Even in the midst of a crusade by its editors and the city’s mayor to attach odium to sodium, the New York Times can’t help reporting on some of the practical complications for those trying to make food palatable.
Judge OKs suit against Bacardi over flaming rum display
“A woman who claims she was severely burned when a bottle of Bacardi 151 rum caught fire during a restaurant bartender’s pyrotechnic display has won her attempt to proceed with a personal injury and products liability action against Bacardi and the restaurant.” [Walder, NYLJ]
June 3 roundup
- I’ve got a new post at Cato at Liberty tying together prosecutors’ demands for business forfeiture for immigration violations with proposals to criminalize employee misclassification;
- I can’t believe it’s not a lawsuit: margarine class action melts away [Cal Biz Lit]
- Guess what, your asbestos trial is scheduled in 11 days [Korris, MC Record]
- “This website has to be removed”: mayor of Bordentown, N.J. wants to shut down online critic [Citizen Media Law]
- What is a think tank and what does it do? I and others contribute answers at Allen McDuffee’s Think Tanked blog;
- No surprise here: Insurer offers policy to cover things that go wrong in medical tourism, but won’t cover USA residents or facilities [Treatment Abroad via White Coat]
- Pennsylvania law curbing med-mal forum-shopping disappoints lawyers who used to head for Philly or Wilkes-Barre [Sunbury, Pa. Daily Item via, again, White Coat]
- New Haven pizzeria busted: owners let their kids work at restaurant [Amy Alkon]
Babysitter and mom to pay $1.1 million in drowning death
“A Connecticut teenager and her mother have agreed to pay $1.1 million to the family of a toddler who drowned while the girl was baby-sitting.” No criminal charges were filed in the Cheshire, Ct. case. The family named the teenager’s mother as an additional defendant “because she allegedly recommended her daughter to baby-sit.” [WINS.com] Earlier, a 2009 New Haven Register story reported that the family also intended to sue the town of Cheshire because the teenager had taken a babysitting class under its auspices, and because the mother had gotten to know the family in her capacity as the children’s teacher. However, according to the Waterbury Republican-American, court records “do not indicate a lawsuit against the town has been filed.”
Parents fight college that won’t admit 13-year-old
Lake-Sumter Community College in Leesburg, Florida is refusing to admit a home-schooled teenager because of her age: 13. “Undeterred, her parents have filed an age-discrimination complaint against the college with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.” [Martin Comas, Orlando Sentinel]
Australia: “Jailed mum’s rights ‘denied'”
“A jailed 45-year-old welfare cheat who wants another child claims her human rights have been breached because she has been refused access to fertility treatment. … The case is being run by six barristers and six solicitors with much of the legal bill being picked up by taxpayers.” [Melbourne Herald-Sun]
A foreclosure lawyer’s business plan
David Streitfeld’s article yesterday in the New York Times on strategic foreclosure by homeowners includes this vignette of lawyers’ role (via Salmon):
In Florida, the average property spends 518 days in foreclosure, second only to New York’s 561 days. Defense attorneys stress they can keep this number high. …
[Local lawyer Mark P. Stopa] sends out letters — 1,700 in a recent week — to Floridians who have had a foreclosure suit filed against them by a lender.
Even if you have “no defenses,” the form letter says, “you may be able to keep living in your home for weeks, months or even years without paying your mortgage.”
About 10 new clients a week sign up, according to Mr. Stopa, who says he now has 350 clients in foreclosure, each of whom pays $1,500 a year for a maximum of six hours of attorney time. “I just do as much as needs to be done to force the bank to prove its case,” Mr. Stopa said.
Cyclists sue Seattle over streetcar track injuries
Bicycling and streetcar tracks can make for a hazardous mix because the “flange way gap” alongside the rail can entrap bicycle wheels. Now six cyclists who crashed while crossing the new Westlake Avenue streetcar project are suing the city of Seattle. They are citing the city’s failure to follow a consultant’s recommendation that it close the avenue to bicyclists. [SeattlePI.com]
“Milton Friedman and the Euro”
Very prescient indeed [Antonio Martino, Cato Journal, PDF via Fountain]
Government seeks forfeiture, managers’ prison time for hiring illegal aliens
“While the Government does not have experience running a French bakery, they are getting very serious about enforcing I-9 regulations.” [Greg Berk, California Labor and Employment Law Blog]