Overlawyered » Seattle

February 6 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:02:14 +0000

“A 4-Page Playdate Waiver? Is This the New Normal?” [Lenore Skenazy, Free-Range Kids; our 2000 post on "Rise of the High-School Sleepover Disclaimer"]
Spirit Airlines sets what it calls DOTUC fee, for “Dept. of Transportation Unintended Consequences” [Stoll]
How fairly are fathers treated in family court? [Nina Shapiro, Seattle Weekly via Alkon]
“‘Insider’ Trading by the Representative Plaintiff in Shareholder Litigation” [Bainbridge]
“Donation controversy focuses attention on Madison County asbestos litigation” [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Chamber-backed LNL]
Update: Appeals court reinstates Duluth doc’s defamation claims [DNT, earlier here, here, here; "bedside manner" criticism]
U.K.: “‘Psychic’ Sally Morgan Sues Critics for £150,000 After Refusing $1 Million to Prove Her Powers” [D.J. Grothe, HuffPo] “She’ll be calling witnesses such as ‘an uncle, or father, or a man… with a b in his first name’.” [@thegagthief]

Tags: airlines, asbestos, divorce, family law, libel slander and defamation, Madison County, recreation, Seattle, securities litigation, United Kingdom

February 6 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Update: Judge upholds $13 M award for Seattle firefighter

Walter Olson — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 05:09:23 +0000

Updating our August 12 item: “A King County Superior Court judge refused Monday to vacate a nearly $13 million award to a Seattle firefighter who was injured at a fire station in 2003. The city of Seattle appealed the award after an investigator it hired captured Mark Jones on surveillance video dancing, chopping wood, playing horseshoes and bocce ball this past spring.” Judge Susan Craighead said the city should have developed its evidence earlier and that the standard for demonstrating fraud is an extremely high one in cases of this kind. [KOMO]

Tags: Seattle, Washington state

Update: Judge upholds $13 M award for Seattle firefighter is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

September 17 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 05:13:31 +0000

International House of Pancakes (restaurant chain) vs. International House of Prayer (church) [CNN]
“Law Schools Now Require Applicants To Honestly State Whether They Want To Go To Law School” [The Onion, satire]
“As ENDA Lingers in Congress, a [million-dollar verdict] in Maine” [Michael Fox]
Fear: On advice of FBI, cartoonist who organized “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” drops out and changes name [Seattle Weekly, Welch, Moynihan]
University of Windsor lawprof asks Ontario Human Rights Tribunal to overturn school’s decision not to make her dean [National Post]
Prominent Seattle lawyer arrested, and do-you-know-who-I-am-ery allegedly ensues [Above the Law]
“Man rushed to hospital after finding tampon in his cereal” [Obscure Store, Macon Telegraph] Update: suit dropped.
Manufacture iPhones in the U.S.? “I worry America has too many lawyers. I don’t want to spend time having people sue me every day.” [Foxconn's Terry Gau, quoted in Business Week]

Tags: Canada, discrimination law, do you know who I am?, law schools, Seattle, trademarks

September 17 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Camera said to capture $12.8 M winner’s “victory dance”

Walter Olson — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 17:17:36 +0000

“The city of Seattle is seeking to overturn a $12.8 million judgment awarded to a former firefighter, who claimed he was permanently disabled by an on-duty fall, after investigators secretly shot video of the man chopping wood, playing horseshoes and bocce ball, and even breaking into a victory dance.” [Jennifer Sullivan, Seattle Times]

Tags: firefighters, Seattle

Camera said to capture $12.8 M winner’s “victory dance” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Cyclists sue Seattle over streetcar track injuries

Walter Olson — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 05:14:26 +0000

Bicycling and streetcar tracks can make for a hazardous mix because the “flange way gap” alongside the rail can entrap bicycle wheels. Now six cyclists who crashed while crossing the new Westlake Avenue streetcar project are suing the city of Seattle. They are citing the city’s failure to follow a consultant’s recommendation that it close the avenue to bicyclists. [SeattlePI.com]

Tags: roads and streets, Seattle

Cyclists sue Seattle over streetcar track injuries is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

