Overlawyered » Rhode Island

August 3 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 05:25:12 +0000

Central Falls, R.I. lands in bankruptcy court [NYT; my Cato take]
Less efficient patdowns? Man with one arm files complaint after being turned down as TSA inspector [MSNBC via Hyman]
Don’t join the Mommy Mob [Ken at Popehat]
Montana high court upholds failure-to-warn verdict against maker of aluminum baseball bat [PoL link roundup, Russell Jackson; earlier here and here]
Finally some good news from Connecticut: state enacts law protecting municipalities from lawsuits over recreational land use [BikeRag; earlier here, etc.]
Claim: climate-change tort suits will require radical changes in tort law and that’s a good thing [Douglas Kysar (Yale), SSRN]
Attorney keen to go on TV, will take any case, either side [Balko]

Tags: baseball bats, climate change, Connecticut, recreation, Rhode Island

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

New at Cato: public employee binding arbitration

Walter Olson — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 05:16:03 +0000

I’ve got a new blog post up at Cato on the article in yesterday’s New York Times tracing how unsustainable police and fire contracts — the product, more specifically, of a pro-union state law imposing binding arbitration on municipalities — have driven the city of Central Falls to the brink of bankruptcy. Read it here. Matt Welch discusses the same article at Reason “Hit and Run.”

Tags: firefighters, labor unions, police, Rhode Island, taxpayers

New at Cato: public employee binding arbitration is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Senate confirms McConnell to federal judgeship

Walter Olson — Fri, 06 May 2011 05:53:41 +0000

By a mostly partisan vote of 50 to 44, the U.S. Senate confirmed Rhode Island plaintiff’s lawyer and political kingmaker Jack McConnell to a federal district judgeship. McConnell made his Motley Rice law firm, based in South Carolina, into Rhode Island’s biggest political donor during the same period that state officials were hiring him to run, on contingency fee, what it was hoped would be a hugely lucrative suit against former makers of lead paint. The Motley firm, with associated law firms, is credited with having made billions from tobacco and asbestos litigation and has recycled large sums into the campaign coffers of state attorneys general and other friendly politicians. [Daily Caller, Plains Daily (North Dakota contributions), Politico, ShopFloor] Earlier here, here, here, etc.

Tags: judicial nominations, lead paint, politics, Rhode Island

Senate confirms McConnell to federal judgeship is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

April 11 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 15:06:05 +0000

“Teacher threatens student with defamation suit for complaining about her grades” [Bassett, Calif.; San Gabriel Valley Tribune via TortsProf]
Rolls-Royce case: “Judge Posner Provides Preview of Wal-Mart v. Dukes Ruling?” [Trask]
But note Davidoff comments: “Plaintiffs Lawyers Eyeing Marcellus Shale Work” [Legal Intelligencer]
Massachusetts: for its 85-year-old administrator, is an anti-poverty empire forever? [Lawrence Eagle-Tribune via Zincavage]
Senate Judiciary advances Rhode Island nominee Jack McConnell by 11-7 vote [PoL, earlier]
Bonuses for arrests? Way to disgrace a law enforcement system [Greenfield, related]
“Insulting Your Boss Online Is Now Protected Speech” [AtL, earlier]
Treasury’s Do Not Shop list [five years ago on Overlawyered]

Tags: Facebook, judicial nominations, libel slander and defamation, oil industry, police, Rhode Island, Richard Posner, schools, Wal-Mart v. Dukes

April 11 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

November 21 roundup

Walter Olson — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 12:08:24 +0000

Federalist Society annual convention (which I attended) included panels on anonymity and the First Amendment, judicial recusals, many other topics;
Nomination of R.I.’s McConnell to federal bench could soon reach Senate floor [ProJo]
“Why U.S. Taxpayers Are Paying Brazilian Cotton Growers $147 Million” [NPR via Popehat]
“Litigation Governance: Taking Adequacy Seriously” [Trask, Class Action Countermeasures]
“Family” groups vs. a family, cont’d: Vermont Supreme Court upholds Miller-Jenkins custody ruling [Volokh, BTB]
OSHA allows more comment on what could be an extremely expensive mandate against noise in the workplace [ShopFloor]
Cops who inform on cops are often left to twist in wind [Balko]
Interview with Mark Zaid, collector of comic book art with law/legal themes [Abnormal Use]

Tags: class actions, Federalist Society, Miller-Jenkins case, OSHA, police, recusals, Rhode Island

