Daniel Schwartz doesn’t think much of this private venture.
P.S. A moving target, it seems.
Archive for July, 2010
Goldman Sachs penalty
Larry Ribstein is not impressed with the $550 million settlement: “the SEC got a big payday in what would have been seen as a strike suit had it been a private securities class action lawyer.” [Truth on the Market]
An Oregon crafter on CPSIA
I called the lab, got the quote and did the math. CPSIA-mandated testing costs for my little product line was over $27,000 for just over $30,000 worth of product. I cannot express the horrible feeling I had when I realized that I had made a mistake that was going to cost my family all of our money. …
I blame every one of the Energy and Commerce legislative staffers.
— Jolie Fay, crafter, SkippingHippos.com, guest post, AmendTheCPSIA.com
PUBLIC DOMAIN IMAGE from Ethel Everett, illustrator, Nursery Rhymes (1900), courtesy ChildrensLibrary.org.
The Rule of Lawyers reviewed
George Leef at The Freeman newly reviews my book on the abuse of mass litigation from a few years back. “Well-researched and deliciously written” — thanks!
“Courts Reward Helicopter Parents, Two Law Profs Say”
Paging Lenore Skenazy! “Courts are rewarding ‘intensive parenting’ and making it a legal standard, particularly in custody disputes, two law professors say in a paper that will be published in the U.C. Davis Law Review.” Gaia Bernstein (Seton Hall) and Zvi Triger (College of Management School of Law, Israel) say custody law rewards parents for greater involvement in their kids’ lives even if it amounts to over-involvement. “In tort cases, courts are narrowing or eliminating the parental immunity doctrine and creating the potential for judgments against parents for inadequate parental supervision.” [ABA Journal, “Over-Parenting” on SSRN; Prawfsblawg]
“Beer pong players sue over inclusion in ‘World’s Funniest Commercials’ video”
The plaintiffs said to avoid embarrassment, they consented to the broadcast of their extreme beer-pong skills only in Denmark. Unfortunately, the ad went viral. [THR, Esq.]
Hostage sues government that rescued her for $6.8m
After a storm of criticism, Ingrid Betancourt withdrew her request for money from the government of Colombia, which launched a commando operation that rescued her from FARC guerrillas in 2008 after a six-year captivity. [Guardian, Moynihan/Hit and Run]
Muslim woman demands female attendant for emergency-room EKG
Rona Mohammedi is now suing Somerset Medical Center in New Jersey because it told her only male ER technicians would be available to check whether her severe chest pains were the result of a heart attack. [Newark Star-Ledger, White Coat]
Dodd-Frank whistleblower provisions
There are lots of them tucked into the bill, and they will probably come at a significant cost for companies in the economy’s financial sector, as I explain in a new post at Cato at Liberty (earlier; more on qui tam and whistleblower matters more generally).
Fire? Blame the halogen lamp
The Texas Supreme Court applies skepticism to the theories of a plaintiff’s expert witness in a suit against Wal-Mart. [Wajert; Wal-Mart Stores Inc. v. Merrell, No. 09-0224 (Tex. 6/18/10), PDF]