The Spring Valley, N.Y. chapter of the NAACP “has filed a complaint accusing the Ben Gilman Medical and Dental Clinic of religious discrimination for closing on Saturdays. The complaint, filed Sept. 6 with the state’s Division of Human Rights, alleges that the clinic’s practice of remaining closed Saturdays in observance of operators’ Jewish Sabbath, unlawfully imposes their religious beliefs on others.” (Suzan Clarke, “NAACP sues Spring Valley clinic”, White Plains, N.Y. Journal-News, Sept. 15). Eugene Volokh has a thorough discussion (Sept. 25).
Court: DeLuise can sue lawyer over lawsuit
Notwithstanding various impediments which ordinarily restrain civil defendants from filing countersuits — and particularly from naming their adversaries’ lawyers in those countersuits — a “Superior Court judge rejected a motion [last] Friday to throw out comedian Dom DeLuise’s lawsuit claiming his former daughter-in-law caused him emotional and financial distress when she sued him for $2 million.” Among defendants named in the lawsuit was attorney Steven Zelig and his law firm, which had represented Brigitte deLuise in her allegedly wrongful suit. Zelig argued that the state’s “SLAPP suit” statute should bar the comedian’s counteraction, but “Judge Judith C. Chirlin disagreed. ‘I find that there were sufficient grounds for the lawsuit to have been filed,’ she said. “There is a likelihood of it prevailing on the merits.'” The AP coverage doesn’t specify what the alleged problems were with the original suit, however (merely unfounded in law and fact? scandalous as well?) so it’s hard to know what implications there might be for the rights of defendants in other cases. (“L.A. Judge Lets DeLuise Lawsuit Proceed”, AP/CBSNews.com, Sept. 23). More: George Wallace, Decs and Excs, Sept. 29.
Lawyer-ad Hall of Fame: DivorceEZ.com
Florida divorce lawyer Steve Miller wants your business if “you and your spouse hate each other like poison”. Just a few easy steps, and “you’re on the way to getting rid of that vermin you call a spouse.” His YouTube video is discussed by Carolyn Elefant (Aug. 30), Greedy Trial Lawyer (Sept. 2), and Jacobson Attorneys in South Africa (Aug. 31) which contributes a Flickr photo documenting a marketing effort by divorce attorneys in that country (“Cheating Bastard!”). Miller’s site is here.
Posting podcasts? Apple’s lawyers are on line 1
“The big question here, of course, is whether Apple’s attempt to own the word ‘pod’ means that we should pick another name for ‘podcasting’ before it’s too late.” (Wired “Listening Post”, Sept. 28). More: Slashdot, The Inquirer, Russell Shaw on ZDNet, and lots more.
Call a chiropractor’s 1-800 accident hotline…
…and it’s a law firm that returns your call, according to a rival trial lawyer, J. Steele Olmstead of Tampa. Olmstead has asked the Florida Bar to look into whether any money has changed hands in the relationship between Orlando law firm Morgan & Morgan and chiropractor Gary Kompothecras, which might constitute unlawful “patient brokering”. Morgan & Morgan, which denies wrongdoing, has been in the news lately as the home base of Republican lieutenant governor candidate and state Rep. Jeff Kottkamp, who is not named in the Bar complaint. (Mary Ellen Klas and Beth Reinhard, “Fundraiser host being investigated”, Miami Herald, Sept. 22)(via Lattman).
UK: Fugitive spy entitled to damages from gov’t
George Blake, a fugitive from British justice and MI6 double agent who escaped from Wormwood Scrubs prison 40 years ago and fled to Russia, has been awarded £3,350 in damages by the European Court of Human Rights because British authorities delayed too long in resolving a dispute over whether he could collect royalties for his autobiography. Blake, who is now 84 and still on the lam, is believed to have betrayed more than 40 MI6 agents, many of whom were killed, during his career as a double agent. The British government objected to his obtaining royalties on the grounds that he had violated confidentiality by publishing the memoir, but the ECHR accepted the arguments of Blake’s lawyers that it was a violation of his rights for the dispute to have dragged on for nine years in British courts. (Richard Norton Taylor, “MI6 double agent Blake wins damages from government”, The Guardian (UK), Sept. 27; Joshua Rozenberg, “Britain must pay traitor Blake for breaching his human rights”, Daily Telegraph, Sept. 27; Dave Zincavage, Sept. 27).
Weird Al Yankovic, “I’ll Sue Ya”
The entertainer’s “Straight Outta Lynwood” album includes a song by that title, the first two stanzas of which are:
I sued Taco Bell…’cause I ate half a million chalupas,
and I got fat!
I sued Panasonic…they never said I shouldn’t use their microwave
to dry off my cat!
Fuller lyrics are here, and a sound sample can be found here.
Appearances: NPR, ABC “World News Tonight”
I was a guest this afternoon on Michelle Martin’s live National Public Radio talk show, “Talk of the Nation“, discussing New York City’s proposed ban on most uses of trans fats in restaurants. ABC News “World News Tonight” also had me comment for a news segment on the issue planned for tonight’s broadcast.
On NPR, NYC Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden claimed that it is always possible to duplicate the taste and other gustatory qualities of a trans fat recipe using other fats. For an example of a business that stumbled by buying into this particular premise, see Jun. 30 (West Virginia potato chip maker Mister Bee).
P.S. On the NPR audio clip, check out the section just before I come on where host Martin, interviewing Frieden, does a blind taste testing of two wafer cookies, one made with trans fats and one without. And here’s a mention by Bonnie Erbe at USNews.com (Sept. 27)(attributing to me “typical eloquently opinionated New York style”).
NYC plans to ban trans fats
Few Gotham restaurants paid much heed when city health commissioner Thomas Frieden announced supposedly voluntary curbs on the use of partially hydrogenated fats, so now the city is planning on making the restrictions mandatory. Among many, many foods that will apparently need to be either reformulated or bootlegged: Krispy Kreme “Hot Original Glaze” doughnuts. In the New York Sun, reporter Russell Berman quotes my reaction: “When is Nurse Bloomberg planning to let us fill up our own plates?”. (“City Wants to Ban Some Fatty Foods in Restaurants”, Sept. 27; “Freedom Fries” (editorial), Sept. 27).
Great moments in parking enforcement
Note for future reference: never, never get a vanity license plate reading “NV” (as Californian Nick Vautier did, innocently picking his own initials). Or plates reading XXX, MISSING or NOPLATE. “NV was meter maid code for ‘not visible.’ … Los Angeles, for example, accused him of illegally parking a blue Ford, a silver Hyundai, a blue Chrysler and a blue Chevy truck, all with the same license plate.” (“California: Innocent Man Stuck With 100 Parking Tickets”, TheNewspaper.com, Sept. 17 (via Nobody’s Business); Steve Harvey, “Vanity Plates Backfire on Mr. ‘Not Visible'”, Los Angeles Times, Sept. 17).