulf Coast outdoor businesses, says TPPF’s Vikrant Reddy [FoxNews]

Tags: Alex Kozinski, animal rights, CAFE, cosmetics, environment, Prop 65

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

California’s Prop 37: Prop 65 in organic garb

Walter Olson — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 04:13:39 +0000

After the quarter-century disgrace that is Proposition 65 litigation — run by and for lawyers’ interests, with no discernible benefit to the health of the citizenry — you’d think California voters would have learned a thing or two. But unless poll numbers reverse themselves, they’re on the way to approving this fall’s Proposition 37, ostensibly aimed at requiring labeling of genetically modified food, whose main sponsor just happens to be a Prop 65 lawyer. I explain in a new piece at Daily Caller. More coverage: Western Farm Press; Hank Campbell, Science 2.0; Ronald Bailey, Reason (& Red State).

More: defenders of Prop 37 point to this analysis (PDF) by economist James Cooper, arguing that 37 is drafted more narrowly than 65 in ways that would avert some of the potential for abusive litigation. And from Hans Bader: would the measure be open to challenge as unconstitutional, or as federally preempted?

Tags: California, eat drink and be merry, preemption, Prop 65, WO writings

California’s Prop 37: Prop 65 in organic garb is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

July 30 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 04:04:48 +0000

Backing down, sort of: “Menino says he can’t actively block Chick-Fil-A” [Boston Herald; Michael Graham on the Boston mayor's curious standards] Glad for small favors: Maryland public officials have wisely stayed out of the fracas [my post at Maryland for All Families got an Instalanche, thanks Glenn Reynolds] Earlier here, here, here;
Trying to start a business in Greece? What to expect [Reuters on shrimp farm]
Proceeds of California’s Prop 63 “millionaire’s tax” were supposedly earmarked for mental health. Here’s where the dollars have actually been spent [AP]
George Will on prosecution of whale-watcher for “harassing” humpback [WaPo, our January coverage]
Tries to slide down banister four stories up, survivors now suing Chicago’s Palmer House hotel [Chicago Sun-Times]
Link bait: the ABA Journal picks the 12 greatest courtroom plays;
Prop 65 and carryout bags: “California, Land of the Free” [David Henderson]

Tags: Boston, California, hotels, personal responsibility, Prop 65, regulation and its reform, same-sex marriage

July 30 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Warning: matches emit carbon monoxide when struck

Walter Olson — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 12:31:17 +0000

California’s Proposition 65 strikes again [Stoll]

Tags: Prop 65

Warning: matches emit carbon monoxide when struck is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Prop 65′s bounty bar still thriving

Walter Olson — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 12:25:00 +0000

Tom Scott in Flash Report notes that a specialized California bar continues to rake in substantial money suing businesses for alleged Prop 65 violations, such as failing to put warnings on their merchandise. Three named lawyers (Russell Brimer, Anthony Held, and John Moore) obtained attorney’s fees and costs last year in the $1.8 million-$2 million range after settling 61, 41 and 47 suits respectively.

Tags: Prop 65

Prop 65′s bounty bar still thriving is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Bounty Hunters and the Public Interest – A Study of California Proposition 65″

Walter Olson — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 03:29:08 +0000

Anthony T. (Tom) Caso at the Federalist Society’s “Engage” analyzes California chemical-warning law, long notorious for empowering entrepreneurial lawyers to file suits supposedly on behalf of the general public and then settle those suits for cold cash.

Tags: Prop 65

“Bounty Hunters and the Public Interest – A Study of California Proposition 65″ is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

March 13 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 05:06:52 +0000

“Are Courts Dragging Out the Housing Crisis?” [Mark Calabria, Cato] “Boom-Era Property Speculators to Get Foreclosure Aid” [Bloomberg News via Bader, CEI] Community organizing groups expect to cash in on state AGs’ robosigning settlement [Neil Munro, Daily Caller, earlier] As does NAAG itself [Daniel Fisher] More: Kevin Funnell.
“Non-standard explanation offered for bugging wife’s bedroom” [Lowering the Bar]
Chris DeMuth on James Q. Wilson [Weekly Standard, earlier] I wrote about Wilson’s work on at least two occasions: the Baltimore Sun had me review a book of his on “abuse excuses” and other difficulties of psychiatric testimony in court, a good book if a mere foothill in the mountain range of his overall scholarship; on another occasion in Reason I challenged his uncharacteristic backing of a “family policy” proposal ripe with potential for unintended consequences;
Boston city councilor: make valet kid at restaurant responsible if patron drives off drunk [NPR via Alkon]
“Texas is being stiff armed by the EPA at every turn” [Munro/DC quoting Texas attorney general Greg Abbott] NYT’s “modest” offshore drilling restrictions: “I hate to think what immodest restrictions would look like” [John Steele Gordon]
“The Southern Poverty Law Center Is Now Writing About Pickup Artists as Hate Groups” [Mike Riggs]
SFO rental car garage offers a whiff of Prop 65 absurdity [Stoll]

Tags: attorneys general, Boston, dramshop statutes, Environmental Protection Agency, hate speech, mortgages, Prop 65, Texas

March 13 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system