November 21 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

July 15 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:49:02 +0000

More outcry over report of big new Treasury tax break for injury lawyers [Chris Moody, Daily Caller, Wood/ShopFloor]
Geologists’ annoyance over bill to oust asbestos-containing serpentine as California state rock makes NYT front page [yesterday; Dan Walters, Facebook group, Calif. Civil Justice, Bailey via Adler, earlier]
Great moments in international human rights: “Known al-Qaeda Operative Could Not Be Deported [from UK]” [Foster, NRO]
“Is the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act a Government Cash Cow?” [Koehler, FCPA Professor]
Franklin Mint case cont’d: “Manatt Tries to Beat Back Malicious Prosecution Lawsuit” [Baxter/American Lawyer, earlier]
“Washington’s parasites take aim at Apple” [David Boaz, Philadelphia Inquirer]
Gubernatorial bid by Rhode Island attorney general Patrick Lynch seems to have fizzled [Jessica Taylor, Politico via Law and More]
Go explicit or go home: Georgia abolishes implied private rights of action [PoL, my Reason take years ago]

Tags: AAJ, Apple, asbestos, attorneys general, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, international human rights, Rhode Island, sanctions, taxes, terrorism

July 15 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Newport, R.I.’s Cliff Walk

Walter Olson — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 05:08:13 +0000

The tourist-friendly town may fence off a famed scenic path after an adverse lawsuit ruling. [NYT]

Tags: recreation, Rhode Island

Newport, R.I.’s Cliff Walk is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

June 21 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 14:04:20 +0000

After Mohawk Industries settlement, many employers could be sitting ducks for suits claiming that hiring illegal workers is RICO violation [Helman, Forbes, earlier]
Teen tries to help child lost in store, winds up facing felony rap of false imprisonment [Greenfield]
Federal magistrate in debt collection case: letter on law firm letterhead implies threat to sue [Legal Intelligencer]
On “professional” class action objectors [Ted at PoL]
Coal company claims ventilation system ordered by government regulators might have been a cause of deadly April mine explosion [WSJ]
Senate committee approves judicial nomination of John (“Jack”) McConnell, impresario of Rhode Island lead-paint litigation; William Jacobson explains critics’ charges regarding couching of legal fee as purported hospital donation [Legal Insurrection]
Hey, stop siphoning that oil slick, we haven’t checked your life jackets and extinguishers [GatewayPundit] Gulf oil rig registered for purposes of regulation in remote Pacific island chain [Legal Blog Watch] Richard Epstein on oil spill liability [WSJ] BP will never pay full price of accident [Popehat] Check back in 2031 to see how the litigation went [Alex Beam, Boston Globe]
American Constitution Society holds panel discussion on Iqbal and Twombly [BLT] “Is It Too Much to Ask That a Lawsuit Be ‘Plausible’?” [Richard Samp, WLF Legal Pulse]

Tags: BP Transocean oil spill, class action settlements, judicial nominations, pleading, Rhode Island, Richard Epstein, safety

June 21 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

May 16 roundup

Walter Olson — Sun, 16 May 2010 12:14:49 +0000

Doc self-injects with Botox, wins $15 million on failure-to-warn claim [Legal Blog Watch]
Kindergarten teacher Tonya Craft acquitted in widely watched abuse-allegation case [Sullum and more, Greenfield, Popehat, A Public Defender, Lynch]
Naughty Toyota, it defends itself when attacked [Fumento, Ted at PoL]
Washington Post profiles economist/perennial blogroll favorite Tyler Cowen (Marginal Revolution) with guest appearance by fashion business mentor/outspoken CPSIA critic Kathleen Fasanella;
Business groups oppose nomination to federal judgeship of Rhode Island trial lawyer/political kingmaker Jack McConnell [ShopFloor]
“CEI’s FTC Complaint Against GM: A Response to Walter Olson” [Fred Smith/Open Market, earlier]
Bad: New York’s highest court limits assumption of risk defense [NYLJ, Mura, Rapp]
Why we can’t represent you in your suit demanding removal of your microchip brain implant [Popehat]

Tags: assumption of risk, child abuse, failure to warn, New York, Rhode Island, Toyota

May 16 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

March 16 roundup

Ted Frank — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:22:39 +0000

Are you a member of Tyson chicken or H&R Block Express IRA class action settlements?

Jim Copland on Harry Reid and the trial bar. [NRO]

Jim Copland on the Ground Zero settlement, which may pay lawyers $200 million—but the judge plans fee scrutiny. [NY Post; NY Daily News]

Kevin LaCroix interviews the Circle of Greed authors. [D&O Diary]

Judgeships: Rhode Island lead paint trial lawyer in despite mediocre rating, but Sri Srinivasan out because of his clients—not Al Qaeda, but, heaven forfend, eeeevil corporations like Hertz.

There’s no evidence that workers on automotive brakes (which sometimes contain asbestos) get mesothelioma at a greater rate than the rest of the population, but auto companies still get sued over it. Ford fought one in Madison County, rather than settle, and won. [Madison County Record]

Overview of defensive medicine at work. [AP]

Pantsless Rielle Hunter on John Edwards: “He’s very honest and truthful.” [GQ]

Tags: asbestos, Bill Lerach, class action settlements, defensive medicine, Ford Motor, Ground Zero dust lawsuits, Harry Reid, judicial nominations, Madison County, politics, Rhode Island, Rielle Hunter

March 16 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system