• Housekeeping service in Florida proclaims, “We Speak English”. So will they get sued? [Smerconish/Phila. Daily News]
• Update: Dad who long ago walked out on his family won’t get chunk of estranged son’s $2.9 million 9/11 fund benefit [NY Post (link fixed now); earlier]
• Did Illinois state’s attorneys advise Marine sergeant complaining of car vandalism that there wasn’t much point trying to recover from the suspected offender since he was a lawyer? [Blackfive via Zincavage and many readers; Kass/Tribune] And what kind of trouble might the lawyer be in if he suggested slipping the repair costs along to an insurer? [Patterico commenters, Goldberg/NRO Corner correspondent] More: Bainbridge.
• Not long after American Lawyer pronounces the demise of securities class actions, we learn they may be back on a cyclical upswing [August TAL; new Stanford Clearinghouse]
• If rising tide of outrage leads to abolition of peremptory challenges, many lawyers won’t have anyone to blame but themselves [Reed]
• Brooklyn judge’s presenting of box of candy to plaintiff among grounds for reversal of $14 million brain-damaged infant verdict [NYLJ]
• Yet more health privacy madness: “HIPAA is adversely affecting our ability to conduct biomedical research” [Reuters on JAMA study via Kevin MD; relatedly, Karvounis/HealthBeat]
• People kept tearing down no-swimming signs at much-used park in Bellingham, Wash., and you know what’s going to happen next without our having to tell you [AP/Seattle Times]
• Two Illinois judges in drunk-driving accident that broke other driver’s leg draw mere reprimand with “no consequences other than public embarrassment” [Post-Dispatch]
• Suit against Avvo lawyer-rating suit dismissed on First Amendment grounds [Seattle Times, Post-Intelligencer; earlier]
• Saves her friend’s life, then sues her [seven years ago on Overlawyered]

• Chief exec of 1-800-ATTORNEY ended up needing one himself, pleading guilty to securities fraud charge [NYLJ, Lattman]


• Cost of providing liability insurance for Pennsylvania prison doctor greatly exceeds his pay [Shamokin, Pa. News-Item, Dr. Robert Hynick, Northumberland County Prison]


• “Scottish sociopaths sipping their single malt Glenlivet” — yep, Jack Thompson is suing Grand Theft Auto developers again [GameSpot]


• Anna Nicole Smith fee-ing frenzy: $4,265 for Bahamas cellphone roaming part of “fair and reasonable” lawyer’s bill [TMZ]


• Working in a prosecutors’ office? More about nailing ‘em than making sure justice was done [Dean Barnett via MedPundit]


• Don’t forget imprisoned Egyptian blogger Abdelkareem Nabil Soliman [Palmer @ NRO, Doherty @ Reason]


• “Pretexting” to fish out adversaries’ secrets: yes, lawyers do it too, now that you mention it [Elefant]


• Which is more dangerous to kids, a house with a swimming pool or a house with a gun? Think carefully before answering [Stossel]


• For shame: Supreme Court of Canada gives go-ahead for British Columbia’s retroactive tobacco recoupment suit [Ottawa Citizen, CBC, Bader; earlier]


• Anti-biotech activists score, farmers squirm as judge halts sale of Roundup Ready alfalfa [Farmer-Stockman, Feedstuffs, Truth about Trade & Technology](more: Coyote)


• Soap opera actor sues after ABC writes his character out of the script [five years ago on Overlawyered]

Guestblogger Peter Morin earlier this month took note of a bracing decision by Judge David Sills, presiding justice for a California court of appeal, overturning a $540,000 settlement in a Proposition 65 toxic-warning case filed by what he called “bounty hunters”. The National Law Journal has followed on with more details of the case, Consumer Defense Group v. Rental Housing Industry Members, in which a law firm, acting on behalf of a supposed consumer group and complainant, “sued 170 apartment building owners around California and the Rental Housing Industry trade association for failure to warn of the danger of cigarette smoking by tenants anywhere in the building and parking lots where auto exhaust might expose tenants to carcinogens. … the ultimate global settlement included a promise to post a generic warning on buildings and a laundry list of potential sources of cancer provided on a Web site, including furniture, paint, construction materials, cleaning supplies, swimming pool chemicals, pest control and landscaping.” It gets better:

“Trade group wanted to buy its peace and was willing to pay off the law firm to obtain it, in return for which the owners would also get a favorable deal with regard to any future litigation concerning Proposition 65 violations,” Sills wrote. But he saved his wrath for Graham & Martin. “Consumer Defense Group and McKenzie are simply straw plaintiffs set up to enable the law firm of Graham & Martin to obtain legal fees in Proposition 65 litigation. We will therefore refer to the ‘plaintiffs’ by the title most substantively accurate: Graham & Martin,” said Sills.

For our earlier coverage of Prop 65 bounty-hunting, see May 26, 2005 and links from there (Pamela A. MacLean, “Calif. Judge Blasts Firm in Toxic-Warnings Case”, National Law Journal, Apr. 13).

“In a decision that could have ripple effects across Long Island’s East End summer playground, a Suffolk Supreme Court justice hearing a swimming pool accident case has ruled that a sharehouse owner may be held to the same liability standards as the owner of a hotel, motel or inn.” After Flavio Fornaro injured himself diving, his lawyers argued that the owner of the house in Quogue should have mounted decals on the swimming pool to indicate relative depths, a step that might be standard for a hotel or motel pool but which is not expected of homeowners. A judge ruled that the claim could go to trial. “The decision could create a whole host of new and previously unanticipated duties for both rental property owners and others who have pay-to-attend events at their homes.” One Riverhead attorney wondered whether the hiring of lifeguards might be required, and a realtor called the decision “quite disturbing”, with its implication that prudent private owners might need to mimic the safety precautions of commercial establishments: “You can’t take a person’s residence and make it a Starbucks.” (Andrew Harris, “Sharehouse Owners Held to Public Accommodations Standards in Pool Accident Case”, New York Law Journal, Nov. 2).

Five-year-old Valerie Lakey suffered devastating injuries when she was literally disemboweled when she sat on an open pool drain in 1993. Throughout the 2004 presidential campaign, John Edwards made much of his trial victory in this case against the manufacturer of the pool drain cover, Sta-Rite, and it immunized him from much criticism, with the media regularly making encomiums to his dramatic closing argument invoking his own dead son.

But it turns out the facts of the case are much more complicated than John Edwards and the media made out.

Valerie Lakey suffered horrendous injuries because other children at her municipal swimming pool vandalized the safety equipment protecting the pool drain and the city didn’t fix the problem. “‘I don’t believe this has anything to do with product design—it’s an issue of maintenance, an issue of a missing cover and the child sitting down on it,’ said Ken Giles, a spokesman for the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.” (”Drain that injured girl lacked cover”, Raleigh News & Observer, Jun. 24, 1993). According to the same article, “The National Spa and Pool Institute, along with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, issued a list of precautions for pool owners and managers in 1982. It states that covers must be checked daily to see whether they are in good repair and to make sure they cannot be removed without tools.”

The powerful circulation pump, manufactured by another defendant, didn’t have a readily-accessible emergency shut-off switch. After John Edwards settled with the municipality and pump manufacturer for $5.9 million, guaranteeing him a hefty profit on the case, he was able to focus on the lottery-litigation against the manufacturer of the pool drain cover at trial, blaming them for not doing more to protect the pool drain from vandalism—including the standard second-guessing of the “failure to warn” the municipality of the obvious problems of letting the pool drain be vandalized. There was no evidence that the additional warning to screw in the drain cover would’ve made a difference: county regulations already required the pool drain cover to be screwed in, and the pool managers testified that they had done so several times in the year before Lakey’s accident. (”Defense argues pool staff knew to screw down drain covers”, Raleigh News & Observer, Jan. 10, 1997.)

