TortsProf Blog

Personal Injury Roundup No. 89 (12/17/10)

New Suits

• Lawyer sues ex-fiancee for IIED.  (ABA Journal)
• Class action suit filed against McDonald's for putting toys in happy meals. (WaPo, WSJ Law Blog, Olson/Overlawyered)
• DOJ sues BP over Deepwater Horizon Spill.  (Jurist, WSJ Law Blog)
• Sierra Club and Environment Texas sue Exxon Mobil for air pollution. (Google News/AFP)

Appeals

• Supreme Court grants cert in three generic preemption cases.  (FDA Law Blog)
• Fifth Circuit on bellweather trial selection.  (Drug & Device)

Reform, Legislation, Policy

• FDA begins tracking amount of antibiotics in meat. (The Atlantic)
• President Obama signs the Healthy, Hunger-Free Act of 2010.  (WaPo)

Trials, Settlements and Other Ends

• Judge dismisses exploding snail case. (Olson/Overlawyered)

--SBS

Olson on the Happy Meal Lawsuit

Walter Olson takes on the Happy Meal lawsuit in a guest column at New York Daily News.  ("McDonald's suit over Happy Meal toys by California mom Monet Parham new low in responsible parenting")

--CJR

The Prospects for Federal Tort Reform

Yesterday's Washington Times contained an article about the effects of the November election regarding federal tort reform.  ("Changes on the Hill bode ill for trial lawyers")

--CJR

Top 10 Recent SSRN Torts & Products Liability Downloads

Rank	Downloads	Paper Title
1	292	Harry Potter and the Trouble with Tort Theory Scott Hershovitz, University of Michigan Law School, Date posted to database: October 7, 2010 Last Revised: November 14, 2010
2	203	Just a Joke: Defamatory Humor and Incongruity's Promise Laura E. Little, Temple University - James E. Beasley School of Law, Date posted to database: November 2, 2010 Last Revised: November 26, 2010
3	196	Apportioning Liability Behind a Veil of Ignorance Shahar Dillbary, University of Alabama School of Law, Date posted to database: November 6, 2010 Last Revised: November 6, 2010
4	104	The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and the Limits of Civil Liability Ronen Perry, University of Haifa - Faculty of Law, Date posted to database: October 1, 2010 Last Revised: October 1, 2010
5	91	Toward a General Theory of Tort Law: Strict Liability in Context Richard A. Epstein, New York University School of Law, Date posted to database: October 6, 2010 Last Revised: November 7, 2010
6	83	The Predictability of Juries Valerie P. Hans, Theodore Eisenberg, Cornell University - School of Law, Cornell University - School of Law, Date posted to database: October 2, 2010 Last Revised: October 2, 2010
7	80	Tort as a Litigation Lottery: A Misconceived Metaphor Timothy D. Lytton, Robert L. Rabin, Peter H. Schuck, Albany Law School, Stanford Law School, Yale University - Law School, Date posted to database: October 12, 2010 Last Revised: November 7, 2010
8	77	Responsibility in Negligence: Why the Duty of Care is Not a Duty 'To Try' Ori J. Herstein, Cornell University - School of Law, Date posted to database: September 6, 2010 Last Revised: September 12, 2010
9	76	Reputation in a Networked World: Revisiting the Social Foundations of Defamation Law David S. Ardia, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Date posted to database: October 10, 2010 Last Revised: October 10, 2010
10	71	The Pervasive Role of Uncertainty in Tort Law: Rights and Remedies Robert L. Rabin, Stanford Law School, Date posted to database: October 21, 2010 Last Revised: October 21, 2010

The list covers all articles announced on the Torts & Products Liability e-Journal in the last 60 days.

--CJR

Robinette Named Editor of Volume 6 of Appleman's Insurance

TortsProf's own Chris Robinette is the editor for Volume 6 of the venerable treatise, Appleman on Insurance (Law Library Edition) (Lexis Nexis 2011).  In addition to editing the volume, Robinette will also be writing the introduction.   Volume 6 will focus on the topic of automobile insurance.  As new volumes of the New Appleman Library Edition are published, corresponding volumes of Appleman on Insurance 2d and Appleman Insurance Law and Practice will be retired.

- SBS