Just for fun — or maybe that’s the wrong word — this website allows you to noodle around to estimate how much money is flying out the window as lawyers quibble at your meeting or phone call.
Podcast interview: Cato’s Ilya Shapiro
David Kopel of the Independence Institute interviews my Cato Institute colleague Ilya Shapiro on Cato’s active amicus-filing program, ObamaCare challenges, “Libertarian ConLaw 101,” and more. You can listen here.
CCAF announces “multiple victories”
Ted Frank’s class action settlement reform group, the Center for Class Action Fairness, has announced “multiple victories” in ongoing cases arising from settlements by Apple, Classmates.com, Toyota, HP, and gasoline retailers. Among the topics addressed in objection: exaggeration of benefits supposedly provided for the class, excessive attorney fees, and diversion of proceeds to groups unrelated to the class. Details here.
Great moments in public-sector unionism
In Scranton, Pennsylvania, the police union has filed a grievance with the state collective bargaining board over a drug arrest made by police chief Dan Duffy in March, “because the chief is not a member of the collective bargaining unit and was ‘off duty’ when the March 20 arrest was made. ‘I think it’s absurd. I’m not going to turn my head on crime that takes place,’ Chief Duffy said. ‘I took the same oath (as a police officer) that everyone else took.'” [Times-Tribune via Taranto]
April 27 roundup
- “Bioblitz”: Environmental groups file thousands of actions demanding endangered species listings [NYT; related discussion with Jonathan Adler and Steven Hayward at NYT’s Room for Debate]
- War on painkillers could turn many more Florida docs, druggists into criminals [White Coat]
- Feds flex muscle, using debarment to oust company CEOs [Jim Doyle, St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
- “Madigan’s List”: powerful Illinois pol sways selection of Cook County judges [Chicago Tribune]
- Nick Gillespie interviews education reformer Jay Greene [Reason]
- Social conservatives misplay recusal card against Judge Vaughn Walker in Prop 8 case [Richard Painter, LEF, more, AW, LAT] Other views: Whelan, Gillers, motion.
- Why TV shows like “WKRP in Cincinnati” appear in compromised DVD versions [Alex Tabarrok updates a story we had in ’06]
“Vacaville Inmate Sues State For Sex Change Surgery”
An inmate convicted of murder in 2002 has made it to the appeals court level with a suit against the California Corrections Department’s policy that “sexual reassignment surgery is not a covered benefit.” [KCBS]
“Municipal extortion and full employment for lawyers”
Local governments are often open to “amending” speeding tickets, but in a manner that reflects their financial self-interest — and also pays dividends for the prosperity of the local bar. [Mike Sykuta, TotM]
Comment of the day
By Scott Jacobs, on a guest post by Aaron Worthing (regarding class actions over Apple device location tracking) at Patterico:
How the hell is it that I didn’t have Overlawyered bookmarked?
How, indeed?
April 26 roundup
- Study of how class action lawyers interact with their named clients [Stephen Meili via Trask]
- California releases numbers on how bounty-hunting lawyers did in 2010 under Prop 65 environmental-warning law [Cal Biz Lit]
- According to the tale, lender errors in foreclosure gave Florida borrower home free and clear. Actual story may be more complicated than that [Funnell]
- The very long discovery arm of the Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania, courts [Drug & Device Law, more]
- UK law firm “could face big bill” after sending thousands of file-sharing demand letters [ABA Journal]
- Goodbye to men’s track at U. of Delaware, and the women’s team is suffering too, as often happens with Title IX [Saving Sports]
- OSHA’s proposed “illness and injury prevention program” (I2P2) termed a “Super Rule” with potentially widespread economic impact [Kirsanow, NRO]
Schools for Misrule radio and podcast, cont’d
Last week I was a guest on one of talk radio’s enduring institutions, the Jim Bohannon show on Westwood One, to discuss my new book Schools for Misrule. I always have a great time on Jim’s show and this was no exception; you can listen here. Also last week, I joined the African American Conservatives show on BlogTalkRadio, and you can hear the results here. And Bernard Chapin (Chapin’s Inferno), who is among other things a contributor to Pajamas Media, liked the book and gave it a video review on his YouTube channel.
I’ll be in Dallas over the next day or two to speak with leaders of conservative/libertarian legal groups at the Heritage Foundation’s annual get-together (invitation event).