Overlawyered » South Carolina http://overlawyered.com Chronicling the high cost of our legal system Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:11:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 You served me the alcohol, now pay for my crash http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/you-served-me-the-alcohol-now-pay-for-my-crash/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/you-served-me-the-alcohol-now-pay-for-my-crash/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:07:57 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=27113 “A South Carolina woman is suing the bar that served her alcohol as a minor the night she had a car accident that left her paralyzed. Chelsea Hess, 22, is also suing the South Carolina Department of Transportation, the town of Bluffton and Beaufort County for negligence for allegedly not maintaining the road shoulder she drove her car over in her accident.” [ABC via @amyalkon]

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/you-served-me-the-alcohol-now-pay-for-my-crash/feed/ 5 Coming Carolina and Colorado appearances http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/coming-carolina-and-colorado-appearances/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/coming-carolina-and-colorado-appearances/#comments Thu, 01 Dec 2011 11:18:02 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26006 Today I’m talking to state legislators courtesy of the American Legislative Exchange Council. Next week I head off for luncheon talks about my new book Schools for Misrule before Federalist Society lawyers’ chapters in Greenville, S.C. on Wed. Dec. 7, and Charlotte, N.C. on Thurs. Dec. 8. And then the following week I keynote the annual luncheon of the Colorado Civil Justice League Dec. 13 in Denver. If you’re in the audience, do introduce yourself!

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/coming-carolina-and-colorado-appearances/feed/ 1 Fall speaking (and your chance to book): Chicago, S.C., Denver… http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/fall-speaking-and-your-chance-to-book-chicago-s-c-denver/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/fall-speaking-and-your-chance-to-book-chicago-s-c-denver/#comments Tue, 04 Oct 2011 17:02:50 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24944 I’m currently planning speaking trips that will take me to Chicago Nov. 7-8, Greenville, S.C. Dec. 7, Denver Dec. 13, and possibly Phoenix Dec. 1. If you’ve got a speaker’s series or organization that’s in one of these places or an easy travel jump away, consider saving on travel expenses by booking me for a talk around these dates. You can contact me directly at editor – [at] – overlawyered – dot – com or Diane Morris at the Cato Institute: dmorris – [at] – cato – dot – org.

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/fall-speaking-and-your-chance-to-book-chicago-s-c-denver/feed/ 0 “Free” help from securities class action lawyers http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/free-help-from-securities-class-action-lawyers/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/free-help-from-securities-class-action-lawyers/#comments Tue, 20 Sep 2011 05:07:24 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24702 Following murmurs about pay-to-play, South Carolina has turned down offers from local powerhouse Motley Rice and from Labaton Sucharow, whose attorneys had donated $12,000 to Attorney General Alan Wilson. [The State]

