Walter Olson, long time tort “reformer” and my occasional sparring partner, has moved from the Manhattan Institute (and his home base at Point of Law) to the Cato Institute. He will continue on with Overlawyered, where he continues to provide fodder for legal commentary, while Ted Frank (both my sparring partner and my lawyer) tries to fill his shoes at MI;

This is Scott Greenfield’s policy on putting links in comments. I follow much of the same here;

Snoopy tried to break in to a prison. He got caught, which means, I suppose, that he succeeded? He’ll probably have to surrender the costume;

How much should it cost to prepare a record and transcript from court? How about $10 per page?

Are you storing your law firm data in a cloud? And is the cloud safe?

Using an iPad at trial;

60 bits of wisdom from Brian Tannebaum, including this nugget: “If you have a bad feeling about taking a case, don’t.”

Both Roy Mura and I were quoted in an column in the New York Law Journal on proposed changes to our No-Fault law;

We apparently have the lowest taxes since 1950. Should someone tell the Tea Party?

A look at malpractice systems in other countries. It might be important to note, of course, that those other countries have significantly different social safety nets, for which the people are taxed;

Facebook users continue to lose more and more control over privacy settings. How many will quit?

TortsProf with the Personal Injury Law Round-Up;

Blawg Review #263 celebrates Mother’s Day with an epic compilation (though I try to celebrate it with Mrs. NYPILB on the two days she did the hard work); and

Blawg Review #264 commemorates the Irish Famine

How much would you pay for a $10 bill? The answer may very well surprise you. Does this happen with lawsuits?

Scott Greenfield worked his way through law school by being a Warm Body at the Van der Graaff accelerator among other occupations. How are the current crop making it through, and does it affect the way they approach the law?

In March, I featured this opinion with two sentences that each weighed in at 300+ words. Kevin Underhill appears to have found a topper from Senior Judge Aquilino at the U.S. Court of International Trade. This marvel has 538 words and appears to address, in part, a problem that “may stem from a lack of sufficient clarity in [its] prior opinion…” I wonder how that could happen;

And yes, there is an award for convoluted legalese;

If a gym teacher tells a kid to take off a Medic Alert bracelet for class, is there potential legal liability?

A massive Wal-Mart class action regarding pay equality is permitted to go forward by the Ninth Circuit. These are the links as some hope the Supremes will take the case;

The inadvertent loss of a next-generation iPhone (left in a bar) and the subsequent purchase and deconstruction of it by Gizmodo presented plenty of fodder for people to discuss. But now it’s gone legal, with a search warrant and seizure of computers by the buyer. What’s missing from this scenario? Perhaps a little thing like probable cause for the seizure;

Want some free legal advice from Avvo? Don’t worry,  you’ll get exactly what you paid for;

TortsProf with the personal injury law round-up;

Defendants in personal injury suits are funded by multi-billion dollar companies. Should plaintiffs also have some serious money behind them, and if so, what form should it take?
What’s the best way to reduce medical malpractice lawsuits? Should we create tort “reform” that closes the courthouse doors? Or might there by another solution?

When the Icelandic volcano erupted, everyone faced a serious problem. How do you pronounced that damned name? From Andy Newman at the New York Times came this pearl of prose:

All across this fair city, thousands of people, some of them highly paid television and radio newscasters, found themselves tumbling down the vowel-and-liquid-consonant-lubricated slopes of Eyjafjallajokull, the mountain’s 16-letter, six-and-a-half-syllable, 47-Scrabble-point name.

Walter Olson lets us know that two brewers had a choice to make when the both pick the same name for an ale: Collaborate or litigate?

Be very careful when you use acronyms. Because they might have alternative meanings…

Please don’t boycott Arizona Iced Tea. It’s made in New York;

And Blawg Review #261 is up at IPKat, discussing (in part) what works and what doesn’t in blogs.

Are first-year associates worthless? And do we have an oversupply of them?

Taxpayers get stuck with the bill when drug device manufacturers get immunity for defective products;

They kept insisting he was dead. (“That’s only air escaping his body.”) But the patient indicated otherwise. Who to sue?

Is Carl Paladino, Republican candidate for Governor of New York, a racist, or just a moron? You be the judge; And yeah, a little bestiality is probably enough to bring down a career;

And while I’m on the subject of New York governors, what did Eliot Spitzer get for $2,000/hr? Let’s just say, this is not entirely safe for work;

Prof. Geoffrey Stone debunks Chief Justice John Roberts‘ claim that umpires only call balls and strikes, in the op-ed section of the New York Times;

Roy Mura’s Coverage Counsel gets cited in a law review;

A Melbourne, Florida Melbourne, Australia traffic officer sets a world record for giving out a parking ticket;

Is drunk driving a victimless crime?

