- Dontdatehimgirl.com lawsuit suffers another setback. A court ruled today that the Pittsburgh-based lawyer-plaintiff can’t sue the Florida-based website in Pennsylvania. (Howard Bashman). The suit against the website is frivolous in any case; it is well-established that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act immunizes the website. (The suit against the posters, on the other hand, is a legitimate defamation claim.) Previously covered on Overlawyered: Jul. 2006, Jan. 2007.
- In Easton, Pennsylvania, a police officer accidentally shoots and kills another police officer after cleaning his gun; now the widow is filing a $20 million wrongful death lawsuit against the city, the mayor, city administrator, the police chief, the shooter, the head of the SWAT team of which the players were both members, a fellow officer who was standing nearby, and the retired former head of the SWAT team. I’m sure one of them has the money.
- Philadelphia city councilwoman — and some tourism officials — wants to require licensing of city tour guides, including history tests, so that they don’t provide inaccurate history to tourists.
- In 1999, a 19-year old college student named Richard Beers was killed while working construction over the summer. He had stopped the backhoe he was using on a hill, left the motor running, and walked behind it. It rolled down and ran him over. So his family blamed… Caterpillar, which had manufactured the backhoe, and sued for $25 million plus punitive damages. Last week, an Ohio jury found Caterpillar not liable — and it only took eight years (six years after the suit was filed) to resolve the matter.
Roundup – April 9
Dontdatehimgirl.com lawsuit suffers another setback. A court ruled today that the Pittsburgh-based lawyer-plaintiff can’t sue the Florida-based website in Pennsylvania. (Howard Bashman). The suit against the website is frivolous in any case; it is well-established that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act immunizes the website. (The suit against the posters, on the other hand, […]
4 Comments
What’s the “overlawyered” angle the Philidlphia tourism thing? That actually sounds fairly reasonable (it being a LOCAL thing, where the founders clearly intended most government power to be). The political stuff recently has to do with lawsyers in politics or politicians’ viws on tort reform, but this? I must be missing something…
And sadly (on your last point), 6 years in litigation is actually not too bad, relativly speaking…
The naming of the “police officer standing by” is quite puzzling. Is he being sued for negligently failing to hurl his body into the 3 inches between the handgun and the victim?
Deoxy: part of Overlawyering is overlaw-ing. (That’s an awkward sentence, but you get the idea.) Do you really think the government needs to create books of rules and regulations for how to give a tour? (And don’t you think there might be some First Amendment issues — not to mention academic issues — with declaring one version of history to be “true” and punishing people who describe contrary theories?)
I agre with that to a certain degree (how can one follow the law when the governmnt states as fact that you no one person is capable of knowing the law?!?), but I also feel that LOCAL authorities should (and were) granted vry wide latitude and lots of power, as they affect the fewest people and should be (in most cases) most reponsive to their constuents and most easily replaced.
As to the First Amendment issues, 2 reponses:
1) While “one version of history” might be open for debate, some are clearly NOT – they are demonstrably false. “Factoids” and good stories for the tourists may mak more money for the tour guide or fill his tour time more asily, but I can certainly see grounds for slander in some of them, etc, etc.
2) we license some professions; this isn’t about limiting what an private citizen can say in private, but what a paid tour guide can say to the people who pay him. You may make the case that this is not a good profession to treat this way, etc, but it’s not breaking new ground in any way, Constitutionally speaking.