The defense decided not to settle after it tried the case in front of four focus groups that agreed that it acted reasonably. But the jury in the Lakey case wasn’t allowed to make that decision: the judge erroneously instructed the jury that Sta-Rite acted unreasonably as a matter of law, apparently overreacting to a discovery dispute. Edwards had asked Sta-Rite to provide documents relating to the specific model of pool cover, and then thought to modify his request to include documents relating to all covers a week before trial—and when Sta-Rite provided the newly requested documents (which related mostly to hot tubs), Edwards accused them of having deliberately hidden the documents. (”Final stages of pool drain trial to begin”, Raleigh News & Observer, Jan. 6, 1997.)

Because of the risk of bankrupting punitive damages, Sta-Rite settled for slightly above insurance limits rather than appeal. According to Raleigh News & Observer, after the trial, a number of jurors said they could have gone either way until the judge instructed them on the question. (Anne Saker, “Focus groups becoming vital tool for N.C. lawyers”, Jan. 18, 1997.)

Sta-Rite had been putting warnings on its pool-drain covers since 1987, so the case did nothing to change their product; if anything, the additional safety innovation hurt them at trial because it was used against them to argue that they should have acted earlier.

The Monkeytime site has some additional details, including Edwards’s invocation of his son’s death.

One of America’s least credible public figures, celebrity environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., wades into the mercury in vaccines/autism controversy (Dec. 29, 2003, earlier posts) with a “special investigation” for Salon and Rolling Stone rehearsing the contentions of anti-thimerosal activists (”Deadly Immunity”, Jun. 16). Orac at Respectful Insolence, who’s covered the controversy extensively, hits back hard here, here and here. Reactions from Salon’s readers are here, and the online magazine has already been obliged to post several corrections of Kennedy’s errors, including the following remarkably embarrassing one:

The article also misstated the level of ethylmercury received by infants injected with all their shots by the age of six months. It was 187 micrograms — an amount 40 percent, not 187 times, greater than the EPA’s limit for daily exposure to methylmercury.

More: Skeptico (Jun. 20) challenges RFK Jr.’s account of a supposedly hush-hush meeting of vaccine scientists held outside Atlanta (via Adler, the Corner).

The Lincolnshire town of Boston has canceled its annual flower and craft show, a major tourist draw, because it believes the risk of litigation is too high to proceed without hiring licensed stewards at prohibitive rates. (Nick Britten, “Flower show wilts in blame culture”, Daily Telegraph, Apr. 16). In Scotland, “Schools across Renfrewshire have banned pupils from taking part in after-school football [soccer] over fears they would be sued for injuries. … They were banned because volunteer coaches were not covered by the schools’ insurance schemes for after-class games.” (”Legal fears prompt football ban”, BBC, Mar. 12)(via Greg Skidmore, Mar. 14). At the secondary school in Chippenham, Wiltshire, students kick around a soda bottle (presumably of plastic rather than glass) after the school banned conventional footballs from the recess field; at other schools, tag and marbles are now against the rules, and don’t think of touch rugby. “Lots of people just play with bouncy balls, but I suspect that’ll be banned too before too long,” says a 15 year old boy at Abbeyfield (Tony Freinberg, “Can we have our ball back, please?”, Daily Telegraph, Mar. 20). And: “Children have been banned from collecting chickens’ eggs at the National Trust’s showpiece farm [Wimpole Hall in Cambridgeshire] because it is now deemed by health and safety advisers as too hazardous.” (David Sapsted, “Trust bans children from egg collecting”, Daily Telegraph, May 17).

However, in a widely noted case, a swimming club seeking the right to take winter swims in ponds north of London in the absence of lifeguards won a victory in the high court against the Corporation [i.e., city] of London, which “had claimed that it risked prosecution by the Health and Safety Executive if it allowed unsupervised dips.” Mr. Justice Stanley Burnton

ruled that the corporation had fallen into legal error and said club members should be able to swim at their own risk. He spoke out in favour of “individual freedom” and against the imposition of “a grey and dull safety regime”, adding that by granting permission to the club the corporation would not be liable to prosecution for breaches of health and safety.

Mary Cane, chair of the Hampstead Heath Winter Swimming Club, said:

“This was a test case with wide implications for all open swimming in England and represents another successful attack by ordinary citizens on the nanny state and the cult of health and safety.”

Ms Cane said that the club was proud to have played its part “in re-establishing an important principle of personal freedom in this country, taken for granted everywhere else, that responsible adults must be free to decide for themselves whether to pursue recreational activities involving an element of risk”.

(Clare Dyer, “Hardy bathers win right to swim unsupervised”, The Guardian, Apr. 27; Joshua Rozenberg, “Pond swimmers win right to take the plunge”, Daily Telegraph, Apr. 27; “Take the plunge” (editorial), Daily Telegraph, Apr. 27).

Common Good, the legal reform organization founded by author Philip K. Howard, has compiled a list of activities that have become less common because of liability fears. Among those deemed “rare”: “Sell Girl Scout Cookies at the local gas station” and “Stop and assist a person at the scene of an accident.” “Endangered”: “Play on a seesaw that requires two children to cooperate” and “Lend your car to a person in need.” Deemed “extinct,” perhaps with poetic exaggeration: “Fire a poorly performing teacher or government official” and “Keep a public lake open for swimming.” (”Save these activities … before it?s too late!”, Common Good, undated, announced Jun. 3)

A televised lawsuit against a Mississippi YMCA and a host of other defendants completed settlement late last week. (Terms of the settlement, no doubt motivated in part by the threat of a request for punitive damages, were not disclosed, but the lead plaintiffs’ lawyer, Dennis Sweet (see May 7 and Oct. 25, 2000), implied the total was almost $10 million.) The plaintiffs did not just sue the YMCA over their son’s drowning, but also sued a local television station’s charitable foundation because it had provided funding for the YMCA’s swimming program–which no doubt explains why the press coverage was more skeptical than it usually is when plaintiffs go after deep pockets.

Monte Barton, who represents the Y.M.C.A., says, “The Y.M.C.A. relies on [its] donors and volunteers. If they get scared away, because of the threat of lawsuits, it will definitely [affect] not only the Y.M.C.A., but other organizations like that.”

Charlene Priester, who represents the TV-3 Foundation, says, “That may indeed be something that is discussed in board rooms of charities throughout Jackson, the state and the nation since it was broadcast all over the country.”

Priester represents the TV-3 Foundation, the separate non-profit organization that helps the community. It is also out of the lawsuit now. But Priester says she’s still troubled by it.

Priester says, “Once someone has been sued in this type of lawsuit, it will always make you wonder before you do something to help. Do you subject yourself to this type of litigation?”

That’s why Priester says there needs to be some self-examination in the legal system.

Priester says, “This case might have been the poster child for tort reform…when you start suing charitable organizations when you know all they did is donate money and volunteers.”

(Dawn Russell, “Drowning Suit Draws Community Concern”, WLBT, Nov. 13; “Final defendant settles lawsuit over Jackson YMCA drowning”, AP, Nov. 15; Jimmie E. Gates, “Lawsuit over drowning settled”, Mississippi Clarion-Ledger, Nov. 15; “Three defendants agree to settle lawsuit over Jackson YMCA drowning”, AP, Nov. 14; Joanna Gaitanoglou, “All but One Defendant Dropped from Drowning Suit”, WLBT, Nov. 13; Rochelle Steinhaus, “Most parties in drowning suit settle, but trial goes on”, CourtTV, Nov. 13; complaint).

One of the larger costs from the lack of tort reform is not so much the damages awards to undeserving plaintiffs or the fees that plaintiffs’ lawyers extract or the cost of hiring lawyers to defend, but the social costs imposed when decisions are made to avoid the risk of litigation: playgrounds shut down, bans on cold weather swimming (”Don’t be so wet”, The Economist, Oct. 2 (subscription required)).

The repercussions have been particularly severe in Colorado, where a fear of secondhand smoking suits caused the prison system there, where the vast majority of the 18,000 prisoners incarcerated are smokers, to ban tobacco. The result? An immediate creation of a black market with markups for tobacco far exceeding that for cocaine, and the expected associated violence and corruption that goes along with a widespread black market in prison. Eighteen guards, teachers, and supervisors have been prosecuted in three years, and a prisoner newsletter calls the tobacco contraband law “a retirement assistance program for correctional officers.” (Kirk Mitchell, “Ban turns tobacco into prison prize”, Denver Post, Oct. 13).

