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restaurants

According to the actor, in an op-ed (co-authored with Stephen DeMaura) in today’s WSJ:

Two women get into a fight in the ladies’ restroom at a restaurant. Afterward, they sue the restaurant owner, claiming someone should have been in there to break up the fight. It costs the small-business owner $2,000 to pay each plaintiff to drop the complaint, which was cheaper than fighting the lawsuit would have been.

This completely ridiculous story is true, and the restaurant owner was one of us, Mr. Norris. …

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The fast-food chain, which had fought back against the large Alabama law firm with spirited ads defending its product, “said no money was exchanged and it is not changing any of its products or advertising.” [WAVY, earlier]

P.S. Cheeky new ad from Taco Bell aimed at the law firm: “Would it kill you to say you’re sorry?” [AP] More of this, please!

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A nannyish idea making its way around the country finds its sponsor in New York. [NewsCore] Earlier here, here, here, etc.

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Donner Lake Kitchen, a popular family-owned restaurant in rural Truckee, Calif. is closing its doors following a legal battle with attorney Scott Johnson, who is said to have filed “countless” complaints of lack of handicap accessibility at California businesses. The owner estimates that $20,000-$60,000 in repairs and upgrades would have been needed to bring the dining establishment into ADA compliance. [Sierra Sun via CJAC]

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March 23 roundup

by Walter Olson on March 23, 2011

  • New Yorker suing boss for $2M because working in New Jersey caused him “anguish” [Biz Insider]
  • British lawyer’s libel threats impede UK publication of Paul Offit vaccine book [Respectful Insolence]
  • Lawsuit settlement leads to Florida push to curb tobacco discounter [WSJ; background, Jeremy Bulow]
  • Allegation: attorneys made personal use of cy pres fund in Armenian genocide settlement [PoL]
  • “Telecommuting employees raise special wage and hour issues” [Hyman]
  • UK bias cops wonder whether to ban gay-preferred along with gay-not-preferred guesthouses [Ed West, U.K. Telegraph]
  • Copyright mills: “Local law firm wants to defend people sued by local law firm” [TBD] Related: [Citizen Media Law, Coleman]
  • “Top 10 Reasons to Not Open a Bar or Restaurant in NYC” [NY Enterprise Report]

After Chipotle restaurants in Washington, D.C. sacked about 40 workers for lack of immigration papers, some of the workers approached the D.C. city council in search of remedies for grievances that include “unjust dismissal” and inadequate notice. [NBC Washington]

The customer says he has diabetes and should be entitled to scrape the rice off and just eat the fish. “The rice is part of the all-you-can-eat sushi,” said the restaurant owner, who says the plaintiff has asked $6,000 to drop his suit. “If you only eat the fish, I would go broke.” [Consumerist; David Lazarus, L.A. Times]

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February 13 roundup

by Walter Olson on February 13, 2011

The Ohio lawmaker gives his side of the story. Earlier here.

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The restaurant chain responds with full-page newspaper ads to a headline-grabbing Beasley Allen lawsuit charging that its beef filling flunks federal standards for meat content. [ad via AP, Atlantic Wire, ABC, Atlanta Journal-Constitution] More: NPR (company has produced superhero cartoon spoof defending its product).

He bit into a sandwich wrap in 2008 and encountered an olive pit, and now he wants $150,000. [Cleveland Plain Dealer, Wonkette, Memeorandum]

P.S. Gawker finds video taken five days later on the House floor in which the Ohio representative “looks fine and talks normal” notwithstanding the “serious and permanent dental and oral injuries requiring multiple oral and dental surgeries.” And Daniel Fisher at Forbes:

No indication why Kucinich mulled this lawsuit for three years before filing it…..* The lawsuit alleges negligence and breach of implied warranty.

*Commenter “Mattie” says the SOL in DC for this type of suit is indeed three years, though it would be one year for some other torts.

Who besides the People’s Congressman would be willing to name America’s olive pit safety crisis and call out the Big Pit interests responsible?

P.P.S.: As someone was asking, wasn’t generous government-furnished health insurance — like the kind available to Members of Congress — supposed to cut down on the need for personal injury suits? And Matthew Heller at OnPoint News finds some precedent for the suit.

And further: That was fast, Kucinich says he’s settled the suit (Jan. 28).

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January 7 roundup

by Walter Olson on January 7, 2011

  • Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s firm suing Apple, Google and many others over common web features [Atlantic Wire, Groklaw ("Allen v. World and Dog"]
  • Probably not a good idea to give local authorities cash incentive to snatch kids from homes [Bader, CEI]
  • Hyperlink liability case: “If I lose there won’t BE an Internet in Canada” [Ars Technica]
  • Shooting spree at Denny’s results in suit charging eatery with negligent security [PNWLocalNews.com]
  • More links: “Do securities lawsuits help shareholders?” [Point of Law, Bainbridge]
  • Fourth Circuit revives CSX fraud suit against asbestos lawyers [Dan Fisher, Forbes] “Asbestos defendants want automatic access to info in bankruptcy trusts” [Chamber-backed LNL]
  • Creation of noncompliant consumer financial product is a criminal offense under Dodd-Frank [Josh Wright, TotM]
  • Man sues over seeing contestants eat rats on NBC reality show “Fear Factor” [six years ago on Overlawyered]

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Seems the place is too kid-friendly. For legal attacks on the winks-and-wings establishment over its discrimination based on gender and looks in the employment of servers, see earlier items here, here, etc.

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The complainants never established what the restaurant did wrong, or how it breached a legal duty, in the unfortunate episode of squirting garlic butter. [Marin Independent Journal, earlier]

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Trade undress, cont’d: two restaurant companies by the names of Twin Peaks and Grand Tetons (doing business as “Northern Exposure”) are now sparring in court over whether the latter improperly copied the former’s Hooters-meets-wilderness-lodge eatery concept [Siouxsie Law, Dallas Observer] In 2004, Hooters itself sued a rival establishment named WingHouse which it claimed had improperly copied distinctive elements such as its servers’ provocative manner of dressing.

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The little-known dangers of snails as a menu item: it seems the interior can be under pressure and squirt hot garlic butter. [Marin County, Calif. Independent Journal]

More: Legal Blog Watch (citing “no less robust a source than Overlawyered”); Cal Biz Lit (with proposed “Danger: Snails May Explode” warning)

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A customer unfamiliar with the vegetable ordered the grilled artichoke special at a North Miami Beach restaurant, and says the server should have warned that you’re not supposed to eat the fibrous, indigestible upper mass of the leaves, just the heart and pulpy bottom portion. He’s suing. [Matthew Heller, OnPoint News] More: Above the Law.

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Bugs might fly in

by Walter Olson on October 21, 2010

So goodbye to the open-air restaurants of suburban Bethesda, Maryland, now put on notice by the Montgomery County health department. [TBD]

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