Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Posts Tagged ‘about the site’

Accept no imitations

Now, this is ridiculous: at the URL http://www.overlawyered.blogspot.com/ (no, I’m not going to give it a live link) someone or other has erected a pseudo-blog under the heading, “Overlawyered”, followed by a verbatim swipe of the paragraph (“Overlawyered explores an American legal system…”) which for years stood atop this site’s sidebar and currently stands atop our “about us” page. The imitation-Overlawyered blog has relatively little content, but one of its entries (dated May 05, 2006) consists of excerpts swiped verbatim from a post of Ted’s of Feb. 16, 2006 on this site about a South Texas legal case.

Other content on the pseudo-Overlawyered site suggests that the author(s) take an interest in the South Texas legal scene, and have established a large group of blogspot entities which blogroll each other under the banner of “Team Kenedeno” (more at http://teamkenedeno.blogspot.com/). These interlocking sites often sport not very accurate names such as corpuschristicallertimes.blogspot.com, microsoftdotcom.blogspot.com, and exxonmobile.blogspot.com, and at least one of them (at http://wattslawfirm.blogspot.com/) also contains a more extensive verbatim swipe from Ted’s Feb. 16, 2006 post, mentioned above.

I looked around for a while, but failed to find any appropriate “report abuse” procedure on the Blogspot/Blogger site. The nearest thing was a “Flag Objectionable Content” button which apparently triggers a review for hate speech, obscenity, etc., but does not offer any way of reporting the rather different problem arising here. Reader suggestions are welcome.

Update from Ted: “We’ve contacted the appropriate people. Thanks for everyone’s help.”

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Daniel Edelman vs. subprime lenders

The Chicago class action lawyer, vividly remembered for his role in the notorious BancBoston Mortgage case, among others (Nov. 15, 1999, Feb. 7, 2000; see also Dec. 15, 2004 for his involvement in junk-fax litigation) is now filing suits against lenders who solicit persons with poor credit histories for more loans. The Northwest Indiana Times kindly quotes me on the subject (Joe Carlson, “Lawsuits targeting credit scams”, Nov. 27).

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“Don’t let Walter Olson have the say on this subject!”

That’s Stephanie Mencimer explaining (Nov. 28) why trial lawyers should buy multiple copies of her forthcoming book, entitled Blocking the Courthouse Door: How the Republican Party and Its Corporate Allies Are Taking Away Your Right to Sue, expressing views antipodal to our own.

Mencimer, a frequent contributor to such journals as Mother Jones and the Washington Monthly (see Jan. 19, 2005), has set up a website (previously noted by Ted) to promote her new book. It’s not unproductive of chuckles, in its way. For example, in one post earlier this month (Nov. 10), criticizing media coverage of patent hellhole Marshall, Texas, she piously avers that reporters should disclose who fed them tips. A fascinating idea! Does this mean she’ll be sure to disclose in her own writings who fed her tips? Or is this new standard only supposed to apply to journalism she disapproves of?

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WHYY Philadelphia, “Radio Times”

I was a guest this morning on host Marty Moss-Coane’s radio program, debating Yale professor Kelly Brownell on proposed trans fat bans. For more information on that and other food issues, see this site’s Eat Drink & Be Merry page.

P.S.: Prof. Brownell claimed the proposed New York City regulation banning most uses of trans fats wouldn’t be burdensome to restaurant owners, and quoted the owner of the Carnegie Deli, which has managed to dispense with most (though not all) use of those fats. Through the miracle of Google I was able to track down the New York Times’s coverage as we spoke and so was able to read the audience the entire quote from Carnegie Deli owner Sanford Levine, which included a portion Prof. Brownell was not so eager to quote: “They shouldn’t tell a businessman how to run a business,” Levine said. “They can make suggestions, but I don’t think it should be the law.” Prof. Brownell also claimed that there had been no great outcry in New York over the rules. The Times’s headline told a different story: “Big Brother in the Kitchen? New Yorkers Balk“.

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Yale Political Union debate

Last night I was honored to be the guest of the Yale Political Union (in which I was active during my own undergraduate days) to keynote the evening’s debate on “Resolved: Government should restrict the right to sue”. I got the whole guest treatment, including dinner at Mory’s beforehand with the leadership of the YPU, culminating in an impromptu a cappella performance by the fabulous Spizzwinks. After the debate, many of us retired to Yorkside Pizza to discuss politics and philosophy well into the night, including members of (inter alia) the Independent and Tory parties, the Party of the Right, and the newly forming Party of the Left. Among those present: the organizers of the Largest Facebook Group Ever.

And the debate itself? After my remarks, there were four spirited student speeches, two in the affirmative and two in the negative, following which I made a few further comments. The resolution “Resolved: Government should restrict the right to sue” then passed by a vote of 27 in favor, 10 opposed, and 7 abstentions.

Incidentally, the Yale Political Union, which bills itself as “the largest undergraduate organization at Yale, and the only group of its kind in the country”, is reaching out to alumni and other well-wishers as it plans to commemorate its approaching 75th anniversary. To support the Union, help with the planning of a contemplated anniversary reunion event or events, or get more involved generally, contact Andrew Olson (no relation) at this link.

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Check it out: new ShopThisBlog.com bookstore

Longtime readers of this site will remember our affiliated Amazon bookstore, which we maintained for a few years but gradually stopped updating as other duties seemed more pressing (you can still find it near the bottom of our ever-handy “General Links” page). Recently I was approached by the founder of a clever new service, ShopThisBlog.com, which comes up with customized bookstores keyed to popular blogs (based on books the bloggers have mentioned or reviewed, or which are closely related, etc.) ShopThisBlog.com then divides the resulting Amazon affiliate revenue with cooperating bloggers. It did not take long for me to realize that the bookstore ShopThisBlog had devised for Overlawyered was far better designed and more useful than the one I’d done on my own, and had thoughtfully been updated with newer books I’ve mentioned favorably in my writing.

So you’ll notice a box in the right-hand column of the front page which showcases ShopThisBlog recommendations. (I expect to tinker further with its presentation as we go along.) By all means check it out, check out the parallel shops keyed to other sites, and if you’re a blogger with reasonable traffic consider checking out the possibility of getting a ShopThisBlog bookstore of your own.

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