The state’s onetime crisis abated after Gov. Schwarzenegger presided over serious reforms in 2004, but now rates are on the rise again following court decisions that have let lawyers bypass medical-eligibility guidelines. [Orange County Register]
Posts Tagged ‘California’
Plague-squirrel panic!
Coyote offers a behind-the-scenes look at the safety-related closure of a California federal park to camping over the vacationer-heavy July 4 holiday.
California high court OKs public contingency fees
Ted at Point of Law has a post mortem on a decision that’s pretty bad, but not as bad as it might have been. More: Legal Ethics Forum, John Sullivan/Civil Justice Association of California, Wood/ShopFloor. Thanks, by the way, to CJAC for citing my writing in their amicus brief (PDF, see p. 10).
“When the Victim Is the Criminal”
Scott Greenfield relates the case of a California woman who found it only too easy to engineer criminal charges over fictitious harassment. “Notice that it was left to the defendants to investigate? That’s because the police already had their perps in custody. … It really can’t be this easy for someone to hatch a scheme and use the machinery of the legal system to her own advantage.” [Orange County Register]
“No Suing Your Getaway Driver for Crashing, Court Rules”
California has a statute barring negligence claims by persons injured while committing or fleeing from felonies of which they have been duly convicted. In this case it operated to cut off a case by two burglars who’d hoped to get money by suing a third over their injuries in a getaway crash. [Lowering the Bar; Espinosa v. Kirkwood, No. E048472 (Cal. App. 4 Dist. June 23, 2010), PDF]
July 9 roundup
- Many interesting reader comments on post about jury award against manufacturer over injury on bicycle motorized post-sale;
- Reimbursed for money never paid: “Calif. Trial Lawyers Welcome Latest Ruling on Recovery of Medical Expenses” [The Recorder]
- Update: Defamation suit against travel blogger Chris Elliott resolved successfully [Citizen Media Law, earlier]
- Podcast: Northwestern lawprof Steven Calabresi on McDonald (Second Amendment incorporation) case [Federalist Society]
- “Provost Umphrey claims banana picker reps siphoned clients, money” [SE Texas Record]
- Lawprofs in a NYT flutter about deductibility of punitive damages [Walk, Drug & Device Law] On the merits, Carter at ShopFloor: “Changing Tax Laws to Punish Businesses — Unless They Settle”
- Troubled Pacific Law Center to close in San Diego [ABA Journal, earlier]
- New York high court rules Atlanta exec cannot invoke New York’s pro-plaintiff state or city laws to contest firing [NYLJ]
$20 million for Jaycee Dugard, cont’d
“What Jaycee Dugard endured is beyond comprehension, but it should be patently obvious that California taxpayers weren’t responsible for what happened to her. …This is all about money and saving face; nothing about responsibility.” [Bruce Maiman, Sacramento Bee]
July 6 roundup
- “Kagan refused to identify anything the government couldn’t do under its Commerce Clause power” and “consciously left herself plenty of breathing room to cite foreign law inappropriately” [Ilya Shapiro, more]
- Multiple civil/criminal hats? “The odd responses of the attorney general to the oil spill” [WaPo editorial]
- Phillies Phanatic, “‘Most-Sued Mascot in the Majors’ Is Back in Court” [Lowering the Bar, which also hosts Blawg Review #271 this week]
- Federalist Society has a new blog;
- California will pay $20 million to woman abducted for nearly two decades [AP]
- Charges dropped against teen who tried to help lost kid in shopping mall [Lenore Skenazy, earlier]
- Two libertarians arrested after videotaping police in Greenfield, Mass. [Balko, earlier here and here]
- “‘Ambulance Chaser’ Lawsuits Hound Apple Over iPhone 4” [Atlantic Wire]
Don’t you dare go broke on us
“Public interest” lawyers suing the embattled California town of Colfax over alleged Clean Water Act violations want an award of interim fees lest it go bankrupt and become unable to pay. [California Civil Justice Blog]
“Court Rejects Pill Addiction Suit Against Pharmacies”
“A law that makes drug dealers liable for the injuries they cause does not apply to two pharmacies, a California appeals court has ruled, rejecting the case of a woman who got addicted to painkillers she acquired illegally from an employee of the pharmacies.” [Heller, OnPoint News]