This time it’s Patterico on the receiving end. Excerpt: “I have filed over a hundred lawsuits and another one will be no sweat for me. On the other hand, it will cost you a lot of time and money and for what.”
October 12 roundup
- Representing Prof. Michael Krauss, Ted Frank will file objection to Classmates.com class action settlement [CCAF]
- Not without condescension, Harvard historian/New Yorker writer Jill Lepore asks why Woodrow Wilson’s so disliked these days; Radley Balko offers some help [The Agitator, NYT “Room for Debate”]
- China needs true private property rights, according to Charter 08 document, which helped Liu Xiaobo win Nobel Peace Prize [Tyler Cowen]
- Axelrod “foreign funders under every rug” demagogy might be turned against his own allies [Stoll; New York Times refutes earlier Obama talking point; Atlantic Wire; Sullum]
- R.I.P. influential class actions and mass torts scholar Richard Nagareda [Vanderbilt Law School]
- “Web Seminar Makes Case for Patent Troll Lawsuit Targets to Fight Back” [Washington Legal Foundation Legal Pulse]
- Contrary to WSJ report, if Congressional staffers are profiting in stock trades by way of insider knowledge, they probably do face some risk of legal liability [Bainbridge; a not entirely unrelated inside-trading controversy]
- Underpublicized: “California’s Proposed ‘Green Chemistry’ Regulations Move Forward” [Wajert]
A creative liquormaker speaks out
“I don’t feel bad about being a scofflaw — our distillation laws are preposterous.” [Cooking Issues]
Itsy-bitsy picture of astronaut on album cover
It’s resulted in a life-size lawsuit: “Bruce McCandless, the NASA astronaut pictured small and floating in space above the Earth, is now suing Dido, Sony Music, Arista Records and Getty Images for using his picture.” [Eriq Gardner, THR Esq.; Bruce Carton, Legal Blog Watch]
Dear Concerned Constituent…
Members of Congress are oh so shocked that bank mortgage departments would use robo-signers.
“D.C.’s other thriving industry: lawsuits”
“From 2007 to 2009, the District [of Columbia] paid more than $50 million in legal settlements, according to a database of city records obtained by The Washington Post. In that period, Montgomery County – which has 972,000 residents vs. the District’s 599,000 – paid $8.5 million in settlements. … ‘There are more lawyers per capita in this city than any other city in the world,’ [District attorney general Peter] Nickles said. ‘And what do lawyers like to do?'” [Washington Post; sidebar charts]
October 11 roundup
- “Feds seek to halt inmate’s frequent lawsuits” [AP; J.L. Riches]
- “SeaWorld Blasts ‘Improper’ Suit Over Trainer’s Death” [OnPoint News, earlier]
- Does new NY law serve as road map for charities that wish to defy donor intent? [CultureGrrl]
- Cruise ship case an example of tensions that arise when defense lawyers jump fence to join plaintiffs’ side [Julie Kay, DBR]
- More on Connecticut AG Richard Blumenthal’s “my lawsuits create jobs” stance [Bainbridge; related, New York Times Magazine (opponent MacMahon: “His business is suing people.”)]
- Australia: “Autistic student sues over test” [The Age]
- “The most conservative court? Hardly” [Jacoby, Globe] And Justice Breyer, for one, has “rejected the notion that the U.S. Supreme Court has a pro-business slant and said the court doesn’t rule in favor of companies any more frequently than it has historically.” [Bloomberg via Adler, Volokh]
- “Abducted by aliens? Call now for compensation” [four years ago on Overlawyered; Germany]
“High-priced lawyer sues former client, then agrees to pay him $102,000”
Glenn C. Lewis, a divorce lawyer who “boasts that he is the most expensive lawyer in the [Washington, D.C.] region,” sued a former client “for an additional $500,000 in fees and interest, although he’d already been paid $378,000.” Lewis says the case was a demanding one and that he earned the money fair and square, but things did not go particularly well for his cause before judges in suburban Fairfax County. [Washington Post via Above the Law]
Driving while not in fact drunk
Austin’s police chief wants to criminalize driving on 0.05 blood alcohol — which for many people means a beer or two — and state senator John Whitmire of Houston is sympathetic: “Some people shouldn’t be driving after one drink.” A MADD spokesman applauds, too. [Austin American-Statesman]
Sue the Nobel economics committee?
Kenneth Silber on a much-publicized financial author’s latest dubious idea.