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/free-help-from-securities-class-action-lawyers/feed/ 0 May 12 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/05/may-12-roundup-4/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/05/may-12-roundup-4/#comments Thu, 12 May 2011 12:18:14 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=22956
  • Alabama state senate bans knowingly giving illegal immigrant ride in your car [Katherine Mangu-Ward]
  • Cato U., dynamite summer seminar from my institute, being held this year in Annapolis Jul. 24-29;
  • Calif.: “64% of Prop 65 settlements go to attorneys’ fees” [CJAC, earlier]
  • Mississippi jury votes $322 million to individual asbestos claimant [Fair Warning, Mass Tort Prof]
  • “Emails: Attorney nixed S.C. train injury fund” [AP/The State]
  • Trump files $100 million counterclaim against customer who sued his “Trump University” [Atlantic Wire, earlier] More: Lowering the Bar.
  • Two, three, a trend? Another trial-lawyer movie, this time starring Mark Lanier [WSJ Law Blog]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/05/may-12-roundup-4/feed/ 1     “Revisiting The Unreasonably Dangerous Undergarment” http://overlawyered.com/2011/05/revisiting-the-unreasonably-dangerous-undergarment/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/05/revisiting-the-unreasonably-dangerous-undergarment/#comments Tue, 10 May 2011 14:51:53 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=22915 More developments in “the case of the dangerously defective bra.” [Kevin Couch, Abnormal Use]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/05/revisiting-the-unreasonably-dangerous-undergarment/feed/ 2     “Golfer Gored by Gator Sues Course Over Pond Design” http://overlawyered.com/2011/02/golfer-gored-by-gator-sues-course-over-pond-design/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/02/golfer-gored-by-gator-sues-course-over-pond-design/#comments Wed, 02 Feb 2011 05:28:16 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=21283 “A golfer whose arm was torn off by an alligator during a round of golf in South Carolina has sued the course’s owner under the novel theory that the design of the course created an alligator hazard.” [OnPoint News]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/02/golfer-gored-by-gator-sues-course-over-pond-design/feed/ 10     Found in a cookie jar? http://overlawyered.com/2010/11/found-in-a-cookie-jar/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/11/found-in-a-cookie-jar/#comments Thu, 04 Nov 2010 05:04:26 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=19974 ABA Journal: “A South Carolina lawyer known for his TV commercials and billboards has turned over $994,000 in cash kept in a closet of his Myrtle Beach law office after a court-appointed bankruptcy investigator stressed the importance of disclosing his assets.” In initial filings, attorney Pavilack said he owed an estimated $72,500,000 to creditors and had $50,000 in assets; two months later he revised the asset disclosure upward to $8.9 million. A bankruptcy examiner says Pavilack’s financial affairs are in disarray and that it may be impossible to disentangle what he owns or where money went given a pattern of unexplained money transfers among a maze of business accounts. [Myrtle Beach Sun-News via Lowering the Bar]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/11/found-in-a-cookie-jar/feed/ 1     October 25 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/october-25-roundup-2/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/october-25-roundup-2/#comments Mon, 25 Oct 2010 12:48:07 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=19831
  • And she’s a psychology professor too: “Pro se litigant of the day” [ATL]
  • “Access to justice” makes handy slogan, but has its limits re: appeal bonds [Ted at PoL]
  • New Federalist Society white papers on Michigan, Illinois, California and Alabama supreme courts;
  • Per her opponent this year, CPSIA proponent and perennial Overlawyered bete noire Jan Schakowsky ranks as most left-wing member of Congress [ExtremeJan.com]
  • Naming opportunity at Faulkner U.’s Jones School of Law falls to Greg Jones of Beasley Allen [BA press release]
  • Lockyer pushes divestment of firms for taking wrong stance on ballot controversy [Coyote]
  • “Patent marking” suits continue to proliferate as Reps. Latta, Issa propose measures to curb opportunistic filings [Gray on Claims]
  • “South Carolina tobacco fees: how to farm money” [ten years ago on Overlawyered]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/october-25-roundup-2/feed/ 0     Update: Branham v. Ford http://overlawyered.com/2010/08/update-branham-v-ford/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/08/update-branham-v-ford/#comments Thu, 19 Aug 2010 05:37:13 +0000 Ted Frank http://overlawyered.com/?p=18935 In 2006, I wrote:
    In May 2001, Cheryl Jane Hale was driving four children to a sleepover in her 1987 Ford Bronco. She didn’t bother to have the children wear their seat belts, so, when she took her eyes off the road to argue with the backseat passengers, and thus drove off the road and flipped the car, 12-year-old Jesse Branham was thrown from the car and suffered brain damage. A jury in Hampton County, South Carolina (the second jury to be impaneled—the first one was dismissed in a mistrial when it was discovered after two weeks of trial that five of the jurors were former clients of Branham’s lawyers) decided that this was only 45% Hale’s fault, held Ford 55% responsible, which puts Ford entirely on the hook for $31 million in damages.

    On Monday, the South Carolina Supreme Court reversed because of prejudicial closing arguments that relied heavily on inadmissible evidence. More importantly for lawyers practicing in South Carolina, the Court adopted “the risk-utility test with its requirement of showing a feasible alternative design.”

    How bad of a judicial hellhole is Hampton County? Though Hale was a co-defendant, she cooperated with the plaintiffs throughout the trial in their case against Ford, even sitting at the plaintiffs’ table; but because the judge classified Hale as a co-defendant, it meant that Hale got half of the peremptory challenges of the “defense.” More from Comer; no press coverage that I’ve seen yet. (cross-posted from Point of Law)

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