They might make you uneasy in new ways [Lowering the Bar, scroll]
Archive for June, 2009
“Rejected by NYT Weddings editors? Fake law firm fights for YOU!”
Pretty sure this is just a parody [Above the Law]
“Medical errors” estimates
You’d think if President Obama, the New York Times and the American Association of Justice were all circulating the same number yesterday, it would be more reliable.
June 16 roundup
- Legal hazards of beachcombing: “Keeping bald eagle feather could result in a $100,000 fine and year in prison” [BoingBoing; our Sept. 1999 post]
- “E.U. Condemns America’s Online Gambling Crackdown” [Sullum, Reason “Hit and Run”]
- Much-loved Stockton, Calif. eatery Chuck’s Hamburgers is menaced by ADA serial litigator, and friends rally to save it [Stockton Record, 4000-member Facebook group]
- Doomed AF Flight 447 had multiple connections with France (airline, aircraft maker) and Brazil (takeoff, many passengers’ nationality), so of course some American lawyers are hoping to get resulting suits heard in U.S. courts [Bloomberg]
- Sure takes a lot of lawyering to bring a movie like “Bruno” to the screen [Althouse, WSJ Law Blog, Legal Ethics Forum]
- Form vs. substance: U.K. historic-preservation edict saves increasingly impractical Victorian bell frames, at expense of 650-year-old bell ringing tradition [Telegraph via Never Yet Melted]
- All in a day’s (double) work: take city retirement or even disability, then come back in second job [Al Tompkins, Lowell (Mass.) Sun]
- Can it be? In just about another two weeks your favorite source of legal consternation will turn ten years old [nine years and eleven months or so ago on Overlawyered]
Keeping lawyers busy
“One federal agency sues another” [Adler at Volokh, Steele at Legal Ethics Forum]
Five-year-old boy orphaned in crash. Call our law offices today!
A Seattle lawyer’s online marketing efforts are unlikely to win any prizes for high-mindedness, tact or dignity [Patrick at Popehat]
“Obama Open to Reining in Medical Suits”
Confirming earlier reports: “In closed-door talks, Mr. Obama has been making the case that reducing malpractice lawsuits — a goal of many doctors and Republicans — can help drive down health care costs, and should be considered as part of any health care overhaul, according to lawmakers of both parties, as well as A.M.A. officials.” One positive factor for reformers: presidential aide Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel has written that there is “no doubt” that “monumental change” in the malpractice system is called for. [New York Times]
In 2004, Obama was quoted as saying, “Anyone who denies there’s a crisis with medical malpractice insurance is probably a trial lawyer”. Other coverage here, here (Ted at PoL, taking skeptical view) and here. The Times characterizes former Senate leader Tom Daschle as being these days “a strong proponent of linking evidence-based medicine with protections against lawsuits”; it’s not clear how new this development is, or how comfortably it meshes with Daschle’s role as a reliable longtime ally of organized trial lawyers (cross-posted at Point of Law). More: Sean Alfano, CBS “Political HotSheet”; Max Kennerly (on proposal’s lack of clarity); Carter Wood @ ShopFloor (if this is meant as more than a bargaining chip, shouldn’t the Obama administration be looking askance at expanded medical-device liability?).
Cherry-baggers beware
By this point there have been emphatic denials from many official quarters that the new food safety bills getting serious attention in Congress will pose any undue burden to small, localized, or specialty food enterprises (see discussion here, here, here, here, here, etc.). And yet even one prominent advocate of the new legislative push, food poisoning attorney Bill Marler, is expressing unease about the effects on small enterprise of one of the major bills, HR 759. Among other provisions, it would finance some government safety efforts by slapping a $1,000 fee on all “food facilities”, farmers alone excepted. More on the bill: Northeast Organic Farming Association, Food Law Blog. And: lawmakers at markup indicate willingness to cut fee from $1,000 to $500 (Naomi Starkman, Civil Eats; for a quick guide to other food blogs predictably differing from many views found in this space, see this post at Bitten).
“Keep libel laws out of science”
New U.K. campaign from Sense About Science, building on widespread outrage over the British Chiropractic Association’s lawsuit against Simon Singh (via Bad Astronomy; earlier).
Prisoners’ first-amendment rights
Protect “a letter to [a] girlfriend [stating] that a prison officer had sex with a cat” but do not protect mailing a prosecutor “a note written on toilet paper” saying “Dear Susan, Please use this to wipe your ass, that argument was a bunch of shit! You[rs] Truly, George Morgan.” (Morgan v. Quarterman (5th Cir. 2009)). W.C., sending us the case, comments, perhaps only semi-facetiously:
(i) He said “very truly yours.” Maybe he was trying to help her. He was at least sincere.
(ii) I wouldn’t mind doing a similar stunt to opposing in a case I have currently. I too would do so from a helpful perspective. Is that so wrong?