“A woman hit by a Danish tourist driving a rental SUV outside the Olema Deli has filed a lawsuit against the Dane, the delicatessen and Dollar Rent a Car.” [Gary Klien, “Woman files lawsuit in Olema bench mishap”, Marin Independent Journal, Calif.]
Archive for 2009
Playground safety mat overheating, cont’d
As we noted around this time last summer, New York City “has spent large sums installing black rubber safety mats beneath the equipment on its 1,000 playgrounds, but the mats get hot in the summer, and some kids are suffering burns which have resulted in lawsuits.” Now the city is raising eyebrows in one such lawsuit by countersuing the grandmother of a toddler (at the time) burned on a mat. [WCBS via Reddit] On defendants’ tactic of dragging all possibly negligent parties into a suit, see Aug. 4.
Medicare Secondary Payer expansion, cont’d
James Glassman at The American takes a look at the attempt to slip through a massive expansion of industrywide tort liability as part of the House health-care-reform bill a couple of weeks ago, a story that seems to have been broken for the first time in this space.
The return of Grand Theft Auto: Class Action
With a million dollars of attorneys’ fees at stake, the trial lawyers in the infamous Grand Theft Auto case appealed the lower court decertification ruling to the Second Circuit.
In response, I filed this brief today.
Parody of “horrible lawyers” taken seriously
Not only have some readers taken seriously the Twitter posts of “Beatrice Bitcher” and “Richard Prickman“, but one of them even invited “Bitcher” to join an online networking group, the Professional Women’s Network of Southern California, which she did. [Ambrogi, Legal Blog Watch]
Lawyer hid millions from IRS
Most creative of his dodges? Entering into a sham child support agreement. [Las Vegas Sun]
Not entirely unrelatedly, Richard Bales at Workplace Law Blog has more on that scheme by some Continental Airlines pilots to nab lump-sum distribution pension payouts by staging bogus divorces [earlier coverage].
Suicide barriers on scenic California bridge
Environmentalists have filed a lawsuit to block construction. [Santa Barbara Daily Sound via Popehat]
Welcome Volokh Conspiracy readers
Following two posts by Jonathan Adler, readers there are discussing CPSIA’s effects on vintage kids’ books and on rhinestones and crystals. More: Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit (with link to Adler), Megan McArdle (linking to my City Journal piece). And Joseph Bottum at First Things has generous words for our coverage of the story.
America’s Cup litigation
The prolonged yachting-world dispute is the “sporting world’s equivalent of Kramer v. Kramer.” [Hallman, AmLaw Daily]
Not an Onion headline
“Britain To Put CCTV Cameras Inside Private Homes.” Seems that Britain believes this will encourage better parenting to have the full-fledged nanny state enforcing homework and child discipline. Worse: the opposition party is complaining that the Labour government’s plan isn’t ambitious enough.