Overlawyered » United Kingdom 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 February 6 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/february-6-roundup-3/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/february-6-roundup-3/#comments Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:02:14 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=27368
  • “A 4-Page Playdate Waiver? Is This the New Normal?” [Lenore Skenazy, Free-Range Kids; our 2000 post on "Rise of the High-School Sleepover Disclaimer"]
  • Spirit Airlines sets what it calls DOTUC fee, for “Dept. of Transportation Unintended Consequences” [Stoll]
  • How fairly are fathers treated in family court? [Nina Shapiro, Seattle Weekly via Alkon]
  • “‘Insider’ Trading by the Representative Plaintiff in Shareholder Litigation” [Bainbridge]
  • “Donation controversy focuses attention on Madison County asbestos litigation” [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Chamber-backed LNL]
  • Update: Appeals court reinstates Duluth doc’s defamation claims [DNT, earlier here, here, here; "bedside manner" criticism]
  • U.K.: “‘Psychic’ Sally Morgan Sues Critics for £150,000 After Refusing $1 Million to Prove Her Powers” [D.J. Grothe, HuffPo] “She’ll be calling witnesses such as ‘an uncle, or father, or a man… with a b in his first name’.” [@thegagthief]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/february-6-roundup-3/feed/ 1     European roundup http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/european-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/european-roundup/#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2012 05:05:33 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=27274
  • Overseas press excoriates new FATCA tax-Americans’-foreign-earnings law; some foreign banks now turn away American customers [Dan Mitchell, Cato, Reason] “The Fatca story is really kind of insane.” [Caplin & Drysdale's H. David Rosenbloom, NYT via TaxProf] Will Congress back down? [Peter Spiro/OJ, more]
  • Important new book from James Maxeiner (University of Baltimore) and co-authors Gyooho Lee and Armin Weber on what the U.S. can learn from legal procedure overseas: “Failures of American Civil Justice in International Perspective” [TortsProf]
  • Don’t do it: British administration mulls further move away from loser-pays rule in search of — what exactly, a yet more Americanized litigation culture? [Guardian, Law Society]
  • Apparently in Norway it’s possible to lose one’s kids by feeding them by hand [Shikha Dalmia, Reason]
  • Financial transaction tax? Ask the Swedes how that worked out [Mike "Mish" Shedlock, Business Insider]
  • Notes from conference on globalization of class actions [Karlsgodt] Related: Adam Zimmerman;
  • “Another conviction in Europe for insulting religion” [Volokh; Polish pop star] Campus secularists’ speech under fire in the U.K. as “Jesus and Mo” controversy spreads to LSE [Popehat] British speech prosecution of soccer star [Suneal Bedi and William Marra, NRO]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/european-roundup/feed/ 0     February 1 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/february-1-roundup-4/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/february-1-roundup-4/#comments Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:03:31 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=27256
  • “Hawaii may keep track of all web sites visited” [Declan McCullagh]
  • NEA (and now Obama) answer to public education woes: lock the exits by hiking school-leaving age [Steve Chapman, earlier]
  • On nomination filibusters, New York Times editorial policy has pulled a 360, not just a 180 [Whelan, 2003, 2005, earlier]
  • English copyright ruling “creates ownership in the idea of a photo’s composition” [Doctorow, BB]
  • New Maryland push for same-sex marriage will include stronger religious exemptions, a course I urged last year [Sun, my view] Detailed inquiry into the law of interstate marriage recognition and DOMA [Will Baude, Volokh]
  • When lawyers face prison for the advice they give [Jack Fernandez, Zuckerman Spaeder via Legal Ethics Forum]
  • FDA regulation of pharmaceuticals: “More reasons to discount adverse event reports” [Yeary, Drug & Device Law, the CPSC database analogy]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/february-1-roundup-4/feed/ 0     “Human rights court blocks Abu Qatada deportation” http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/human-rights-court-blocks-abu-qatada-deportation/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/human-rights-court-blocks-abu-qatada-deportation/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:29:49 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=27224 British prime minister David Cameron is fuming over the latest in a long string of rulings by the European Court of Human Rights, which now has stepped in to protect a militant Islamist cleric from deportation to Jordan, where he has been convicted in absentia of plotting terrorist attacks. [Independent, Telegraph]

