Posts Tagged ‘child protection’

You mean it’s not the videogames?

This can’t be true — too many policymakers and activists have invested careers in the contrary:

It is not the cartoons that make your kids smack playmates or violently grab their toys but, rather, a lack of social skills, according to new research.

“It’s a natural behavior and it’s surprising that the idea that children and adolescents learn aggression from the media is still relevant,” says Richard Tremblay, a professor of pediatrics, psychiatry and psychology at the University of Montreal, who has spent more than two decades tracking 35,000 Canadian children (from age five months through their 20s) in search of the roots of physical aggression. “Clearly youth were violent before television appeared.”

(Nikhil Swaminathan, “Taming Baby Rage: Why Are Some Kids So Angry?”, Scientific American, Oct. 16).

Filed under: Canada, child protection, videogames

July 3 roundup

Represented by repeat Overlawyered mentionees Cellino & Barnes/The Barnes Firm, this injured upstate New Yorker got a settlement of $35,000 which worked out after expenses to — are you ready? — $6.60 [Buffalo News]

Not yet a laughingstock: AMA backs off idea of labeling video-game addiction [Wired News, L.A.Times/CinciPost, HealthDay/WilmNJ]

Restaurant critics fear losing their physical anonymity, which means a Bala Cynwyd eatery has a sword to hold over the Philadelphia Inquirer reviewer it’s suing [PhilaWeekly] (More: AP/CNN)

Dad of the year? Father who didn’t have much contact with 30-year-old son during his life shows up to claim half his $2.9 million 9/11 compensation award [NYDN, NYLJ, PDF brief courtesy Taranto/WSJ]

Fie on goodness: Geoffrey Fieger engages Harvard’s Dershowitz to try to quash federal grand jury probe, and he’s still battling Michigan judges too [DetNews]

In suburban D.C. middle school, high-fiving could mean detention under no-touching rule [Washington Post, AP/CNN]

Law firm whistleblowers? Ex-employees allege billing fraud in tobacco suit by high-flying Kansas City, Mo. trial lawyer [Legal NewsLine]

U.K. government panel bans egg ad as not encouraging healthy eating [Times Online, Guardian, Telegraph]

Lawprof is keen on expanding tort law to open door for more suits against schools over kids’ bullying [Childs]

1,001 ways to self-publicize: one is to become a “trial groupie” [Elefant]

Guess what? This site just turned eight years old [isn’t it cool]

Filed under: absent parents who sue, advertising, Buffalo, child protection, Geoffrey Fieger, Michigan, Missouri, Philadelphia, restaurant critics, tobacco, videogames

June 21 roundup

Okla. AG says scam artists are sending out bogus “you’ve won a class action settlement” notices that could hook unwary recipients [Consumer Affairs]

Rough on marriages, jobs, and tempers: life as a juror on a thirteen-month trial [Times Online]

“In some ways, that story represented everything about America: sex, money, and litigation.” [Tina Brown on Anna Nicole saga]

Baby steps toward consumer protection? When lawyers “go bare” without professional liability insurance, some in Calif. bar think clients should be told [The Recorder]

Norwalk, Ct. cop who won reinstatement after snatching body part (Jan. 23) is back in the news, and not in a favorable way [Jeff Hall; Advocate, Citizen-News]

Why RIAA probably needn’t worry that its scattershot suit-filing will expose it to RICO liability [Ars Technica]

Come to think of it, maybe shooting your husband is worse than serving beer to 16-year-olds [Bader @ WashPost; earlier]

Michigan woman “slain in the Spirit” at Pentecostal religious service wins suit alleging church was negligent and broke promise by not providing usher to catch her as she fell; defamation claims also figured in suit [Lansing State Journal, Lawyers’ Weekly; compare this case from Australia]

“Backlash Forms Against ‘Zero Tolerance‘” — well, we can hope [Associated Press]

