- “A conversation with class action objector Ted Frank” [American Lawyer]
- Reviews of new Lester Brickman book Lawyer Barons [Dan Fisher/Forbes, Russell Jackson] Plus: interview at TortsProf; comments from Columbia legal ethicist William Simon [Legal Ethics Forum]
- “Collective Bargaining for States But Not for Uncle Sam” [Adler] Examples of how Wisconsin public-sector unionism has worked in practice [Perry] Wisconsin cop union: nice business you got there, shame if anything were to happen to it [Sykes, WTMJ] “Union ‘rights’ that aren’t” [Jeff Jacoby, Boston Globe]
- “Minnesota House Considering Significant Consumer Class Action Reform Measures” [Karlsgodt]
- 10,000 lawyers at DoD? Rumsfeld complains military overlawyered [Althouse via Instapundit]
- “Are Meritless Claims More Prevalent in Copyright?” [Boyden, Prawfs]
- Claim: availability of punitive damages reduces rate of truck accidents. Really? [Curt Cutting]
- Now with improved federalism: “The Return of the Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act” [Carter Wood, more, earlier here].
Posts Tagged ‘public employment’
“No-show Norfolk employee says she was wrongly fired”
An employee who was kept on the Norfolk, Va. payroll for 12 years without being asked to come in to work has complained that she was wrongfully fired. The employee was originally suspended after misconduct allegations that her agency head for unclear reasons failed to get resolved; his successor dismissed her. [PilotOnline]
New York Times poll on public employment
Ira Stoll dissects its slanted wording.
Wife: city improperly demoted hubby for dating subordinate
California: “The wife of a Roseville city employee has filed a $3.9 million claim against the city alleging it improperly demoted her soon-to-be ex-husband for his extramarital interoffice romance.” [Sacramento Bee]
Annals of public employee tenure, cont’d
A police officer in Davie, Fla. has been on paid leave for seven years. [Sun-Sentinel]
The trouble with tenure, cont’d
A Colorado cop gets reinstated with back pay after what his police chief considered an “egregious” incident of excessive force. And once again — I argue in my new post at Cato — we are given reason to rethink the strange phenomenon of public employee tenure.
P.S. Scott Greenfield has more on job security for errant police officers.
Beer lobby fighting California pot initiative
The California Beer & Beverage Distributors has contributed money to defeat the marijuana-legalization measure, as have police groups. One consideration that might shed light on the latter stance: “Police forces are entitled to keep property seized as part of drug raids and the revenue stream that comes from waging the drug war has become a significant source of support for local law enforcement.” Surprisingly, the politically active prison-guards union has not (yet) thrown its weight onto the “no” side, though prison supervisors have. [Ryan Grim, HuffPo via Tabarrok]
August 30 roundup
- Ghastly CPSIA law reaches two-year anniversary [AmendTheCPSIA; related, CPSC Commissioner Northup]
- Longtime Overlawyered mentionee Andrew Thomas in GOP primary cliffhanger for Arizona AG [Coyote, background]
- Biased bar-b-q? “Suit challenges air pollution from restaurant as civil rights violation” [Alexandria, Va. Gazette-Packet via Mystal/AtL]
- Canada: “Lawyer Awarded $6M for Fall on Dance Floor After Firm-Sponsored Dinner” [ABA Journal]
- San Diego taxpayers rub their eyes and ask what went wrong with municipal-employee pensions [Union-Tribune via Alkon; more from Steven Greenhut and Megan McArdle]
- FM radio phone mandate? “Dying industry tries to regulate its way back into your life” [Freddoso/Examiner]
- “Judge assailed for fraud in Kentucky fen-phen case” [Andrew Wolfson, Louisville Courier-Journal]
- Taco Bell not liable for cost of Ganges purification pilgrimage after devout vegetarians inadvertently consume meat [eleven years ago on Overlawyered]
July 28 roundup
- “N.J. High Court to Review Drunken Drivers’ Right to Sue Bars That Served Them” [NJLJ]
- Recipe for Oakland-style public unionism: “Public Safety Employer-Employee Cooperation Act” pending on Capitol Hill would impose public-service collective bargaining and labor arbitration on local governments nationwide [Cavanaugh/Reason, more, effects on police misconduct accountability]
- iPhone class action of doubtful benefit to consumers [Hahn & Passell, Regulation 2.0]
- U.K.: “Fired Top In-House Lawyer Testifies She Was Bullied by Underling” [ABA Journal]
- Due this fall: Norma Zager book “Erin Brockovich and the Beverly Hills Greenscam” [Pelican Publishing] Weitz firm invokes Brockovich association to drum up Gulf spill business [Michael Daly, NYDN]
- Paperwork nightmare: “Health Care Reform’s Terrible, Tiny Tax” [Megan McArdle]
- Three views of Sherrod fiasco [Rick Esenberg, Radley Balko, John Derbyshire]
- This time the feds look serious about foisting low-flow showerheads on unwilling consumers [Heritage Foundry]
February 8 roundup
- Cleverer approach NFL might have taken in “Who Dat” affair [Schwimmer, HuffPo, earlier here, here, etc.]
- Justice Anthony Kennedy: influence of unionized prison guards in passing California’s three-strikes law “sick” [LA Times]
- Federal prosecutors going after poster designer Shepard Fairey for untruth in civil lawsuit? How strange is that? [Kennerly]
- Plaintiff in complaint against Mark Steyn before Canadian rights tribunal boasted of having “increase[d] the cost of publishing anti-Islamic material” [NRO “Corner”; earlier here, here, here, etc.]
- Federal jury rejects wrongful birth suit against Elkton, Maryland obstetrician [Miller, more on wrongful birth]
- Forced-reincarnation suit against Oprah Winfrey dismissed, George W. and Laura Bush off hook too [WV Record]
- “How to Report the News”: funny plug-and-use TV reporting template [YouTube/Charlie Brooker, Newswipe, UK]
- “Virginia Legislators Kill Bills to Mandate Child Support for Adult College Students” [Hans Bader/CEI “Open Market”, earlier here and here]