- Seattle’s best? Class action lawyer suing Apple, e-publishers has represented Microsoft [Seattle Times, earlier]
- “Disabled” NYC firefighter/martial arts enthusiast can go on getting checks for life [NYPost; compare]
- After the FDA enforcement action on drug manufacturing lapses come the tagalong liability claims by uninjured plaintiffs [Beck]
- “What If Lower Court Judges Weren’t Bound by Supreme Court Precedent?” [Orin Kerr]
- Fark.com settles a patent suit for $0 (rough language);
- Canadian law society to pay $100K for asking prospective lawyers about mental illness [ABA Journal]
- Self-help eviction? “Chinese Developers Accused Of Putting Scorpions In Apartments To Force Out Residents” [Business Insider]
Archive for 2011
Bargain cruises between American ports
You’ll probably never see them unless Congress chooses to repeal or amend the Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886, which bars most cruise operators from coastwise routes. [Matt Welch]
“Sometimes the dog means the difference between a conviction and an acquittal”
Prosecutors bring in adorable “therapy dogs” to assist witnesses in rape and abuse trials. Aside from the jury sympathy issue, and the possible sending of “this is a victim” signals, defense lawyers argue that the dogs’ presence makes testimony easier whether accusations are true or not: “They argue that as a therapy dog, Rosie responds to people under stress by comforting them, whether the stress comes from confronting a guilty defendant or lying under oath.” [N.Y. Times] More: Greenfield.
“How To Make A Mockery Of Your Own Law School: Sue Your Critics”
Which is good advice for many other touchy sorts of plaintiffs too, not just for the Thomas M. Cooley Law School of Lansing, Michigan [Mike Masnick, TechDirt, earlier]
August 10 roundup
- Maine Supreme Court agrees that not having to show up in court might be reasonable accommodation for plaintiff claiming PTSD disability [Volokh]
- Guess how much Richard Kreimer, the New Jersey homeless guy, has made in his many lawsuit settlements [Newark Star-Ledger, PoL]
- Given the problems with business-method patents, you can see why banks would want to dodge them [Felix Salmon]
- Contempt: “Calling the jailing of a person ‘civil’ doesn’t mean they put curtains on the cell windows.” [Greenfield]
- “Class Counsel Request $90.8M In Fees In Black Farmers Case” [BLT]
- Law school accreditation, recusal standards, international law among topics in new issue of Federalist Society’s ABA Watch;
- Electricity-wise, EPA puts the squeeze on the juice [Andrew Grossman, Heritage; Weston Hicks, AgendaWise; Tatler]
Chain of foolishness
Coming up, if a controversy in Alexandria, Va. is any indication: historic preservation mandates for chain-link fences [Matt Welch, Reason].
Collective asbestos guilt in Illinois
Illinois courts may finally be tiring of liberal applications of “civil conspiracy” doctrine under which “Asbestos companies bear a sort of collective guilt and thus plaintiffs can sue companies they never actually had any contact with. Jurors in Bloomington have ordered up more than $120 million in damages against companies including Honeywell and Owens-Illinois, even though those companies never sold products to the plaintiffs, or employed them in their factories.” [Daniel Fisher, Forbes]
Dodd-Frank “conflicts minerals” provision devastates Congolese
David Aronson, New York Times:
The “Loi Obama” or Obama Law — as the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform act of 2010 has become known in the [central African] region — includes an obscure provision that requires public companies to indicate what measures they are taking to ensure that minerals in their supply chain don’t benefit warlords in conflict-ravaged Congo. The provision came about in no small part because of the work of high-profile advocacy groups like the Enough Project and Global Witness, which have been working for an end to what they call “conflict minerals.”
Unfortunately, the Dodd-Frank law has had unintended and devastating consequences, as I saw firsthand on a trip to eastern Congo this summer. …
Demand for sign language translator at nudist camp
When it needs to be said with hands: a Rochester man has filed a complaint with the U.S. Justice Department alleging that Empire Haven Nudist Park of Moravia, N.Y., as well as a festival held there, denied his right under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) to a sign language interpreter. Tom Willard “offered to pay for his own interpreter if the nudist camp would discount or waive his park entry and workshop registration fees,” a better deal than in many ADA cases in which complainants demand that the business or service provider alone shoulder the full cost of an interpreter. [Syracuse Post-Standard]
Only unsophisticates fear international law. Right?
Well, no, actually, wrong, as I explain in a new Cato post taking issue with left-of-center commentator Garrett Epps.