Overlawyered » reparations

February 27 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 05:08:07 +0000

Department of Transportation cracks down on distraction from cars’ onboard information and entertainment systems; Mike Masnick suspects the measure won’t work as intended, as appears to have been the case with early texting bans [Techdirt; earlier here, etc.] “Feds Push New York Toward Full Ban On Electronic Devices In Cars” [Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit; Truth About Cars]
Oh no: Scott Greenfield says he’s ceasing to post at his exemplary criminal defense blog after five years [Simple Justice, Dave Hoffman]
California not entitled to pursue its own foreign policy, at least when in conflict with rest of nation’s: unanimous “blockbuster” decision by en banc 9th Circuit strikes down law enabling insurance suits by Armenian victims [AP, Alford/OJ, Recorder, related, Frank/PoL]
Playboy model’s $1.2M award against Gotham cops is a great day for the tabloids [NYDN]
To hear a pitch for fracking-royalty suits, visit the American Association for Justice convention, or just read the New York Times [Wood, PoL]
What the mortgage settlement did [John Cochrane, earlier]
Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978 blows up an adoption: “She’s a 2-year-old girl who got shoved in a truck and driven to Oklahoma with strangers.” [Reuters, SaveVeronica.org]

Tags: AAJ, adoption, autos, California, Indian tribes, insurance, legal blogs, mortgages, oil industry, reparations

February 27 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“If you got a potted plant, that makes you a farmer”

Walter Olson — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 12:15:57 +0000

Big Government has been blowing the whistle on the Pigford settlement, which arose from allegations of racial discrimination in U.S. Department of Agriculture programs and has resulted in the allotment of billions in federal taxpayer money as compensation. The series of posts is here and here.

Tags: agriculture and farming, discrimination law, reparations

“If you got a potted plant, that makes you a farmer” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Protectionism disguised as reparations-ism?

Walter Olson — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 05:37:04 +0000

A California lawmaker targets a French railroad. [Coyote]

Tags: California, France, free trade, reparations

Protectionism disguised as reparations-ism? is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Armenians vs. Turkey in court, cont’d

Walter Olson — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 05:57:49 +0000

Another reparations case filed in the California courts over 100-year-old events, courtesy high-profile lawyers Brian Kabateck and Mark Geragos [AP, Reuters, complaint (PDF) courtesy WSJ Law Blog] Earlier here, here, here, etc.

Tags: reparations

Armenians vs. Turkey in court, cont’d is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

£300 billion worth of long memories

Walter Olson — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 05:04:22 +0000

Ugandans sue Britain over crimes during a 1893-1899 war [Telegraph]

Tags: reparations, United Kingdom

£300 billion worth of long memories is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

If you’re not reading Point of Law

Walter Olson — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 21:24:34 +0000

If you’re not following my other site, here’s some of what you’re missing:

Advance-fee fraud (“Nigerian 419″) scam emails that pose as international product-liability payouts;
Coverage of the recent Washington, D.C. developments on med-mal reform [Carter Wood and more];
The soil from which ACORN grew;
Judges keep swatting down California’s efforts to run its own foreign policy through reparations litigation;
Which college majors lead to the lowest scores on the LSAT? Why, the most law-related ones;
And the legal ethics of settlement negotiations.

Why not add Point of Law to your Google Reader or other RSS reader today, along of course with Overlawyered, if you haven’t yet?

Tags: ACORN, California, ethics, fraud, legal blogs, medical malpractice, reparations

If you’re not reading Point of Law is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Canadian Indian schools: when reparations don’t repair

Walter Olson — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 14:30:14 +0000

Missed from earlier this year: in the fall of 2007, following extensive litigation, the government of Canada began issuing payments to persons of Indian ancestry who had attended an officially promoted network of residential schools where abuse was common and whose aim of assimilating students into broader Canadian life was later assailed as calculated to suppress native culture. While the payments brought benefit to many recipients, among others they seem to have led to new cycles of dysfunction, family strife and substance abuse. [Jack Branswell and Ken Meaney, "Native suicides linked to compensation", Canwest/National Post, Jan. 26 via Western Standard]

Tags: Canada, Indian tribes, reparations

Canadian Indian schools: when reparations don’t repair is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Slavery apologies and the reparations question

Walter Olson — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 15:14:59 +0000

“The Senate unanimously passed a resolution [Thursday] apologizing for slavery, making way for a joint congressional resolution and the latest attempt by the federal government to take responsibility for 2 1/2 centuries of slavery.” [WaPo] Not altogether surprisingly, if you ask leading reparations advocates Randall Robinson and Charles Ogletree, Jr., whether this should reignite talk of reparations, they say yes. My City Journal article of last year explains why I think the latter very bad idea never picked up the political momentum its advocates expected.

Stephen Bainbridge has this response to the resolution’s sponsor:

“You wonder why we didn’t do it 100 years ago,” Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), lead sponsor of the resolution, said after the vote. “It is important to have a collective response to a collective injustice.”

Memo to Senator Harkin: We had a collective response. It was called the Army of the Potomac.

Tags: reparations

Slavery apologies and the reparations question is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

April 3 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:09:56 +0000

Those enviro-hazard warnings plastered all over because of Prop 65? They may be not merely pointless but untrue [California Civil Justice; a still-timely 2000 piece]
Is it somehow wrong for a public medical examiner to testify against cops — even when it’s in another county? [Radley Balko, Reason]
UCLA research scientists fight back against animal rights fanatics’ violence and intimidation [Orac/Respectful Insolence, "Pro-Test"]
Ezra Levant, himself a target of Canada’s official speech tribunals, has written a new book denouncing them, buy before they ban it [Amazon; Andrew Coyne, Maclean's] Has odious censorship-complaint-filer Richard Warman finally gotten his comeuppance? [Ken @ Popehat] More: another Warman case [Cit Media Law]
Roundup of recent sports/assumption of risk cases [John Hochfelder]
Already in trouble on charges of faking a will, Allentown, Pa. police-brutality attorney John Karoly now faces tax charges including alleged failure to report $5 million in income for 2002, 2004 and 2005 [TaxGirl]
Lawprof’s “Reparations, Reconciliation and Restorative Justice” seminar led to introduction of Maryland bill requiring insurers to disclose antebellum slaveholder policies [DelmarvaNow]
Judge tosses suit by Clarksville, Tennessee officials against activists who called them cozy with developers [Sullum, Reason "Hit and Run"]

Tags: animal rights, assumption of risk, California, expert witnesses, free speech in Canada, insurers, Maryland, Prop 65, reparations, Richard Warman, sports, Tennessee

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

Edward Fagan disbarred

Walter Olson — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 06:36:54 +0000

A flamboyant lawyer we’ve been writing about for a long time, best known for international reparations suits, seems to have reached the end of his professional road. (Noeleen G. Walder, “Lawyer Disbarred for Failing to Pay Sanctions, Fees in Holocaust Case”, New York Law Journal, Dec. 12). Earlier coverage: Feb. 1, 2008, Nov. 26, 2005, etc., etc.

Tags: Edward Fagan, reparations

Edward Fagan disbarred is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system