December 11 roundup

  • Key Obama regulatory appointees at NHTSA (auto safety) and FTC [commerce, antitrust] used to work for AAJ, the trial lawyers’ lobby [Wood, PoL]
  • “Adventures in Lawyer Advertising: Muscle, Talent, Results, and Terrible Acting” [Above the Law]
  • Why so many great folk musicians are barred from U.S. tours [Jesse Walker/Reason, WSJ Law Blog]
  • Folks behind venerable Martindale-Hubbell lawyer directory wouldn’t stoop to comment spam, or would they? [Turkewitz and more; related Popehat, Bennett]
  • Palestinian sues Baron Cohen, Letterman, others over “Bruno” portrayal [AP/Baltimore Sun]
  • A Rhode Island hospital settles a med mal case [White Coat]
  • For a “cockeyed caravan” of law stories, follow a certain site (thanks!) [Arthur Charity, NJEsq.net, alas it seems a short-lived venture]
  • Santa’s got a sleighful of health and safety problems [Bella English, Boston Globe]

A crack in the CPSIA concrete?

In what one hopes is a break from the “no legislative fix needed” united front put forward by the law’s advocates, Consumer Product Safety Commission chair Inez Tenenbaum has acknowledged in a letter to Rep. George Radanovich (R-Calif) that at least some legislative action establishing exceptions to the law’s sweeping bans might be helpful. Product Safety Letter has the story. Relatedly:

PUBLIC DOMAIN IMAGES from Elise Bake, Der Ball Der Tiere (“The Animals’ Ball”, German, 1891), courtesy ChildrensLibrary.org.

Scott Rothstein and the legal profession’s image

The South Florida Daily Business Review finds a range of opinions:

“I don’t think he made us all look bad. I think he made lawyers wearing $5,000 suits and driving $500,000 cars look bad,” said David Markus, a Miami criminal defense attorney.

…Still, if there is only 1 percent of bad lawyers in a state with 85,000 attorneys, the public could be more than vulnerable, [Nova Southeastern law professor Robert] Jarvis said.

“That is 850 rogue attorneys. That is a lot of rogues,” Jarvis said.

(& welcome WSJ Law Blog readers)

Canada: bogus forensics took woman’s son, sent her to jail

Testimony by now-disgraced forensic pathologist Charles Smith sent Sherry Sherret-Robinson to jail for a year on charges of infanticide, and resulted in the permanent loss of her other child. Ontario’s highest court has cleared her, but it is rather late. [Jonathan Turley via Radley Balko; Wikipedia on Charles Randal Smith, CBC and more]