Thanks to Glenn Reynolds for pointing out this story at the Boston Globe. Apparently there’s talk of banning the new clinics housed inside various Walmarts and CVS stores in Boston. As Glenn ponders, why would the lawmakers there want to eliminate affordable health care operated by the private sector? Also, Glenn links to this post which highlights how these clinics are doing things right.
Posts Tagged ‘Massachusetts’
Divorce law in the Northeast
Prompted by our post of yesterday about Virginia lawyer-legislators, commenter Hans Bader at his own blog nominates New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey as examples of how bad matrimonial law can get: “the more lawyers are in a state legislature, the more unfair a state’s divorce laws tend to be”. (OpenMarket.org., Jan. 2). Plus: our family law archives are here.
The next wave of defensive medicine
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has held that a doctor may, in some circumstances, be liable for a patient’s auto accident if the plaintiff can prove that he failed to adequately warn his patient about the risks of driving under medication. (Coombes v. Florio; Childs; Klein blog; update: also Liz Kowalczyk, “SJC ruling adds to doctor liability”, Boston Globe, Dec. 11 via Childs).
The obvious dynamic result from this gigantic expansion of liability, unnoted by the majority: doctors will simply overwarn, and tell all of their patients not to drive. (After all, patients can’t sue their doctors for the damages caused by their being unable to drive.) Some patients will routinely ignore the advice because they won’t be able to distinguish the legitimate warnings from the defensive warnings; other patients will stop taking medication that they should be taking because of the additional unnecessary personal costs; still other patients who could have driven safely will impose huge costs because they obey the defensive warning. None of these indirect expenses caused by the expansion of liability will be measured in accounts of the costs of the tort system.
AGs: Don’t count sale as class-action remedy
Retailer TJX (Marshall’s, Bob’s, TJ Maxx, etc.), facing lawsuits following its exposure of more than 45 million customer records in a gigantic credit-card security breach, has agreed with class-action lawyers to a settlement that includes, among other concessions, the holding of “Customer Appreciation” sale events at its stores. Ten state attorneys general have now objected to the deal, pointing out that store sale events can and routinely do work to the benefit of the retailer and not just the buyer. Massachusetts AG Martha Coakley’s “objection was not so much with the sale itself, but with having it included as a part of the official settlement. The difference? If it’s in the official settlement, it increases how much money the consumer lawyers involved in the case get for their fee.” (Evan Schuman, “Massachusetts AG Slams TJX Consumer Settlement Sale”, EWeek, Nov. 19; Mark Jewell, “Coakley not excited about TJX’s plan for repayment”, AP/Worcester Telegram, Nov. 21; John O’Brien, “Ten AGs don’t want class action attorneys fees boosted by sale”, LegalNewsLine, Nov. 20; Keith Regan, “TJX to Shell Out $41M in Data Breach Settlement”, E-Commerce Times, Nov. 30).
Banning spanking in Massachusetts?
Since 1979 nineteen countries led by Sweden have banned corporal punishment by parents of kids in the home. A bill scheduled for debate today before the Massachusetts legislature would make that state the first to join the trend. (Laurel Sweet, “Bay State’s going slap-happy”, Boston Herald, Nov. 27; “Anti-spanking bill is folly” (editorial), Nov. 28; Stephen Bainbridge, Nov. 22 (New Zealand)). Earlier: Apr. 19, 2004 (U.K.); Feb. 14 and Feb. 24, 2007 (proposal in California).
More: such laws in both Sweden and New Zealand have been softened (i.e., made more lenient toward parents) by the interpolation of reasonableness standards, per Kiwi website Big News (via QuizLaw).
Salvation Army English-at-work suit, cont’d
Both houses of Congress have voted over the past month or two to block the EEOC lawsuit now underway against a Massachusetts unit of the religious group over its policy requiring workers to speak English on the job. But the House leadership has nonetheless promised bilingualism advocates that the proposal will be kept out of a final bill. (John Fund, “Mi Casa, Sue Casa”, OpinionJournal.com, Nov. 19). For more details about the Framingham, Mass., controversy, see PoL, May 3; earlier coverage of the controversy on Overlawyered is here and here. More: Bader, Morrissey, ScrappleFace; & welcome Michelle Malkin readers.
Mass. governor: let’s jail online gamblers
Gotta protect those state revenues?
Even as Governor Deval Patrick seeks to license three resort casinos in Massachusetts, he hopes to clamp down on the explosion in Internet gambling by making it illegal for state residents to place a bet on line. He has proposed jail terms of up to two years and $25,000 fines for violators.
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), however, reacted strongly against the proposal:
“I believe in personal liberty,” Frank said. “Adults should be able to do what they want. I wish my fellow liberals would not be so inconsistent on this issue.”