May 31-June 2 – Welcome Fox News viewers/readers. Our editor is interviewed on air and quoted in print in this piece on the quest to make casinos and lottery operators the next Big Tobacco (Alisyn Camerota, “Trial Lawyers Target Gambling”, Fox News, May 31) (see May 20-21). (DURABLE LINK)

May 31-June 2 – “After stabbing son, mom sues doctors”. Pennsylvania: “Janice Taylor, who stabbed her 4-year-old son two dozen times outside their Lake Ariel home in 2000, is suing her doctors for not adequately responding to her psychosis as she neared the end of a pregnancy.” (Scranton Times Tribune, May 29). (via WSJ OpinionJournal “Best of the Web“, May 30). (DURABLE LINK)

May 31-June 2 – Activist judges north of the border. In the United States judicial activism has been falling into gradual disrepute for a quarter century, but in Canada many highly placed jurists seem eager to boogie like it’s 1975: the Ontario Court of Appeal has just struck down as unconstitutional one of the central planks in welfare reform, the principle that recipients with live-in boyfriends should not draw benefits accorded to single mothers. It’s only the latest in a long string of decisions in which judges seem to be writing their own preferences into law, according to columnist Christina Blizzard. Earlier this year the Supreme Court of Canada struck down as unconstitutional a Conservative government’s repeal of a law authorizing unionization of workers on family farms, although the effect of the repeal would only have been to revert to the state of the law as of a couple of years previously. Next up: a challenge to another plank of welfare reform, a lifetime ban on payment of benefits to persons caught cheating the system. Paging Mickey Kaus — they need you up there! (Christina Blizzard, “Disorder in the court”, Toronto Sun/Canoe, May 18). On U.S. judicial activism, see John Leo, “Running away with the law”, U.S. News/Jewish World Report, May 13. (& see letter to the editor, Jun. 14). (DURABLE LINK)

May 31-June 2 – Folk medicine meets child abuse reporting. The Vietnamese and Hmong folk remedy cao gio, or coining, “involves the rubbing of warm oils or gels across a person’s skin with a coin, spoon or other flat object. It leaves bright red marks or bruises, but many Asian families believe the marks represent bad blood rising out of the body and allow improved circulation and healing.” The lesions are typically not of medical significance, according to many Western medical observers, but they sometimes lead school and social service workers to report suspected child abuse, in part owing to the influence of laws mandating that possible instances of abuse be reported even if borderline. In Omaha, following such reports, police swooped down and removed ten children from their parents; following an outcry, charges against the parents were dropped and the children were returned to their homes. (Omaha World-Herald coverage including Joe Dejka, “Asian couples work to get children back”, May 3; Jeremy Olson, “Asian remedy raises few alarms elsewhere”, May 3; Joseph Morton, “2nd coining case dropped; Asian family expresses relief”, May 14; Karyn Spencer and Angie Brunkow, “Officials not sanctioning all ‘coining’”, May 17). (DURABLE LINK)

May 30 – “Oxy Morons”. “Last fall,” reports Forbes, North Carolina law firm Lutzel & Associates “sent a letter soliciting users of [time-release pain medication] Oxycontin and several other drugs. Claiming that the Food & Drug Administration had ‘banned’ the medications, the letter advised them to ’stop using’ the drugs immediately.” But in fact Oxycontin was neither banned nor threatened with removal, and for a patient suffering pain suddenly to discontinue its use without a doctor’s recommendation can result in medically serious consequences as well as needless agony. (Ian Zack, “Oxy Morons”, Forbes.com, Apr. 29). Despite vigorous efforts by some plaintiff’s lawyers to stoke mass tort litigation over the drug (see Apr. 10 and links from there), the National Law Journal reports that drugmaker Purdue Pharma has “had a string of confidence-building victories in early litigation.” (Bob Van Voris, “OxyContin Maker Not Yet Feeling Much Pain”, National Law Journal, April 30). (DURABLE LINK)

May 30 – “Privileged chambers”. Earlier this year the Albany Times Union ran a five-day editorial series (”Unequal Justice” — scroll down to find it) on judicial misconduct in New York state. It concluded that discipline is generally lax when Empire State judges behave badly and that it can take years to remove a jurist from the bench even after charges of serious misconduct (”Privileged chambers”, Feb. 3; “Justice denied”, Feb. 4; “Conduct unbecoming”, Feb. 5; “Starving the watchdog”, Feb. 6; “The need for reform”, Feb. 7). (DURABLE LINK)

May 29 – Our editor interviewed. John Hawkins at Right Wing News interviewed our editor by email about this site and our ideas on legal reform, and publishes the results this morning (”An Interview with Walter Olson“). Earlier interviewees in the series include Glenn Reynolds of InstaPundit, Wendy McElroy of iFeminists and FoxNews.com, and Australian journalist Tim Blair. Update: nice things said about this by Protein Wisdom, VodkaPundit, and Eve Tushnet.

May 28-29 – The scandal of the Phoenix memo. It warned FBI higher-ups that Islamic radicals including followers of Osama bin Laden were training at American flight schools. So why wasn’t it followed up? FBI director Robert Mueller told Senators May 8 that it would have been a “monumental undertaking” to investigate the 20,000 or so students at domestic flight schools. “What a load of nonsense,” writes Christopher Caldwell. “Any small-town newspaper reporter could have narrowed down that 20,000 to under a hundred in an afternoon, just by focusing on names like … oh, I don’t know … try Mohamed, Walid, Marwan, and Hamza. Couldn’t the entire FBI have done the same?

“As it turns out, no. And the reason is, whoever got Williams’s memo would understand that there is one commonsensical way to implement it: Look for Arabs. And given congressional pressure on racial profiling and the president’s own outrageous pandering on the subject during the 2000 election campaign, Williams’s lead was something no agent with an instinct for self-preservation would want to touch with a barge pole.” (Christopher Caldwell, “Low Profile”, Weekly Standard, May 24) (via WSJ Best of the Web, May 24). See also John Fund, “Willful Ignorance”, WSJ OpinionJournal.com, May 22; “Key Lawmaker: Probe of FBI Warrant Will Look at ‘Racial Profiling’ Concerns”, AP/Fox News, May 26). Update: perfect Mark Steyn column (”Stop frisking crippled nuns”, The Spectator, May 25). (DURABLE LINK)

May 28-29 – “Rocketing liability rates squeeze medical schools”. “The University of Nevada School of Medicine in Reno could be forced to close if it can’t find affordable liability insurance by June 30. In West Virginia, Marshall University’s Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine in Huntington has cut its pathology program and is trimming resident class size. Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine in Hershey is cutting faculty salaries, which will make it hard to land top researchers. ‘The sudden, very large increase in expenses that were not anticipated or budgeted is creating a great deal of anxiety,’ says Jordan J. Cohen, MD, president of the Assn. of American Medical Colleges.” (Myrle Croasdale, American Medical News, May 20). (DURABLE LINK)

May 28-29 – “Barbed wire might hurt burglars, pensioner warned”. In Northampton, England, 94-year-old Ruby Barber has finally gotten permission from the borough council to put barbed wire on her garden walls after suffering four break-ins to her bungalow over the past year and a half. The council granted permission “as long as she uses warning signs and agrees to take full responsibility if a would-be intruder is injured“. Her son Burt, who lives nearby, said: “It is bordering on the ridiculous to say that if they hurt themselves getting in here I am responsible. The Queen has got it all around Buckingham Palace and if it is good enough for her it is good enough for my mother. She is the Queen to me.” (Ananova, May 24). (DURABLE LINK)

