The airline’s legal department is almost certainly insisting on a sober demeanor, and as a result JetBlue has to stay on the sidelines as the Steven Slater episode becomes the internet story of the week. [Parekh/Bush, AdAge via Balasubramani]
Archive for August, 2010
Newsweek on the ADA’s effects
Ben Adler at Newsweek (Aug. 5) rounds up the recent controversy over the Americans with Disabilities Act after twenty years, and cites my own contribution, as well as quoting a number of disabled-rights advocates who take a differing view.
August 11 roundup
- General Mills sends lawyers after local “My Dough Girl” Bakery [Consumerist via Amy Alkon]
- But he can reapply in five years: “Lawyer Takes Plea in Case Over His Hardball Litigation Tactics, Will Be Disbarred” [ABA Journal, California]
- “Shame on Elie Wiesel” for threatening a lawsuit over his fictionalization in a stage play [Terry Teachout]
- State AGs dive into HIPAA and health privacy enforcement [Nicastro, Health Leaders Media]
- More highlights from Daniel Okrent book on Prohibition [Tabarrok]
- Denver school board investment fiasco [Popehat]
- Russell Jackson on the Yoo-Hoo chocolate beverage class action [Consumer Class Actions and Mass Torts, earlier]
- California court rules state’s Moscone (“little Norris-LaGuardia”) Act unconstitutional [Workplace Prof]
Offering to trade legal services for sexual favors
Over dissents from two justices, the New Jersey Supreme Court has declined to disbar an attorney who made “repeated, demeaning and offensive suggestions to his clients” in “an effort to barter his professional services for sexual favors.” The punishment instead: suspension for a year and required sensitivity training. Solangel Maldonado at Concurring Opinions thinks the court was too lenient, arguing that an employer charged with similar conduct toward an employee would have faced extensive liability under sexual harassment law.
NYC bus drivers’ union in court
The Transport Workers Union has filed suit to block the legalization of private van services that could run along city bus routes Mayor Michael Bloomberg has targeted for cuts. [Richard Epstein, Forbes]
August 10 roundup
- Oregon 7-year-old gets apology, she can go on running her lemonade stand after all [Skenazy, Josh Blackman]
- “Judicial recusals and politics make a bad mix” [Bainbridge]
- Sypher guilty in extortion trial [Above the Law and followup, earlier]
- “Chevron’s Explosive Filing on Collusion Between Plaintiffs and the Ecuadorian Court-Appointed Expert” [Roger Alford, Opinio Juris and more, Alison Frankel/American Lawyer, Anderson, Volokh, ShopFloor]
- Meet author of “How to Sue Your Doctor … and Win!” [Media Matters via Popehat]
- FBI writes to Wikipedia demanding removal of representation of its official seal [Ron Coleman]
- “Kagan’s Confirmation Could Be High-Water Mark for Big Government” [Shapiro, Cato]
- “Righthaven’s lawsuits are ‘the McDonald’s coffee cases of copyright litigation'” [Las Vegas Sun via Romenesko]
A reminder: anti-arbitration is anti-consumer
The Center for Class Action Fairness filed an amicus brief yesterday on behalf of consumers in the Supreme Court case of AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion; Public Citizen brought a suit successfully striking an arbitration provision in a cell-phone contract as “unconscionable” because it did not provide for bringing class actions—even though consumers as a whole would be better off with the generous arbitration provision than with opportunity for the class action. Of course, then trial lawyers lose out. More at Point of Law; and Public Citizen’s page on the case has other briefs and links to (generally pro-trial-lawyer) blog commentary.
On trial for vehicular homicide, sues family she killed
Citing text messages she sent her boyfriend shortly before the incident, Montana prosecutors contend that Justine Winter’s crash at 85 mph into an oncoming vehicle was a deliberate suicide attempt. Winter, who faces trial on homicide charges in the deaths of Erin Thompson, the woman she ran into, and Thompson’s 13-year-old son, has now sued Thompson’s estate as well as the construction company that built the interstate overpass where the accident occurred. [Daily Inter Lake, Siouxsie Law]
“Lerach, feds spar over Wall St. woes class”
The disgraced class action king plans to teach an ethics-of-capitalism course at Irvine. Prosecutors wonder whether it’s really aimed at doing penance for his ethical failings, or instead will offer him a chance to blast away at his enemies while garnering “community service” credit. [Josh Gerstein, Politico; David Lat, Above the Law]
Update (sub-only NLJ via Ted at PoL): Judge John Walter denies Lerach’s request for the course credit and lambastes the unrepentant felon more generally:
“He misled and fooled the court into believing he had remorse at the time of his sentencing.” Walter said that he now believes the sentence was “way too lenient” and regretted having accepted Lerach’s plea deal.
(& welcome Bainbridge readers)
Allegation: “Deposition toe-tapping”
Plaintiffs in a Florida case say they caught the defense at it red-footed. [Bruce Carton, Legal Blog Watch]