June 1 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 12:00:00 +0000

Some California attorneys hoping to restart lucrative construction-defect litigation [Frith, Cal Civil Justice]
Jury awards Seattle bus passenger $1.3 million for stair mishap [KOMO, Seattle Times]
“Louisiana Bill Would Outlaw Insulting an Under-17-Year-Old By E-Mail” [Volokh, earlier] Update: bill watered down before passage, but still bad news for speech;
“Attorney Fee Fight Gets Ugly in World Trade Center Litigation” [Turkewitz and more]
Preventive detention law shows why we need to confine Congress [Sullum, Greenfield]
Mass Fifth Circuit recusals in Comer v. Murphy Oil global warming case [Wood/PoL, Jackson] More: Shapiro, Cato, Wood/ShopFloor (a strategy to provoke recusals?)
“By some estimates, circa 40 percent of cases in the Central African court system are witchcraft prosecutions” [Graeme Wood, The Atlantic]
Lawyers who sued Facebook over “Beacon” to get $2.3 million in fees, class $0.00 [Balasubramani, SpamNotes]

Tags: California, child protection, class action settlements, construction defect, Facebook, Fifth Circuit, global warming, Louisiana, recusals, Seattle

June 1 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

On 770 KTTH-Seattle at 4:10 PM Pacific today, talking Toyota

Ted Frank — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:41:33 +0000

My Toyota op-ed is going viral, with dozens of retweets, and listings on the front pages of Hot Air and reddit—not to mention an Instalink. And Alex Tabarrok tests my numbers at Marginal Revolution.

Update: Don’t miss Megan McArdle’s comprehensive take.

Tags: on TV and radio, Seattle, sudden acceleration, Ted Frank, Toyota

On 770 KTTH-Seattle at 4:10 PM Pacific today, talking Toyota is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

February 18 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 05:08:29 +0000

Math curriculum wars in Seattle school district head for court [Seattle Times]
Stuart Taylor, Jr. reviews new Abigail Thernstrom book on the Voting Rights Act [New Republic]
Gail Wilensky: Dems could’ve gotten GOP votes for health care reform if they’d compromised on medical liability [The Hill]
Erin Brockovich swoops down on Florida cancer cluster [Fumento/CEI, more, also on Florida case]
Barry Goldwater was right: right-leaning bloggers favor lifting military gay ban by 62-37 margin in National Journal bloggers poll;
Jim Copland vs. Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter [Point of Law, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, more]
Why is there no iPod or iPhone equivalent for automobiles? Regulation might have something to do with it [Ryan Avent and more via Sullivan; McArdle and more (commenter: "Motorcycles would never, EVER be approved by NHTSA if they were invented today.")]
So reassuring: for now FTC says it’s “unlikely to actually investigate individual bloggers” [Lewis, NYLJ] More from late last year on commission’s semi-retreat on blogger freebies [Publisher's Weekly, GalleySmith, GalleyCat, Reason "Hit and Run", William S. Galkin] Icons to make disclosure easy [Louis Gray]

Tags: Arlen Specter, Erin Brockovich, FTC endorsement rules, military, NHTSA, publishers, schools, Seattle, Voting Rights Act

February 18 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Man sued over photos of public art on Seattle streets”

Walter Olson — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:30:00 +0000

Mike Hipple took photos of Dance Steps on Broadway, a public art installation on sidewalks in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. The photos earned him $60 and now a lawsuit from sculptor Jack Mackie. [KOMO]

Tags: art and artists, copyright, photography, Seattle

“Man sued over photos of public art on Seattle streets” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Disbarred Seattle attorney sues state bar association”

Walter Olson — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:16:25 +0000

“A Seattle civil-rights attorney who was disbarred earlier this month after the state Supreme Court unanimously found that he had gouged some clients and bullied others into unwanted settlements has sued the Washington State Bar Association, claiming its investigation was rife with errors and conflicts of interest.” [Seattle Times]

Tags: bar associations, discipline, Seattle

“Disbarred Seattle attorney sues state bar association” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system