And while on the subject of booze…Beer with 32% alcohol? If your government doesn’t like it, maybe they will like the 1.1% beer named Nanny State;

A tiger goes tiger and kills a girl. Does the insurance company have to pony up in a wrongful death suit?

At Deliberations, under new ownership, a discussion of Homer Simpson, Fonzie, MacGyver and other holdout jurors;

If a brain injury is “mild,” is it serious? (And does it matter who’s brain it is?)

A million dollar verdict in New York gets tossed out. Was the plaintiff tossed from a roof?

Blawg Review #259 is up at Legal Blog Watch on its 5th Anniversary, and “Ed Post” guest blogs with a bucketload of questions;

And iff you haven’t hosted Blawg Review yet, here is a list of available dates.

An important Court of Appeals case I would blog if I had more time: Primary assumption of risk does not apply to children since they cannot understand the risks of what they are doing Thankfully, Roy Mura at Coverage Counsel had the time to write up Trupia v. Lake George School District (a 12-year-old boy who was seriously injured when he slid down a banister and fell on school property); And there is more on the case at the Sports Law Blog;

Who knew that a string cite could be entertaining? Judge Kozinski shows how it’s done;

Did WestLaw deliberately design their new pricing plan to be utterly incomprehensible? It seems like the only explanation: 3 Geeks and a Law Blog; Legal Research & Writing Pro; Legal Blog Watch. Oh yeah, it also tops out at $3,400/hr. It’s a good thing that lawyers and clients don’t care about expenses and have money to burn in these booming times;

Does a lawyer have to have an office to practice law, and if so, what kind? And what about that home office?

Rudy Giuliani gives an important lesson on leadership and terror trials;

This is an analogy that makes perfect sense: How Identify Theft if Like the Ford Pinto;

In the ethics department, the New York Committee on Professional Responsibility issued its first opinion under the new code (which switched over on, no joke, April 1, 2009). And the rule on what to do if your client lies during a deposition has changed;

Michael Jackson’s father plans to sue his son’s doctor for wrongful death, a subject I speculated about last year;

Do lawsuits make hospitals safer?

The trial lawyer, as theater director;

Here is tort “reform, made simple;

Legal ethics and the embarrassment of having been wrong;

The jurisprudence of April Fool’s Day;

Since April Fool’s Day seems to last forever these days, a special link;

And Blawg Review #258 give us the 300 birthday of the Statute of Anne

Former Clinton White House lawyer Lanny Davis weighs in on the issue of medical malpractice “reform” in a WSJ interview with Ashby Jones where he spends time whining about punitive damages.

And it’s pretty clear to Andrew Barovick, that Lanny Davis is utterly clueless. And the PopTort noticed too, pointing out that the entire state system only had six such cases in an entire year. For medical malpractice, punitive damages is a non-issue;

Hey, Brian Wilson has a modest proposal, why not just get rid of all the personal injury lawsuits?

And if you’re a personal injury lawyer, how do you feel about being one?

The NYT ran with an editorial on a case against McDonald’s regarding fried chicken and a hot-pocket of undrained oil that burned the lips of a customer. The WSJ Law Blog wants to know if this is the next tort “reform” talking point;

Of course, some lawyers just seem hell-bent on embarrassing themselves;

And while on the subject of medical malpractice, here’s the story of a rogue butt-enhancer. No, I didn’t make that up;

Other interesting stuff:

FindLaw, that paragon of brilliant blogging that seeks to further embarrass the entire legal profession, is now looking for new writers for it’s dreck-blogs. Legal experience is not necessary. Really, you can’t make this stuff up;

And more in the crap attorney search department, Bob Ambogi rips BestAttorneysOnline.com to shreds then comes back to pulverize them some more, and then shovels dirt on this clueless company’s grave. Woe unto the lawyer that outsources his or her marketing (and ethics) to one of these attorney search outfits;

Class action lawsuits against Toyota could cost the company $3 billion;

When 911 calls get released to the public, is there a violation of privacy rights involved?

Congressional candidate Joe Walsh backs down in dispute with rocker Joe Walsh over use of one of his (rocker Joe’s) songs;

New York City gets a new official condom, which has nothing whatsoever to do with the law, but it’s my blog and I get to link to stuff like that if I want;

My brother Dan is not the only one to get personal letters from SCOTUS; Justice Thomas opines on McDonald’s;

I’ve been meaning to get around to this for awhile: In case you hadn’t noticed, Colin Samuels of Infamy or Praise fame has been doing outstanding round-ups of the legal blogosphere in his “Round Tuit” postings. Unlike my brief commentary by providing links — where I try to send you away from here — he does in depth analysis of life in the legal blogosphere. If he isn’t part of your RSS feed, then you are missing something good;

And Niki Black has Blawg Review #254 up at Sui Generis, focusing on International Women’s Day and National Women’s Month.