Overlawyered » Texas

“Texas honor student jailed for missing too much school”

Walter Olson — Sun, 27 May 2012 04:03:54 +0000

“[Diane] Tran said she works both full-time and part-time jobs, in addition to taking advanced and college level courses,” and her parents have “split up and moved away” leaving her in charge of a younger sister, which make it hard to keep to the exact school day. Judge Lanny Moriarty did not seem sympathetic: “If you let one run loose, what are you gonna’ do with the rest of ‘em?” [CBS Atlanta]

Tags: schools, Texas

“Texas honor student jailed for missing too much school” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Medical roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 21 May 2012 04:03:22 +0000

Government’s hospital care guidelines may be fueling dangerous overuse of antibiotics [White Coat] FDA says fewer drugs are in shortage [Reuters, earlier here, etc.]
“Post-tort-reform Texas doctor supply” [Ted Frank/PoL and commenters] “Change in Procedures Lets Medical Malpractice [Insurance] Industry Thrive” [PC 360]
Forcing companies to make politicized disclosures to customers implicates First Amendment [Hans Bader on HHS "must credit ObamaCare" reg]
Iqbal and Twombly SCOTUS decisions on pleading have helped protect pharmaceutical defendants from flimsily based suits [James Beck, who has changed law firms to Reed Smith]
How accurate is hospital data coding? Ask thousands of pregnant British men [Nigel Hawkes via Flowing Data]
Class-action-fed boom in Medicaid dentistry + “let’s put docs in schools” idea = scope for horrific abuse, no matter how it’s financed [Bloomberg via Jesse Walker]
Suits blaming obstetricians for cerebral palsy rack up $78 million win in Philadelphia, $74 million in California [Legal Intelligencer, Cal Coast News]
Ninth Circuit: on reflection, let’s not seize control of VA mental health programs [AP, earlier here, etc.]

Tags: hospitals, medical malpractice, medical malpractice insurance, Ninth Circuit, pharmaceuticals, pleading, psychiatry, Texas

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

May 3 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 03 May 2012 04:07:59 +0000

Salute to Bill Childs, who blogged with distinction at TortsProf, on departing academia for private practice [Sheila Scheuerman and Chris Robinette]
North Carolina voters who know that Amendment One would ban civil unions oppose the measure by 22 points; unfortunately, most don’t know that [Greg Sargent, WaPo; earlier] Patrick at Popehat proposes 5 things Tar Heels can do to help defeat it;
Cellphone app to hail nearby taxi? DC government searches for a way to keep that illegal [Julian Sanchez, Cato at Liberty]
Can’t the left-wing Alliance for Justice be at least minimally consistent on Supreme Court ethics? [Freedman, Legal Ethics Forum]
On lawyer jokes [David Conway and commenters, Law and Liberty]
“2,000 patents have been granted for shaped pasta” [Doctorow; see also Martin Weiss ("It pays to noodle around in the lab")]
Texas barratry law trips up state rep [Southeast Texas Record, ABA Journal]

Tags: cellphones, humor, legal blogs, North Carolina, patent quality, same-sex marriage, Texas, Washington D.C.

May 3 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

March 13 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 05:06:52 +0000

“Are Courts Dragging Out the Housing Crisis?” [Mark Calabria, Cato] “Boom-Era Property Speculators to Get Foreclosure Aid” [Bloomberg News via Bader, CEI] Community organizing groups expect to cash in on state AGs’ robosigning settlement [Neil Munro, Daily Caller, earlier] As does NAAG itself [Daniel Fisher] More: Kevin Funnell.
“Non-standard explanation offered for bugging wife’s bedroom” [Lowering the Bar]
Chris DeMuth on James Q. Wilson [Weekly Standard, earlier] I wrote about Wilson’s work on at least two occasions: the Baltimore Sun had me review a book of his on “abuse excuses” and other difficulties of psychiatric testimony in court, a good book if a mere foothill in the mountain range of his overall scholarship; on another occasion in Reason I challenged his uncharacteristic backing of a “family policy” proposal ripe with potential for unintended consequences;
Boston city councilor: make valet kid at restaurant responsible if patron drives off drunk [NPR via Alkon]
“Texas is being stiff armed by the EPA at every turn” [Munro/DC quoting Texas attorney general Greg Abbott] NYT’s “modest” offshore drilling restrictions: “I hate to think what immodest restrictions would look like” [John Steele Gordon]
“The Southern Poverty Law Center Is Now Writing About Pickup Artists as Hate Groups” [Mike Riggs]
SFO rental car garage offers a whiff of Prop 65 absurdity [Stoll]

Tags: attorneys general, Boston, dramshop statutes, Environmental Protection Agency, hate speech, mortgages, Prop 65, Texas

March 13 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

March 6 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 05:11:54 +0000

D.C. Circuit’s Janice Rogers Brown: three-decade-long case over Iran dairy expropriation raises “harshest caricature of the American litigation system” [BLT]
Legal blogger Mark Bennett runs for Texas Court of Criminal Appeals as Libertarian [Defending People, Scott Greenfield] And Prof. Bill Childs, often linked in this space, is departing TortsProf (and legal academia) to join a private law practice in Texas;
Ambitious damage claims, more modest settlements abound in Louisiana oil-rig cleanup suits [ATLA's Judicial Hellholes, more, more, earlier]
Better no family at all: Lawprof Banzhaf jubilant over courts’ denial of adoption to smokers [his press release]
“The worst discovery request I’ve ever gotten” [Patrick at Popehat] And yours?
Concession to reality? Class action against theater over high cost of movie snacks seen as dud [Detroit Free Press]
FCPA is for pikers, K Street shows how real corruption gets done [Bill Frezza, Forbes] Dems threatening tax-bill retribution against clients whose lobbyists who back GOP candidates [Politico]

