Overlawyered » Utah

March 7 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 05:06:46 +0000

Ray LaHood’s forgotten predecessor: “How One Bureaucrat Almost Succeeded in Banning Car Radios” [Mike Riggs, Reason]
“Some Recent Nonsense on Freedom of Religion in the Times” [Paul Horwitz, Prawfs]
Choice of Ben Stein as speaker for ABA Tech Show raises eyebrows [Derek Bambauer, InfoLaw]
“Oblivion video game ‘Abomb” becomes federal lawsuit” [Abnormal Use]
Tort causation: “Probability for thee, mere possibility for me” [David Oliver]
Washington state says it won’t pay for “unnecessary” Medicaid ER visits. Can you see the unintended consequences coming? [White Coat]
Utah says family can’t fundraise for son’s legal defense without permit [Standard-Examiner via Balko]

Tags: autos, Ben Stein, churches, emergency medicine, Utah, videogames, Washington state

March 7 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

December 20 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 13:13:51 +0000

Texas Gov. Rick Perry may urge the state to take a step toward loser-pays [NJLRA]
“FCC push to regulate news draws fire” [The Hill]
Could litigation on behalf of Madoff victims get more than all their money back? [Salmon, more, NYT, Above the Law]
“Chevron Says Documents Show Ecuador Plaintiffs Worked With Government” [Dan Fisher/Forbes, more]
Organized trial lawyers expect to fare less well in next Congress, but prospects for actual liability reform remain slender [Joseph Weber/Wash. Times, Matthew Boyle/Daily Caller]
Mount Laurel rulings in New Jersey (towns given quotas to build low-income housing) described as “libertarian”, I express doubts [Hills, Prawfsblawg]
Criminal law’s revolving door: “prosecutors turn up the fire and then sell extinguishers” [Ribstein, TotM]
The wages of unconstitutionality: a Utah attorney’s curious fee niche [five years ago on Overlawyered]

Tags: Bernard Madoff, broadcasters, Chevron, loser pays, New Jersey, prosecution, Texas, Utah

December 20 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Lawsuit demands $38 quadrillion

Walter Olson — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 05:06:30 +0000

That sum, demanded by a Las Vegas man in a suit against three Utah attorneys, is far in excess of all the money in the world, so there may be collectibility problems. [Provo Daily Herald]

Tags: damage theories, Utah

Lawsuit demands $38 quadrillion is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Family overnights RV in Wal-Mart lot, sues over intruder

Walter Olson — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 10:44:10 +0000

Wal-Mart stores in many parts of the country are famous for letting motor-home travelers park overnight in their lots for free. One wonders whether that policy will last: a Florida couple is now suing the retailer over an incident in the parking lot of its Cedar City, Utah store, in which the family shot and killed a man who intruded in their parked home. They say they have suffered emotional distress and medical problems and that “store officials knew the man was loitering in the lot” but failed to act. [Salt Lake Tribune via Consumerist, where commenters haven't been conspicuously sympathetic to the plaintiffs]

Tags: premises liability, recreation, third party liability for crime, Utah, Wal-Mart

Family overnights RV in Wal-Mart lot, sues over intruder is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Leave that emotional-support companion animal outside?

Walter Olson — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 15:37:21 +0000

Defying a national trend, Utah has moved to amend the interpretation of its state-level version of the Americans with Disabilities Act so as to curtail pet owners’ rights to demand that their “emotional support service animals” be allowed onto the premises of reluctant business owners. [Salt Lake Tribune via Patrick at Popehat]

Tags: service animals, Utah

Leave that emotional-support companion animal outside? is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

February 26 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 05:04:37 +0000

“God convinces woman to withdraw her voodoo-related lawsuit” [Minneapolis Star-Tribune via Obscure Store]
Federal, state judges differ on whether wildlife officials can be sued over fatal Utah bear attack [Heller/OnPoint News]
GPS helped trip him up: highest-paid Schenectady cop sure seems to spend a lot of time off patrol in a certain apartment [Greenfield]
More coverage of Luzerne County, Pa. corrupt-judge scandal, including reputed mobster link [Legal Intelligencer/Law.com, ABA Journal, earlier here and here]
Reductio ad absurdum of laws dictating where released sex offenders can live: proposal to keep them from living near each other [Giacalone and sequel]
Defamation suits: “What happens when it’s the plaintiff that is anonymous, and wants to stay that way?” [Ron Coleman]
Scalia: “Honest Services” fraud statute lacks any “coherent limiting principle” to restrain runaway prosecution [Grossman/PoL, Kerr/Volokh, Hills/Prawfsblawg]
Because they’d never enact a law except to deal with a real problem: “Kentucky Prohibits First Responders from Dueling” [Lowering the Bar]

Tags: Kentucky, Luzerne County judicial scandal, police, prosecution, Utah

February 26 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Rehabilitating Jack Thompson?