    More: Cameron calls for reform of ECHR, says it is turning into court of “fourth instance” for general appeal of British judicial decisions [Telegraph, Guardian, New Statesman, Conservative Home]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/human-rights-court-blocks-abu-qatada-deportation/feed/ 0     January 16 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/january-16-roundup-2/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/january-16-roundup-2/#comments Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:42:18 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26879
  • Per Chevron, Kerry Kennedy getting undisclosed percentage of the take, potentially in millions, to side with plaintiffs in Ecuador suit [NY Post] Long New Yorker take-out on case [Patrick Radden Keefe]
  • Freetail Brewing fields a nastygram: “How to Comply With a Cease-and-Desist Letter But Still Win” [Lowering the Bar]
  • I.e. boycotts illegal? Odd Minnesota law bans economic “reprisals” based on “political activity.” [Volokh]
  • “Chris McGrath v. Vaughan Jones: An Unpleasant Peek Into U.K. Libel Law” [Popehat; suit over science-and-theology book review] Related: “You Can’t Read This Book: why libel tourists love London” [Nick Cohen, Guardian, on his new book]
  • Business experience isn’t be-all or end-all for presidential qualifications, but might avert some policy howlers [Kling]
  • “Arbitration Is Here to Stay and One Lawyer Says That Is Good for Consumers” [Alan Kaplinsky interview, Mickey Meese/Forbes, PoL]
  • Off-topic random thought: “Iranian nuclear scientist who moonlights in Broadway Spider-Man cast” must be world’s most uninsurable job description;
  • “D.C. Lawmakers Propose Requiring Students to Apply to College” [Fox]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/january-16-roundup-2/feed/ 2     “The Litigation-Industrial Complex” http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/the-litigation-industrial-complex/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/the-litigation-industrial-complex/#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2012 12:06:03 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26716 Phrases I wish I had coined: from a Walter Russell Mead post on Prime Minister David Cameron’s efforts to rein in escalating litigiousness in Britain.

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/the-litigation-industrial-complex/feed/ 0     Criminalization of wild egg collecting http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/criminalization-of-wild-egg-collecting/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/criminalization-of-wild-egg-collecting/#comments Sat, 31 Dec 2011 12:41:07 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26521 In the U.K., such a law — distant cousin to our own draconian enactments on eagle feathers and exotic woods — has (presumably inadvertently) wound up ensnaring museums. [Guardian]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/criminalization-of-wild-egg-collecting/feed/ 1     Labor law roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/labor-law-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/labor-law-roundup/#comments Sat, 10 Dec 2011 12:24:30 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25844
  • Union withdraws, and NLRB drops, complaint against Boeing over plant location decision [Adler, earlier] “Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) Introduces Bill to Reverse NLRB’s ‘Micro-Union’ Decision” [LRT via @jonhyman] Video of “Organized Labor & Obama administration” panel [Federalist Society convention]
  • Suing Atlantic City is an established sport for current, former employees [Press of AC] After lawsuit win, former Gotham sanitation worker litters neighborhood with cars [NY Post via Christopher Fountain] Why have House, Senate reversed usual ideological lines on federal employee workers’-comp reform? [WaPo]
  • Murder of reformist professors reinforces difficulty of changing Italian labor law [Tyler Cowen] UK considers relaxing “unfair dismissal” controls on employers [BBC, earlier]
  • Taylor Law and NYC transit strike: “ILO Urges that U.S. Stop Violating International Obligations It Hasn’t Agreed To” [Ku, OJ; Mitch Rubinstein, Adjunct Law Prof]
  • Maryland’s misnamed 2009 “Workplace Fraud Act” bedevils carpet installers and other firms that employ contract workers, and perhaps that was its point [Ed Waters Jr./Frederick News-Post, Weyrich Cronin & Sorra, Floor Daily]
  • “Government pay is higher” [Stoll] Notwithstanding “Occupy” themes, interests of unions and underemployed young folks might not actually be aligned very well [Althouse]
  • More on outcry over proposed federal restrictions on kids’ farm chores [WSJ, NPR, Gannett Wisconsin, CEI, earlier]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/labor-law-roundup/feed/ 0     November 29 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/november-29-roundup-3/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/november-29-roundup-3/#comments Tue, 29 Nov 2011 14:50:29 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25709
  • UK: “Premiums to soar as accident claims lawyers push up cost of motor insurance, MPs hear” [Telegraph]
  • John Stossel on death by FDA [Reason] Disapproving stance on e-cigarettes might cost lives [Balko] Company abandons pioneering stem-cell research after running up $45 million in costs to win FDA approval of initial safety tests [Technology Review] NYT can be obtuse about regulatory costs [Cowen]
  • No, we’re not allowed to let you out of the van to relieve the call of nature [Ted at PoL]
  • “Economic Damages Are Affirmed Though Plaintiff’s Earnings Rose After Accident” [NJLJ]
  • A shame about the business climate in Hawaii [Inverse Condemnation]
  • “Massachusetts Lawyer Loses License for a Year for Charging $93.8K Contingent Fee, Absent a Contingency” [Martha Neil, ABA Journal]
  • Movement “rapidly gaining steam” in U.S. to prohibit anonymous sperm donation [Glenn Cohen, Prawfs]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/november-29-roundup-3/feed/ 1     Digitally altered model photos and the proposed “Self Esteem Act” http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/digitally-altered-model-photos-and-the-proposed-self-esteem-act/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/digitally-altered-model-photos-and-the-proposed-self-esteem-act/#comments Mon, 28 Nov 2011 06:00:22 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25926 A Los Angeles couple have been gaining publicity for their proposal to require publications to disclose with warning labels when pictures of models have been Photoshopped, the better to help the bodily self-esteem of readers who may feel inadequate when contemplating the skinny/curvaceous images or airbrushed complexions. [CBS New York] “After complaints from Liberal Democrat MP Joe Swinson, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority banned two digitally enhanced ads starring prominent celebrities for ‘exaggeration and being misleading.’” [Diana Denza, Betty Confidential; earlier on parallel developments in France as well as Britain]

    Incidentally, I’ve now compiled a long-overdue tag for posts on photography.

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