http://overlawyered.com Chronicling the high cost of our legal system Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:28:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/environmental-law-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/environmental-law-roundup/#comments Fri, 16 Dec 2011 05:03:02 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26090

Peter Schweizer: “To RFK, Jr: I’m No Sock Puppet, But You Sir Are a Bootlegger” [Huffington Post; some background on America's Most Irresponsible Public Figure®]

Will legal campaign succeed in shutting down natural gas fracking? [WLF, David Oliver, CL&P, Abby Wisse Schachter/NYP]

Nice work if you can get it: key figure in dubious Chevron-Ecuador expert report slated for National Academy of Sciences reappointment [WizBang, earlier]

EPA’s move-cement-production-to-China plan runs into uncooperative judge [Josiah Neeley, Daily Caller]

Spare that tree? Environmentalists battle Montana underbrush clearance aimed at preventing catastrophic fires [William Perry Pendley, MSLF] More on trees and power outages in Connecticut [WSJ, related earlier]

New book on Endangered Species Act reform [James Burling, Federalist Society]

Rural property owners foot the bill for California green policies [Steven Greenhut]

“What are you in for?” “Backed-up toilets” [Shannen Coffin, NRO]

Tags: California, Chevron, Connecticut, endangered species, environment, Environmental Protection Agency, Montana, oil industry, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., trees

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/environmental-law-roundup/feed/ 1 http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/great-moments-in-public-finance-economics/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/great-moments-in-public-finance-economics/#comments Tue, 20 Sep 2011 06:10:29 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24705 I’ve got some observations at Cato at Liberty about the arguments one Montgomery County, Md. councilman has made for a public takeover of local electric utility Pepco — as well as some background about the trade-off often found between leafy splendor and storm-outage resilience in residential settings.

Tags: Maryland, trees

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/great-moments-in-public-finance-economics/feed/ 15 http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/september-9-roundup-3/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/september-9-roundup-3/#comments Fri, 09 Sep 2011 15:29:13 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24308

Not a parody: economics professor sets off debate on “ugly rights” with suggestion of making unattractiveness of appearance a protected discrimination-law category [Daniel Hamermesh/NYT, PoL, Eric Crampton, Jon Hyman] Apparently Niall Ferguson needn’t worry [Telegraph]

Feds sue banks and more than 130 executives, demanding billions over their role in the mortgage crisis; new “tobacco/asbestos” predicted [Biz Insider, more, yet more] Takes some cheek to cast Fannie and Freddie as victims [John Berlau, CEI]

Also on mortgages: Rahm Emanuel’s unsound new “lender must cut the grass” ordinance [Funnell] California AG sues lawyers, telemarketers over class action loan modification scheme; lawyer fires back with civil rights suit [AP, ABA Journal] New York chief judge wants state to fund more lawyers to resist enforcement of mortgages [PoL]

Related to last, on Civil Gideon’s “‘impossible dream’ of giving every civil litigant a lawyer” [Benjamin Barton & Stephanos Bibos, SSRN via Instapundit]

Fallen tree damage from all these storms? Think twice before taking your neighbor to court [Ilya Somin]

Stories you read here first: wider coverage for EEOC suit against trucking company for not letting alcoholic drive [Fox, earlier]

Illinois advocates plan push for punitive civil suits against johns, strip club owners, sex-ad websites [NYT]

Tags: banks, civil gideon, discrimination law, mortgages, strippers and exotic dancers, trees

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/september-9-roundup-3/feed/ 3 http://overlawyered.com/2010/04/by-reader-acclaim-uk-handyman-props-ladder-against-branch-hes-sawing-off/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/04/by-reader-acclaim-uk-handyman-props-ladder-against-branch-hes-sawing-off/#comments Sun, 18 Apr 2010 15:19:37 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=16978 The injured man “took the [legal] action after health and safety inspectors concluded the hotel failed to carry out a risk assessment on the dangers of pruning. They also said that his employer should have given him training on where to place the ladder.” [Telegraph, Daily Mail]

Tags: personal responsibility, trees, United Kingdom

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2010/04/by-reader-acclaim-uk-handyman-props-ladder-against-branch-hes-sawing-off/feed/ 7 http://overlawyered.com/2009/08/august-20-roundup-2/ http://overlawyered.com/2009/08/august-20-roundup-2/#comments Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:41:43 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=13283