(Matt Viser, “Internet gambling is a target of Patrick bill”, Boston Globe, Nov. 10)(via Brayton).
October 15 roundup
- Louisiana attorney general Foti, under fire over his attempt to prosecute Dr. Anna Pou in Katrina deaths, faces tough re-election challenge [Times-Picayune, Lafayette Advertiser; earlier]
- Classic “Hershey’s liable to obese Americans” print satire now has a short audio version [Onion radio]
- Criticize alternative medicine at your peril? U.K. libel law helps stifle an opponent of homeopathy [Orac]
- Tennessee trial lawyers’ lobbyist comes under harsh public spotlight following lurid crackup of House Judiciary chair Rob Briley [Nashville Scene; earlier]
- Invoking CAFA, judge throws out coupon settlement in Sharper Image air purifier class action [Krauss @ Point of Law]
- In 4-4 split, Supreme Court lets stand a ruling that NYC must pay private school tuition for Hollywood exec’s ADHD son though he wouldn’t give city program a try; issue likely to return soon [NYTimes; earlier]
- Veteran journalists Patrick Dillon and Carl Cannon ink deal for book on rise and fall of Lerach tentatively titled Circle of Greed [WSJ law blog]
- Unforeseen consequences dept.: plan for retirement community catering to gays may be derailed by workings of antidiscrimination law [Miller, Independent Gay Forum]
- HIPAA an impediment to doctor-patient emails? [CareCure Forums via KevinMD]
- Update on fraudulent liens filed by prison inmates to harass court personnel (Mar. 31, 2004): system strikes back with extra 20-year term for one offender [Texas Lawyer]
- EEOC says Massachusetts employer must accommodate eyebrow-ring-wearing employee who claims membership in “Church of Body Modification” [five years ago on Overlawyered]
Get a C, File a Lawsuit.
In the Fall 2006 semester, Brian Marquis got a C in his “Problems in Social Thought” class at the University of Massachusetts. Apparently attempting to prove he learned more about the problems than about the solutions, he immediately proceeded to file a federal class action lawsuit alleging that the school, its trustees, his professor, and various deans violated his constitutional right to get an A.
In a rare case of speedy resolution, it took the court just four months from the time the lawsuit was served on the defendants for the court to dismiss the case; that might have had something to do with the fact that Marquis was proceeding pro se, and drafted a semi-grammatical complaint with no legitimate causes of action. (For instance, he listed a racial discrimination statute as one of his causes of action, despite being white and failing to allege that race played any role in the matter.)
Still, that hardly means the suit was cost-free; as one of the defendants put it, “It ended up just wasting a lot of people’s time and money.” Moreover, Marquis says that he’s thinking of appealing. But lest you think that Marquis just had sour grapes, he had a good reason for filing the suit:
Marquis – who salts his comments with “strike that” – acknowledged he was alarmed the C might lower his grade point average and make him less attractive to a law school.
The C has rendered his transcript a “dismal record of non-achievement,” his suit said. Marquis, who enrolled at UMass-Amherst in spring 2006, said he has roughly a B-plus average.
I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that “Has a history of filing lawsuits against his school and his professors” on his résumé isn’t actually going to make him more attractive to a law school. (Although his 2004 lawsuit against his previous school didn’t keep him from being admitted to the University of Massachusetts.)
(h/t Kerr @ Volokh)
Boston’s libel judge, out and about
Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Ernest B. Murphy is well known to readers of this site for winning a $2 million libel suit (upheld by the state’s high court) against the Boston Herald, which had published pieces portraying him as soft on crime and insensitive to victims. When the paper wired Murphy $3.4 million in June (the sum included interest), Legal Times’s Tony Mauro cited the episode as one of a string that had led the press to be newly wary of having to face off in court against judges (“Press Frets as More Judges Sue for Libel”, Jun. 22). And in July a state disciplinary panel filed misconduct charges against Judge Murphy for having sent the Herald’s publisher a “bring me a check and keep quiet” letter that media critic Dan Kennedy termed “fascinatingly repellent“.
Judge Murphy has maintained that because of the stories the Herald ran about him, he has suffered debilitating post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD]. As of Aug. 1, he was on sick leave for this disorder, although Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick rejected his request “to retire early with a special judicial disability pension that would have netted him 75 percent of his salary”. Which makes it all the more surprising that a Herald reporter-photographer team would catch the judge looking relaxed and at ease over two days at the races in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., where he bet at the $50-minimum window, picnicked with his wife and chatted with other spectators. Call it one of those miracle recoveries (Jessica Van Sack, “Bay State judge plays ponies for two days at N.Y. track”, Boston Herald, Sept. 27).