May 28-29 – Must-know-Spanish rules defended. Recently it was reported that a Miami social services agency was requiring an Anglo worker to learn Spanish on pain of losing her job. Some commentators were upset, but Eugene Volokh, of the Volokhii, argues that “speaking a foreign language is a valuable skill, and … employers may legally discriminate against employees who lack this skill”. (Volokh blog, May 8, May 11; Jim Boulet Jr., “Mandatory Spanish”, National Review Online, May 10, and running commentary by Boulet at English First site). And the factual background of the case turns out to be considerably less simple than first reports indicated; not only does the county deny that failure to learn Spanish was the reason for the worker’s firing, but it seems she held herself out as having “proficiency” in that language when she accepted the job (Jay Weaver, “Poor work, not language barrier, got employee fired, court says”, Miami Herald, May 11). (DURABLE LINK)

May 28-29 – Goodbye, Wendell Barry. Eve Tushnet administers a well-deserved thrashing to the overrated localist (”Hayseeds and Straw Men”, Eve Tushnet blog, May 27) (DURABLE LINK)

May 27 – McArdle on food as next-tobacco. “If you can’t be held responsible for what you put in your mouth, what are you responsible for?” (Megan McArdle, “Can We Sue Our Own Fat Asses Off?”, Salon, May 24). See also Duncan Campbell, “Junk food firms fear being eaten alive by fat litigants”, The Guardian, May 24; Jacob Sullum, “Food Fight”, Reason Online, May 10 (& see Jun. 3-4). (DURABLE LINK)

May 27 – “Lawsuit stifles Internet critics”. The Richmond Times-Dispatch and Long Island Business News have new stories out on the PetsWarehouse case (in which a pet store owner has sued aquatic plants hobbyists on charges of online defamation based on their postings on mailing lists and websites — see Aug. 6, 2001 & May 22, 2002). Both interview several parties, including defendant Dan Resler (a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University), plaintiff Robert Novak, and (in the Richmond paper) free-speech law commentator Rodney Smolla. A key factor working to defendants’ disadvantage: liberal jurisdictional rules which allow a plaintiff to file an Internet libel case in his local court (in this case the Eastern District of New York) and force defendants who live in distant states to shoulder the cost of litigating there from a distance. (Gordon Hickey, “Online speech not free”, Richmond Times-Dispatch, May 26). In Long Island Business News, owner Novak is quoted as being aware of this cost asymmetry: “‘It’s only five miles for me,’ he said. ‘All these people have to come here at their own expense.’” (Ken Schachter, Long Island Business News, “PetsWarehouse.com founder dries out aquarists in courts”, May 24-30). More on Internet jurisdiction: Carl S. Kaplan, “A Libel Suit May Establish E-Jurisdiction”, New York Times, May 27 (reg). Update Oct. 4-6: Novak sues Google and other defendants. Further update: Oct. 5, 2003. (DURABLE LINK)

May 24-26 – Nader credibility watch. In France, the litigation advocate called fast-food restaurants “weapons of mass destruction”. (”Ralph Nader met en garde les Français contre les ‘fast food’”, Yahoo/AFP, May 17; via Matt Welch, May 18; see comments at Tim Blair blog, May 26). More on Nader’s credibility or lack thereof: Matt Welch, “Speaking Lies To Power”, Reason, May; Thomas Oliphant, Boston Globe, Apr. 21. (DURABLE LINK)

May 24-26 – “Counseling center may face closure”. Chickasha, Okla.: “The largest civil verdict in Grady County history may mean the county’s largest mental health center will have to close for financial reasons, officials said Wednesday. A $1.5 million jury verdict awarded last week against Chisholm Trail Counseling Service was a bittersweet victory for the family of James Phillips, who committed suicide a few hours after being interviewed and released by one of the agency’s counselors.” (Penny Owen, The Oklahoman, May 23). (DURABLE LINK)

May 24-26 – Australia’s litigation debate. “Some of Australia’s most famous beaches face closure after a huge damages award to a man paralysed while swimming at Bondi Beach, local authorities have warned.” (BBC, “Closure ‘threat’ to Australia’s beaches”, May 14). Former chief justice of the High Court of Australia Harry Gibbs “said the culture of litigation had been fostered by some lawyers, while some judges seemed to strive to find a reason for finding in favour of an injured plaintiff and award damages in cases where a reasonable and informed person would not have thought the defendant was at fault. He said the deficiencies of the law of negligence had now become apparent. ‘It favours generosity to the plaintiff at the expense (in many cases) of justice to the defendant’.” Gibbs suggested that Australia might want to consider emulating the New Zealand model under which most negligence actions are replaced with a system of no-fault compensation. (”Lawyers blamed for crisis” (editorial), Queensland Courier-Mail, May 16). See Susanna Lobez, “Snails, Consumer Power and the Law”, ABC national radio transcripts, The Law Report, June 1, 1999)

“The latest figures available from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that as of June 30, 1999, there were 10,819 barrister and solicitor practices in Australia, an increase of 11 per cent over three years, and these practices generated an income of $7.04 billion, a robust 27 per cent increase over three years. Income from personal injury cases grew still faster, by 31 per cent.” What strikes us as remarkable about these figures is not just the rapid growth in sums redistributed, but that the figures are obtainable at all. Virtually no data is available, reliable or otherwise, on how much money American lawyers receive in the aggregate from personal injury cases. Why not? If the answer that occurs to you is “because our legal profession doesn’t want it to be collected”, you may be on to something. (Paul Sheehan, “Laws made by lawyers — well they would like that, wouldn’t they?”, Sydney Morning Herald, May 6). (DURABLE LINK)

May 22-23 – Convicted hospital rapist sues hospital. “A Sandusky man serving a 10-year sentence for raping a patient at the former Providence Hospital is suing both the hospital and his former attorney for negligence, according to Erie County Common Pleas Court records. Edward Brewer filed suit Monday against Providence Hospital, now part of Firelands Regional Medical Center, for ‘inadequate security in protecting visitors as well as their patients’ which caused him pain and suffering, according to court documents. Brewer, 47, was found guilty in October of raping a 44-year-old acquaintance in her hospital bed in June 1998. … Brewer claims negligence by the hospital, including a poorly trained nursing staff, negatively affected his criminal case, according to the suit.” The suit, which Brewer filed on his own behalf, asks for $2 million in damages; separately, Brewer is suing his former criminal attorney. (Emily S. Achenbaum, “Convicted rapist sues hospital”, Sandusky [Ohio] Register, May 21). Update: court dismisses case, see Mar. 5-7, 2003. (DURABLE LINK)

May 22-23 – Reparations suits “pure hooey”. The “slave-reparation plaintiffs have articulated neither standing nor a cognizable claim. In the final analysis, these cases are not really about pushing the envelope and making new law. Rather, they are part of a strategy to inflict public relations damage in order to coerce political and economic concessions. The federal courts should stand firm against this gathering storm, dismiss the lawsuits and leave the complex issues of social policy they raise to the political process.” (Steven P. Benenson, “Reparations Suits Are Too Little, Too Late”, National Law Journal, May 20). “Any judge not assessing sanctions for the filing of frivolous litigation should be ashamed. … So much for laches, the statute of limitations and all the other legal devices that assure that disputes are resolved in a timely manner. No wonder the world laughs at our love of litigation.” (Norm Pattis, “The Color of Money: It’s Red for Reparations”, Connecticut Law Tribune, Apr. 15).

