- Funniest string cite ever? Judge Alex Kozinski has a field day [Lowering the Bar]
- Lawyer: panic attack explains why I settled my bias complaint for a mere $350K [ABA Journal]
- Curious EU heritage sign: “plants, wild animals and leprechauns (little people) are protected in this area” [SkyNews]
- “She asked me if she should go back to earning $25,000.” Caught in the poverty trap [Megan Cottrell, Urbanophile]
- Jury rejects claim that formaldehyde emissions from FEMA Katrina trailer caused man’s throat tumor [Courthouse News]
- Update: McDonald’s settles nude-photos-left-on-cellphone case [OnPoint News, earlier]
- Canadian psychiatrist accused of human rights violations in South Africa suppressed public discussion of his past for years by threatening to sue news organizations [Guardian]
- Judge throws out Texas law limiting quick solicitation of accident victims [Houston Chronicle]
Posts Tagged ‘libel slander and defamation’
“Blogger gets SLAPPed for passing on government warnings”
Trouble on the consumer beat: a Florida travel company is suing travel gadfly Christopher Elliott over alleged inaccuracies in his reporting on regulatory actions taken by the state of Florida against the company (via Legal Satyricon).
March 24 roundup
- Jury orders Dutchess County, N.Y. school district to pay $1.25 million for not adequately addressing classmate harassment of “very dark skinned” half-Latino student; district protests that it had extensively pursued diversity/sensitivity programs [Poughkeepsie Journal]
- More unwisdom: “Oklahoma House of Representatives Proposes Ban on Use of Foreign Law in Oklahoma Courts” [Volokh, earlier on Arizona bill]
- Update: California environment czars won’t ban black cars, but watch out for what reflective-layer window mandates might do to cellphones and tollgate transponders [ShopFloor, earlier]
- “Firm Sanctioned for ‘Perfect Storm’ of Improper Practices in Debt Collection” [NYLJ]
- Critic of lie detector technology says U.K. libel law has silenced him [Times Online] Science journalist Simon Singh says fighting chiropractors’ libel suit is so draining that he’s quitting his column for the Guardian [Guardian, Citizen Media Law]
- Florida: father who lost wife, son in murder/suicide at gun range drops lawsuit against the store [Orlando Sentinel]
- Appeals court declines to overturn Mary Roberts sextortion conviction [MySanAntonio.com, opinion, related, earlier]
- Corporation for Public Newspapering? Stimulus bucks go to “public-interest investigative journalism” [SFWeekly]
March 19 roundup
- Plaintiff in case alleging defective clown shoes “does not want any additional publicity” [N.Y. Post via Lowering the Bar]
- Santa Fe’s anti-wireless activists [The New Mexican, earlier]
- Law vs. vaccines, cont’d: “Judge Declines to Upset $22.5 Million Jury Award in Polio Case” [NYLJ]
- Arizona high court launches probe of Maricopa County prosecutor Andrew Thomas [Coyote, earlier]
- “Innumerable histronics” but no conspiracy: litigation over 1996 Filegate scandal fizzles out [Althouse]
- More boosts in regulators’ budgets [Roger Clegg, NRO, OFCCP employment regulation at federal contractors; Koehler, FCPA Professor] Obama’s putting in regulatory hardliners at many agencies; a clue to his politics? [Bainbridge, Judis/TNR]
- If only they’d confine themselves to suing the actual bad actors in FACTA (credit-card-slip) and junk-fax litigation [Bart T. Murphy, Chicago Business Ledger; my ’06 take]
- So may bullies ever fare: sanctions set against company that sued BoingBoing for libel [“MagicJack” case and more]
Update: judge allows “giraffe attack” spoof back on web
“Nicholas Brilleaux, publisher of Hammond Action News, got a big victory yesterday when a Louisiana judge dissolved an order prohibiting him from posting a satirical news story about a fictional giraffe attack on his blog.” [Citizen Media Law, OnPoint News, earlier]
SLAPP bill: advancing free speech at federalism’s expense?
Ken at Popehat: “Let’s get this straight from the start: I’m in favor of anti-SLAPP statutes and vigorous legal protections for free speech. I’m just not convinced that federalizing libel law is the right way to go about it.” Earlier on the Cohen bill here.
Federal anti-SLAPP legislation proposed
Scott Greenfield, Eric Goldman and Marc Randazza/Citizen Media Law have details of a bill introduced by Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.)
Judge orders website to yank “giraffe attack” story
A judge has ordered a satirical website to remove an article about a fictional attack by a giraffe at a Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana wildlife center. The center had argued that the article was not clearly labeled as satire and had been taken for real by some readers. A lawyer for the center says his client is asking “to have the story permanently removed from the site and to prevent Hammond Action News from ever distributing it.” Having handed down a temporary restraining order, the judge will consider the permanent removal request March 15. [The Advocate; Hammond Action News]
P.S. Commentary on the story from Ken at Popehat, who links another local story reporting that president of wildlife park threatened college-student satirist with “criminal charges, FCC charges, fraud charges, an IRS complaint, a governor’s office complaint, and a federal lawsuit” (h/t commenter Doug).
February 25 roundup
- 1978 accident settlement: “Old check for $17,500 found in woman’s nightstand drawer” [Orlando Sentinel]
- John Tierney on the great dietary salt debate [N.Y. Times]
- U.K.: reports from chiropractor association libel case against Simon Singh [Jack of Kent, Index on Censorship, Crispian Jago, earlier here, here, here, etc.]
- Law firm marketers should employ Hitler videos with care, if at all [Greenfield] Another funny lawyer ad from NYC’s Trolman, Glaser & Lichtman [Lowering the Bar, earlier]
- Claim: to undo “blockages”, psychic needed $4,773 shopping spree at Ralph Lauren [N.Y. Daily News, h/t Siouxsie Law]
- First Amendment plaintiff wins $1,791, but Jefferson County, Colorado may be out a million in legal fees [Karen Crummy, Denver Post]
- Unanimous SCOTUS ruling could curb forum-shopping in suits against national businesses [Krauss, PoL, and more at roundup]
- Long Island: “Woman Sues ‘Babies ‘R’ Us’ Over Peanut Allergy” [WCBS]
Iceland as legal haven for investigative journalism?
Lawmakers in the island country are considering enacting new pro-speech laws that might serve as an umbrella for some non-Icelanders as well. But let’s not get our hopes up: libel tourism, and in particular “the principle that publication happens at the point of download, not the point of upload,” will continue to give plaintiffs an edge. [Arthur Bright/Citizen Media Law, Larry Ribstein/Ideoblog, Jesse Walker/Reason]