Four more new reader missives appear on our correspondence page, including: we meet another frequent California filer of disabled-rights complaints; the high cost of winning your case if you’re a doctor who gets sued; a new “Priceless Pets” damage suit, from Chicago this time; and the state of self-defense in the U.K.
Archive for March, 2005
Welcome Small Business Advocate listeners
I was a guest on Jim Blasingame’s national radio program “The Small Business Advocate” yesterday, discussing class actions and other topics. You can listen to the show live on the web; one way to find the link is from his archive of law-related shows. Jim Blasingame was kind enough to call The Rule of Lawyers “one of my favorite books”; you can find a copy on Amazon (hardcover or paperback). For more information on how employment lawsuits have watered down strength prerequisites for law enforcement jobs (such as those guarding courthouses in Atlanta and other places), check this Point of Law post.
Atlanta courthouse shootings
Over on Point of Law, I have a short piece on the small contribution employment law developments made to Brian Nichols’s escape and resulting murder of three or four people. Michelle Malkin’s readers debate the issue. Certainly, there were other contibuting farcical errors, including a weak prosecution that resulted in a mistrial the first time Nichols’s rape count was tried, the shocking underreaction to Nichols trying to smuggle shanks into the courtroom, nobody monitoring the cameras that showed Nichols overpowering Cynthia Hill, and police overlooking for thirteen hours that a Honda thought to be an escape vehicle was still in the garage where it had supposedly been carjacked.
Rest assured, though, that the Fulton County judicial system appears to have at least as many snafus as its security system:
“Doctor fights, wins; lawyers aren’t swayed”
Dr. Zev Maycon has been sued four times in three years; he’s been dismissed before trial each time, but has missed weeks of work as a result, to the detriment of his patients. The only time he’s been able to recover his expenses for these meritless lawsuits is the one time an attorney was impolitic enough to acknowledge the lack of evidence and explicitly demand settlement money as a precondition for dropping the suit. Though none of the press mentions it, a meritless suit in Ohio state court isn’t considered “frivolous” unless there’s evidence that it’s brought in bad faith. The sanctioned attorney, Catherine Little, is appealing, the costs of which may end up exceeding the $6,000 sanctions if the appeal isn’t also considered frivolous. (Tracy Wheeler, Akron Beacon-Journal, Mar. 14; Medpundit, Mar. 13; OSMA press release).
Today’s police chase lawsuit round-up
In Connecticut, the town of Norwalk is paying $1.5 million in a settlement with pedestrians hit by a drunk driver fleeing police. Plaintiffs had sought millions. “[Julia] Johnson’s estate sought additional compensation for her death from cancer in August 2001. The estate argued that Johnson’s injuries caused her to miss a scheduled mammogram that would have caught the cancer in its early stages.” The settlement seems to be a “moral hazard” artifact of the insurance policy, which covered negligence, but not recklessness; the judge had ruled the city couldn’t be held liable for negligence, and the city worried that a jury sympathizing with the plaintiffs would’ve simply found the quantum of recklessness needed so they could award damages. This is a useful example about the inefficacy of immunity statutes that protect against “negligence” but not “gross negligence.” (Brian Lockhart, “City pays $1.5M to settle suit with hurt pedestrians”, Stamford Advocate, Mar. 14). Unrelatedly, Norwalk is also the defendant in a suit by Linda Gorman. Gorman took a job in the town clerk’s office , interacting with the general public, but complains that the town isn’t doing enough to deal with her sensitivity to fragrances and perfumes. (Brian Lockhart, “Norwalk City Hall employee files lawsuit over perfume”, Stamford Advocate, Mar. 1).
Thousands of miles away, a jury found Hawaii County 34% responsible for the death of Ellison Sweezey, who was killed when Richard Rosario, a 20-year-old crystal meth addict fleeing police, ran a red light and struck her car. Cost to taxpayers: $1.9 million. If there were joint and several liability, the county would also be on the hook for Rosario’s share. (Rod Thompson, “Jury awards $5.6M in death from car chase”, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Mar. 9; “$5.6M awarded to family of Big Island crash victim”, Honolulu Advertiser, Mar. 9). Hawaii police have undergone training to limit their willingness to chase suspects, with the expected counterproductive result (which we discussed Sep. 21, 2003) that criminals are now more likely to flee because their chances of escape have increased. (Rod Thompson, “Car theft suspect flees after slow-speed pursuit”, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Mar. 10). Other car-chase lawsuits: Jan. 3; Feb. 18, 2004 (& letter to the editor, Apr. 12).
“When pets die at the vet, grieving owners call lawyers”
USA Today surveys the field (Laura Parker, Mar. 15). So did we (Jul 30, 2003 and links therein; see also Mar. 8).
Thank you, Dan Rather
…for helping rid us of the noxious Fairness Doctrine (Thomas W. Hazlett, “Dan Rather’s Good Deed”, Weekly Standard, Mar. 21, reprinted at Manhattan Institute site).
Browbeating the other side’s lawyer?
It’s really important to make sure things have gone off the record and that the deposition transcript isn’t still running, especially if you’re going to threaten bodily harm (Kelly-Moore Paint Co. motion for sanctions against Eric Birge of Brent Coon & Associates in a Texas asbestos case (PDF))(courtesy Evan Schaeffer, who comments).
“Judge throws out lawsuit over summer homework”
Another widely noted pro se suit comes to grief: Wisconsin judge Richard J. Sankovitz has thrown out the lawsuit filed by 17-year-old Peer Larson and his father arguing that mandatory summer homework should not have been assigned in the honors math class Larson wanted to take (see Jan. 21). “Had the Larsons done a bit more homework, they would have discovered that the people of our state granted to the Legislature … the power to establish school boards and the state superintendent and to confer upon them the powers and duties the Legislature saw fit,” wrote the judge in his order (PDF, courtesy Courthouse News). (AP/Janesville, Wis. Gazette, Mar. 9).
Judge tosses “Fear Factor” suit
“A judge threw out a lawsuit in which a viewer sued NBC for $2.5 million, contending that he threw up because of a ‘Fear Factor’ episode in which contestants ate rats mixed in a blender. U.S. District Judge Lesley Wells called Austin Aitken’s lawsuit frivolous and warned him against appealing.” The handwritten suit (see Jan. 7) was pro se. (“Judge Nixes Viewer’s ‘Fear Factor’ Lawsuit”, AP/Fox News, Mar. 10).