Overlawyered » red light cameras

A case against municipal ownership of utilities

Walter Olson — Tue, 08 May 2012 13:45:17 +0000

If you don’t pay your traffic-cam tickets, the city of Las Cruces, New Mexico says it will cut off your water and sewer service. [The Newspaper]

Tags: New Mexico, red light cameras, utilities

A case against municipal ownership of utilities is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Traffic-cams and accident responsibility

Walter Olson — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 11:17:12 +0000

A letter to the editor of the Orlando Sentinel defends traffic-cams on grounds unrelated to the tickets they generate:

I was broadsided by a red-light runner four blocks from my house. …

Shaken and confused, I watched the other driver come out of her car and start screaming that I ran the red light. When bystanders started to gather, she dropped to the ground crying in pain.

Four days after the accident, while I was still dealing with injuries and insurance companies, I received a thick envelope in the mail from an attorney the driver had hired to sue me.

Fortunately, that same day, the city of Orlando produced a video of the accident taken by a red-light camera installed at the intersection. It showed the light had been red for several seconds before the driver entered the intersection. ….

It should be noted that much of the critique of cameras — such as the shortened-yellow problem, the incentive they afford for governments to hammer motorists on relatively minor violations such as rolling right turns under safe conditions, the use of presumptions of guilt to get registered owners to “tell on” family members, and their invitation for further expansion of surveillance — involve changes in the relationship of the citizen to the state, to the latter’s advantage. Like other uses of surveillance cameras, traffic-cams undoubtedly do produce some positive externalities, which should hardly settle the ongoing controversy about their use.

Tags: red light cameras

Traffic-cams and accident responsibility is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

January 28 roundup

Walter Olson — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 14:07:17 +0000

Voters unseat prosecutor in office during Luzerne County cash-for-kids scandal [Wendy N. Davis, ABA Journal]
Obama plan for mass refinance overriding terms of mortgages “could permanently drive housing finance costs higher” [James Pethokoukis]
In Sackett v. EPA case, SCOTUS will decide which EPA enforcement actions if any should escape judicial review [Ilya Shapiro/Cato, Adler, Root] Keystone XL episode gives reason to revisit NEPA [Conn Carroll] Ninth Circuit ruling on forest road runoff will test Obama position [David Freddoso]
Debate at Point of Law on President’s recess appointment power between Jason Mazzone and Andrew M. Grossman;
Lobbyists help get traffic-cams back on Connecticut legislative agenda [Chris Fountain]
Read it here first: “Courts push back on bribery prosecutions” [Reuters]
“In my little corner of the Blawgosphere, few things drive traffic like an Overlawyered link. Thank you, @walterolson.” [George Wallace]

Tags: accolades, Connecticut, environment, Environmental Protection Agency, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Luzerne County judicial scandal, mortgages, red light cameras, Supreme Court

January 28 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

January 26 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 05:01:35 +0000

Judge Edith Jones rules: 5th Circuit spanks judge who overturned result of anti-traffic-cam vote [The Newspaper, background]
“UK Nanny State: Let’s Send Gamers To Rehab” [Nick Sibilla, Reason] “If Poker Is a Public Health Issue, What Isn’t?” [Jacob Sullum]
Struggle Resolutely Against Misleaders of the People In Weather Broadcasts Everywhere! [TP; reactions from Tony Hake/Examiner, Geoff Fox, Andrew Revkin, Watts Up With That]
Jury awards $178 million in bariatric-surgery case against Jacksonville hospital, sum greater than GDP of several small island nations [Florida Times-Union]
Sikh sues Jay Leno over comparison of Romney vacation home to Golden Temple of Amritsar [Daily Mail]
Redevelopment without prerequisite “blight” akin to Hittite sack of Babylon [Gideon Kanner]
Convinced hospital broke naming promise, jury tells it to pay $1 million to country singer Garth Brooks [AP]
“Dean of law bloggers” — why, thank you, sir [Hans Bader, CEI]

