A neon-look lighted vehicle wrap, more than 275 domain names and a paid person “ready to chat with any visitor to his Web sites” day or night are all part of the Florida DUI specialist’s marketing effort: “This is the way of the future,” he says. [Herald-Tribune via ABA Journal]
“Craigslist Not Responsible for Sex-For-Hire Ads, Judge Rules”
The grandstanding sheriff of Cook County, Ill. is thrown out of court. More: Eugene Volokh, Citizen Media Law.
Update: AutoAdmit case settles
Above the Law and Ann Althouse cover the end of a much-watched lawsuit filed by Yale students over nasty personal comments on a well-known message board.
Erin Brockovich in Florida
An editorial in the Palm Beach Post advises reader caution about the glamorous tort-chaser’s efforts to drum up clients for Weitz & Luxenberg and Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley based on allegations of a cancer cluster with a claimed link to radioactive drinking water:
The lawyers discussed water samples from 10 homes of cancer patients that showed at least trace amounts of radium, a naturally occurring metal. Those studies, however, echoed Florida Department of Environmental Protection results from 50 randomly selected homes. …
…one resident concluded on a Web site after the meeting: “Last night, we were validated.” Amid the personal appeals came the business pitch. Attorney Jack Scarola explained the contingency contract, which means that clients would pay nothing, even if they lost. He urged residents to take their time reading the contract because if “you inform yourselves well, you will find it’s in your best interest to sign with us.”
Evony suit against game blogger critic, cont’d
Patrick at Popehat does some digging, in fact quite a lot of it, about a curious suit filed in Australia. Earlier here.
October 22 roundup
- Unsafe at any read: new Ralph Nader novel panned by Chris Hayes, Washington editor of The Nation [Barnes and Noble Review via Suderman, Reason]
- Microsoft says “most, if not all” customer data from T-Mobile Sidekick smartphones has been recovered, but class action lawyers say they’re undeterred [Seattle P-I]
- Sue them all and sort things out later? Lawsuit over Air France Airbus crash off coast of Brazil names long list of aerospace suppliers as defendants [Reuters]
- “No cash for this clunker”: opposition mounts to proposal for Massachusetts public law school [Boston Herald editorial via Legal Blog Watch, earlier link roundup at Point of Law]
- Ralph Lauren experiences Streisand Effect over skinny-model nastygram [Althouse, earlier]
- High-profile L.A. plaintiff’s lawyer Walter Lack speaks under questioning about role in Nicaraguan banana-worker suit against Dole [Recorder, earlier, background] And: “Dole on a Roll: Court Declines to Enforce $97M Judgment” [WSJ Law Blog, Bloomberg]
- Miller-Jenkins lesbian custody case, much meddled in by conservative religious groups, recalls the ways divorced dads get cut out of their kids’ lives [Glenn Sacks/Ned Holstein via Amy Alkon, background]
- Daniel Kalder speculates on why the New York Times editorially “purred with approval” of the new FTC blogger regulations in such an “impressively superficial” way [Guardian Books Blog]. More on FTC’s semi-backtracking on the controversy: Media Bistro “Galleycat”, Publisher’s Weekly, Galleysmith. And having been hoping for ages to get a link some day from blogging legend Jason Kottke, this one will go in the souvenir file [Kottke.org]
“Nowhere is the argument over ‘over-lawyering’ more intense than in the field of medical malpractice….”
CBS Sunday Morning this weekend profiled author, lawyer and reformer (Common Good/”health courts”) Philip K. Howard. Related: Progressive Policy Institute to press health-court idea on Capitol Hill? [AP/Washington Post]
AEI food safety panel yesterday
A video is promised soon, and some of the speakers’ supporting materials are already online. Angela Logomasini has a writeup for CEI’s “Open Market”. Earlier here. I spoke at length about the CPSIA calamity and had a few things to say about the food side as well.
“The persecution of Belmont Abbey”
Charlotte Allen of the Manhattan Institute on the EEOC’s crackdown on a traditionalist Catholic college for not including contraceptives in its health plan. [Weekly Standard]
“Domain bullying”
Via David Post at Volokh, a nastygram sent by the American Federation of Teachers to the critical site AFTExposed.com. More: Ron Coleman, Likelihood of Confusion.