Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Hawaii vs. online vacation rental markets

Protectionism for real estate agents [Coyote]:

In legislation that reminds me of stuff from the 1990s when businesses tried to fight Internet-driven disintermediation, Hawaii is proposing to force non-Hawaiians to use a local broker to list their rental properties. Apparently local residents can still list their properties on low-cost Internet sites, but folks on the mainland (also known as “the United States”) must use a high-cost locally licensed broker, who typically charge 50% of rental fees as a commission. … Only by structuring this law to apply to those annoying out-of-staters could it ever be passed.

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Food roundup

  • Misguided USDA regs are shuttering much-admired (and safe) artisanal Denver salumeria [Baylen Linnekin]
  • “If you’re a woman and you’ve had an average of more than one drink a day, the [CDC] considers you a ‘heavy drinker.'” [Nicole Ciandella, CEI]
  • Admitting failure of idea, Denmark prepares to repeal pioneering “fat tax” [BBC] Katherine Pratt, “A Critique of Anti-Obesity Soda Taxes and Food Taxes Today in New Zealand” [TaxProf]
  • Less cooking from scratch, more empty calories because of new school lunch regs? [Lunch Tray]
  • Once we accept premise that our weight is government’s business, NYC soda ban will be just the start [Jacob Sullum] Does it go beyond legal authority of Gotham board of health? [same] Now it’s the D.C. council catching the ban-big-soft-drinks bug [WTOP]
  • Federal prosecutors’ ADA campaign vs. restaurants: not just NYC, Twin Cities too [Bagenstos, earlier]
  • Why is research and journalism on the public health aspects of nutrition so bad? [Linnekin] Speaking of which… [same] No one’s appointed Mark Bittman national food commissar, and aren’t we glad for that [Tyler Cowen] More on that [David Oliver, beginning a new series of posts on anti-food litigation]

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Update: telecommuting-as-accommodation and perfume-sensitivity ADA case

In August we linked a case in which a woman sued her government employer for rejecting her request to telecommute even though it would help to accommodate what she said was her sensitivity to the perfumes worn by co-workers. The court at that time declined to dismiss her claim as invalid as a matter of law; now, however, it has dismissed it because she failed to produce necessary evidence. [Jon Hyman, earlier]

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Federal flood insurance: the Sandy next time

“After disasters such as Superstorm Sandy, the natural inclination is to do everything possible to help people struggling to rebuild their homes, businesses and lives. But over the next couple of years, those good intentions will lead to a lot of foolish, even dangerous, decisions that will encourage people to rebuild in harm’s way.” [USA Today editorial via Ira Stoll]

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November 15 roundup

  • Ninth Circuit dissent: ruling “jeopardizes academic freedom” by making it too easy for students to sue professors [WSJ Law Blog]
  • When the bumptious and sociopathic go after our blogging friend, it’s Ken 1, b./s.-ers zero [Popehat]
  • Uh-oh: “Election Results Seen as Victory for Business of Law” [Gina Passarella, The Legal Intelligencer]
  • In the mail: “How to Feed a Lawyer: And Other Irreverent Observations from the Legal Underground” [Evan Schaeffer]
  • “Cato Files Brief in the First Federal Appeal Regarding the Contraception Mandate” [Ilya Shapiro, earlier here, here, etc.]
  • “Judicial independence” campaigners snooze through unfair attacks on D.C. Circuit [WSJ, earlier]
  • “Anyone whose blood pressure needs a boost should check out Overlawyered…” [James DeLong, American Thinker]

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Convicted Maryland delegate prepared to sue to regain seat

Washington Post:

She was convicted in June of stealing $800 from the Maryland General Assembly to pay an employee of her private law firm. But on Tuesday… [Tiffany] Alston’s attorneys said that the Prince George’s County Democrat is prepared to sue, if necessary, to continue serving in the House of Delegates. …

How she intends to do that is unclear. Her sentencing last month on a charge of misconduct in office triggered her “permanent” removal from the House under the state constitution, according to a lawyer for the General Assembly.

Alston’s attorneys disputed that interpretation after Tuesday’s court hearing, in which an Anne Arundel County Circuit Court judge agreed to modify Alston’s one-year suspended jail sentence to probation before judgment, essentially striking her conviction.

Update: Curiouser and curiouser, with revelations about potential Alston replacement Greg Hall.

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Banking and finance roundup

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