Federal judge rejects lenient plea deal for two judges in Luzerne County, Pa. judicial scandal [ABA Journal, Scott Greenfield] More: allegations of extensive abuses including “rampant case-fixing and payoffs” [Hank Grezlak and Leo Strupczewski, Legal Intelligencer] Charges of impropriety in handling defamation case handed down against Wilkes-Barre newspaper [Strupczewski, same] Improprieties in that libel case denied [ABA Journal] Should juvenile convictions by Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. be vacated? [ABA Journal]

Law and a banana: Page-one Wall Street Journal treatment of fruit pesticide litigation fraud [yesterday's paper, PoL] Further: Cal. Civil Justice (”trained like a parrot”, “super lawyer”), L.A. Times and more, earlier.

“Can it be true that some Girl Scout camps FORBID climbing trees?” [Skenazy, Free Range Kids]

Katy Perry (U.S. pop singer) vs. Katie Perry (Australian fashion designer) trademark lawsuit [Bryan Quigley, Institute for Legal Reform] Suit has now been dropped [Katie Perry website, h/t @lenejohansen]

Emergency room blogger White Coat wraps up his malpractice-suit saga [collected posts]

“Automated shakedown racket sends legal threats, demands cash” [BoingBoing; copyright infringement demand letters]

More coverage of New Mexico baseball-hit-into-stands liability ruling [Hochfelder/PoL, Stossel, earlier]

Do not anger Texas criminal defense law blogger Mark Bennett. Just don’t [Popehat]

Tags: banana pesticide litigation fraud, baseball, copyright, Luzerne County judicial scandal, medical malpractice, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Texas, trademarks, trees

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2009/08/august-20-roundup-2/feed/ 0 http://overlawyered.com/2008/05/may-16-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2008/05/may-16-roundup/#comments Fri, 16 May 2008 14:19:29 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=6852

Polar bears on parade: “Lawsuits are not the best way to force the public into solving planet-size problems such as climate change.” [Christian Science Monitor editorial]

Jury convicts private investigator Anthony Pellicano, trial of entertainment lawyer Terry Christiansen set for July [Variety; earlier]

Knockoff sneakers differed from Adidas original in having two or four stripes instead of three, didn’t save Payless Shoes from getting hit with $304 million verdict [American Lawyer]

Following up on our discussion of municipal tree liability: Michigan high court OKs homeowner class action over sewer line damage from city trees [AP/MLive]

Attorney Franklin Azar, of Colorado TV-ad fame, says jury’s verdict ordering him to pay a former client $145,000 was really a “big victory” for him [ABA Journal]

Annals of tolling-for-infancy: “Dog bite 10 years ago subject of civil suit” [MC Record]

Feds indict Missouri woman for cruel MySpace hoax that drove victim to suicide: Orin Kerr finds legal grounds weak [@ Volokh]

“I blame R. Kelly for Sept. 11″: some ways potential jurors managed to get off singer’s high-profile Chicago trial [Tribune; h/t reader A.K.]

Update: “click fraud” class actions filed in Texarkana against online ad providers have all now settled [SE Texas Record; earlier]

Judge orders dad to stay on top of his daughter’s education, then jails him for 180 days when she fails to get her general equivalency diploma [WCPO, Cincinnati; update, father released]

Lawyers still soliciting for AOL volunteer class actions [Colossus of Rhodey; earlier]

Tags: Anthony Pellicano, AOL, Arkansas, Cincinnati, click fraud, climate change, Colorado, fathers, global warming, jury selection, Michigan, Missouri, MySpace, roundups, Texas, tolling, trees

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2008/05/may-16-roundup/feed/ 6 http://overlawyered.com/2008/04/uk-spare-that-tree-contd/ http://overlawyered.com/2008/04/uk-spare-that-tree-contd/#comments Sat, 26 Apr 2008 22:52:45 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/wpblog/?p=6149 To borrow the summary from the highly recommended Arts & Letters Daily: “The British love their trees, but across the land beautiful old trees are being chopped down in their thousands. The reason? Safety rules and hungry lawyers… ” (Michael McCarthy, “Green giants: Our love affair with trees”, Independent (U.K.), Apr. 25). Earlier: Dec. 3, 2006, etc. More: Scott Greenfield says don’t blame the lawyers, blame the towns and other authorities for overreacting.

