Overlawyered » roads and streets

December 12 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 05:04:59 +0000

Liability suits bankrupt manufacturer of gasoline cans [Tulsa World]
Faces life imprisonment: “Greece’s statistics chief faces criminal probe” for “not cooking the books” [FT via @OlafStorbeck]
Man injured by runaway car can sue county on grounds bus shelter was built too close to street [Seattle Times]
Title IX trips up track teams [Saving Sports: Delaware, West Virginia, Maryland]
“‘Not gay enough’ softball players settle suit” [SF Chron]
Now it’s the Obama administration that’s upset with ABA over ratings of judicial nominees [Whelan]
Lawyer kiosks in UK newsstands [Knake, LEF] Lawyers open kiosk at Florida mall [ABA Journal]

Tags: bar associations, judicial nominations, Oklahoma, product liability, roads and streets, Title IX

December 12 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Street signs, mandated in D.C.

Walter Olson — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 12:16:54 +0000

I’ve got a new post at Cato at Liberty on a truly DoTty local mandate, and the contractors’ lobby that has been hoping to reap some of its benefits.

Tags: roads and streets

Street signs, mandated in D.C. is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Diane Schuler’s husband suing state, brother-in-law over wrong-way Taconic crash”

Walter Olson — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 05:45:45 +0000

“Daniel Schuler, whose wife, Diane Schuler, killed herself and seven others in a wrong-way crash on the Taconic State Parkway is suing the state and his brother-in-law, whose three daughters were victims. Daniel Schuler filed a lawsuit Monday against the state in the New York Court of Claims, arguing that the highway was poorly designed and lacked proper signs.” [White Plains, N.Y. Journal-News] More on the catastrophic crash, which is the subject of a new HBO documentary by Liz Garbus: Bloomberg.

Tags: New York, personal responsibility, roads and streets

“Diane Schuler’s husband suing state, brother-in-law over wrong-way Taconic crash” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Update: “Judge Bars Woman From Suing Over Faulty Google Map”

Walter Olson — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 05:56:56 +0000

“Finding that Google has no duty to provide accurate content on its website, a Utah judge has thrown out the novel case of a woman who claimed that faulty walking directions on Google Maps caused her to be hit by a car.” [OnPoint News, earlier here, etc.] The same post, updating another story we’ve noted, reports that a bill to make guidebook publishers liable for some injuries to tourists has died in the Hawaii legislature.

Tags: Google, Hawaii, publishers, roads and streets

Update: “Judge Bars Woman From Suing Over Faulty Google Map” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Acrophobic bridge worker protected by ADA”

Walter Olson — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 14:02:06 +0000

The Seventh Circuit said a bridge worker with fear of heights can proceed with his suit contending the Illinois Department of Transportation should have done more to accommodate his wish to work only on those bridge maintenance tasks that did not leave him in an overly exposed position. It also said a jury could reasonably find IDOT was improperly eager for the plaintiff to depart because it regarded him as “annoying” and because he had had frictions with other employees, as when he said of one co-worker, “Sometimes I would like to knock her teeth out.” [Pat Murphy, Lawyers USA; Joe Lustig; Miller v. IDOT, courtesy Law.com]

Tags: disabled rights, roads and streets, workplace

“Acrophobic bridge worker protected by ADA” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Little-used Pennsylvania ADA ramps

Walter Olson — Wed, 04 May 2011 14:24:00 +0000

Federal design standards have changed, so many little-used ADA sidewalk ramps in Berks County, Pa. and elsewhere will be torn up at great expense and replaced with new little-used ramps. “The borough [of Lyons, Pa.] has only a few sidewalks — with most yards running right to the street — so the ramps generally lead to areas that would seem difficult for wheelchairs to cross.” [Reading Eagle, h/t Tad DeHaven] More: Chris Fountain.

Tags: disabled rights, Pennsylvania, roads and streets

Little-used Pennsylvania ADA ramps is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Sidewalks, ADA suits, and attorneys’ fees

Walter Olson — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 05:28:30 +0000

According to Todd Roberson at CJAC, a federal court’s ruling in a 14-year dispute over street curbs and sidewalks in Riverside, California has headed off a potential “avalanche of lawsuits.” U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner ruled the complainant in the case “had failed to demonstrate that Riverside as a whole is inaccessible to the disabled.”

Riverside’s City Attorney, Greg Priamos, was quoted in the Daily Journal saying the suit was “about money, not accessibility…The only hangup to a settlement earlier in the case was the amount of attorney’s fees. I’m offended by that.”

Tags: ADA filing mills, attorneys' fees, California, roads and streets

Sidewalks, ADA suits, and attorneys’ fees is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Children’s sidewalk chalk drawing

Walter Olson — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 05:49:00 +0000

Per some in Australia, it may be too dangerous an activity: “‘The mayor said they would like to issue us a permit but can’t because it raises health and safety issues, in case somebody fell over a child on the footpath or into the street,’ [a cafe owner] said.” [Free-Range Kids]

Tags: Australia, roads and streets, safety

Children’s sidewalk chalk drawing is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Pedestrian complainant characterizes Google Maps as “advisor”

Walter Olson — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 14:06:25 +0000

“The woman who claims faulty walking directions on Google Maps caused her to be hit by a car is trying to salvage her case with the novel argument that Google is liable for negligent publication because it provided her with ‘individual advice.’” [Matthew Heller, OnPoint News; Google brief, PDF, at OnPoint News; earlier here and here]

Tags: Google, roads and streets

Pedestrian complainant characterizes Google Maps as “advisor” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Man drives car into light pole in Wal-Mart parking lot

Walter Olson — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 15:30:11 +0000

Is the parking lot of the Newington, N.H. “normal[ly] configured,” had there been earlier drivers who bumped into the pole, and should either point matter in the lawsuit he’s filed as a result? [Seacoast Online via Siouxsie Law]

Tags: New Hampshire, roads and streets, Wal-Mart

Man drives car into light pole in Wal-Mart parking lot is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system