Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Archive for 2010

Lowering the Bar “Best of 2009”

Kevin Underhill rounds up four amusing miscellanies at his excellent site. From the fourth:

In June, a committee of the Oregon Legislature stuck some language into a bill that would (I think) have briefly redefined “no” as “yes.” Allegedly, Democrats were trying to head off an initiative they feared Republicans would later put on the ballot, asking voters to reject a spending measure. The bill provided that a vote to reject the measure would be counted as a vote to adopt it:

A measure referred to the people by referendum petition may not be adopted unless it receives an affirmative majority of the total votes cast on the measure rejecting the measure. For purposes of this subsection, a measure is considered adopted if it is rejected by the people.

The bill was amended again a few days later to remove the controversial language, after it became public.

P.S. And another installment missed above (“We are all tarnished by your stupidity.”)

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Venture capitalists vs. trolls

“Almost a third of our portfolio is under attack by patent trolls. Is it possible that one third of the engineering teams in our portfolio unethically misappropriated technology from someone else and then made that the basis of their web services? No! That’s not what is happening. … Our companies are being attacked by companies that were not even in the same market, very often by companies they did not even know existed.” [Brad Burnham, Union Square Ventures via Pete Warden]

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January 20 roundup

  • Renewed attention to Amirault case contributed to Coakley’s political nosedive [e.g., Jacob Weisberg of Slate via Kaus, earlier] First time a Massachusetts prosecutor has paid a political price over that episode?
  • Many, many Democratic elected officials call for rethinking/renegotiating Obamacare rather than trying to force it through [e.g. Barney Frank] Blue Mass blogger: talk radio fueled ire at Coakley, let’s have FCC shut it down [Graham]
  • “Big Brother and the Salt Shaker” [NY Times “Room for Debate”, Food Liability Law, earlier on NYC initiative and more] NYU’s Marion Nestle “loves” being called a nanny statist, so we’ll just go right on calling her that [Crispy on the Outside]
  • Terror suspects win right to seek compensation from UK government over restrictions on their activities [Canadian Press]
  • “Men Without Hats. Meaning no hard hats. Meaning The Safety Dance never met OSHA requirements. No wonder it was shut down.” [Tim Siedell a/k/a Bad Banana]
  • Italian judge orders father to go on paying $550/month living allowance to his student daughter, who is 32 [Guardian/SMH, earlier on laws mandating support of adult children]
  • Two informants vie for potential bonanza of whistleblower status against Johnson & Johnson [Frankel, AmLaw Litigation Daily]
  • “Polling Firm Says John Edwards Is Its Most Unpopular Person Ever” [Lowering the Bar]

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CPSC reports to Congress on CPSIA

The full report is here (PDF); the commission’s Democratic and Republican members managed to reach consensus on enough points to allow for a bipartisan report. AnimalsBall1c Deserving of particularly close attention are the supplementary views (also PDF) by Commissioners Nancy Nord and Anne Northup, and Northup appends to her remarks many letters from those whose businesses are being ravaged needlessly by the law. The same two commissioners also blog on the subject.

As Nord observes, the full CPSC report:

* acknowledges that the agency needs additional flexibility to implement the lead provisions of the CPSIA, though it does not address how that flexibility should be crafted (since we could not reach agreement on that point);
* acknowledges that books probably were not intended to be regulated under the CPSIA and suggests that Congress may want to consider addressing this issue;
* recommends that the retroactive nature of the law be repealed as the lead limits move from 300ppm to 100ppm; and
* outlines the efforts the agency has made to date to assist small manufacturers and artisans in complying with the CPSIA and states our willingness to work with Congress to address the problems small manufacturers continue to face.

The Handmade Toy Alliance has published some reactions from Rob Wilson as well as its own recommended changes to the law, as has Rick Woldenberg.

Alas, the commission was not exactly a model of transparency in its deliberations: its majority turned down requests from Commissioners Nord and Northup for it to open its debate to the public.

P.S. And more from Rick Woldenberg, Commissioner Anne Northup, and Carter Wood/ShopFloor.

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