Over its alleged fashion use of the Angels’ trademarked “death’s-head” image [Legal Blog Watch]
Archive for 2010
Haunted-house operators scared by lawsuits
Matthew Heller of OnPoint News and AnnMarie McDonald of the New Jersey Lawsuit Reform Alliance have roundups on Hallowe’en litigation.
P.S. Also holiday-related: a Hallowe’en sighting of lawyers’ tongues [Robert Burns, Tam O’Shanter at Scots law blog Absolvitor via LEF]
An elected AG for Washington, D.C.?
Really, Washingtonians could do without a grandstanding politico type as chief city legal officer, argues Carter Wood at Point of Law.
SLAPPing with impunity in California
A California court rules that attorneys who file unjustified suits aimed at speech or political activity can’t be made to pay the other side’s fees. If you’re a victim of such an action, you still might get lucky and collect from the client who instigated it. [Cal Attorneys Fees]
“What can we get away with?”
How Mayor Bloomberg’s Health Department decides how far to go in its food-scare advertising. [New York Times] I’ve got much more in a new post at Cato at Liberty.
P.S. Gothamist: “in the end, it was decided that going viral was more important than going accurate.”
Hallowe’en a low-risk holiday for kids
Lenore Skenazy debunks the scare: there’s no evidence that any American child has ever been killed by poisoned candy from a stranger.
“McDonald’s must pay Brazilian manager $17.5K for weight gain”
An “Only in America” story? Not this time: “A Brazilian court ruled this week that McDonald’s must pay a former franchise manager $17,500 because he gained 65 pounds while working there for a dozen years.” [AP/USA Today] More: Lowering the Bar.
“4-Year-Old Can Be Sued, Judge Rules in Bike Case”
“Citing cases dating back as far as 1928, a judge has ruled that a young girl accused of running down an elderly woman while racing a bicycle with training wheels on a Manhattan sidewalk two years ago can be sued for negligence.” [New York Times] Earlier: suit against 8 year old skier in Colorado. More: Eugene Volokh and Eric Turkewitz on the legal background.
Law schools roundup
- Yale Law School “a cult of the 14th Amendment… that happens to have a registrar’s office.” [Elizabeth Wurtzel, Above the Law]
- Admitted applicants up, near-term job prospects down: “The irresponsibility of law schools” [Brian Tamanaha, Balkinization; Annie Lowrey, Slate] Not new, but relevant to debate over unaffordable nature of law education: George Washington University law school trims night program so as to improve its U.S. News rankings [WSJ Law Blog]
- While serving as chief Congressional scold publicly blasting the banking industry, Harvard lawprof Elizabeth Warren also had a $90,000 consulting contract with class-action lawyers suing banks; with the notable exception of Richard Painter, few in the Washington conflict-of-interest industry or legal ethics community seem much bothered [Business Week, Examiner, Wash. Times] Should academics publicly disclose their consulting relationships? [Lawrence Cunningham, ConcurOp]
- Other protections for client confidentiality remain intact, of course: “N.J. Court Says Public Law-School Clinics Aren’t Immune From Open-Records Law” [Chronicle of Higher Education] “Federal employees volunteering for law clinics: What could go wrong?” [Wood, PoL]
- Egalitarian trappings aside, modern academia essentially embodies an older aristocratic ethos [Nate Oman, ConcurOp]
- Great news: several of the highest-profile names in public debates about our legal system have indicated their interest in providing blurbs for Schools for Misrule, now nearing publication.
Checking job applicants’ credit references
Many employers find the practice helpfully predictive, but the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is stepping up pressure against it. [WSJ Law Blog, Hyman]