Overlawyered » Wisconsin

Labor and employment law roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 24 May 2012 04:08:17 +0000

Gov. Walker’s public sector labor reforms popular with Wisconsin voters, and have saved taxpayers a fortune [Morrissey, Fund, Marquette poll (public favors new law by 50-43 margin] What would FDR say? [Dalmia, The Daily]
“Why you should stop attending diversity training” [Suzanne Lucas, CBS MarketWatch, following up on our earlier post]
The gang that couldn’t regulate straight: “Court rebuffs Labor Department on sales rep overtime” [Dan Fisher, Forbes] Lack of quorum trips up NLRB on “quickie”/ambush elections scheme [Workplace Prof]
Not all claimed “gun rights” are authentic, some come at expense of the vital principle of at-will employment [Bainbridge]
Brace yourself, legal academics at work on a Restatement of Employment Law [Michael Fox]
“Why Delaware’s Proposed Workplace Privacy Act Is All Wrong” [Molly DiBianca]
USA Today on lawyers’ role in growth of Social Security disability rolls [Ira Stoll]

Tags: Delaware, employment at will, guns, labor unions, privacy, wage and hour suits, Wisconsin

Labor and employment law roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Wisconsin Cops Confiscate Families’ Bail Money”

Walter Olson — Sun, 20 May 2012 14:55:35 +0000

Another infuriating extension of asset forfeiture law. [Radley Balko, Huffington Post]

Tags: forfeiture, illegal drugs, Wisconsin

“Wisconsin Cops Confiscate Families’ Bail Money” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Lilly Ledbetter back in news

Walter Olson — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 04:33:01 +0000

Mitt Romney, following a long tradition of GOP candidates unable or unwilling to resist the continued expansion of employment discrimination law, has pre-emptively blessed Congress’s 2009 enactment of the ill-advised Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act gutting statutes of limitation. Hans Bader offers reasons why he should consider drawing the line. [Examiner] More: Ted Frank.

Related: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker signs bill repealing duplicative damages law passed by his Democratic predecessors, thus contradicting the accepted narrative in which the scope of available damages in job-bias suits is supposed to be revisable only in an upward direction.

Tags: Lilly Ledbetter, Mitt Romney, sex discrimination, Wisconsin, workplace

Lilly Ledbetter back in news is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Wisconsin’s reforms are working”

Walter Olson — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 19:59:24 +0000

Sensible changes to the ground rules on labor relations — including the option to go around the union’s monopoly provider of health care insurance — are saving local governments hundreds of millions of dollars. [John Steele Gordon]

P.S. Bill McGurn on public employee unions in the still very unreformed state of New Jersey [Hillsdale "Imprimis"] And: how some public employees “spike” their pensions in California [L.A. Times via Amy Alkon]

Tags: California, labor unions, public employment, Wisconsin

“Wisconsin’s reforms are working” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

February 24 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 05:07:47 +0000

Melissa Kite, columnist with Britain’s Spectator, writes about her low-speed car crash and its aftermath [first, second, third, fourth]
NYT’s Nocera lauds Keystone pipeline, gets called “global warming denier” [NYTimes] More about foundations’ campaign to throttle Alberta tar sands [Coyote] Regulations mandating insurance “disclosures” provide another way for climate change activists to stir the pot [Insurance and Technology]
“Cop spends weeks to trick an 18-year-old into possession and sale of a gram of pot” [Frauenfelder, BB]
Federal Circuit model order, pilot program could show way to rein in patent e-discovery [Inside Counsel, Corporate Counsel] December Congressional hearing on discovery costs [Lawyers for Civil Justice]
Trial lawyer group working with Senate campaigns in North Dakota, Nevada, Wisconsin, Hawaii [Rob Port via LNL] President of Houston Trial Lawyers Association makes U.S. Senate bid [Chron]
Panel selection: “Jury strikes matter” [Ron Miller, Maryland Injury]
Law-world summaries/Seventeen syllables long/@legal_haiku (& for a similar treatment of high court cases, check out @SupremeHaiku)