“The villain Calvera said, ‘Generosity, that was my first mistake,’ as he peered ominously from beneath his mega-sombrero at the gringo gunman in the classic scene from the 1960 film The Magnificent Seven. … Honchos at Aetna Inc., the insurance company named in a recent lawsuit seeking reparations for slavery, must be remembering that quote right about now.” (Gregory Kane, “Generosity goes unnoticed in slavery reparations lawsuit”, Baltimore Sun, Apr. 20). Kane says Aetna has responded to the suit with “infuriating wussiness” and says “what Aetna bigwigs should tell [plaintiff-activist Deadria] Farmer-Paellmann and her lawyers [is]: ‘Get a life!’” (DURABLE LINK)

May 22-23 – PetsWarehouse.com defamation suit, cont’d. Last year we reported on the ongoing litigation filed by Robert Novak, founder and owner of PetsWarehouse.com, against members of an internet discussion list that he said had defamed him and his company (see Aug. 6, 2001; letter to editor from Novak, Aug. 10). Many aquarium enthusiasts, alarmed by the legal action, have at various times posted information on their sites about the suit, sometimes posting banners that solicit donations on the defendants’ behalf. (”$15,000,000 lawsuits suck the life out of online discussions. Please support the APD Defense Fund,” reads one.) According to Katharine Mieszkowski, writing last month in Salon, a number of these site operators have been given reason to regret that they ever took such rash steps. In particular, according to Mieszkowski, Novak has proceeded to add more defendants to the suit, including supporters of the APD Defense Fund who put up its banner solicitations, and the webmaster of a site that had posted information on the case, charging them with violating his PetsWarehouse copyright and engaging in a conspiracy against him. Among evidence of copyright infringement offered in his suit was webmasters’ use of Pets Warehouse as a “metatag”, that is to say, a keyword directed at search engines but not normally seen by ordinary users (more on metatag litigation: Sept. 25, 1999).

A number of defendants have settled out of the case, including a Colorado webmaster who says she spent thousands on her defense and who turned over the rights to her domain to Novak as part of the settlement, having shut it down after being sued. “Other defendants had to run banners on their sites promoting Pets Warehouse.” “According to [defendant Dan] Resler, at one point, the money in the defense fund ran out, and when the defendants had to start paying out of their own funds, they got scared. (Novak is representing himself ‘pro se’ in the case.)” Resler himself agreed to pay $4,150. “Beyond the lawsuit itself, other supporters of the case say they have received cease-and-desist letters for using the words ‘Pets Warehouse’ on their sites.” Among them: the webmaster of a site that “features a banner advertisement that mentions the case with this headline: ‘Pets Warehouse Sues Hobbyists’ and links to the aquarists’ site about the case. ‘I’m just literally reporting that the case exists and linking to another site,’ he says.” (Katharine Mieszkowski, “Free speech and the Internet; a fish story”, Salon, Apr. 4). (DURABLE LINK)

January 30-31 – Don’t mess with the taste cops. Arizona: Angelica Flores was handcuffed by police officers in front of her daughter and packed off to jail because “she and her husband, Tony, last year violated a code requiring Christmas decorations to be removed 19 days after the holiday.” Thinking that the charges had been dropped, the couple had skipped a court date with officials of the town of Peoria. (Monica Alonzo-Dunsmoor, “Couple jailed for Christmas lights see charge as humbug”, Arizona Republic, Jan. 28).

January 30-31 – “Legal Lesson for Afghanistan: War’s Not a Slip-and-Fall Case”. “For centuries, it has been accepted that damage caused in wartime cannot be claimed as injuries deserving compensation. … combatants are not required to treat every invasion like a massive slip-and-fall case,” notes law prof/pundit Jonathan Turley of George Washington University (L.A. Times, Jan. 29) (via InstaPundit).

January 30-31 – Washington Post blasts HMO class actions. The paper’s editorialists warn of “a new rash of abusive class action lawsuits” that “are being filed by an array of plaintiff’s lawyers, led by Richard Scruggs — of tobacco litigation fame and fortune — and David Boies”. The suits’ premise that managed health care cost control amounts to “racketeering” is a “novel but silly” theory that has already been rejected by one federal appeals court, the Third Circuit. “The notion of a national class of HMO enrollees is absurd. … The suits are a transparent effort to hijack the policy debate about managed care.” (”More actions without class”, Jan. 28).

January 30-31 – All things sentimental and recoverable. Down, attorney, down! cont’d: trial lawyers are salivating at the prospect of getting the law changed so they can file malpractice suits against veterinarians not just for a pet’s economic or replacement value as an animal, as is mostly the rule now, but for its personal and sentimental value, which would clear the way for six- and even seven-figure recoveries. In a closely watched case called Bluestone v. Bergstrom, an Orange County, Calif. judge has ruled in favor of a plaintiff’s right to pursue the larger scope of damages. At present only one veterinarian in sixteen faces a malpractice claim every year, but insurance specialist Mike Ahlert of Mack & Parker predicts skyrocketing rates if courts adopt the new doctrines: “it will drive up the cost of claims and attract plaintiff’s attorneys looking for new sources of income”. (Jennifer Fiala, “Court rulings could up ante on DVM malpractice”, DVM (veterinary newsmagazine), Sept., reprinted at ABD Services site); see also Thomas Scheffey, “Putting a Price on Pets”, Connecticut Law Tribune, Nov. 21).

January 28-29 – “Probe of Milberg Weiss Has Bar Buzzing”. Rumors fly that a grand jury is investigating class-action behemoth Milberg Weiss. Accounts differ, but the focus of the investigation is said to be the firm’s financial relationships with clients serving as plaintiffs in securities cases. (Jason Hoppin, The Recorder, Jan. 28). (DURABLE LINK)

January 28-29 – State of prosecution in Iowa. In a bizarre application of federal sentencing guidelines, the U.S. attorney’s office in Cedar Rapids, Iowa has gotten Dane Allen Yirkovsky, 38, sentenced to prison for 15 years for possessing a single .22 caliber bullet. “Yirkovsky’s saga began when he happened to come across a loaded .22-caliber round while pulling up carpets in the home of a friend who was putting him up in exchange for some remodeling work. He stuck the bullet in a box in his room. The bullet was discovered by police who were searching Yirkovsky’s room after his ex-girlfriend asserted he had some of her belongings.” (”Editorial: One bullet, 15 years”, Des Moines Register, Jan. 21). “The Iowa Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Polk County authorities were within their rights to confiscate a $9,000 car for a $35.81 crime.” (Frank Santiago, “County seizure of $9,000 car for $35.81 crime is upheld”, Des Moines Register, Jan. 25) And thank the Iowa attorney general’s office for this one: “Critics say a state law aimed at confining sexual predators past their prison terms is being used to punish offenders for crimes that aren’t sex-related.” (Jeff Eckhart, “Predator law used in non-sex crimes, critics say”, Des Moines Register, Dec. 23 — via Free-Market.Net). (DURABLE LINK)

January 28-29 – Strain, sprain injuries get $350K. “A California shopper who sustained a lower-back injury after a slip and fall in a department store settled her case for $349,999. On Dec. 26, 1998, plaintiff Bianca Hernandez, an unemployed female in her early 50s, was shopping in the sportswear section of a J.C. Penney store when she slipped and fell on coat hangers, clothes and other debris that were left on the floor.” Hernandez was taken to an emergency room. “She suffered sprain and strain injuries to her lumbar spine, left knee and left ankle.” Her suit alleged “that the store was inadequately supervised because the department manager and the assistant manager were both on break at the time, and sales associates were fully occupied serving customers.” Hernandez v. J.C. Penney Co. Inc., No. VC 030 725 (L.A. County) (”Fall during post-holiday sale costs J.C. Penney”, National Law Journal, Jan. 21, not online). (DURABLE LINK)

January 28-29 – Third Circuit nixes Philly gun suit. Goodbye to the city’s nuisance of a suit against the gun industry: “gun manufacturers are under no legal duty to protect citizens from the deliberate and unlawful use of their products,” said the federal appeals court, which also ruled the city couldn’t show the gunmakers were the “proximate cause” of harm suffered. (Shannon P. Duffy, “Philadelphia’s Gun Suit Off Target, 3rd Circuit Says”, Legal Intelligencer, Jan. 14). (DURABLE LINK)

January 25-27 – Warning on fireplace log: “Risk of Fire”. Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch has released the results of its fifth annual contest for the wackiest warning label, with the warning on the fireplace log coming in second. The winning entry, found on a CD player: “Do not use the Ultradisc2000 as a projectile in a catapult.” Third prize went to the label on a box of birthday candles: “DO NOT use soft wax as ear plugs or for any other function that involves insertion into a body cavity.” (Larry Hatfield, “Dumbest warning labels get their due”, San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 24; M-Law press release, Jan. 22). (DURABLE LINK)

