In one of Australia’s most notorious mass murders, Julian Knight shot dead seven people and wounded 19 others in Hoddle Street, Melbourne in 1987. Knight was committed to prison where he developed into an inveterate filer of legal complaints which “have cost the Justice Department about [A]$250,000 in staff time and external legal expenses in the past two years alone”, having pursued over that period 28 appeals as well as numerous freedom of information requests. (Ian Munro, “Hoddle Street mass killer faces court curb”, Melbourne Age, Nov. 10).
Archive for November, 2003
Spare $450 for a complaint?
The city of Chicago has agreed to pay up to $450 each to about 3,000 persons who had been arrested or ticketed for panhandling. “The panhandlers’ lawyers, from three firms, will split $375,000.” Panhandling advocates had reacted with indignation to a city proposal to issue the beggars warm clothing instead of cash. For a case from San Francisco in which many of the recipients of such a cash distribution spent their handouts on something other than warm clothing, see Feb. 3, 2000. (Curtis Lawrence, “Beggars can be choosers”, Chicago Sun-Times, Nov. 9).
Shoplifting fired cop sues for $40M
John Intermor was fired after being caught shoplifting in 1999. “He admitted to shoplifting $88 worth of electronic equipment, but pled guilty to a lesser charge.
“But his lawyer, Lawrence Gordon of Westbury, said village officials took advantage of his client.” (Sid Cassese, “Fired Cop Files $40 M Lawsuit”, Newsday, Nov. 10).
Business Insurance “Best of the Web”
We’re happy to report that this site has been named a “Best of the Web 2003” pick by Business Insurance, a magazine we’ve been reading for many years to keep abreast of developments in the liability world. Columnist/reporter Mark Hofmann calls us “truly a treasure trove, so be sure you?ve allotted plenty of time when you visit this site — it merits more than a quick perusal”. He lauds our “impressive cache of archival material dating back to 1999”, says we provide a “valuable public service”, and — we especially like this part — recommends throwing a few coins in our Amazon Honor System donation box (see right column of front page) (overview / our write-up, scroll to second item)
Medical privacy madness, cont’d
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has more about how HIPAA, the federal medical-privacy act, is undercutting care (see Oct. 23). For example, doctors who believe their elderly patients should not be driving anymore are less likely to pass on the word to family members. ‘We’re [also] seeing more medication errors in older patients because of this,’ says John Riesch, a vascular surgeon for the past 41 years and a former president of the Medical Society of Wisconsin. … The patients, who were used to having family members or companions help them figure out their medications, are now fending for themselves and sometimes taking the wrong dosage, Riesch says.” A federal regulator, meanwhile, expresses impatience at some doctors’ overcaution on these matters: despite “persistent” and “destructive” myths to the contrary, “spouses can pick up prescriptions for one another, doctors can send e-mails to their patients, and hospitals can release a patient’s room number and condition if the patient approves,” and so forth. Silly doctors, to be so spooked by the prospect of $10,000 fines for overstepping hundreds of pages of guidelines. (Meg Kissinger, “Fears over privacy law compromising care”, Nov. 8).
At-will employment
Dan Seligman writes an intriguing piece about at-will employment, the value it presents to an economy, attempts to have exceptions swallow the rule, and the irony of the New York Times invoking it in a recent employment dispute. (“The Right to Fire”, Forbes, Nov. 10 (registration required)). One of Governor Gray Davis’s departing gifts to California taxpayers was his signing of SB 578, an end to at-will employment for government contractors (on pain of criminal prosecution), which will manifest itself in increased litigation expenses and transaction costs. (Kathy Robertson, “New laws reshape workplace”, Sacramento Business Journal, Oct. 20).
New York Landlord-Tenant Court
One side effect of Manhattan rent control is that it creates a source of litigation that wouldn’t exist under a market-based system. When a tenant has a right to rent a 2800-sq. ft. SoHo loft for a few hundred dollars a month, it means that it’s worth holding a seventeen-day trial to determine whether the tenant is using the loft as her primary residence. If the tenant, who owns multiple pieces of real estate in New Hampshire, was paying market rents, then whether she was using the loft as a primary residence would be legally and economically irrelevant, and the trial would never have happened. Imagine how much is lost because New York City tenants and landlords litigate thousands of “holdover” cases every year. (Dennis Hevesi, “The Knottiest Cases of Landlord v. Tenant”, New York Times, Nov. 9; Henry Pollakowski, “Who Really Benefits from New York City?s Rent Regulation System?”, Manhattan Institute Civic Report, March 2003).
Mongo lawsuit
“Mongo the steer is now Mongo the steak, but his case lives on in a lawsuit against officials who took away the animal’s championship ribbon at the Illinois State Fair.” Mongo was disqualified, and his ribbon given to Scooby, when urine tests showed he’d been given banned medicine, perhaps to keep him from limping in front of the judges. The family complains that they weren’t able to get the rulebook off of the Internet because their dial-up connection was too slow to obtain the file, and ask for the rules to be struck — is a lawsuit against the ISP next? (“Champion disqualified; family sues”, AP, Nov. 8; “Steer scandal stirs state fair”, AP, Aug. 13).
“Three Former Players Sue MLB Over Pension”
Doug Pappas’s excellent “Business of Baseball Weblog” covers a recent lawsuit against Major League Baseball filed by former players upset that the rules were changed to make it easier to vest for pensions.
They allege that they were discriminated against when the pension rules were amended 22 years ago to reduce the vesting period for pension benefits from five years to 43 days and for medical benefits from five years to one day, but only for players then active. In their world, it’s unlawful discrimination to negotiate better benefits for current employees without making those benefits retroactive for all existing retirees. In our world, it’s not. Indeed, other groups of retired players have sued and lost over this issue.
The lawsuit also complains about a one-time $10,000 payment made to former Negro Leaguers in 1997 who also weren’t eligible for the pension. (Pappas blog, Oct. 17; “Lawsuit alleges discrimination due to race”, AP, Oct. 16; complaint). When a lawyer files a class action, he or she is representing only a few members of the class who have retained that lawyer (called “the named plaintiffs”, since they are named in the caption of the suit), and is requesting the right to represent absent members of the class, who may or may not support the suit, and may or may not elect to opt out even if the court certifies the class. But the AP coverage, as is common in journalistic coverage of class actions, (see, e.g., Oct. 21), inexplicably focuses several paragraphs on prominent absent class members who had nothing to do with the lawsuit.
“I didn’t know I was suing you!”
It’s something doctors run into more and more often: one of their patients is suing them, but doesn’t seem to be aware of it. In one common fact pattern, the patient is recruited into a mass tort suit against a pharmaceutical maker, whereupon the lawyer names the doctor as an added defendant. Feeling bad about this, the client may ask the lawyer to remove the doctor’s name from the list of those being sued — but asking isn’t necessarily the same as getting the lawyer to do it. Quotes yours truly and mentions this site (Dorothy Pennachio, Medical Economics, Nov. 7).