Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Archive for 2006

Bartlett, “Impostor”

In the mail: my old friend Bruce Bartlett’s new book, “Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy“, discussed by its author here. I haven’t had a chance to do more than skim it, but here’s a truncated version of its Appendix I, reminding us of the record of Presidents in using their veto pens to stop legislation:

FDR…………635 vetoes
Truman…………250
Eisenhower…..181
Kennedy…………21
Johnson…………30
Nixon……………..43
Ford………………66
Carter…………….31
Reagan………….78
G.H.W. Bush…..44
Clinton……………38
Geo. W. Bush……0

Among the legislation enacted under the presidency of George W. Bush is the free-speech-curtailing McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill (which he’d pledged to veto), Sarbanes-Oxley, the prescription drug entitlement, and the expansion of the federal role in education, as well as innumerable profligate appropriations bills. The most recent president to veto no bills, before the current one, was James Garfield, who served for only about a half year in 1881 because of his untimely death.

Filed under:

Soda suits: Banzhaf browbeats school officials

More skirmishing in preparation for the expected lawsuit against soft-drink vendors over sales in Massachusetts schools (see Dec. 5, Dec. 7, Feb. 7, etc.), via a Boston Globe editorial (“Vending against obesity”, Jan. 30):

In advance of the suit, Washington lawyer John Banzhaf sent an e-mail to 50-100 school committee members in Massachusetts ”to warn of your inevitable involvement in these law suits as a named party or otherwise…”

A couple of years back, Banzhaf threatened to sue the Seattle school district for renewing a $400,000 vending-machine contract with Coca-Cola (Jul. 3, 2003). Prof. Banzhaf’s other doings, which have ensured him regular appearances on this site, include proposing lawsuits against parents of obese children and against doctors who fail to warn their obese patients about overeating (Dec. 3, 2004).

Filed under: , , , ,

A South Park episode, deep-sixed?

From a Rolling Stone investigative report on L. Ron Hubbard’s Church of Scientology (Janet Reitman, “Inside Scientology”, Feb. 23):

The church has a storied reputation for squelching its critics through litigation, and according to some reports, intimidation (a trait that may explain why the creators of South Park jokingly attributed every credit on its November 2005 sendup of Scientology to the fictional John and Jane Smith; Paramount, reportedly under pressure, has agreed not to rerun the episode here or to air it in England).

More on Scientology and litigation: Oct. 25, 2005, Apr. 16, 2004; Mar. 25-26, 2002; Mar. 19-20, 2001; May 3, 2000.

Filed under: ,

Fashion and IP protection

It’s common for producers of fashionable clothing to rip off each other’s popular ideas, and unless an item of apparel carries a deceptive label American law will provide little legal recourse for the original innovator against the imitator. Why is American fashion design nonetheless a highly innovative field? And does a similar analysis carry over to other areas where legal protection against copycats is weak, such as furniture design, hairstyle design and the development of food recipes? Tyler Cowen wonders at Marginal Revolution (Feb. 27).

Filed under:

Sued for taking baths too early

Shannon Peterson, a special education teacher in the Arvada, Colo. public schools, “can’t believe she’s being sued for bathing before leaving for work.” But the elderly couple who lives upstairs from her Denver condo unit have been complaining about noisy pipes, and unfortunately for Ms. Peterson they happen to have a son, Sheldon Smith, who’s an attorney at the large law firm of Holland and Hart. Represented by their son, the Smiths “sued Peterson just before Christmas, citing the ‘reckless and negligent use of her bathtub.'” Before that, the younger Smith had fired off a letter to Peterson, saying her “intransigence … and tortuous conduct have resulted in incredible sleep deprivation for Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Your obstinacy has ruled the day. That will now cease.” According to the Denver Post, his demand letter insisted that Peterson not run water in her bathtub before 8 a.m. Peterson says she can’t afford steep legal fees on a schoolteacher’s salary; a judge has scheduled a hearing on the suit for March 22. (Mike McPhee, “Lawsuit: Baths swamp sleep”, Denver Post, Feb. 21).

Filed under:

Flying the trial lawyer skies

Duly noted: Pennsylvania state treasurer and U.S. Senate candidate Robert P. Casey Jr. last June made his first fund-raising trip outside the East Coast, flying to Dallas aboard a private jet owned by the law firm of Baron & Budd, poster kids for legal ethics in the asbestos realm. “Casey flew out of Dallas with more than $71,000, including $28,000 from employees of Baron and Budd.” (Carrie Budoff, “Money at center of Senate contest”, Knight Ridder/Centre Daily Times, Feb. 13)(OpenSecrets.org). Similar: Jan. 8, 2001 (Sen. Edward Kennedy).

Filed under: , ,

Update: licensing eBay sellers

Now it’s California legislators: “California residents who sell goods on eBay could have to pay a $295 fee and be regulated in the same way as pawnbrokers under legislation designed to crack down on the sale of stolen property.” Opponents say the bill would drive out of business thousands of antique dealers and consignment shops, as well as eBay sellers and the dropoff shops and sellers’ agents that work with them. Pawnbrokers, who are pushing the legislation, say that state law already requires that sales of secondhand goods be reported to local law enforcement, but that the law has gone unenforced against everyone but themselves. In recent years influential Sacramento legislators, including Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco), have unsuccessfully proposed measures to require secondhand sellers to report transactions to a state law enforcement database, which is the pawnbrokers’ key demand. (Greg Lucas, “Pawnbrokers try, try and try again”, San Francisco Chronicle, Feb. 25). We earlier discussed proposals for licensing of eBay sellers in Ohio (Mar. 21, 2005) and North Dakota (Oct. 13, 2005).

Filed under: , ,

“BlackBerry Lawsuit Is Patently Absurd”

So says Rob Pegoraro in today’s Washington Post.

It’s not that NTP never turned its ideas into a product. The patent system doesn’t reserve success to owners of factories and laboratories; the guy living in his parents’ basement is allowed to sell his idea to people with those resources.

No, the problem here is simpler. There are too many bogus patents getting handed out.

Pegoraro also notes that RIM is hardly an innocent in the patent wars. The potential injunction has gotten loads of press coverage; Howard Bashman has roundups here, here, and here. See also Point of Law, Nov. 25, and Overlawyered’s Blackberry litigation coverage.

Filed under: ,