January 25-27 – Goodbye to zero tolerance? Democratic state senator Richard Marable is leading a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the Georgia legislature who want to give school authorities more discretion for lenience in cases of students found with weapons or weapon-like objects in their possession. The public has been soured on zero-tolerance policies by cases like that of Ashley Smith, the Cobb County sixth-grader suspended for 10 days for bringing to school a Tweety Bird keychain (see Sept. 29, Oct. 4, 2000), and an Eagle Scout punished after “return[ing] to school from a weekend expedition with a broken ax in his car … An Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll this past Friday found that 96 percent of respondents supported examining each case individually. Only 1 percent liked zero tolerance the way it was, and 3 percent wanted school safety laws to be stricter.” (”Georgia Pols Want ‘Common Sense’ to Trump ‘Zero Tolerance’”, FoxNews.com, Jan. 21). (DURABLE LINK)

January 25-27 – McMouse story looking dubious. Brett B., 32, “said he found a mouse inside his Big Mac sandwich in June of 2001.” His story has been looking a little peaked, however, since he and four others were busted “as part of a methamphetamine ring in Berkeley County. Police say [he] was also part of a scam that went around the state stealing people’s identities and credit cards. But one of his alleged accomplices spoke up about last June’s mouse incident, telling police, ‘Brett had got together with myself … and had planned to come up with a scam to pull on McDonald’s where Brett was going to say he had bit into a mouse that the employees of McDonald’s had put in there.’” (Dan Krosse, “McMouse Case Looks Like a Hoax”, WCIV-TV (Charleston, S.C.), Jan. 15). (DURABLE LINK)

January 25-27 – “Companies may be liable for drugs used in rapes”. “Drug manufacturers whose products are used by offenders to help them commit rape could be held legally responsible for the crimes, according to a Melbourne lawyer. Eugene Arocca was commenting on reports of increasing drug-assisted date-rape in and around Melbourne clubs and entertainment venues. … However, the managing director of Roche Australia, the drug company that produces several drugs that have allegedly been used in date-rapes, described the whole idea as ‘bloody ridiculous’.” (Heather Kennedy, The Age (Melbourne), Jan. 6). (DURABLE LINK)

January 23-24 – Life imitates parody: “Whose Fault Is Fat?” By reader acclaim: “Some say the food industry — particularly fast food, vending machine and processed food companies — should be held accountable for playing a role in the declining health of the nation, just as the tobacco industry ultimately was forced to bear responsibility for public health costs associated with smoking in its landmark $206 billion settlement with the states. Although no one is taking such legal action against the food industry, nutrition and legal experts say it is reasonable to think that someday, it may come to that. ‘There is a movement afoot to do something about the obesity problem, not just as a visual blight but to see it in terms of costs,’ says John Banzhaf, a George Washington University Law School professor.” (Geraldine Sealey, “Whose Fault Is Fat? Experts Weigh Holding Food Companies Responsible for Obesity”, ABCNews.com, Jan. 22). OpinionJournal.com “Best of the Web” (Jan. 22) reports that “This past Sunday, ‘The Simpsons’ aired a new episode in which Marge, shocked to learn that Springfield is the fattest town in America, hires a lawyer to sue ‘big sugar.’” See Michael Y. Park, “Lawyers See Fat Payoffs in Junk Food Lawsuits”, FoxNews.com, Jan. 23 (quotes our editor).

January 23-24 – “Law hurts men, women”. Title IX, the feminist sports law run amok, is taking an ever-increasing toll: “Baseball at Boston University — gone. Kent State hockey — goodbye. Swimming at New Mexico — finished. The list goes on and on, more than 350 programs in virtually every sport on campus, and with it go the scholarships earned by student athletes and their dreams of competition to which most have devoted a lifetime. Incredibly, that has happened to more than 22,000 college athletes in recent years.” (Mike Moyer (executive director of the National Wrestling Coaches Association), Yahoo/USA Today, Jan. 21)(see Nov. 3, 2000, and our 1998 take).

January 23-24 – “Dangerous compensation”. “It seems that envy has replaced acceptance as the final stage of grief. … Washington’s payments to the victims of terrorism exposes the government to a potentially limitless array of future claims. Families of those killed in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, received nothing from Washington; relatives of federal employees killed in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing collected approximately US $100,000 each. But if US $1.6-million per decedent is the going rate, then a proper accounting for past and future terrorist attacks might bleed the coffers dry.” (National Post (editorial), Jan. 21).

January 23-24 – Drug demagogy and needless pain. Doctors still underprescribe opioids for the control of chronic pain, and it doesn’t help when CBS “60 Minutes” lends its assistance to the campaign against one of the most important recent pain advances, the drug OxyContin (Jane E. Brody, “Misunderstood Prescription Drugs and Needless Pain”, New York Times, Jan. 22 (reg); Jacob Sullum, “Killing a Painkiller”, Dec. 18; Geov Parrish, “A junkie’s confession”, Seattle Weekly, Dec. 20-26) (see Aug. 7, 2001). A Google search on the drug’s name immediately calls up ads from the websites AboutOxyContin.com and OxycontinInfoCenter.com, which might sound neutrally informative but turn out to be client intake sites for trial lawyers.

January 21-22 – Med-mal: should doctors strike? Insurance rates for doctors are soaring in New Jersey, and the legislature in Trenton is too deeply entwined with trial lawyers to pass anything likely to curtail the bar’s prosperity. “Calling the supply of surgeons tenuous, Dr. Michael Goldfarb, chief of surgery at Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, said that unless action is taken soon, New Jersey and the rest of the nation will have a surgeon shortage.” Neptune, N.J. ob/gyn Dr. George Lauback “gave up the obstetrical side of his practice, realizing that paying the $170,000 annual premium would mean he was working for the insurance company, not his family.” Brick, N.J. obstetrician Dr. Charles Brick suggests the state’s physicians stage a work stoppage of non-emergency care to draw attention to their plight (Naomi Mueller, “Malpractice costs driving doctors out”, Asbury Park Press, Jan. 19). In neighboring Pennsylvania, where payouts per doctor are said to be the highest in the country, the “Pennsylvania Medical Society reports that, according to data compiled by CASCO Consulting, a typical obstetrician in the regions of Pennsylvania with the highest average premiums, pays $83,541 a year in insurance premiums …[a] typical orthopedic surgeon in Pennsylvania’s highest region pays $96,199 a year … the average neurosurgeon in the same Pennsylvania region pays $111,296 a year.” (”Focus on medical malpractice”, Law.com, Oct. 31).

One Delaware County, Pa., orthopedic surgeon calculates that his liability insurance costs him $300 per surgery, which is more than some of the procedures are reimbursed for, so that “he’s losing money before other expenses are even factored into the equation.” (Tanya Albert, “Liability rates squeezing out specialties”, American Medical News (A.M.A.), Dec. 3; Tanya Albert and Damon Adams, “Professional liability insurance rates go up, up; doctors go away”, Jan. 7). On the withdrawal from delivering babies of half or more of the obstetricians practicing in various Mississippi Delta counties since just a year or two ago, see Hugh A. Gamble (president, Mississippi State Medical Association), letter to the editor, Mississippi Medical News, Dec., (PDF format, large download), at p. 4. (DURABLE LINK)

January 21-22 – “In a class of his own”. Profile of famed class-actioneer Melvyn Weiss of Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach. Quotes our editor (The Economist, Jan. 17).

January 21-22 – Student: clown college harder to get into than law school. Soon after graduating with his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley, David Carlyon left it all behind to enroll in the Ringling Bros.-Barnum & Bailey clown training program. “Hey, listen, it’s harder to get into that Clown College than it is into a law school,” he told the Saginaw (Mich.) News. “Some 3,000 apply to it each year, only 60 get in and only 30 get contracts after they graduate.” (”Berkley [sic] grad says getting into clown school harder than getting into law school”, AP/AZcentral.com, Jan. 18). (DURABLE LINK)

January 21-22 – “Judo champion refuses to bend in lawsuit”. Challenging the ritual which begins sanctioned judo matches, a suit by three students “against three U.S. judo groups, as well as the International Judo Federation. …claim[s] that the forced bowing to inanimate objects, such as judo mats and pictures of the Japanese martial art’s founder, is religious in nature and violates federal and Washington state discrimination laws.” (Sam Skolnik, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Dec. 7) (via OpinionJournal.com “Best of the Web“).

