- “Brazil Sues Twitter in Bid to Ban Speed Trap and Roadblock Warnings” [ABA Journal]
- Obama nominates Michigan trial lawyer Marietta Robinson to vacancy on Consumer Product Safety Commission, ensuring aggressively pro-regulatory majority [Bluey, Heritage]
- “AMA reports show high cost of malpractice suits” [HCFN] “Average expense to defend against a medical liability claim in 2010 was $47,158″ [American Medical News, more] Survey of 1,200 orthopedic surgeons finds defensive medicine rife, at cost of billions, accounting for 7 percent of all hospital admissions [MedPageToday]
- “Sue us only in Delaware” bylaws would kill off forum-shopping and what fun is that? [Bainbridge, Reuters]
- Trial by media: Lefty “SourceWatch” posts, then deletes, docs from Madison County pesticide suit [Madison County Record]
- Think you’ve beaten FCPA rap? Meet the obscure “Travel Act” [Mike Emmick, Reuters] Federal court expands “honest services fraud” in lobbying case [Paul Enzinna, Point of Law]
- “On the horrors of getting approval for an ice-cream parlour in San Francisco” [NYT via Doctorow/BoingBoing]
Tagged as:
Brazil,
CPSC,
defensive medicine,
Delaware,
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,
forum shopping,
Madison County,
medical malpractice,
San Francisco,
small business,
traffic laws,
Twitter
It takes effect Thursday, but, as some had predicted, the hamburger chain seems to be evading its reach fairly easily just by assigning a separate price to the toy. [SF Weekly]
Tagged as:
McDonald's,
obesity,
San Francisco
- “Federal judge: ADA makes porches in new stores illegal” [PoL]
- “San Francisco Manages to Spend $700K for a Wheelchair Ramp” [Lowering the Bar] Taco Bell hit with potentially expensive California verdict [AP]
- Looking for regulations that burden economy? Look no further than the ADA [Bader]
- Website critical of serial California filers [Highest Paid Lawyer]
- Parking lot rules imperil historic re-creation of Victorian setting in east L.A. [EastSider]
- “Morbidly” obese, at least, covered: EEOC sues over firm’s dismissal of 680-lb. man [Houston Chronicle, Hyman, MySanAntonio]
- $1.1 million verdict against Iowa university for failing to accommodate worker’s mental state could encourage more suits [Fox]
- Missed this in June: “Netflix sued by deaf group over lack of subtitles” [Lance Whitney, CNet]
Tagged as:
disabled rights,
obesity,
San Francisco
- “Law Prof Threatens Suit over University’s Plan to Reinstitute Single-Sex Dorms” [ABA Journal, WSJ Law Blog; John Banzhaf vs. Catholic U. in Washington, D.C.]
- Mississippi: Dickie Scruggs files motion to vacate conviction in Scruggs II (DeLaughter case) [Freeland, YallPolitics] Before defending Paul Minor’s conduct in cash-for-judges scandal, review the evidence [Lange, YallPolitics and more]
- Woman who filmed cop from own yard charged with obstructing his administration of governmen [BoingBoing]
- East St. Louis, Ill. jury awards $95 million in sexual harassment, assault case against Aaron’s rental chain [ABA Journal]
- Connecticut unions demand investigation of conservative Yankee Institute think tank [Public Sector Inc.]
- “Court Upends $1.75M Award, Finding Plaintiff Lawyer’s Remarks Prejudicial” [NJLJ]
- Hold it! San Francisco debates bathroom rights for schoolkids [C.W. Nevius, SF Chronicle]
Tagged as:
colleges and universities,
Connecticut,
Dickie Scruggs,
Paul Minor,
San Francisco,
Washington D.C.
San Francisco’s public contracting requirements could drive both taxpayers and vendors batty: “[C]ity purchasing policies, if followed, would mean paying about $240 for getting a copy of a key that actually cost a worker $1.35 to get done at a hardware store on his break,” according to one whistleblowing employee. [SF Chronicle via Matt Welch]
Tagged as:
contracts,
San Francisco,
taxpayers
“The Electronic Frontier Foundation joined civil liberties and privacy groups in criticizing a proposal from the San Francisco Entertainment Commission that would require all venues with an occupancy of over 100 people to record the faces of all patrons and employees and scan their ID’s for storage in a database which they must hand over to law enforcement on request. … Events with strong cultural, ideological, and political components are frequently held at venues that would be affected by these rules.” [EFF]
Tagged as:
constitutional law,
privacy,
San Francisco
I’m scheduled to be a guest on two of the nation’s leading radio programs, both California-based: Dennis Prager’s today (Tuesday) (broadcast times vary; find a station), and Ronn Owens at San Francisco’s KGO AM 810 tomorrow (Wednesday) at 11 a.m. Pacific. Tune in and listen!
P.S. Both shows were a pleasure; host Prager generously singled out the book as “so devastating” and “mandatory reading,” and said it was “difficult to overstate the importance of this book.”
Tagged as:
accolades,
Bay Area,
California,
on TV and radio,
San Francisco
Matt Welch scrutinizes a San Francisco “predatory pricing” antitrust verdict that you’d really think would be raising more alarm in publishing, and other, circles. [Reason]
Tagged as:
antitrust,
newspapers,
San Francisco
- San Francisco considers, then tables, ban on pet sales at stores [Amy Alkon]
- Florida: we’ll pull you into our courts as an online-defamation defendant even if you’ve never set foot here [CBS4.com]
- Bratz case: “Alex Kozinski gives Barbie a spanking” [AtL]
- GEICO launches counterattack against crash fraud in New York [PoL]
- When a lawyer sues the wrong doctor: hey, isn’t everyone entitled to mistakes now and then? [American Medical News, sanctions affirmed in Virginia case]
- “[Congressman Alan] Grayson’s shakedown lawsuit threatens D.C. business” [LaFetra, PLF/Examiner]
- Asbestos: Do component makers have a duty to warn about other manufacturers’ hazardous products? [Cal Biz Lit and two followups on California decisions, NAM and Levy Phillips & Konigsberg on a since-settled New York case against Foster Wheeler]
- Subsidies for durum wheat flowed in happy circle for everyone but taxpayer and consumer [Mark Perry]
Tagged as:
Alex Kozinski,
animal rights,
asbestos,
Florida,
insurance fraud,
libel slander and defamation,
San Francisco,
sanctions
“For several years, [defendant Susana] Chung ‘acted as the conduit’ of fraudulent insurance claims filed in connection with staged crashes in Northern California, said Larry Blazer, an Alameda County assistant district attorney.” Nearly 100 persons, mostly “victims” of bogus accidents but also including three chiropractors, have been found guilty in the scheme. [San Francisco Chronicle, Oakland Tribune via ABA Journal]
Tagged as:
Bay Area,
California,
crash faking,
insurance fraud,
San Francisco
