- Some backers of big national service plan say better roll it out now before the crisis atmosphere passes [Welch, Reason “Hit and Run”]
- Sorry ma’am, if hubby’s policy excludes coverage for injury to family members, you can’t blame him as “uninsured motorist” [The Briefcase, Ohio]
- Much-cited “$70/hr” figure for GM labor costs misleading: covers army of retirees, not just current workers [Salmon; but see McArdle]
- Thoughts on alleged inability of GM to get debtor-in-possession financing for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy [Oman, ConcurOp]
- Texas p.i. atty Mark Lanier famous for Xmas parties headlined by top stars, this year it’s Miley Cyrus a/k/a Hannah Montana [ABA Journal]
- “I Want Angry Jurors With Low Self-Esteem” [Bennett, Defending People]
- “We just really wanted to shatter the cupcake-pizza dichotomy. It’s just existed for too long.” [Seth Gitter via Tyler Cowen]
Archive for 2008
Technical disruptions continue
1) Email to me and to this site has been hit with big delays and disruptions today and is still not working well. If you sent me something important, consider re-sending it.
2) One effect of the disruptions is that the “microblog” (Twitter) plugin has stopped working, hence no scroll of new Twitter posts in the right column. I’ll try to restore it, and in the mean time may try a “homemade” microblog post of highlights.
“The Current State of Consumer Arbitration”
Ohio State Law professor Sarah Cole and I have a piece in the Fall issue of Dispute Resolution analyzing the empirical data over consumer arbitration–especially the claims made by Public Citizen about it.
No N.Y. forum for Egypt terror plaintiffs
“Israeli and Russian victims of a 2004 terror attack on an Egyptian Hilton cannot sue the hotel in the United States, in part because a judge believed they were seeking a higher recovery from a New York jury sitting blocks from the World Trade Center site. Southern District Judge Peter Leisure found that the plaintiffs, none of whom were Americans, may have been engaging in forum shopping in Niv v. Hilton Hotels Corp., 06 Civ. 7839, and he dismissed the case under the doctrine of forum non conveniens.” (Mark Hamblett, “N.Y. Forum Denied for Suit Over Terror Attack in Egypt”, New York Law Journal, Nov. 19).
“Jedi Injury Lawyer”
A spoof TV lawyer ad; Robot Chicken Star Wars Episode II. (Meredith Woerner, io9, Nov. 13).
“Man sues for libel after being called a D-bag”
Clark County, Nevada: “A man claims Simon & Schuster defamed him in the book “Hot Chicks with Douchebags.” The man says his photo was taken without proper consent, and that he is not, in fact, a you-know-what. (Courthouse News, Nov. 18 via Justin Levine, Patterico; The Smoking Gun). Earlier here (different suit) and, relatedly, here. More: On Point News (protected “opinion”?)
Site outage now mostly fixed
Intermittent outages have knocked Overlawyered offline for most of the past 24 hours, but it looks as if we’re back now. The problems began with spammer attacks on scripts from our old Movable Type days (moral: if you’re not using old scripts, remove them) and continued with out-of-memory problems.
Some elements of the site may still be missing or not up to date; I’ll be troubleshooting those as the day continues.
Prosecutors’ union pushes measure hobbling California lawyer discipline
“In the wake of a disciplinary hearing against a top local prosecutor, the union that represents Santa Clara County prosecutors and public defenders is asking the California District Attorneys Association to sponsor a bill that would essentially curb the power of the state bar to punish all lawyers. …The proposal follows a recommendation by the state bar that Deputy District Attorney Ben Field be suspended from practicing law for three years — a punishment of unprecedented severity against a Santa Clara County prosecutor. Field is charged with committing misconduct in four criminal cases dating back to 1995, including misleading judges, defying court orders and concealing critical evidence from defense lawyers in pursuit of convictions.” The union objects (among other things) to letting disciplinary authorities look that far into the past for bad behavior. (Tracey Kaplan, “Prosecutors seek to curb powers of disciplinary board”, San Jose Mercury News, Nov. 7) (via Legal Ethics Forum).
“In case you weren’t sure how to use a staircase”
A sign at Edinburgh Airport will help you out. (Massie, Nov. 17).
Microblog 2008-11-18
- “Mark Cuban Buys SEC, Dismisses All Charges Against Himself” [Dateline Hollywood h/t @SecuritiesD] #
- Ultra-close-up high-rez photos of spiders [Dark Roasted Blend] #
- Overlawyered was down much of Tuesday, looks like problem was with a WP tag plugin exhausting memory #
- New Bush regs: health providers must let religious employees pick and choose which care to assist with [Ronald Bailey, Reason “Hit and Run”] #
- On behalf of his NYC fan base, huzzah for lawprof Richard Epstein who’s moving from U. Chicago to NYU [NLJ] #
- Luggage that’s almost assured to draw scrutiny from TSA screeners in airport lines [Boing Boing via Happy Hospitalist] #
- Entire 50-year run of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts comic strip now online [Comics.com via Feral Child] #
- “Don’t close your blog’s comments” but read on, I cite some good reasons to close ’em [Amy Derby] #