Overlawyered » Washington state http://overlawyered.com Chronicling the high cost of our legal system Tue, 14 Feb 2012 18:22:52 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 SEIU to Washington legislators: raise taxes or we’ll keep suing you http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/seiu-to-washington-legislators-raise-taxes-or-well-keep-suing-you/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/seiu-to-washington-legislators-raise-taxes-or-well-keep-suing-you/#comments Wed, 07 Dec 2011 05:02:29 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26154 “Washington [the state] is getting hit with so many lawsuits over budget cuts that it’s not clear at times who controls the state’s purse strings: lawmakers or the court system. … Overall, the state has been sued more than a dozen times because of cuts lawmakers made in recent years to curtail state spending and balance the budget.” A spokesman for the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), one of the groups suing the state over cuts, describes program cuts as “violating people’s rights” and says the state should raise revenue if it doesn’t want to be sued. [Seattle Times] (& Bainbridge).

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/seiu-to-washington-legislators-raise-taxes-or-well-keep-suing-you/feed/ 9 Food co-op sued after joining Israel boycott http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/food-co-op-sued-after-joining-israel-boycott/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/food-co-op-sued-after-joining-israel-boycott/#comments Thu, 17 Nov 2011 14:43:36 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25720 After the Olympia Food Co-op in Washington removed products from Israel from its shelves, it was sued by several members who claimed that it had violated its bylaws. “A motion filed by attorneys with Davis Wright Tremaine in Seattle and by attorneys with the Center for Constitutional Rights asserts that the lawsuit is a ‘Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation,’” banned under a Washington statute; one of the attorneys who filed the suit says “it is ‘absolutely, positively not’ a SLAPP suit.” [The Olympian, more here and here]

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/11/food-co-op-sued-after-joining-israel-boycott/feed/ 0 “Cartoonist Faces Prosecution for Videos Mocking Police” http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/cartoonist-faces-prosecution-for-videos-mocking-police/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/cartoonist-faces-prosecution-for-videos-mocking-police/#comments Fri, 05 Aug 2011 14:33:20 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24163 The story everyone’s talking about: if you wanted a definitive example of the dangers of overbroad “cyber-stalking” statutes, here you go. [WSJ Law Blog, Balko, Volokh, Reason, Popehat]

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/cartoonist-faces-prosecution-for-videos-mocking-police/feed/ 4 “Twisted ethics of an expert witness” http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/twisted-ethics-of-an-expert-witness/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/twisted-ethics-of-an-expert-witness/#comments Mon, 01 Aug 2011 06:09:43 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24094 Horrifying Seattle Times investigation:

For a quarter century [Stuart] Greenberg testified as an expert in forensic psychology, an inscrutable field with immense power. Purporting to offer insight into the human condition, he evaluated more than 2,000 children, teenagers and adults. His word could determine which parent received custody of a child, or whether a jury believed a claim of sexual assault, or what damages might be awarded for emotional distress. …

His peers elected him their national president. But his formidable career was built upon a foundation of hypocrisy and lies.