Tags: accolades, climate change, eminent domain, Fifth Circuit, global warming, hospitals, India, red light cameras, videogames

January 26 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

November 23 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 13:02:02 +0000

Big win for Ted Frank against cy pres slush funds [CCAF, Fisher, Zywicki, CL&P, @tedfrank ("Ninth Circuit rules in my favor ... but I still think I'm right".)]
“Can the Vatican Be Subject to ICC Prosecution?” [Ku/OJ]
“Tennessee: ATS Sues City Over Right Turn Ticket Money” [The Newspaper]
“Law firms dominating campaign contributions to Obama” [WaPo]
Does that mean it’s an entitlement? Punitive damage limits face constitutional challenges in Arkansas, Missouri [Cal Punitives]
Businessman sues to silence critical blogger, case is dismissed, now files suit #2 [Scott Greenfield]
Going Hollywood? “The Supreme Court should move to Los Angeles” [Conor Friedersdorf]

Tags: Arkansas, Barack Obama, bloggers and the law, Catholic Church, cy pres, Missouri, punitive damages, red light cameras, Supreme Court, Ted Frank

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

October 3 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 05:13:55 +0000

Arizona officials say “accents were never the focus” of teacher fluency monitoring suspended at feds’ insistence [NYTNS, earlier] Reactions to my piece last week include columnist “Johnson” at The Economist (taking issue) and Hans Bader and Carrie Lukas (favorable);
Another highlight of new “jobs” bill: financial institution customers would help pay for auto bailouts [John Berlau]
Key New Orleans Police Department officer in charge of integrity of traffic-cam program accused of altering own plates [WWL] Red light cameras defended [Noah Kristula-Green, FrumForum] Why Massachusetts won’t raise the speed limit on Route 3 north of Burlington (NMA blog via @radleybalko)
Eight bad reasons for going to law school [Campos] Law schools have demographic but not socioeconomic diversity [Richard Sander, Denver U. Law Review via Legal Ethics Forum] And besides my own contribution on law school reform at the recent Truth on the Market symposium, check out the contributions by Hans Bader and Larry Ribstein;
Fellow federal agency FERC worried that EPA’s power-plant crackdown could lead to outages [WSJ] EPA’s plan to regulate dust from farmers’ fields led to public opinion blowback for President Obama [Diane Katz/Heritage, Environmental Legal Blogs, Radley Balko] Shutting down EPA isn’t likely under GOP reign, but reforming EPA might be [Adler, NYT "Room for Debate"]
Left rallies around New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman [Ben Smith, Politico]

Tags: agriculture and farming, attorneys general, Environmental Protection Agency, language bias, New Orleans, New York, red light cameras

October 3 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Tricks of the traffic-cam trade

Walter Olson — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 14:45:58 +0000

Per Henry Blodget, New York City freebooters are authorized to tow your other family car to enforce unpaid camera tickets. [Business Insider]

Tags: NYC, red light cameras, traffic laws

Tricks of the traffic-cam trade is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Deceased Baltimore cop signed, “verified” thousands of traffic-cam tickets

Walter Olson — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 14:16:01 +0000

The department claims it was all a computer glitch and that everyone sent a ticket was a confirmed violator [WBAL via Josh Blackman]. Scott Greenfield has his doubts.

Tags: Baltimore, red light cameras

Deceased Baltimore cop signed, “verified” thousands of traffic-cam tickets is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Pro-traffic-camera study: case closed?

Walter Olson — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 06:10:16 +0000

The Washington Post thinks a new Insurance Institute for Highway Safety study favorable to the cause of traffic cameras should end debate about whether the cameras are a good thing. Radley Balko isn’t ready to buy it.

Tags: red light cameras

Pro-traffic-camera study: case closed? is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Red light cameras working exactly as intended”

Walter Olson — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 05:36:05 +0000

They’re making money, even if their effect on actual road safety is ambiguous. [Radley Balko]

Tags: red light cameras

“Red light cameras working exactly as intended” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system