A news item that recalls this recent comment thread.
Posts Tagged ‘cellphones’
By reader acclaim: “Wi-Fi foe sues neighbor for using electronics”
We’ve previously encountered Arthur Firstenberg of Santa Fe, N.M., and his anti-wi-fi litigation. Now the self-reported sufferer from electromagnetic sensitivity “is suing his next-door neighbor for refusing to turn off her cell phone and other electronic devices,” saying his efforts to avoid the fields threatens to render him homeless. He also thinks neighbor Raphaela Monribot should pay him $530,000. He’s represented by lawyer Lindsay Lovejoy Jr. [Santa Fe New Mexican, The Register, DSL Reports]
More: alt-paper SFreeper (which seems to have been on the story first) reports that attorney Lovejoy “is a graduate of Harvard and Yale, as well as a former Assistant New Mexico Assistant Attorney General who has argued cases alongside now-US Sen. Tom Udall, D-NM.” (via Chris Fountain)
Their escheatin’ heart
Washington, D.C. wants to grab unused minutes on phone calling cards. [Radley Balko, Reason “Hit and Run”] Related: Scott Smith, Washington Legal Foundation.
Suing cellphone makers over car crashes
The New York Times publicizes a possible new front for product liability litigation [sidebar, yesterday’s p. 1 story]
P.S. A long, must-read post from Russell Jackson, who was quoted in the article: “Various Defenses Should Make Cell Phone Suit Untenable“.
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]
“Lawsuit filed over ‘sexting’ suicide”
“The family of a Sycamore High student who hanged herself after nude pictures she took on her cell phone were disseminated without her permission is suing the school, the city of Montgomery and several students they believe are involved.” [Cincinnati Enquirer] Jessica Logan was 18 and on spring break at the time. Patrick at Popehat, and earlier Scott Greenfield, have some relevant things to say about both the civil and criminal law angles of the problem.
“These are just kids being irresponsible and careless; they are not criminals.”
The ACLU says a Pennsylvania D.A. has threatened to prosecute teenage girls over mildly naughty-sounding photos of themselves on their cellphones, which he has called “provocative”. The case could help provoke a legislative clarification of what laws apply to the teenage practice that has been called “sexting”; one law professor suggests excusing original senders and recipients of photos from liability in most circumstances, while leaving open the possibility of penalties for resending to others.
Lawsuit: school district was wrong to discipline cheerleaders over nude cellphone pics
Just trying to dispose of all the nude cellphone pic lawsuit stories in one weekend, so that we can get back to more seemly litigation topics. (The other one was the case of the couple suing an Arkansas McDonald’s, saying the husband left his cellphone in the restaurant and the nude photos of his wife that were on it wound up on the internet.) In Bothell, Washington, parents of two cheerleaders “have sued the Northshore School District, alleging school officials erred when they suspended the girls from the team this year after nude photos of them circulated throughout the student body via text message.” Cellphone pictures of the two were separately and, it is said, accidentally circulated among fellow students; the lawsuit charges, inter alia, that the school was arbitrary to suspend the two girls while not disciplining students that had seen the pictures. (Jessica Blanchard, “Cheerleaders’ parents sue in nude photos incident”, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Nov. 21).
Using Twitter to scare up class action plaintiffs
Perennial Overlawyered favorite Hagens Berman seems to be doing that to promote a Verizon late fee suit (Kevin O’Keefe, Sept. 16, via @kevinokeefe — yes, our first Twitter-derived post). Update: Tweet retracted.
Chuck Yeager, Cingular and the right of publicity
The legendary test pilot sued the cellphone company — and has gotten past summary judgment with his claim — because a Cingular press release compared one of the company’s technical innovations to his work breaking the sound barrier. (Rebecca Tushnet, Jun. 22 via David Post @ Volokh).