Overlawyered http://overlawyered.com Chronicling the high cost of our legal system Sat, 13 Mar 2010 19:01:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 Simulating a Toyota “smoking gun” http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/simulating-a-toyota-smoking-gun/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/simulating-a-toyota-smoking-gun/#comments Sat, 13 Mar 2010 19:01:01 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=16491 Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, posted documents purporting to show that Toyota held onto safety documents it was supposed to turn over to opponents in litigation. Turns out the documents had been shoddily snipped, edited and mischaracterized to advance the charges against the automaker. [Christine Tierney, Detroit News via Henry Payne, NRO; more background on whistleblower controversy, The Recorder last year]

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/simulating-a-toyota-smoking-gun/feed/ 0 One crazy incident = everyone’s liberty restricted http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/one-crazy-incident-everyones-liberty-restricted/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/one-crazy-incident-everyones-liberty-restricted/#comments Sat, 13 Mar 2010 14:29:45 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=16488 And then repeat x10,000 [Jeremy Clarkson, Times Online (U.K.) via Free-Range Kids]

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/one-crazy-incident-everyones-liberty-restricted/feed/ 0 SLAPP bill: advancing free speech at federalism’s expense? http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/slapp-bill-advancing-free-speech-at-federalisms-expense/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/slapp-bill-advancing-free-speech-at-federalisms-expense/#comments Sat, 13 Mar 2010 05:04:14 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=16486 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.

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/slapp-bill-advancing-free-speech-at-federalisms-expense/feed/ 0 On 770 KTTH-Seattle at 4:10 PM Pacific today, talking Toyota http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/on-770-ktth-seattle-at-410-pm-pacific-today-talking-toyota/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/on-770-ktth-seattle-at-410-pm-pacific-today-talking-toyota/#comments Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:41:33 +0000 Ted Frank http://overlawyered.com/?p=16479 My Toyota op-ed is going viral, with dozens of retweets, and listings on the front pages of Hot Air and reddit—not to mention an Instalink. And Alex Tabarrok tests my numbers at Marginal Revolution.

Update: Don’t miss Megan McArdle’s comprehensive take.

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/on-770-ktth-seattle-at-410-pm-pacific-today-talking-toyota/feed/ 0 New York bill would ban restaurant use of salt in cooking http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/new-york-bill-would-ban-restaurant-use-of-salt-in-cooking/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/new-york-bill-would-ban-restaurant-use-of-salt-in-cooking/#comments Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:19:33 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=16473 Assembly members Felix Ortiz (D-Brooklyn), Margaret Markey (D-Queens) and Nick Perry (D-Brooklyn) have filed a bill that would hit restaurants with $1,000 fines if their chefs use salt as an ingredient in their recipes. Some reactions: Russell Jackson, Metafilter via Althouse, Verdon/Outside the Beltway (”Is salt necessary for some cooking? Yes.”) via Bainbridge, Mangu-Ward (”$1,000 a pinch? $1,000 a grain?”) and more, Alkon, Gothamist. Four years ago we reported on a breathalyzers-for-everyone proposal from Ortiz.

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/new-york-bill-would-ban-restaurant-use-of-salt-in-cooking/feed/ 12 Eastern District of Texas http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/eastern-district-of-texas/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/eastern-district-of-texas/#comments Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:13:09 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=16432 Explaining the role of the nation’s most famous venue for patent litigation [Brad Feld, Tech Review]

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/eastern-district-of-texas/feed/ 0 Not for before meals dept. http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/not-for-before-meals-dept/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/not-for-before-meals-dept/#comments Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:17:18 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=16437 Legalities aside, there may be a possible lesson here about not buying human food from a pet store [Beck, Drug & Device Law]

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/not-for-before-meals-dept/feed/ 2 U.K.: “The widow who refused to sue” http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/u-k-the-widow-who-refused-to-sue/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/u-k-the-widow-who-refused-to-sue/#comments Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:04:14 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=16392 73-year-old Gillian Chapman has made headlines by saying “she does not want compensation from the NHS [National Health Service] over the death of her husband, a GP who contracted cancer after working in a hospital that was built using asbestos.” Notes Telegraph columnist Jemima Lewis: “The cult of compensation has had no obvious improvement on [NHS] services.”

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/u-k-the-widow-who-refused-to-sue/feed/ 0 Finger-in-the-chili lady out of jail http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/finger-in-the-chili-lady-out-of-jail/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/finger-in-the-chili-lady-out-of-jail/#comments Fri, 12 Mar 2010 01:13:33 +0000 Ted Frank http://overlawyered.com/?p=16469 Speaking of national media hoaxes, today’s San Jose Mercury News profiles the post-incarceration life of Anna Ayala. The digital pioneer is divorced from co-conspirator Jaime Plascencia, who is still in prison. Ayala’s greatest trauma from her four years in prison (out of her nine-year sentence) seems to be that everyone called her the Finger Lady. She’s permanently banned from Wendy’s, so she’ll miss out on the Baconator.

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/finger-in-the-chili-lady-out-of-jail/feed/ 4 Law firm TV ads, cont’d http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/law-firm-tv-ads-contd/ http://overlawyered.com/2010/03/law-firm-tv-ads-contd/#comments Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:28:55 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=16407
This one has rap and animation.

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