New at Point of Law: State Farm moves to disqualify Scruggs in Katrina litigation; honest expert witness spotted?; proposed federal habitat regulation might dwarf current wetlands and species laws; and much more;

Auctioning off the right to handle a civil case… on eBay? [Five years ago on Overlawyered]

Filed under: Australia, child protection, churches, class actions, Connecticut, Dickie Scruggs, environment, expert witnesses, juries, Katrina, libel slander and defamation, Michigan, police, RIAA and file sharing, State Farm, zero tolerance

Update: New trial for Julie Amero

The Connecticut substitute teacher was tried and convicted after her computer, probably owing to a malware bug, displayed smutty websites in students’ presence (Jan. 20, Feb. 15, Mar. 14). The original trial, notes Glenn Reynolds (Jun. 7), “seemed like a grotesque miscarriage of justice”; prosecutors did not oppose a defense motion for a new trial. (Nate Anderson, “Substitute teacher spared sentencing for porn pop-ups, gets new trial”, Ars Technica, Jun. 7).

Filed under: child protection, Connecticut, crime and punishment, technology

March 6 roundup

NY trial lawyers furious over state medical society’s plan to put informational posters and postcards in docs’ waiting rooms re: Topic A [Kingston Daily Freeman]

But can you sue Spider-Man? “Superheroes” linked to multiple pediatric injuries [BlogMD]

By reader acclaim: German farmer’s suit claims teenagers’ fireworks scared his ostrich Gustav right out of the breeding mood [AP/Jake Young]

Doug Weinstein is a fan of Edwards, but many of his commenters aren’t [InstaLawyer first, second posts]

Former Georgia legislator, author of bill that resulted in Genarlow Wilson’s 10-year sentence (see Feb. 8), says he’s sorry [Towery @ TownHall]

A lesson for grabby New Orleans Mayor Nagin? “In the massive floods of 1993, levees broke up and down the Mississippi — and no one sued. They rebuilt.” [Surber]

“Defamation of religion” soon to be regarded as contrary to int’l law? [Brayton channeling Volokh](more: Stuttaford)

Wouldn’t you just know: Bertolt Brecht’s sly legal dodges, at expense of Kurt Weill and other collaborators, still keep litigators busy long after his death [National Post]

U.K.: “Rectorial liability is a time bomb under every enticing glebe” [Guardian]

NYC subway system didn’t own or control access stairs, but can be sued over slip-fall anyway [Point of Law]

Grocery worker with Down’s Syndrome couldn’t follow basic sanitary rule, but that didn’t mean supermarket could fire him [three years ago on Overlawyered]

Filed under: child protection, Germany, libel slander and defamation, Mississippi, roundups

February 12 roundup

Divorcing Brooklyn couple has put up sheetrock wall dividing house into his and hers [L.A. Times, AP/Newsday]

Boston Herald appeals $2 million libel award to Judge Ernest Murphy, whom the paper had portrayed as soft on criminals (earlier: Dec. 8 and Dec. 23, 2005) [Globe via Romenesko]

Updating Jul. 8 story: Georgia man admits he put poison in his kids’ soup in hopes of getting money from Campbell Soup Co. [AP/AccessNorthGeorgia]

Witness talks back to lawyer at deposition [YouTube via Bainbridge, %&*#)!* language]

Prominent UK business figure says overprotective schools producing generation of “cotton wool kids” [Telegraph]

State agents swoop down on Montana antique store and seize roulette wheel from 1880s among other “unlicensed gambling equipment” [AP/The Missoulian]

“You, gentlemen, are no barristers. You are just two litigators. On Long Island.” [Lat and commenter]

Some Dutch municipalities exclude dads from town-sponsored kids’ playgroups, so as not to offend devout Muslim moms [Crooked Timber]

As mayor, Rudy Giuliani didn’t hesitate to stand up to the greens when he thought they were wrong [Berlau @ CEI]

Australia: funeral homes, fearing back injury claims, now discouraging the tradition of family members and friends being pallbearers [Sydney Morning Herald]