Walter Olson — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 04:46:53 +0000

If Salt Lake City’s Deseret News must run anti-videogame screeds, couldn’t it find authors to write them who are not, you know, disgraced and disbarred?

Tags: Jack Thompson, Utah

Rehabilitating Jack Thompson? is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

ADA claim: store wouldn’t let him use inline skates

Walter Olson — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 16:56:10 +0000

Peter Jose Smith of Provo, Utah, is suing the Mercado Latino market, saying it violated his accommodation rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act because it wouldn’t let him wear inline skates in the store behind his wheelchair. Store owner Hugo Martinez said Smith, who has sued other local businesses, was asked to comply with the store’s policy against skates after he “was riding quickly in the store and bumped into another customer”. (Ace Stryker, “Disabled Provo man suing Latin market”, Provo Daily Herald, Jul. 18).

Tags: disabled rights, Utah

ADA claim: store wouldn’t let him use inline skates is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

We were counting on you for favorable testimony!

Walter Olson — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 09:38:09 +0000

A Utah federal court will consider the Pace family’s lawsuit against California anesthesiologist Barry Swerdlow, whom they had earlier hired as an expert witness as part of their medical liability suit against another anesthesiologist, Stephen Shuput, whom they blamed for their late daughter’s death. After agreeing to come on board as an expert for the Paces, Swerdlow examined Shuput’s deposition and concluded that Shuput had met the standard of care; he proceeded to inform Shuput’s lawyers of this, and they quickly got the case dismissed. The Paces then sued Swerdlow for “malpractice, fraud, negligent misrepresentation, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and negligent infliction of emotional distress,” to quote AMNews’s catalogue. Swerdlow conceded that he was new at the expert witness game and that it would probably have been a good idea for him to have read Shuput’s deposition earlier. The ~~Eleventh~~Tenth Circuit ruled that a lower court should consider the Paces’s contention that they had suffered legally actionable damages from Swerdlow’s actions. (Bonnie Booth, “Expert who changed mind claims immunity, but plaintiffs still sue”, American Medical News, Apr. 14).

Judge Gorsuch, dissenting from the ~~Eleventh~~Tenth Circuit’s ruling, wrote:

Parties already exert substantial influence over expert witnesses, often paying them handsomely for their time, and expert witnesses are, unfortunately and all too frequently, already regarded in some quarters as little more than hired guns. When expert witnesses can be forced to defend themselves in federal court beyond the pleading stage simply for changing their opinions – with no factual allegation to suggest anything other than an honest change in view based on a review of new information – we add fuel to this fire. We make candor an expensive option and risk incenting experts to dissemble rather than change their views in the face of compelling new information. The loser in all this is, of course, the truth-finding function and cause of justice our legal system is designed to serve.

(Decision of the Day, Mar. 5; Karen Franklin, Forensic Psychologist, Mar. 7; The Briefcase, Mar. 7).

Tags: emotional distress, expert witnesses, medical, Utah

We were counting on you for favorable testimony! is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Contracts no good in Utah: Rothstein v. Snowbird Corp.

Ted Frank — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 13:28:38 +0000

In a 3-2 decision, the Utah Supreme Court has held a liability waiver unenforceable, and permitted a skier to sue a resort for his injuries in a skiing accident, notwithstanding his agreement to the contrary by disingenuously expanding a state assumption-of-the-risk statute for ski resorts to forbid any contractual modification of liability. When even Utah refuses to honor contracts, you know we’re in trouble.

Edited to add: For some reason, multiple commenters who haven’t read the opinion are claiming that the only thing the opinion does is require a signature. Not so: Rothstein explicitly signed a release, and the release only covered negligence (permitting Rothstein to sue for intentional torts). Rothstein realized the benefit of the bargain, by getting season tickets for a considerably cheaper price than he would have been able to if the resort knew he wasn’t going to honor his end of the bargain. The Utah Supreme Court (not an intermediate appellate court) rewrote the agreement retroactively. Consumers are hurt.

Tags: assumption of risk, personal responsibility, skiing, Utah

Contracts no good in Utah: Rothstein v. Snowbird Corp. is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system