“Wearing signs reading: ‘They’re Carbs not Contraband,’ ‘Give Us our Just Desserts’ and ‘We’re Old Enough to Choose,’ a dozen senior citizens picketed outside [a Mahopac, N.Y. senior center] protesting a recently imposed ban on the sugared treats at Putnam County-operated nutritional sites.” For years supermarkets and bakeries have donated day-old pastries to senior centers, but last month the county called a halt to the program, saying that the treats violated federal nutritional standards for the elderly and might pose safety dangers. The AP story carried this classically sensitive and humanistic quote from Michael Jacobson of that group of untiring busybodies, the self-proclaimed Center for Science in the Public Interest: “Senior citizens can walk down to the store and buy doughnuts. Nobody’s stopping them”. [Putnam County Courier; Westchester Journal-News; Associated Press]
Archive for September, 2007
Virginia Postrel…
…has sang-froid (scroll to end).
AEI program on patent reform bill
The AEI Legal Center for the Public Interest’s patent law program tomorrow has a tremendous lineup. Jack Calfee and Claude Barfield will be discussing their new monograph, Biotechnology and the Patent System; the general counsels of Eli Lilly and of Cisco, among others, will be debating the pending patent reform bill. The event is open to the public and will be webcast, as well.
On the whiplash trail
Might become a rich source of material for this site: Attorney Jonathan G. Stein of Elk Grove, Calif. has launched a blog on “Litigating MIST Cases,” MIST in this case standing for “Minimum Injury, Soft Tissue” auto-crash cases, or, in practical terms, “Any car crash with less than $1,500 in property damage and a soft tissue type injury, i.e. neck or back pain, sometimes called ‘whiplash.'” (Claims of “soft tissue” injury, unlike those from bruises, lacerations or broken bones, typically are hard or impossible to verify to the satisfaction of all sides). One recent entry begins: “Face it, most MIST patients end up at a chiropractor. …the chiropractor always asks who the attorney is on the file.” An earlier entry promises to explain “how the chiropractor can treat the patient to help you accomplish your goal — obtain a fair and reasonable settlement for your client.”
Stein is also selling a book on the handling of these cases and promotes it as follows:
I just settled a case. Client was in an accident causing no visible damage to her vehicle. The defendant had less than $500 in damage to her car. Client had $2,200 in treatment. Settlement pre-lit: $8,500. That is almost four times the special damages. On a MIST case.
So, yes, this system works.
Per Stein’s biographical blurb, “Most of his practice consists of MIST cases.” More on chiropractors here, and more on whiplash here.
September 23 roundup
- Lawyers in Iowa suit against Microsoft bag $75 million [ComputerWorld, ABA Journal; earlier antics in case here, here, here, and here]
- Not a parody: Santa Cruz, Calif. says smoking in the park’s OK so long as its pot, not tobacco [Mercury-News via Bader]
- L.A.’s big payout in Tennie Pierce case (firehouse dog food prank) deemed “completely outrageous”, “‘best possible’ outcome” (or both?) [Patterico, more, John and Ken, LoneWacko, Holy Coast; earlier]
- Suit by Paris, Tex. hospital seeks to uncover name of anonymous blogger [Houston Chronicle](& Coyote)
- Global-warming litigation roundups [Associated Press, Daily Report, NJLJ/PoL, Horner @ NRO]
- Sues American Cancer Society after slipping on step at charity fund-raiser [Madison County Record, more]
- Have Islamic Society of Boston lawsuits chilled local media? [Boston Phoenix via Romenesko]
- Four guilty pleas so far in case of West Orange, N.J.’s Seligsohn, Goldberger & Shinrod, which paid runners to bring in staged and non-existent auto accidents [NJLJ first, second reports]
- New at Point of Law: war on terror “lawyered to death“?; Florida insurance craziness; subprime lending crusade; France’s “model” health care system would offer few chances to attorneys like John Edwards; Mississippi AG Hood says “the system is working” on outside contracts; Sen. Ted Kennedy’s new “Equal Remedies Act of 2007” would boost payouts in workplace suits; and much more;
- Browser add-ons that help squelch ads may be headed for litigation [Broache & McCullagh, CNet]
- Lottery winner’s curse? Among other woes since winning nearly $315 million in Powerball, Jack Whittaker says he’s been involved in 460 legal actions [Chicago Tribune]
Dan Rather vs. CBS, cont’d
Beldar doesn’t hold back (Sept. 22) from telling us what he thinks:
Rather’s case — as incredibly, stinkingly, appallingly, cosmically bogus as it is — nevertheless has some considerable settlement value: Not because CBS is likely to lose to Rather if the truth is confirmed in court, but because individual decision-makers within CBS may have overwhelming vested interests in ensuring that the facts are not thoroughly probed in court.
Earlier: Sept. 19. More buzz: Howard Kurtz/WaPo, Eugene Volokh, New York Post “Page Six”, Bertovici/Portfolio.com.
Seattle schools pro bono, cont’d
It’s sparking further discussion:
Hey, Davis Wright Tremaine, and your clients, the parents who sued the district: This is insane.
You argue this isn’t to enrich the firm, but to punish the district. The theory is that the fees, at $1.8 million and rising, are a lash to whip the district for its bad race-based deeds.
When I called the lawyers Tuesday, they compared it to, among other cases, their pro bono defense of a prisoner beaten by L.A. jail guards.
This makes no sense. Seattle’s policy wasn’t intended to hurt anyone, let alone beat them to a pulp.
(Danny Westneat, “The bill just keeps going up”, Seattle Times, Sept. 19; Emily Heffter, “Billing in ‘pro bono’ cases is fodder for ethics debate”, Seattle Times, Sept. 18; Above the Law, Sept. 18).
Giuliani and guns
Don Surber welcomes Hizzoner’s conversion; Sister Toldjah remains to be convinced (disclaimer; and see quote from me here; our page on firearms litigation and regulation). More: By coincidence, the Bloomberg administration is in court at the moment trying to argue that the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act doesn’t actually put the kibosh on the city’s gun suits, despite a mountain of evidence that it was intended to do just that (Mark Hamblett, “2nd Circuit Hears Arguments on Letting NYC’s Gun Suit Go to Trial, New York Law Journal, Sept. 24).
New book on golf law
San Diego lawprof John “Jack” H. Minan’s “The Little Green Book of Golf Law”, published by the ABA and hitting bookstores about now, treats of errant balls and many other legal issues that arise in the Wodehouse-beloved outdoor game. I would note that “Iowa golfer Walter Olson”, portrayed unflatteringly in one of the stories, is guaranteed a different person from and unrelated to me. (Tod Leonard, “Law doesn’t control way ball bounces”, San Diego Union-Tribune, Sept. 11).
Big Government, Big Business, and artisanal food
Alex Cockburn a few years back, quoted by Jacob Sullum at Reason “Hit and Run” (Sept. 17):
A lot of the history of food regulation in this country has turned out to be a way to finish off small, quality producers by demanding they invest in whatever big ticket items the USDA happens to be in love with at the time; said love objects usually turning out to be whatever the big food processors are using. That’s the reason why it’s hard to get decent sausages or hams….The big packers and processing plants get to participate directly in the writing of the laws that set the standard practices that the inspectors march out to enforce on all the little producers not part of the Meat Syndicate.