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/08/twisted-ethics-of-an-expert-witness/feed/ 13 February 21 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/02/february-21-roundup/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/02/february-21-roundup/#comments Mon, 21 Feb 2011 11:48:33 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=21594
  • Estate of Anna Nicole Smith may sue over opera based on her life [Daily Mail via Surber, other Daily Mail]
  • Maryland Department of Environment: yep, we put tracking devices on Eastern Shore watermen’s boats [Red Maryland]
  • Trial lawyers’ federal contributions went 97% to Dems last cycle [Freddoso, Examiner]
  • $6.5 million for family abuse: unusual sovereign-exposure law costs Washington taxpayers again [PoL]
  • Canadian court: no, we can’t and won’t waive loser-pays for needy litigants who lose cases [Erik Magraken]
  • CPSC considers mandating “SawStop” technology [Crede, background]
  • Gun groups alarmed over ATF pick [Chicago Tribune]
  • Jury blames hit-run death on wheelchair curb cut [four years ago on Overlawyered]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/02/february-21-roundup/feed/ 5     January 7 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/01/january-7-roundup-2/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/01/january-7-roundup-2/#comments Fri, 07 Jan 2011 13:45:01 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=20864
  • Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s firm suing Apple, Google and many others over common web features [Atlantic Wire, Groklaw ("Allen v. World and Dog"]
  • Probably not a good idea to give local authorities cash incentive to snatch kids from homes [Bader, CEI]
  • Hyperlink liability case: “If I lose there won’t BE an Internet in Canada” [Ars Technica]
  • Shooting spree at Denny’s results in suit charging eatery with negligent security [PNWLocalNews.com]
  • More links: “Do securities lawsuits help shareholders?” [Point of Law, Bainbridge]
  • Fourth Circuit revives CSX fraud suit against asbestos lawyers [Dan Fisher, Forbes] “Asbestos defendants want automatic access to info in bankruptcy trusts” [Chamber-backed LNL]
  • Creation of noncompliant consumer financial product is a criminal offense under Dodd-Frank [Josh Wright, TotM]
  • Man sues over seeing contestants eat rats on NBC reality show “Fear Factor” [six years ago on Overlawyered]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/01/january-7-roundup-2/feed/ 4     January 4 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2011/01/january-4-roundup-3/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/01/january-4-roundup-3/#comments Tue, 04 Jan 2011 05:08:38 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=20810
  • Report: dead woman’s name robo-signed onto thousands of collection documents [Business Insider] Or was it? [comment, Fredrickson/Collections and Credit Risk (alleging that living daughter shares name of deceased mother)] “Are faked attorney signatures the ‘next huge issue’ in the foreclosure scandal?” [Renee Knake, Legal Ethics Forum]
  • “Major Verdict Threatens to Bankrupt Maker of Exercise Equipment” [Laura Simons, Abnormal Use]
  • Decline in competitiveness of U.S. capital markets owes much to legal and regulatory developments [Bainbridge, related]
  • Deadly Choices, The Panic Virus: Dr. Paul Offit and Seth Mnookin have new books out on vaccine controversy [Orac]
  • “No one’s trying to get rich off this,” says lawyer planning suit on behalf of A train subway riders stranded during NYC blizzard [NY Daily News]
  • Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna continues to seek solutions to state’s uniquely exposed litigation position, including fix of joint and several liability [Seattle Times, background here and here]
  • ABA Blawg 100 picks — and a critique;
  • Alabama bar orders lawyer’s law license suspended, but in the mean time he’s been elected judge [four years ago on Overlawyered]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2011/01/january-4-roundup-3/feed/ 5     Tort liability for property losses http://overlawyered.com/2010/12/tort-liability-for-property-losses/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/12/tort-liability-for-property-losses/#comments Thu, 02 Dec 2010 05:07:28 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=20439 The Washington Supreme Court opens a product liability can of worms by abandoning a traditional doctrine that prescribes that when there was a contract between the parties, remedies for purely economic loss blamed on product defectiveness must be based on principles of contract law, not tort law. [Russell Jackson]

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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/12/tort-liability-for-property-losses/feed/ 2     November 12 roundup http://overlawyered.com/2010/11/november-12-roundup-3/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/11/november-12-roundup-3/#comments Fri, 12 Nov 2010 12:42:54 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=20109
  • By reader acclaim: “Rules in Chandler restrooms: Don’t drink from toilets” [Arizona Republic]
  • Arbitration and class actions before the Supreme Court: “Misconceptions about Concepcion” [Andrew Trask]
  • County commissioner candidate sues county employees, rival over election flyer [Whidbey Island, Wash. News-Times]
  • Fannie’s Tammany: MacLean, Nocera on the politicized world of the mortgage GSEs [Tabarrok]
  • $56 million obstetrics verdict against Westchester County, N.Y. hospital [Hochfelder]
  • Legal Ethics Forum is looking for guest bloggers;
  • New Federalist Society white papers on Ohio and North Carolina supreme courts;
  • “When Art Imitates Life: Suing for Defamation in Fiction” [Jane Kleiner, Citizen Media Law]
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    ]]>     http://overlawyered.com/2010/11/november-12-roundup-3/feed/ 1     Update: Judge upholds $13 M award for Seattle firefighter http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/update-judge-upholds-13-m-award-for-seattle-firefighter/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/update-judge-upholds-13-m-award-for-seattle-firefighter/#comments Fri, 22 Oct 2010 05:09:23 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=19798 Updating our August 12 item: “A King County Superior Court judge refused Monday to vacate a nearly $13 million award to a Seattle firefighter who was injured at a fire station in 2003. The city of Seattle appealed the award after an investigator it hired captured Mark Jones on surveillance video dancing, chopping wood, playing horseshoes and bocce ball this past spring.” Judge Susan Craighead said the city should have developed its evidence earlier and that the standard for demonstrating fraud is an extremely high one in cases of this kind. [KOMO]

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