Tags: environment, trees, United Kingdom

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2008/04/uk-spare-that-tree-contd/feed/ 2 http://overlawyered.com/2007/12/december-2-roundup-2/ http://overlawyered.com/2007/12/december-2-roundup-2/#comments Sun, 02 Dec 2007 09:00:18 +0000 Ted Frank http://overlawyered.com/wpblog/?p=5601

Remember that ludicrous case where the Florida driver fell asleep, crashed his Ford Explorer, his passenger was killed, and a jury blamed Ford to the tune of $61 million? (See also Sep. 10.) A Florida court got around to reversing it, though only to grant a new trial under a variety of erroneous evidentiary rulings that prejudiced Ford, rather than because the suit was too silly to ever conceivably win in a just society. The remand goes back to the same judge that let the suit go forward and committed multiple reversible errors in favor of the plaintiff. [Ford Motor v. Hall-Edwards (Fla. App. Nov. 7, 2007); Krauss @ Point of Law; Daily Business Review; Bloomberg/Boston Globe]

Not really a man-bites-dog story, but Geoffrey Fieger (Aug. 25 and rather often otherwise) speaks. [ABA Journal]

Uh-oh: Former litigator hired to invest $100m in court cases for UK hedge fund. [Times Online]

The real NatWest Three deal. [Kirkendall; July 2006 in Overlawyered]

Homeowners fined $347,000 for trimming trees without a permit—after the Glendale Fire Department sent them a notice telling them to trim their trees for being a fire hazard. (h/t Slim) [Consumerist]

Disclaimers at children’s birthday parties (h/t BC) [Publishers Weekly]

British Christmas parades handcuffed by litigation fears. (h/t F.R.) [Telegraph]

Underlawyered in Saudi Arabia: A “19-year-old Saudi gang-rape victim was recently sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in jail for being in a car with an unrelated male when the attack occurred. Last week, her lawyer was disbarred for objecting too vociferously.” [Weekly Standard]

Don’t forget to vote for us at the ABA Journal Blawg 100.

Tags: autos, deep pocket, Enron, Ford Explorer, Ford Motor, Geoffrey Fieger, jackpot justice, nonmonetary costs of litigation, personal responsibility, Saudi Arabia, sued if you do, trees, United Kingdom

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2007/12/december-2-roundup-2/feed/ 1 http://overlawyered.com/2007/02/wild-parrots-of-telegraph-hill/ http://overlawyered.com/2007/02/wild-parrots-of-telegraph-hill/#comments Thu, 15 Feb 2007 00:08:44 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/wpblog/?p=4529 A beloved San Francisco tourist attraction, the birds roost in two ancient cypress trees whose owner says he can no longer afford the liability risk should they topple or shed branches on spectators. The city is stepping in to spare the axe by taking responsibility for the chance of injury. (Charlie Goodyear, “Preserving perches for wild parrots”, San Francisco Chronicle, Feb. 14; “Buzz saws threaten home of Telegraph Hill parrots”, CBC, Nov. 3, 2005). A 2004 film about the parrots is available here on DVD.

Tags: animals, Bay Area, environment, trees

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2007/02/wild-parrots-of-telegraph-hill/feed/ 4 http://overlawyered.com/2006/12/tree-hazards-contd/ http://overlawyered.com/2006/12/tree-hazards-contd/#comments Sun, 03 Dec 2006 00:07:29 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/wpblog/?p=4245 This time from the U.K.: Simon Jenkins has some choice words in the Guardian about the tendency to turn a relatively rare phenomenon — injuries caused by tree falls — into the occasion for legal punishment, and the undesirable incentives this creates for those entrusted with the care of trees. (”Those who walk under trees are at risk from these terrorising inspectors”, Nov. 17). More on tree hazards: Jun. 11, Jul. 31 and Nov. 27, 2006; Apr. 30 and Jul. 19, 2005; Nov. 16, 2004; Mar. 12, 2002.

Tags: Connecticut, environment, trees, United Kingdom

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