Overlawyered » toxic torts 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 Brockovich meets Tourette’s in Leroy, N.Y. http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/brockovich-meets-tourettes-in-leroy-n-y/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/brockovich-meets-tourettes-in-leroy-n-y/#comments Fri, 03 Feb 2012 12:07:54 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=27313 “In non-Western countries, demons and witchcraft are still sometimes blamed for outbreaks of fainting and fits [PDF]. Pollution, poisoning, chemical weapons, and other environmental concerns are dominant in the West (a fact that makes Brockovich something of a mass hysteria machine). Some bloggers are now claiming that the upstate New York girls fell ill because of the HPV vaccine or fracking.” [Ruth Graham, Slate]

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/brockovich-meets-tourettes-in-leroy-n-y/feed/ 3 January 31 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/january-31-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/january-31-roundup/#comments Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:06:21 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26199
  • Latest of periodic Towers Watson (formerly Towers Perrin/Tillinghast) surveys: tort costs fell in 2010 excluding oil spill liability [Towers Watson]
  • “Will Newt Neuter the Courts?” [James Huffman, Defining Ideas] Obama’s high court appointees are fortunately friendlier toward civil liberties than he is [Steve Chapman]
  • Unanimous Cal Supremes: companies not legally responsible for other companies’ asbestos products used as replacement for theirs [Cal Biz Lit, Jackson, Beck, Mass Tort Prof]
  • Claim: jurors considered policy implications of verdict and you can’t have that [On Point; defense verdict in Baltimore, Maryland school-bullying case]
  • Airfare display mandate: “‘Protecting’ Consumers from the Truth About the Cost of Government” [Thom Lambert, TotM]
  • Critical assessment of AP-backed new copyright aggregator “NewsRight” [Mike Masnick] Promises not to be “Righthaven 2.0″ [Cit Media Law]
  • Restatement (Third) of Torts drafters vs. Enlightenment scientific views of causation [David Oliver in June]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/january-31-roundup/feed/ 2     June 23 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/june-23-roundup-3/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/june-23-roundup-3/#comments Thu, 23 Jun 2011 13:38:20 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=23514
  • Michigan sex abuse prosecution of dad falls apart; it was premised on ultra-controversial technique of “facilitated communication” with autistic daughter [Detroit Free Press; Ted Frank/Point of Law]
  • Do demagogy and hardball work as trial techniques? [Steve McConnell vs. Ronald Miller and Max Kennerly]
  • When lawyer-pundits consent to chase cameras [Scott Greenfield]
  • Lawyer dad sues middle school girls over Facebook video [Houston Chronicle]
  • So-called Precautionary Principle slipping into Restatement (Third) of Torts? [David Oliver]
  • U.S Attorney in Maryland didn’t think Lauren Stevens case was strong enough to indict [Sue Reisinger/Corporate Counsel, White Collar Law Prof, Legal Ethics Forum, my Cato take]
  • “The SLAPP-Happy Story of Rakofsky v. Internet” [Citizen Media Law, Atlantic Wire ("Meet the Lawyer Who Sued the Internet"), Popehat, earlier here and here]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/06/june-23-roundup-3/feed/ 3     No sign of Fort Detrick cancer cluster http://overlawyered.com/2011/04/no-sign-of-fort-detrick-cancer-cluster/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/04/no-sign-of-fort-detrick-cancer-cluster/#comments Wed, 20 Apr 2011 12:08:47 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=22610 But that hasn’t stood in the way of a push to sign up clients for law firms in the vicinity of the Frederick, Md. armed forces base. [WJZ, Army Times]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/04/no-sign-of-fort-detrick-cancer-cluster/feed/ 4     9/11 first responders compensation bill http://overlawyered.com/2010/12/911-first-responders-compensation-bill/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/12/911-first-responders-compensation-bill/#comments Wed, 22 Dec 2010 16:32:36 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=20728 Only stony-hearted Scrooges could oppose it, right? Earlier here, here, etc. More: PoL; Senate passes modified bill.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/12/911-first-responders-compensation-bill/feed/ 5     Below-average cancer rates found in town of Brockovich fame http://overlawyered.com/2010/12/below-average-cancer-rates-found-in-town-of-brockovich-fame/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/12/below-average-cancer-rates-found-in-town-of-brockovich-fame/#comments Tue, 14 Dec 2010 05:03:19 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=20618 After alarmist coverage about how the water supply of rural Hinkley, Calif. is laced with carcinogenic chromium 6, it may have surprised some L.A. Times readers to learn that the town’s cancer rate is actually a bit below average. One interviewed local family blames the pollution for a variety of ills ranging from stroke to cognitive deficits to miscarriage to tumors in a pet dog. When the movie “Erin Brockovich” came out, it was pointed out that workers at the utility plant where the contamination originated had a life expectancy exceeding the California average.

    P.S. I see that Tim Cavanaugh of Reason is on the case too.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/12/below-average-cancer-rates-found-in-town-of-brockovich-fame/feed/ 1     “A 9/11 Bonanza for Trial Lawyers” http://overlawyered.com/2010/12/a-911-bonanza-for-trial-lawyers/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/12/a-911-bonanza-for-trial-lawyers/#comments Wed, 08 Dec 2010 14:14:01 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=20533 The National Review on a dubious federal compensation bill for Ground Zero emergency responders. More: PoL.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/12/a-911-bonanza-for-trial-lawyers/feed/ 1     Hinkley, Calif. cancer rates http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/hinkley-calif-cancer-rates/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/hinkley-calif-cancer-rates/#comments Fri, 19 Mar 2010 05:05:49 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=16547 Michael Fumento has a noteworthy statistical update on the case that made Erin Brockovich famous.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/hinkley-calif-cancer-rates/feed/ 1     A new mass tort, at the cash register? http://overlawyered.com/2009/10/a-new-mass-tort-at-the-cash-register/ http://overlawyered.com/2009/10/a-new-mass-tort-at-the-cash-register/#comments Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:42:22 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=14482 Concern is raised over bisphenol-A (BPA) in printed cash register receipts [Gordon Gibb, Lawsuits and Settlements] Adds reader Rogers Turner: “Brilliant…what does almost every single person in the U.S. touch multiple times a day?”

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2009/10/a-new-mass-tort-at-the-cash-register/feed/ 2     Erin Brockovich in Florida http://overlawyered.com/2009/10/erin-brockovich-in-florida/ http://overlawyered.com/2009/10/erin-brockovich-in-florida/#comments Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:16:36 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=14324 An editorial in the Palm Beach Post advises reader caution about the glamorous tort-chaser’s efforts to drum up clients for Weitz & Luxenberg and Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley based on allegations of a cancer cluster with a claimed link to radioactive drinking water:

    The lawyers discussed water samples from 10 homes of cancer patients that showed at least trace amounts of radium, a naturally occurring metal. Those studies, however, echoed Florida Department of Environmental Protection results from 50 randomly selected homes. …

    …one resident concluded on a Web site after the meeting: “Last night, we were validated.” Amid the personal appeals came the business pitch. Attorney Jack Scarola explained the contingency contract, which means that clients would pay nothing, even if they lost. He urged residents to take their time reading the contract because if “you inform yourselves well, you will find it’s in your best interest to sign with us.”

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