July 8 roundup

  • Business groups have signed off on dreadful ADA Restoration Act aimed at expanding disabled-rights lawsuits, reversing high court decisions that had moderated the law [WSJ; more here and here]
  • U.K. man to win damages from rail firms on claim that trauma of Paddington crash turned him into deranged killer [Times Online]
  • Patent cases taken on contingency lead to gigantic paydays for D.C.’s Dickstein Shapiro and Wiley Rein [Kim Eisler, Washingtonian; related last year at Eric Goldman’s]
  • Fort Lauderdale injury lawyer disbarred after stealing $300K in client funds; per an ABA state-by-state listing, Florida has not enacted payee notification to help prevent/detect such goings-on [Sun-Sentinel; more]
  • I’ll pay top dollar for that spot under the bridge: tech firms hope to outbid patent trolls for marginal inventor rights [ABA Journal]
  • Enviro-sympathetic analysis of Navy sonar case [Jamison Colburn, Dorf on Law, first and second posts via Adler @ Volokh]
  • Obama proposal for youth national service “voluntary”? Well, schools will lose funds if they fail to meet goals [Goldberg, LAT; bad link fixed now]
  • Not-so-independent sector: under pressure from Sacramento legislators (Feb. 6, PoL May 30), California foundations pledge to redirect millions toward minority causes [CRC]
  • James Lileks on lawyer-friendly Microsoft Minnesota settlement [four years ago on Overlawyered]

5 Comments

  • RE: Fort Lauderdale injury lawyer–“In his mind, he fully intended to pay back each and every one of his victims.”

    Thanks public defender. I needed a real hearty laugh.

  • Obama and ‘service’?
    Now that’s rich. A black man calling for unpaid forced labor from white people.

  • Payee notification wouldn’t be necessary if payments were made to the party rather than to the lawyers. Lawyers are in a better position to track payment than their clients are, and if clients frequently fail to their lawyers, payee notification of lawywers can always be instituted.

  • […] is poised to enact the ADA Restoration Act.  That law is based on the unfounded notion that the federal courts have too narrowly interpreted […]

  • I’m sure Obama’s appointees will find a penumbra somewhere that allows slavery if the beneficiary is a government agency.