Tags: Canada, climate change, discovery, environment, global warming, Hawaii, humor, illegal drugs, jury selection, low-speed auto collisions, Nevada, North Dakota, oil industry, patent litigation, politics, Senate, United Kingdom, Wisconsin

February 24 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Labor and employment law roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 12:18:19 +0000

“Off-clock work: Flintstone laws in a Buck Rogers world” [Robin Shea] “NY Times offers unpaid internships after reporting on their questionable legality” [Poynter]
Walker labor reforms in Wisconsin get results [Christian Schneider: City Journal, NY Post] “Watch the Walker recall election” [John Steele Gordon, Commentary]
No prize for spotting fallacy: complaints that too many Europeans are collecting state disability payments construed as “demonizing disabled people” [Debbie Jolly, ENIL]
“What could be worse than a self-righteous TSA agent? Answer: A TSA agents’ union advocate.” [Ken, Popehat]
“Why Mitt Romney likes firing people” [Suzanne Lucas]
Free speech and union dues: Tim Sandefur on the oral argument in Knox v. SEIU [PLF Liberty Blog] More: Jack Mann, CEI.
My book on employment and labor law, The Excuse Factory, is alas still not available in online formats but you might find a bargain on a hardcover [Free Press/Simon & Schuster]

Tags: labor unions, Mitt Romney, The Excuse Factory, wage and hour suits, Wisconsin

Labor and employment law roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

December 27 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 05:04:27 +0000

Exoneree’s ex sues him for share of state’s wrongful-imprisonment payout [Dallas Observer via Balko]
Gibson’s alleged crime: ebony veneer too thick [Andrew Grossman, earlier here, here]
About that flap over “free” lawyer representation of Wisconsin high court justice [Rick Esenberg, Shark and Shepherd]
Allegation: Binder & Binder, largest Social Security advocacy firm, used red stickers to flag clients’ unfavorable medical info, often withheld it from disability-claim judges [WSJ]
“Judge Dismisses Landmark Bribery Conviction, Rips DOJ” [WSJ Law Blog, Lindsey order, more, my Cato post] FCPA reverse for federal prosecutors in arms trade case [BLT]
Congress passes bill clarifying jurisdiction, venue [Howard Wasserman, Prawfs]
Important reason to record cop-citizen interactions: to protect police from false claims [Scott Greenfield]

Tags: Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, forum shopping, police, Wisconsin

December 27 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Wisconsin lawyer: I won’t represent GOPers since they voted to limit fees

Walter Olson — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:32:24 +0000

“A Milwaukee lawyer who calls himself the ‘lemon law king’ is vowing to never take on a Republican client because of a new law limiting attorney fees in Wisconsin. … In a statement issued on Monday, [Vince] Megna compared Wisconsin to North Korea.” [ABA Journal]

Tags: lawyers, politics, Wisconsin

Wisconsin lawyer: I won’t represent GOPers since they voted to limit fees is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

A swipe at school choice?

Walter Olson — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 05:31:19 +0000

“The Department of Justice has begun an investigation into Wisconsin’s Department of Public Instruction, probing whether Milwaukee’s state-administered voucher system is discriminating against students with disabilities.” [Joy Resmowits, Huffington Post]

Tags: disability & schools, Milwaukee, schools, Wisconsin

A swipe at school choice? is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Wisconsin considers curbing “one-way” attorney fees

Walter Olson — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 13:44:01 +0000

American legislatures since the 1970s have widely employed “one-way” fee provisions — under which courts award fees to prevailing plaintiffs, but not to prevailing defendants — as a way of encouraging plaintiffs and their lawyers to bring a maximum of legal action; especially when the fee shifts are generously calculated, such provisions also put strong pressure on defendants to settle potentially defensible cases rather than take the risk of a big fee award that may exceed the sums in controversy. Now Wisconsin lawmakers are thinking of making the playing field a bit more level by reining in one-way awards, especially those that exceed the underlying dispute; another way of approaching the issue, of course, would be to make the shifts two-way. [Rick Esenberg]

Tags: attorneys' fees, Wisconsin

Wisconsin considers curbing “one-way” attorney fees is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system