- “Trial Lawyers vs. Toyota” [Holman Jenkins, Jr./WSJ] Rep. Towns’s hearing didn’t even pretend to be other than showcase for trial bar [Wood, PoL; Henry Payne coverage in National Review here, here, here, and here] And make way for the inevitable investor suits [Daily Breeze]
- “Obama open to curbing medical malpractice suits” [AP/WaPo] Related: The Hill; advice from Newsweek’s Evan Thomas [Jim Pinkerton]
- Why doesn’t the Securities and Exchange Commission hire finance people? “They’re overlawyered. They’re poisoned by lawyers.” [Harry Markopolos interviewed by Deborah Solomon, N.Y. Times]
- “Plaintiffs Lawyer’s ‘Reptile’ Strategy Bites Back” [Fulton County Daily Report] Plus: Max Kennerly wonders why it was admitted into evidence;
- “Facebook plus divorce equals flammable situation” [Tampa Bay Online]
- Officials get wined, dined and more: “Paying public pensions to sue” [Forbes]
- Parents sue many defendants in Colorado ice cream shop crash [Denver Post]
- Called for jury duty yesterday, and Tweeting the results: arts critic/biographer Terry Teachout and conservative writer Michelle Malkin.
Associated Press cadmium-in-jewelry panic, cont’d
Could the legislative results be even worse than CPSIA’s? The Handmade Toy Alliance notes that legislation in several states purports to ban all presence of the heavy metal, which is ubiquitously found in nature at small concentrations. The worst bills, they say, are pending in California, Illinois, New Jersey, and Connecticut. More: NJ.com (New Jersey bill)
“Proposed Facebook Settlement Comes Under Fire”
The March 2 Wall Street Journal (link dead after 7 days) covers all-for-charity-none-for-the-class “cy pres” settlements of Facebook and AOL—the latter of which was the subject of a Center for Class Action Fairness objection:
Late last year, in a class action claiming that tech giant AOL LLC improperly inserted footers in its users’ emails, Los Angeles federal judge Christina Snyder awarded $25,000 in settlement funds to a Los Angeles legal-aid organization that has the judge’s husband on its board. …
The Virginia-based [sic] Center for Class Action Fairness objected, claiming the settlement raised a conflict of interest. Ted Frank, president of the group, said that to avoid potential conflicts, it would be better to require unclaimed settlement funds to be deposited into state coffers. “The problem is that parties can now give money to a judge’s preferred charity in the hopes that it will prompt the judge to rubber stamp a settlement,” he said.
Open thread
I’m still recovering from a 2 1/2 day power outage and computer trouble, but don’t hesitate to talk amongst yourselves.
“It’s a perfectly safe childhood, minus the childhood part”
Lenore Skenazy (Free-Range Kids) in the Washington Post on the urge to protect children from hot dogs and countless other statistically rare dangers. Quotes me on the litigation that led to the warning labels [Washington Post]
“Arizona Bill to Bar Use of Foreign and Religious Law”
Although the extent to which foreign legal standards should influence our own is very much a legitimate topic for debate, this particular bill is deeply misguided. [Eugene Volokh]
Dunning child support for a kid born when the “dad” was … 7?
Don’t assume it’s a complete fluke, says Matt Welch, these “deadbeat dads” programs really are set up to resolve every doubt in favor of collection [Reason “Hit and Run”, Amy Alkon]
“Wealthy Couple Sued For Installing Ikea Kitchen”
It “did not rise to the level of a kitchen suitable for a property located at 50 Gramercy Park North,” says the realty group that rented the apartment from the owners. P.S. New York Daily News link mistakenly omitted before (h/t Bob Montgomery).
Lawyer-unsafe short film of the year
Logorama is an Oscar-nominated 16-minute film with R-rated language and situations and as many as 2,500 possible intellectual property violations. [GarageTV, Belgian, via Nancy Friedman, who calls it “startling and hilarious”.]
Madison County class action: Blimpie subs not meaty enough
BL1Y wonders whether the numbers add up, though (via Above the Law, Courthouse News). The class action firm filing the case is Lakin Chapman; it and its predecessor firm are well-known to longtime Overlawyered readers. More: Lowering the Bar.