August 20-21 – “Man suing after drunken driving crash”. Nashua, N.H.: “Three years ago, a Merrimack man crashed his Jeep in a Londonderry sand pit, killing a friend. Now, he’s suing the pit’s owner and the couple who threw the party where he was drinking before the crash. Albert Gordon, 36, charges Jay and Susan Barrett of Londonderry were negligent in letting him get drunk at a company party and didn’t warn him and other guests of the dangers of four-wheeling in the sand pit next door. He alleges the pit owner, Continental Paving Inc., should have done something to keep people off its property or warn them of the danger.” Gordon was convicted of aggravated driving while intoxicated; prosecutors said his “blood alcohol level after the accident was more than twice the legal limit for driving.” (AP/Boston Globe, Aug. 16)

August 20-21 – Jury orders Cessna to pay $480 million after crash. Sure, go ahead and let trial lawyers swallow the light aircraft industry — no doubt they’ll do a better job running it. Tobacco-fee angle: one of the plaintiff’s firms in the case is that of Fred Levin, who hauled in an estimated $300 million representing Florida in the tobacco suit, gave enough to the University of Florida’s law school to get it named after himself, and clearly knows how to reinvest his winnings. (Bill Kaczor, “Pensacola Jury Returns $480 Million Verdict in Plane Crash”, AP/TBO.com, Aug. 16; Molly McMillin, “Jury says Cessna is at fault in crash”, Wichita Eagle, Aug. 17; Shannon P. Duffy, “Florida Jury Sets $480 Million Verdict in Crash of Defective Plane”, The Legal Intelligencer, Aug. 17).

August 20-21 – Welcome LinkyDinky, FluffyBunny visitors. The popular best-of-the-web service LinkyDinky gives us a nod, describing Overlawyered.com as a site that “chronicles the sad (and scary) state of affairs due to our litigious attitudes, including bizarre examples of greed overcoming logic” (Aug. 15). We’ve also newly won mention on FluffyBunny.com, which says of us: “Sites like this are always a good read when you’re tired of the dozen shark stories, recaps of Chandra Levy timelines and discussions of the obvious” (first Aug. 16 item). LinkyDinky, FluffyBunny — could a pattern be developing here? Also: Australia’s Blackstump (Aug. 8) and HalluciNETting; Pop-o-ganda.com (”control- trademark - delete”), RidersForJustice.com (”links of interest to bikers”/”Freedom Fighter” section), Daily Frank weblog (July 26), Teri O’Brien (”speaker, author, motivator”), Laipple family of Tulsa, Okla., GentleWolf.com.

August 20-21 – Updates. More new developments in familiar stories:

* By a 9-5 vote, the Fifth Circuit has paved the way for a new trial for Texas death row inmate Calvin Burdine on the grounds that his lawyer was asleep during parts of his trial. The dissenting judges argued that Burdine’s guilt was clear from his confession and other evidence and that his lawyer’s alleged propensity to snooze off made no difference in the case’s outcome. The dissent “also noted that Mr. Burdine waited 11 years before raising the ’sleeping lawyer’ claim and even praised [his lawyer's] performance after the trial.” (see Feb. 12) (Diane Jennings & Ed Timms, “Court sides with inmate in sleeping-lawyer case”, Dallas Morning News, Aug. 14).

* In California, a state panel has ordered Judge Patrick Couwenberg off the bench for lying extensively about his background during the process that led to his appointment, despite his lawyer’s plea that Couwenberg “is a victim of a mental condition called ‘pseudologia fantastica’ for which he is undergoing treatment” and which causes him to fib in a compulsive way (see June 7). (Erica Werner, “Los Angeles Superior Court judge removed from bench for lying”, Sacramento Bee, Aug. 16; Sonia Giordani, “L.A. Judge Removed From Bench for Lies About Past”, The Recorder, Aug. 17).

* “A federal judge has rejected a proposed settlement of an antitrust suit against the National Football League and its member teams over the pricing structure of the ‘Sunday Ticket’ on satellite television after finding that consumers weren’t getting enough money and that the plaintiffs’ lawyers were getting too much. … [The judge said] courts have a duty to reject such settlements so that plaintiffs’ lawyers will be discouraged in the future from bringing weak cases.” (see June 5). (Shannon P. Duffy, “Judge Rejects NFL Antitrust Settlement That Pays Lawyers Too Much, Consumers Too Little”, The Legal Intelligencer, Aug. 20).

* In the eight-year-long saga that has pitted Marilyn Bartlett’s demands for handicap accommodation against the resistance of the New York State board of bar examiners, federal judge Sonia Sotomayor has ruled that the board must allow Bartlett four days, rather than two, to complete the bar exam because of her dyslexia and learning disability (see our editor’s column in Reason, Feb. 1999) (Mark Hamblett, “Learning-Disabled Woman Wins Added Time for New York Bar Exam”, New York Law Journal, Aug. 17; Daniel Wise, “Review of Dyslexic’s Bar Exam Ordered by 2nd Circuit”, New York Law Journal, Aug. 31, 2000).

August 17-19 – Contrarian view on PBR. “The managed care industry is not complaining that loudly about the latest legislation.” (George M. Kraw, “The Patients’ Bill of Rights” (commentary), The Recorder, Aug. 10). Also: Philip K. Howard, “A Cure for the Patient’s Bill of Rights,” AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies Policy Matters #01-18 June; Karlyn H. Bowman, “Public Favors Patients’ Bill of Rights, but It’s Not a Top Priority,” Roll Call, June 28.

August 17-19 – “The arithmetic of arsenic”. U. of Chicago law prof Cass Sunstein, a frequent contributor to the New Republic and mentioned as a possible Supreme Court pick in a future Democratic administration, examines the role of cost-benefit analysis in the recent EPA arsenic controversy, and concludes that reasonable assumptions could have tipped the decision either way: there is “no obvious, correct decision for government agencies to make”. (AEI/Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies, Working Paper 01-10, Aug. — abstract/full paper (PDF) (see also Apr. 18))

August 17-19 – From the evergreen file: humiliation for dollars. How much embarrassment would you be willing to put up with on the witness stand just to nab a few thousand dollars more in damages after a fender-bender in which “not even a taillight was broken”? As much as this Connecticut couple? (Colleen Van Tassell, “Good Thing It Wasn’t A Tow Job”, New Haven Advocate, March 11, 1999).

August 16 – Bias suits can tap personal assets of innocent higher-ups. “Victims of housing discrimination have a direct claim on the personal assets of business owners and officers whose employees were at fault and need not go through the usual hurdles to pierce the corporate veil, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on July 31.” The court ruled that a mixed-race couple and homebuilder could file suit against David Meyer, the founder of Triad Realty in Twenty-Nine Palms, Calif., over the discriminatory failure of one of the realty firm’s agents to present the couple’s bid on a house, and that Meyer’s personal assets could be proceeded against if he were the owner or proprietor whether or not it could be shown that he knew anything about the discrimination. (Gary Young, “Realtor Liable for Agent Bias, 9th Circuit Rules”, National Law Journal, Aug. 14).

August 16 – “Deputies Sue Diabetic Driver They Beat After Traffic Stop”. Maryland: “Two Frederick County sheriff’s deputies are suing a diabetic man they beat after a traffic stop, contending his complaints about the incident hurt their careers. Eric J. Winer and Jeffrey A. Norris are seeking more than $68,000 from Frederick T. ‘Tom’ Moore IV of Virginia.” In 1998 officers Winer and Norris chased and blocked Moore’s erratic truck on the assumption he was drunk, then beat and doused him with pepper spray and let their dog into his vehicle when he failed to respond to their commands. It turned out, however, that he had been slipping into a diabetic coma. “Moore spent four days in the hospital for dog bites and other wounds from the beating.” In their lawsuit, “the officers say the inquiries and publicity portrayed them unfairly. They contend Moore’s criticism of them in media interviews was ‘highly offensive,’ considering they had ‘prevented serious harm, injury and/or death’ to Moore.” (WJLA/Yahoo, Aug. 10).