Tags: adoption, D.C. Circuit, discovery, environment, legal blogs, lobbyists, Louisiana, movies film and videos, oil industry, smoking bans, Texas

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

“Wrongful-Death Suit Filed Against Criminal Defendant’s Parents, Grandmother”

Walter Olson — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:30:16 +0000

“While lawyer Scott Marshall has pleaded guilty to a murder charge, his victim’s mother has filed an unusual wrongful-death suit against not only him but his parents and his 92-year-old grandmother.” [Texas Lawyer]

Tags: deep pocket, Texas, third party liability for crime

“Wrongful-Death Suit Filed Against Criminal Defendant’s Parents, Grandmother” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

January 18 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 05:11:45 +0000

A federal fishing raid, the Pew Charitable Trusts and a biased Business Week account [Nils Stolpe on Gloucester, Mass. fisheries, via Stoll]
Intimidating the judiciary? “Group Opposing Citizens United Pushes ‘Occupy the Courts’ Protest” Jan. 20 [Debra Cassens Weiss, ABA Journal] Mob rallies at Michigan governor’s private home [Meegan Holland, MLive] “Occupy” forces Gingrich to cancel event [Daily Caller] Earlier here, here, here, etc.
“Paper Airplane? Late for School? Shouting Too Loud? You’re Under Arrest!” [Free-Range Kids, Texas]
Spielberg in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” paid homage to earlier movie sequences without sweating permissions. Oh, for those days [Joho] “Cultural gems that should be in the public domain today” [Atlantic Wire, Tabarrok]
UPS settlement exaggerates benefits to class members [Ted Frank; related, CCAF] “Federal Judges Have Harsh Words, Rulings for Class Action Plaintiffs’ Lawyers” [Lammi/WLF]
“Justice Breyer Calls Recusal Controversy a ‘Non-Issue’” [ABA Journal]
“Add Plaintiff-Lawyer Fees To The Cost Of Most Mergers” [Daniel Fisher, Forbes on Cornerstone Research report]

Tags: class action settlements, environment, Massachusetts, movies film and videos, police, recusals, schools, securities litigation, Texas

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

January 15 roundup

Walter Olson — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 16:09:19 +0000

Self-referent notice required by law on Florida vending machines might baffle onlooker [Popehat] More from Lowering the Bar: “Please Report Me If I Am Missing. Thank You.”
Bryan Walsh at Time magazine happily spun by Chevron/Ecuador plaintiffs. Not so Roger Parloff at sister magazine Fortune;
Doubts re: foster mom’s conviction following youngster’s salt-poisoning death [Texas Monthly via Ted Frank; controversy over science behind "shaken-baby" cases] Charges against parents to move forward in Utah “co-sleeping” death case [ABA Journal]
In Philadelphia shooting case, lawsuits like bullets fly in every direction [Above the Law]
More on constitutionality of Obama recess appointments [Todd Gaziano/Heritage "Foundry", Mickey Kaus, Mike McConnell via Adler and more, earlier]
New site design at my old blog Point of Law;
Podcast: Prof. Mike McConnell on Hosanna-Tabor [Fed Soc, earlier] More: Bader. And shorter David Sessions/Daily Beast: since SCOTUS unanimously rejected Obama position on church liberty, critics were wrong to get so alarmed about that position. Makes sense to him…

Tags: Chevron, dramshop statutes, Florida, Philadelphia, Texas

January 15 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Texas: “Dog Owners Can Recover Sentimental-Value Damages for Loss of Pet”

Walter Olson — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 15:26:17 +0000

A veterinarian-dreaded development: “Fort Worth’s 2nd Court of Appeals has ruled that value can be attached to the love of a dog, overruling a 120-year-old case in which the Texas Supreme Court held that plaintiffs can only recover for the market value of their pets.” [Texas Lawyer, earlier]

Tags: damages for animal companionship, Texas

Texas: “Dog Owners Can Recover Sentimental-Value Damages for Loss of Pet” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Texas deadline suit-filing, cont’d

Walter Olson — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:38:17 +0000

After we passed along a recent report that Beaumont, Texas lawyers had filed 59 lawsuits the day before the state’s new “loser-pays” package of litigation reforms was to take effect, Texas attorney Brooks Schuelke responded on Twitter as follows (re-formatted and edited for clarity), saying that the issue wasn’t the loser-pays provision, but a separate “responsible third party” provision that set a malpractice trap for lawyers that delayed: “The responsible third party provisions allowed a defendant to name a party, and then plaintiff could join them even if the statute of limitations had expired. The law was changed to remove the ability to sue regardless of the statute of limitations. But defendant can’t name a party not disclosed in discovery. The amendment means we have to file suit long before the statute of limitations expires to send discovery asking defendant to name who it might name. So many cases nearing the statute of limitations had to be filed before the effective date of the change or else they could be victim to the amendment.”

Tags: loser pays, statutes of limitations, Texas

Texas deadline suit-filing, cont’d is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system