Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Posts Tagged ‘Japan’

Rising city land costs and the NIMBY factor

As booming demand to live and work in the most sought-after cities runs into not-in-my-back-yard (NIMBY) restrictions on new housing construction, the ideas of Henry George are getting back into the conversation. Who will invest in civic amenities, even the most basic, if their effect is to cause rents to rise even further? [Tyler Cowen, Bloomberg; related and more on New Zealand cities where strict controls on building have contributed to unaffordable prices]

Related: “Why Is Japanese Zoning More Liberal Than US Zoning?” [Nolan Gray, Market Urbanism]

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Schools roundup

  • “Wyoming: Efforts to strip state courts of jurisdiction to hear K-12 funding lawsuits reintroduced; courts could declare funding system unconstitutional but could not order more funding” [Gavel To Gavel, more on school finance litigation]
  • Coalition of accusers’-rights groups sue Education Department demanding restoration of earlier Obama versions Title IX guidance [KC Johnson Twitter thread pointing out weaknesses in suit]
  • “A High School Student Faces Expulsion for Noticing the Square Root Symbol Looks Like a Gun” [Scott Shackford]
  • How a political machine based on the schools lobby ran one affluent suburban county (Montgomery County, Maryland) before fumbling its grip [Adam Pagnucco, The Seventh State]
  • Costs approach $1M in Southern California special ed dispute over one student’s education [Ashly McGlone, San Diego Union-Tribune]
  • Japan: “Of course, this ignores the absurdity that students are being required, or feel required, to dye their hair because of a policy that was supposedly meant to prohibit students from dying their hair.” [Lowering the Bar]

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Japan: families sue over failure to warn of volcano eruption

“Twelve people from five families of those killed in the 2014 eruption of Mount Ontake are set to sue the state and the Nagano Prefectural Government, demanding a total of 150 million yen in compensation, it has been learned.” The suit will argue that the Japan Meteorological Agency failed to raise the alert level for the volcano despite an increase in temblors, “partly on the grounds that the temblors were not accompanied by crustal movements.” [Mainichi]

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How one samurai judge handled positive externalities

In old Japan, it is said, the courts of Edo (now Tokyo) were presented with the complaint of a shopkeeper whose upstairs neighbor had enjoyed the delicious smell of his cooking without, as the plaintiff said would be fair, paying a price for it. To find out how the samurai judge cleverly resolved the complaint, read on…. [Dan Lewis, Now I Know]

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Liability and torts roundup

  • Struggling with a new-design gas can? There’s a reason for that [Scott Reeder, earlier on Blitz bankruptcy]
  • NYT video retrospective on Stella Liebeck-McDonald’s (hot coffee spill) case is getting a lot of attention;
  • Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has made itself the biggest name in asbestos defense, and some trial lawyers hope to make hay with that [Scripps/WPTV]
  • California trial lawyers chief: yes, we’re going to partner up more with elected officials as in lead paint case [Chamber-backed Legal NewsLine]
  • It’s differences in procedure, more than in substantive law, that mostly explain why the U.S. has hundreds of times as many product liability suits as Japan [J. Mark Ramseyer via Point of Law]
  • “Injured by big government? Call: 717-671-1901 [promotion for Commonwealth Foundation, a Pennsylvania free-market-oriented outfit]
  • How litigation finance might remake the lawsuit landscape [Nora Freeman Engstrom via TortsProf]

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Prosecution and police roundup

  • Forfeiture: “Defend the Right to Carry Cash and Travel Unmolested” [Eapen Thampy, Agitator]
  • Recent Japanese racketeering law, unlike our RICO, actually focuses on organized crime [Adelstein]
  • Sheriff’s flack to Fiona Apple: shut up and sing [Ken at Popehat]
  • Jimenez case: 99-year sentence, “substantial likelihood defendant was not guilty of this offense” [Jacob Sullum]
  • Conrad Black continues to speak out on barbarities of “prosecutocracy” [NY Sun]
  • “Are whistle-blowers the new IRS business model?” [Victor Fleischer, NYT DealBook]
  • “Minnesota Farmer Found ‘Not Guilty’ in Raw Milk Case” [Katherine Mangu-Ward, Reason]
  • Utah man shoots neighbor he thinks “telepathically raped” his wife, is ruled mentally fit for trial [CBS]

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July 5 roundup

  • “After drunken driver kills son, mother billed for cleanup” [Greenville News, S.C.]
  • Cities, states and school districts in California will be among losers if Sacramento lawmakers pass bill authorizing phantom damages [Capitol Weekly; more on phantom damages]
  • New from Treasury Dept.: steep exit fees for many corporations departing U.S. domicile [Future of Capitalism, TaxProf]
  • Jonathan Lee Riches is back filing his hallucinatory lawsuits again, and courts don’t care to stop him [Above the Law] More: Lowering the Bar.
  • Funny 1988 letter from Wyoming lawyer to California lawyer about fees [Letters of Note via Abnormal Use]
  • L.A. family is considering adding another valedictorian lawsuit to our annals [L.A. Times, earlier]
  • Effort to compensate Japanese nuclear accident victims is proceeding without much litigation [WaPo]

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October 21 roundup

  • “Japanese landlords sue families of suicide victims” [Telegraph via Tyler Cowen]
  • Best candidate you’ve never heard of: lawprof Jim Huffman runs for a U.S. Senate seat in Oregon [Weekly Standard]
  • “Freedom of culinary expression: Chefs speak out on behalf of salt” [“My Food, My Choice” via Ponnuru, NRO]
  • “In-House Counsel Expect More Regulatory Litigation, Survey Finds” [NLJ]
  • “Oladiran’s ‘Motion of the Year’ Earns Him Sanctions” [AtL]
  • Resisting a music-delivery-system claim: “Patent Trolls and Public Goods” [Julian Sanchez]
  • More transparency for New Jersey lawyer/lawmakers? [Philly.com]
  • “Ninth Circuit: marine mammals don’t have standing…yet” [six years ago on Overlawyered]

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