August 16 – How Germans see American injury law. “In Germany, lawyers and the media look upon the American tort system with a mixture of fascination, envy, and horror.” Perhaps surprisingly, the difference between the two systems is not so much in the substantive scope of liability; in fact, German law in some respects is more liberal than American, imposing a “duty to rescue” that American courts have rejected, for example. Instead, the differences have more to do with damages: ours are both far higher and far more unpredictable. “It is well documented that the scale of damages resulting from successful tort litigation in Germany is at least one order of magnitude lower than in the US. Thus, where a broken leg in a car accident in New York City might produce a jury award of $300,000, in Berlin it would produce an award of around $30,000.” At the same time, “in comparison with the German tort system the American system is wildly more unpredictable at every level”: many cases result in low compensation or none even though they seem as deserving as the jackpot cases.

“The Germans find the variation in our damages awards totally unacceptable. … [They feel] we should give the same amount to people for the same kind of injury. The Germans enforce a semblance of order with respect to pain and suffering damages by collecting together all the damage awards produced in every trial court in Germany in a given year. This book, called the Tabellen, is published and used by judges and lawyers to estimate what a damage award in a new case should be.” The American system is “actively opposed” to any such approach (more on “scheduled compensation” abroad: Aug. 10). (Anthony J. Sebok (professor, Brooklyn Law School), “How Germany Views U.S. Tort Law”, FindLaw.com, July 23) (via Arts & Letters Daily).

August 16 – New daily traffic record on Overlawyered.com. Upwards of 11,700 pages served on Tuesday, helped along by that excellent John Leo column and by our first announcement mailing since we moved the list to Topica (though we bunglingly forgot to include in it a link to this site’s front page, an omission we’ll rectify in the future). Thanks for your support!

August 15 – John Leo on Overlawyered.com. The columnist pulls together a fresh batch of “news from the annals of zero tolerance and the continuing campaign to make the culture ever more deranged”. He gives generous credit to the website you are perusing at this very moment, which “reports brightly on the amazing excesses of the litigious society” (”It’s a mad, mad world”, U.S. News/TownHall.com, Aug. 14). Some recent zero-tolerance cases he describes, which hadn’t made it onto this site yet: “A New Jersey student made a baseball bat in shop class, then was expelled for refusing to hand it over to a teacher as a dangerous weapon. A National Merit scholar in Fort Myers, Fla., missed her graduation ceremony and was sent to jail after a kitchen knife was found on the floor of her car. She said the knife had fallen there when she moved some possessions over the weekend. At a Halifax, Nova Scotia, school, a ban against throwing snowballs also prohibited all arm motions that can be interpreted as possible attempts to throw something at anyone.”

August 15 – Navegar not nailed. Pundit/law prof Erwin Chemerinsky was sure that Navegar’s sued-over TEC-DC9 weapon, though it sold by the hundreds of thousands, had no legitimate uses whatsoever. Notes Reason Online’s Jacob Sullum: “it was galling how readily anti-gun activists and politicians leaped from the premise that thugs liked a given gun to the conclusion that no one else did”. (”The Evil Gun”, Aug. 14; see also “California Dreamin’”, WSJ/OpinionJournal.com, Aug. 10; “Gun makers’ liability (editorial), Las Vegas Review-Journal, Aug. 7). And given voter trends in last November’s election, many national Democrats are racing to distance themselves from the agenda of the litigate-and-confiscate antigun groups. “More than any other issue, some analysts say, unease about gun control helped defeat presidential candidate Al Gore in several traditionally Democratic Southern and border states — any one of which would have been enough to put him in the White House.” (Susan Page, “Democrats back off on firearms”, USA Today, Aug. 14). Similarly: James Dao, “New Gun Control Politics: A Whimper, Not a Bang”, New York Times, March 11; Juliet Eilperin and Thomas B. Edsall, “For Democrats, Gun Issue Losing Its Fire”, Washington Post, Oct. 20, 2000.

August 15 – “Girl from Ipanema is sued over the song she inspired”. “It was as a sultry 18-year-old that Heloise Pinheiro inspired Brazil’s best-known tune. Now aged 57, she is being threatened with legal action by the songwriters’ heirs, who claim that her boutique, ‘The Girl From Ipanema’, infringes their copyright.” (Philip Delves Broughton, Daily Telegraph (U.K.), Aug. 13; “The churls from Ipanema” (editorial), Aug. 13).

August 13-14 – Why she’s quitting law practice. Karen Selick, a libertarian attorney who writes a column for Canadian Lawyer and practices in a small community in Ontario, is getting out of the business and explains why on her website. To begin with, there’s the aggravation and emotional wear and tear of matrimonial law, the bulk of her practice. “Then there’s the state of the law itself. When I started in this field in 1985, there was at least a modicum of cohesiveness to the case law. That has now vanished completely. Not only is the law different from what it was in 1985 — it’s different from what it was last month or last week. Once upon a time, you could give your clients a pretty good idea of the outcome they might expect if they went to court. Now all you can tell them is that every case is a crapshoot.” And then there’s the law’s tilt against husbands and fathers, “to the point where representing women in a manner that protects you from negligence suits requires a lawyer to make claims that I consider to be unethical, while representing men means you are perpetually on the losing side.” (”A Twist on Gresham — Bad Laws Drive Out Good Lawyers”, undated, late July).

August 13-14 – “Shark-bite victim turns to Cochran”. By reader acclaim: “The family of a highly publicized shark-attack victim mauled while swimming at a Bahamian resort has consulted a famous legal barracuda to represent them in a possible suit against the hotel: Johnnie Cochran.” The family of 36-year-old Krishna Thompson “has accused lifeguards at the Our Lucaya Beach & Golf Resort on Grand Bahama of lingering on the beach during the attack. … The resort has insisted that lifeguards acted swiftly in pulling Thompson out of the water. The resort’s statements were backed by a Bahamian doctor who interrupted his morning stroll to help.” (Tere Figueras, Miami Herald, Aug. 10).

August 13-14 – “We often turn irresponsibility into legal actions against others”. Two events in the Tampa Bay area caught the eye of St. Petersburg Times columnist Robyn Blumner: the criticism that greeted the city of St. Petersburg for declining to cancel a free fireworks display in the face of an approaching lightning storm, even though it might tempt residents to go outside; and “a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by Nicole Ferry against the University of South Florida, in which the state of Florida agreed to give her $25,000″ for having subjected the student to a sexually explicit photograph (warned of in advance) as part of her university art class. The two news reports suggest to Blumner that our sense of personal responsibility and resilience is slipping fast, and remind her of a certain website which (among other functions) “documents the way predatory lawyers help people turn their personal failings into lawsuit fodder.” Which cases on this site does Blumner “find most appalling?” Read the column and find out. (July 15).

August 13-14 – Tobacco: judge cuts Boeken award. In Los Angeles, Superior Court Judge Charles McCoy has upheld $105 million worth of a jury’s $3 billion award to smoker Richard Boeken against Philip Morris (more). The company has vowed to appeal, citing among other reasons the judge’s refusal to admit evidence that would have shed light on Boeken’s credibility, in particular his record of criminal convictions on fraud and other charges. (Anna Gorman, “Huge Award to Smoker Cut by Judge”, L.A. Times, Aug. 10; Cadonna M. Peyton, AP/Daily Southtown, Aug. 10). On the evidence exclusion issue, see “Tobacco Giant Cites Plaintiff’s Credibility; Courts: Philip Morris Says Smoker’s Criminal Record Should Have Been Considered by Jury that Awarded Him $3 Billion,” Los Angeles Times, July 29, summarized in Columbia Law School Faculty In the News, Summer 2001 (scroll to “Prof. Richard Uviller”). See also Paul Campos, “Outrageous verdicts are genteel theft”, Rocky Mountain News (Denver)/Jewish World Review, June 9).