“Penknives may have formed as much part of the scouting experience as badges and campfires, but according to advice from the Scout Association they must no longer be brought on camping trips, except when there is a ‘specific’ need.” [Times Online via Free Range Kids]
Posts Tagged ‘United Kingdom’
U.K.: Strongly held views on climate change may trigger job-bias coverage
Religious discrimination is prohibited, the logic goes, and the views in the case at hand were intense enough to count as akin to religion. Critics are said to fear a “flood of litigation” on behalf of other workers whose strongly held beliefs bring them into conflict with co-workers or employers. [Guardian]
September 11 roundup
- House Ways & Means — yep, Charlie Rangel’s own — passes bill slamming taxpayers for innocent errors [James Peaslee, WSJ, via Alkon]
- Must protect the children! “Parents banned from British school sports event” [Common Room] After-school pickup procedures can get a little crazy too [Free-Range Kids, Florida]
- Once again, America’s Most Irresponsible Public Figure® (that’d be RFK Jr.) sounds off on an environmental dispute to which he turns out to have personal financial ties [Greenwire via Eco-Pragmatism]
- Allegations in ugly Florida law firm breakup include misallocation of Hillary Clinton campaign money [DBR]
- When in court, try to avoid following the example of “Girls Gone Wild” impresario Joe Francis [Lowering the Bar and more, earlier]
- “Judge Allowed to Sue N.Y. Daily News, But Not a Lawyer Thought to Be a Source” [ABA Journal, NYLJ]
- New Hampshire judge rules for divorced father who disapproves of homeschooling [Volokh]
- ABA Journal is taking nominations for its annual best-of “Blawg 100” list [hint, nudge]
New review: David Giacalone on BabyBarista and the Art of War
Here’s something we’ve never tried at Overlawyered: a full-length, original book review by an outside contributor. Blogger David Giacalone, whose now-inactive EthicalEsq. (later f/k/a) is fondly remembered and has often been linked in this space, has kindly offered to let us publish his newly written review of BabyBarista and the Art of War, a new novel based on Tim Kevan’s popular BabyBarista column for the U.K.’s Times (a paper to which I’ve contributed as an online columnist in the past). The novel has been hailed as a “Hogarthian romp” and a “satire with edge”; David says it displays its subjects, British lawyers,
acting very much like the worst segments of the American bar: taking huge fees for little work, entering settlements at their clients’ expense (to assure a fee, or to get to a golf course or an early lunch), exploiting underlings, disrespecting a “litigant in person” (pro se) party, making it dangerous to raise sexual harassment charges, etc. It was heartening to hear BabyB warn clients about the risks of no-win-no-fee (contingency) arrangements, and enlightening to see how personal injury claims are fabricated. For the entire 266 pages, the Bar’s foibles and vices are laid bare, but with a light (if exaggerated) touch rather than a heavy hand.
The review is longer than our usual blog post, so we’ve published it on a separate page here.
September 2 roundup
- Cops in London borough “remove valuables from unlocked cars to teach the owners about safety” [UPI, Sullum/Reason “Hit and Run”, Coyote]
- “Trial starts for PI lawyer accused of paying bribes (to Texas insurance managers) for settlement” [ABA Journal]
- Tort reform in Oklahoma takes effect Nov. 1, so law firm advises getting those lawsuits filed quickly [The Oklahoman]
- Patent assembler Intellectual Ventures says it’s averse to suing. Its close partners, on the other hand… [Recorder, earlier]
- Bill to assert U.S. control of waters whether “navigable” or not is major federal power grab [Kay Hutchison and Nolan Ryan, Dallas News]
- California high court rules in Taster’s Choice photo-permission case [Lowering the Bar, WSJ Law Blog, earlier]
- Civil libertarians, secularists protest as Ireland criminalizes blasphemy [Volokh, Irish Times (Dawkins), MWW and more]
- He knows about big paychecks: “Obama’s ‘Pay Czar’ Made $5.76M Last Year as a Law Firm Partner” [ABA Journal]
U.K.: Better off institutionalized than with a parent who smokes?
“Smokers banned by Welsh council from adopting or fostering children“. At some cost, it should be noted: “critics have pointed out there are already not enough foster parents in Wales”.
“British Government Pays Lobbyists to Lobby It on Climate Change”
It’s wonderfully circular, and not all that different in practice from the “advocacy” and “law reform” funding that has at various times been doled out by our own federal and state governments through legal services, community action and public health programs, tobacco settlement kitties, and so forth. [Iain Murray, CEI “Open Market”]
Two new podcast interviews
Mike Semple Piggot at the well known British law site, Charon QC, interviewed me yesterday for his LawCast podcast series. We talked about why British legal blogs are more often personality- rather than practice-driven compared with those here, the pluses and minuses of Twitter, and the recession for big-firm lawyers on both sides of the Atlantic, among other topics. Results are here (iTunes version).
I was also interviewed last week by Duane Lester of All American Blogger for his online radio show “Bloglines” at RFC – Radio for Conservatives. It was something of a Legal Blogging Week for his show — other guests included Eugene Volokh of Volokh Conspiracy and Bill Jacobson of Legal Insurrection. I’ll post the audio link when it becomes available.
Not an Onion headline
“Britain To Put CCTV Cameras Inside Private Homes.” Seems that Britain believes this will encourage better parenting to have the full-fledged nanny state enforcing homework and child discipline. Worse: the opposition party is complaining that the Labour government’s plan isn’t ambitious enough.
For fear of choking
Schools across the United Kingdom are enacting rules against traditionally tied boys’ neckties in favor of clip-ons, citing safety concerns. [BBC via Free Range Kids]