- Cameras in the Neiman Marcus “loss security” (anti-theft operations) room? So unfair when they catch two employees making whoopee [Chicago Tribune via Feral Child]
- Flipping their wigs: after three centuries judges in British civil and family courts today end tradition of horsehair wigs [Times Online]
- The right number? $28 million to Boston victim of negligent Big Dig construction [Globe]
- White collar advice: “Always commit crimes with people more important than you are, so you can turn them in” [Dershowitz, Forbes]
- Injured while skylarking on freight trains, now want Oz taxpayers to pay for their injuries [The Australian]
- That’ll spoil the fun: New Jersey high court bars judges from discussing future employment with lawyers who have pending cases before them [NJLJ]
- Compromise on Capitol Hill lets Pandora survive a little longer to negotiate with music rights owners [ReadWriteWeb; earlier here, here]
- Rapists with leverage over the adoption of a resultant child? [four years ago on Overlawyered]
Archive for 2008
Whoops: “DUI attorney explains her own DUI charge”
Janiece Lacross, a drunk-driving defense lawyer in Washington state, has lately run into her own trouble with the law: “Last November she drove drunk with her three young children in the backseat. She hit a boy on his bike in Kitsap County, breaking his leg and sending him into the bushes. But the vehicular assault charge against her was dropped and reduced to just a DUI, which brought Mothers Against Drunk Driving to court to find out why.” Lacross entered rehab and will accept home monitoring and attend victim impact events as part of her plea in Tacoma to DUI and three counts of reckless endangerment; her repentant statements in court even made a relatively favorable impression on MADD, not the easiest thing to do. The passing bit of the story that induced a momentary double take: as part of her penitence, it is said that Lacross “even helped the young victim, Joseph Griffith, with his civil suit for personal injuries”. Against herself? (Keith Eldridge, KOMO, Oct. 1).
Microblog 2008-10-01
- Tyler Cowen’s views on the credit crisis [Marginal Revolution] #
- Lehman’s role in clearing London trades meant its collapse maimed many customers [NYT DealBook] #
- “Laying on of hands”: Man who used church as front for brothel fights order barring him from massage business [Balko, Hit and Run] #
- “Orphan copyright” proposal dies for this term in Congress [Krafets, Wired “Threat Level”; earlier] #
- Inland Empire woe: spray-painting lawns green to simulate happier times in Calif’s “Foreclosure Alley” [Calculated Risk] #
- Just a reminder: both my blogs now have their own Twitter feeds at @overlawyered and @pointoflaw. #
- “Milk powder” “Falun Gong” “earthquake” — just seeing if that elaborate Chinese web-bug system catches me [NYTimes] #
“RealDVDs, surreal law suits”
“Well, that didn’t take long. One day after RealNetworks releases its DVD copying software, lawsuits are filed. Who’s right, who’s wrong, and where do movie fans fit in?” And are movie industry lawyers going to replace RIAA’s as a target at the center of customers’ dartboards? (Robert X. Cringely, InfoWorld, Oct. 1). More: Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing on the peculiar press-anonymity of some of the lawyers (h/t commenter Orval).
Aerial snooping for property taxes
“A new high-tech aerial photography system that can spot an illegal porch from 5,000 feet is being marketed to tax assessors as a way to grow revenue.” Backers say the system can help assessors spot not only unauthorized building additions but also cases in which taxpayers claim farmstead exemptions but aren’t farming enough of their land to qualify. (Richard Degener, “Taxes could get sky-high with aerial technology”, Press of Atlantic City, Sept. 29).
U.K.: Footballer sues over “negligent” tackle
It’s “like a climber suing a mountain”, writes Rod Liddle of the U.K. case of Manchester United trainee Ben Collett, awarded £4.5 million for the injury. (“Footballer” does not signify American football, but soccer). (The Spectator, Aug. 13; Times Online, Telegraph).
No sign of pregnancy? “That’s because the baby is wrapped in plastic”
What sorts of things will people file medical lawsuits over, when it costs only $10 to do so? Well, there’s failure to take care of a complaint of being 7 1/2 years pregnant. “After the plaintiff’s dismissal, she attempted to sue the judge.” (SymTym, Sept. 29).
Microblog 2008-09-30
- Good bank/bad bank snipouts preferable to having taxpayers overpay for junky assets [John Hussman] #
- AEI’s Peter Wallison: don’t blame deregulation for credit crisis [Bloomberg.com] #
- Paulson’s been driving hard bargains, not bailouts, in rescues so far, sez Kevin Drum [MotherJones.com (!)] #
- More on Fannie and Freddie’s very special relationship to Congress [Wallison/Calomiris, AEI Financial Services Outlook]
- Gorgeous photos of “most alien-looking place on earth”, Yemen’s Socotra Island [Dark Roasted Blend]
Locked-out Overlawyered readers, in Australia and elsewhere
For quite a while I’ve been getting complaints that readers in other countries — Australia, in particular — are locked out of Overlawyered with a “403 — you don’t have permission to access the server” error message. (Similarly, see these bulletin board discussions from New Zealand and Germany). Reader Stephen Mepham from Australia wrote to alert me when he encountered this problem on switching to a new cable provider, and helpfully included his IP number (the 777.77.7.777 thing). That allowed me to track down what had happened: in response to a series of spam and denial-of-service attacks, our hosting providers over the years have taken aggressive measures to exclude various large blocks of IP numbers (as well as country domains associated with spam and DOS attacks). I’ve now taken a few gingerly steps to relax these controls, which I hope should let more Australian readers access the site in particular. Should the attacks resume, of course, we’ll need to go back to tougher blocking.
If you’re a reader who’s encountered this problem or knows someone who has, give it a try again, and feel free to email me with a message along the lines of “Yes, now it works again” or “No, I still get blocked” — and try to include your IP address if convenient, which you can identify here.
September 30 roundup
- Trips over firefighter’s bag at rescue scene, now wants cash from city [Salem, Mass., News]
- Oh, my: “Bidens owe SimmonsCooper [huge mass tort firm in Madison County, Ill.] $1 million in hedge fund deal” [MC Record, earlier] Update: plenty more in a Wednesday WSJ editorial.
- Florida Supreme Court rejects latest attempt by attorney Montgomery Blair Sibley to resist discipline [North Country Gazette]
- “Women’s advocacy groups have persuaded Congress to begin intensive Title IX equity reviews of science programs.” Bad news for American academic science [Sommers, AEI/Teachers College Record]
- You may have run into everyone’s favorite fashion law blog. But did you know there’s also a furniture law blog? [Womble Carlyle; via Blawg Review #179 at Securing Innovation]
- Eavesdrop on jury deliberations, get wind of defense verdict, move quick to settle case? That would be a very naughty thing for a lawyer to do [American Justice Partnership]
- Myrhvold the last straw: “Up until now I have been criticized in many corners for taking the side of so-called patent trolls. …No tax policy could ever do as much damage to an economy.” [Gene Quinn, PatentFools.com, also via above]
- Okay, towns, build sidewalks or else [four years ago on Overlawyered]