Overlawyered » safety http://overlawyered.com Chronicling the high cost of our legal system Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:28:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 January 3 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/january-3-roundup-3/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/january-3-roundup-3/#comments Tue, 03 Jan 2012 05:16:13 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26437
  • Popehat’s Ken to the rescue after Maine lawyer/lawmaker assists naturopath in bullying critical blogger [Popehat]
  • Newt’s “patriotism made me stray” among highlights of the year in blame-shifting [Jacob Sullum]
  • Nifong sidekick, now in a spot of legal bother himself, hits back with lawsuit [K C Johnson, Durham in Wonderland]
  • Shareholder action: “Delaware approves $285 Million in Plaintiffs’ Lawyers’ Fees” [Bainbridge, WSJ Deal Journal, WSJ Law Blog]
  • “Even one death is too many — WE MUST BAN NETI POTS!” [NYDN via Christopher Tozzo]
  • Debatable premise of Joe Nocera analysis on Stephen Glass case: bar admission turn-down = “rest of his life … destroyed” [NYT, Howard Wasserman/Prawfs, earlier]
  • Who says Connecticut never reforms liability? Towns won protection last year from some recreation-land tort exposure [CFPA, earlier here, here]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/january-3-roundup-3/feed/ 1     Hands off that handsfree phone! http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/hands-off-that-handsfree-phone/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/hands-off-that-handsfree-phone/#comments Wed, 14 Dec 2011 21:25:53 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26239 As Washington launches a new crusade against “cognitive distraction” behind the wheel, it no longer seems to matter whether your eyes and hands are in correct driving position. I explain in a new Cato post.

    More: Glenn Reynolds (NTSB “distracted” by its own pre-existing agenda and oversimplifying causes of Missouri accident) and more, Chapman, Marc Scribner/CEI (even bans on texting don’t seem to have worked as intended), Amy Alkon, (two years back) Radley Balko, and Ira Stoll (per IIHS, quoted on NPR, “states with cellphone bans have seen no real decrease in accident rates”). And: drivers’ use of portable GPS and MP3 devices to be included in contemplated ban? [NMA]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/hands-off-that-handsfree-phone/feed/ 13     Risks of trying to be safe dept. http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/risks-of-trying-to-be-safe-dept/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/risks-of-trying-to-be-safe-dept/#comments Fri, 02 Dec 2011 13:32:29 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25993 “Alarm fatigue” is said to be a growing peril in hospitals as “nurses become so desensitized to the constant beeping that they don’t hear or ignore important warnings that a patient’s condition might be worsening.” [Liz Kowalczyk, Boston Globe]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/risks-of-trying-to-be-safe-dept/feed/ 10     “Amtrak Bans 12-Year-Old Unaccompanied Child Riders” http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/amtrak-bans-12-year-old-unaccompanied-child-riders/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/amtrak-bans-12-year-old-unaccompanied-child-riders/#comments Thu, 24 Nov 2011 12:14:58 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25864 Because Something Might Go Wrong, though there seems a shortage of evidence that much actually has been going wrong for youthful travelers on the railroad. If the new policy prevents youngsters from spending holidays or weekends with their loved ones, does that also count as Something Going Wrong? [Lenore Skenazy/WSJ, Hans Bader, CEI; related on airline policies]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/amtrak-bans-12-year-old-unaccompanied-child-riders/feed/ 5     “Swan song for swings?” http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/swan-song-for-swings/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/swan-song-for-swings/#comments Tue, 25 Oct 2011 05:35:10 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25265 “The state inspectors strongly advised us against it,” said the director of a New Jersey preschool. [Greg Olear at Free-Range Kids]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/swan-song-for-swings/feed/ 0     “Safety First, Or Just In The Top Three?” http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/safety-first-or-just-in-the-top-three/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/safety-first-or-just-in-the-top-three/#comments Fri, 30 Sep 2011 15:44:52 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24857 Subversive thoughts from Mike Rowe of the Discovery Channel hit “Dirty Jobs“. Clearly a man who has no future in Senate-confirmable appointments… [Link fixed now, thanks commenter C.S.]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/safety-first-or-just-in-the-top-three/feed/ 2     U.K.: “‘Ridiculous’ health and safety bans challenged” http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/u-k-ridiculous-health-and-safety-bans-challenged/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/u-k-ridiculous-health-and-safety-bans-challenged/#comments Tue, 27 Sep 2011 16:47:45 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24783 “Kite flying, schoolyard games and sports day sack races have all been hit by an ‘epidemic’ of health and safety excuses, which should be challenged by the public, the Government said.” [Independent] Plus: UK school deems leather balls too dangerous for youngsters, directs use of sponge balls instead [BBC]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/u-k-ridiculous-health-and-safety-bans-challenged/feed/ 6     Ditch the bike helmet http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/ditch-the-bike-helmet/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/ditch-the-bike-helmet/#comments Mon, 05 Sep 2011 06:25:43 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24426 A TED talk idea from Mikael Colville-Andersen [TBD].

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/ditch-the-bike-helmet/feed/ 12     EEOC: drinking history no reason to withhold heavy trucking jobs http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/eeoc-drinking-history-no-reason-to-withhold-heavy-trucking-jobs/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/eeoc-drinking-history-no-reason-to-withhold-heavy-trucking-jobs/#comments Tue, 30 Aug 2011 05:56:55 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24352 Old Dominion Freight Line, Inc., an interstate trucking company, doesn’t want to put drivers with a history of drinking problems behind the wheel, and has accordingly been sued by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for allegedly violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), under which alcoholism is considered a protected condition. I’ve got details in a new post at Cato at Liberty (& Bader/CEI, Lachlan Markay/Heritage, Fox News).

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/eeoc-drinking-history-no-reason-to-withhold-heavy-trucking-jobs/feed/ 17     UK: too dangerous to let townswomen tend flowers around war memorial http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/uk-too-dangerous-to-let-townswomen-tend-flowers-around-war-memorial/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/07/uk-too-dangerous-to-let-townswomen-tend-flowers-around-war-memorial/#comments Tue, 12 Jul 2011 05:32:06 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=23798 The Women’s Institute in Shepperton, Middlesex, England, volunteered to tend the flowers around a war memorial on a traffic roundabout when budget cuts threatened elimination of the landscaping. “They were told by councillors that it would be too dangerous” to cross the road to the roundabout, although pedestrians traverse the same path in getting from one street to another. Telegraph]

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