Asserting 200-year-old defect in title, Philly’s Cozen & O’Connor represents Indian tribe in failed lawsuit laying claim to land under Binney & Smith Crayola factory [three years ago on Overlawyered]

Filed under: Australia, chasing clients, child protection, divorce, finger in the chili, gambling, Indian tribes, libel slander and defamation, Long Island, Montana, Netherlands

Lawyer for families: MySpace “no different” from day-care center

Paul McNamara, at NetworkWorld, takes exception, calling the Houston lawyer’s pronouncement a “steaming pile of flapdoodle” (Jan. 19; Joe Garofoli, “Families of sexually abused girls sue MySpace, alleging negligence”, San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 19)(earlier).

Filed under: child protection, deep pocket, Houston, MySpace, online speech, third party liability for crime

“A Tree Falls in Connecticut”

Officials in Milford, Ct. agreed to take down three healthy hickory trees along an avenue after resident Una Glennon “demanded that the trees be removed because one of her grandchildren is allergic to nuts and can’t play in the pool with the other children when the nuts are falling.” Author and Common Good president Philip K. Howard detects the distortive influence of what he calls “legal fear”. (New York Times, Jul. 30). Also: Emily Bazelon, “Trees vs. children: Are nut allergies taking over the planet?”, Slate, Jul. 27.

Filed under: child protection, Connecticut, environment, trees

Lied about her age to get into wet T-shirt contest

Not only that, but she assumed the whirring video cameras were just for onlookers’ personal use. Certainly she wasn’t expecting the spring break footage to turn up in commercially available compilations. So Monica Pippin is now extracting legal settlements from entities including Playboy and Anheuser-Busch; however, the Daytona Beach hotel at which the contest took place objects to being sued on the grounds that it “had no role in producing or distributing the videos and did not profit from them”. (Kevin Graham, “Lawsuit says video exploits teen’s naivete”, St. Petersburg Times, Apr. 28). Similar: Sept. 28-30, 2001; Mar. 6-7, 2002.

Filed under: Anheuser-Busch, child protection, deep pocket, Florida, movies film and videos, shotgun defendant selection

Kids’ do-not-email registries

New laws that went into effect in Michigan and Utah at the beginning of the month could open up substantial and surprising areas of civil and criminal liability for entities that put out email newsletters, critics say. The laws authorize parents, guardians and others to enroll minors’ email addresses in new do-not-mail registries; after 30 days’ listing, it becomes illegal for anyone to send material unsuitable to minors to such addresses even at the account holder’s request. Among material that has in various contexts been tagged as unsuitable to minors are sites such as Salon.com and discussions of various controversial public issues. (Declan McCullagh, “Why ribaldry could earn you prison time”, News.com, Jun. 27). According to one commentator, an email may be unlawful if it merely contains a link to a third party site (such as a newspaper’s or magazine’s website) which in turn displays advertising for beer, wine, betting or other products and services that are off limits to minors. (Paul Collins, “New Michigan and Utah Child Protection Registry Laws”, spamfo.co.uk, Jun. 29). Already, libertarian feminist author and FoxNews.com commentator Wendy McElroy has suspended publication of her email newsletter, citing fear of liability under the new laws (“Suspension of Emailed Ifeminist Newsletter”, History News Network/Liberty & Power, Jul. 13)(via Tom Palmer). It is contemplated that maintainers of email newsletters that wish to retain the right to discuss or link to liquor/gambling/off-color content will purchase match/purge services on a monthly basis from the registrars of the do-not-mail lists, but such cross-checking will require the payment of fees as well as raising troubling privacy questions. For details of how entrepreneurial Utah law firms have seized on earlier anti-spam legislation to generate mass litigation against legitimate businesses in that state, see my Reason Online article, “You May Already Be a Loser”, Dec. 8, 2003.

Filed under: advertising, child protection, Michigan, online speech, Utah