California Lawyer covers the Nicaraguan pesticide litigation fraud (via California Civil Justice). And Dole has dropped its never-should-have-been-filed lawsuit against a Swedish filmmaker that had promoted the plaintiffs’ case [AP, earlier] More: ShopFloor.
U.K.: Great moments in immigration law
The Asylum and Immigration Tribunal ruled that sending the Bolivian man back to his homeland would breach his human rights because he was entitled to a “private and family life”, and joint ownership of a pet was evidence that he was fully settled in this country. …
The Bolivian’s identity has not been disclosed and even the name of the pet cat was blanked out in official court papers to protect its privacy.
Delivering her decision on the case, which is thought to have cost the taxpayer several thousand pounds, Judith Gleeson, a senior immigration judge, joked in the official written ruling that the cat “need no longer fear having to adapt to Bolivian mice”. …
More: Rougblog (“We are all familiar with the term “anchor baby,” but the “anchor cat” is a new concept for me.”)
Tuesday in DC: “Food Safety Regulations: Will More Regulation Make Us Safer?”
The American Enterprise Institute is holding a panel discussion in Washington, D.C. Tuesday afternoon and I’ll be one of the participants, along with David W. K. Acheson of Leavitt Partners, Carol Tucker Foreman of the Consumer Federation of America, and Michelle Worosz of Auburn University, with AEI’s Kenneth Green as moderator. Details here. I’ve had a few things to say about food safety over the years and am also likely to draw on the potential parallels presented by the calamitous Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA).
Business expects more litigation next year
The sixth annual Fulbright & Jaworski survey finds company lawyers expect a rise in labor, employment and regulatory actions. [ABA Journal, Fulbright site leads to report, WSJ Law Blog, FCPA Professor]
New at Point of Law
Things you’re missing if you’re not keeping up with my other site:
- Judge dismisses much-watched Kivalina suit demanding damages for Inuit village from global warming;
- Supreme Court will tackle controversial doctrine of “honest services fraud”;
- Class action lawyer Sean Coffey [Bernstein Litovitz] may run for New York attorney general;
- Not even a hearing before Senate confirms OSHA nominee David Michaels?
- Law firm pay-to-play in representing New York public pension funds. And Spitzer: let’s use public pension funds to annihilate the U.S. Chamber;
- When Teamster librarians signal you to be quiet, you’d better be quiet, understand? And Connecticut orders utilities not to lay off workers.
Faking cancer to dodge a lawsuit
Doing that sort of thing is never a good idea, and now it’s drawn a three-year sentence for obstruction of justice for a former vice president at a Cambridge, Mass.-based biotech company. He’s appealing the sentence as excessive. [AP, Boston Globe, Boston Herald]
Middleton, Wisc.: “Police Stop Giving Teddy Bears to Children Because of CPSIA”
Can’t be too careful in comforting kids at crime scenes, you never know what might be in those old teddy bears [WISC-TV, Handmade Toy Alliance, Rick Woldenberg] Cops in the Wisconsin town are giving kids books instead, presumably books printed after 1985 (& Sykes/WTMJ).
“Monster Energy vs. BevReview.com”
A product review site gets a takedown demand, apparently premised on its having run a picture of the product under review. Related at Consumerist (Vermont brewer Matt Nadeau targeted over “Vermonster” beer). It appears this is all unrelated to the widely publicized intellectual property assertions of the Monster Cable concern.
October 15 roundup
- “Jury Says No to Libel Claim Over Truthful E-Mail” [NLJ, Ardia/Citizen Media Law; high-profile First Circuit Noonan v. Staples case, earlier here and here]
- Transmission of folk music is getting tangled in copyright claims [BoingBoing]
- Scientific shortcut? Veterans Department will presume Parkinson’s, common heart ailment are caused by Agent Orange for GIs who set foot in Vietnam [NY Times]
- Federal hate crimes bill: yes, courts will consider speech and beliefs in assessing penalties [Sullum and more, Bader]
- Texas trial lawyer Mark Lanier’s famed Christmas bash will feature Bon Jovi this year [ABA Journal, background here and here]
- Let’s explain our Constitution to her: U.K. cabinet minister thinks Arnie can close private website because it’s based in California and he’s governor [Lund, Prawfsblawg]
- Ten best Supreme Court decisions, from a libertarian point of view? [Somin, Volokh]
- Cert petition on dismissal of suit against Beretta shows Brady Center still haven’t given up on undemocratic campaign to achieve gun control through liability litigation [Public Nuisance Wire interview with Jeff Dissell, NSSF]
Class action claim: rebates through debit cards unfair
After all, says the named Alabama plaintiff in a suit against AT&T Wireless, what if I save every penny and don’t want to spend the rebate money the way a debit card would make me do? [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]