August 7 roundup

  • Hold on to your hat: Litigation Lobby ally and Grade A business-basher David Michaels — who founded a project purportedly advancing the cause of scientific integrity with money furnished by, of all groups, the silicone breast implant bar — named to head OSHA [Wood/PoL; more on SKAPP]
  • City of Clearwater, Florida bans playing catch on beach or in park [Popehat]
  • In wake of Kindle “1984” episode, watch for lawyers to start demanding remote line-item deletion of allegedly defamatory or infringing matter from books after publication [Moshirnia, Citizen Media Law]
  • Amicus brief exposes more free-speech problems with that federal law banning depictions of animal cruelty [Volokh, earlier]
  • “Crocs settles safety suits over escalator injuries” [Matthew Heller, OnPoint News, earlier]
  • Was he planning to drive somewhere? MADD official objects to Obama’s appearing on TV drinking a beer [Sullum, Reason “Hit and Run”]
  • Air crash lawsuit charges Oklahoma City didn’t do enough to keep Wiley Post Airport free of birds [NewsOK.com/The Oklahoman]
  • Many dubious things in health care bill, but “mandatory end-of-life care discussions” not among them [C.B. Brown, Politico]

Setback for a “Ladies’ Day” suit

Serial suit-filer Alfred Rava wanted to use his lawsuit against Bear Valley Ski Resort over a “Ladies’ Day” promotion as the basis for a class action, but a judge ruled that he’s not entitled to do that, because California’s Unruh Act already provides for him to get a $4,000 payday with no need to show injury:

“Assuming plaintiff succeeds on the merits, Bear Valley Ski Resort would be liable for mandatory statutory penalties of $4,000 X 995 putative class members,” [Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Anthony] Mohr wrote. “The product of $3,980,000 constitutes a draconian sum that would strip Bear Valley of its assets.”

[Cal Law “Legal Pad” via Cal Biz Lit, court order in PDF]

Two new podcast interviews

RadioMicMike Semple Piggot at the well known British law site, Charon QC, interviewed me yesterday for his LawCast podcast series. We talked about why British legal blogs are more often personality- rather than practice-driven compared with those here, the pluses and minuses of Twitter, and the recession for big-firm lawyers on both sides of the Atlantic, among other topics. Results are here (iTunes version).

I was also interviewed last week by Duane Lester of All American Blogger for his online radio show “Bloglines” at RFC – Radio for Conservatives. It was something of a Legal Blogging Week for his show — other guests included Eugene Volokh of Volokh Conspiracy and Bill Jacobson of Legal Insurrection. I’ll post the audio link when it becomes available.

12-year-old’s slide injury to cost Little League $125K

Staten Island, N.Y.: Little League Baseball Inc. and the New Springville Little League have agreed to pay $125,000 to settle Jean Gonzalez’s suit charging that negligent coaching and the use of a stationary base were responsible for her son Martin’s knee injury, incurred while sliding into second base. Two coaches were named personally in the lawsuit. “The defendants countered that Martin had been taught the proper sliding technique, and the bases used, detachable ‘Soft-Touch’ ‘pop-up’ bags, were compliant with all safety standards” and considered safer than the alternative design. The family’s lawyer was Alan C. Glassman of Brooklyn. [Staten Island Advance; our earlier coverage]

“Author of Racist Email About Gates Sues to Keep His Job”

We haven’t weighed in on the Henry Louis Gates vs. Cambridge police affair, but it looks as if at least one really choice employment-law suit is going to come out of it. [WSJ Law Blog, Boston Globe]. The cop, Justin Barrett, is suing for intentional infliction of emotional distress, among other harms. Elie Mystal, Above the Law: “I. Just. Love. America.