February 4, 2010

Ergonomics, Public Citizen, Cars and NPR

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration on Jan. 28 proposed a new rule requiring employers to report more detail on musculoskeletal injuries. Business interests fear OSHA's move is just an interim step toward reviving the Clinton Administration's ergonomics regulation, enacted in January 2001 but subsequently blocked by Congress. (See Financial Times, Feb. 3, "Business opposes work safety proposal"; Sacramento Bee, Feb. 24, 2009, "Obama could restore ergonomics work rules.")

OSHA cannot admit its goal is a new ergonomics rule because the agency would run afoul of the Congressional Review Act used to revoke the 2001 regulation. The law stops agencies from re-promulgating disapproved rules without specific legislative approval. [Section 801(b)(2)] Comments from OSHA officials on the possibility of a new ergonomics rule have been all over the map. (Earlier Point of Law posts.) But the Naderites at Public Citizen were not so restrained in the group's release praising the new musculoskeletal mandate:

OSHA states that this recordkeeping change does not imply that the agency will issue a standard related to musculoskeletal injuries and illnesses, commonly known as an ergonomics standard. Public Citizen believes such a standard is needed and urges the agency to issue one without delay.

Apropos Public Citizen, NPR's "Morning Edition" today carried a lengthy report on Toyota's troubles and the role of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The primary interview for the report was Joan Claybrook, identified only as a former head of NHTSA during the Carter Administration -- a scanty description for a woman who targeted the auto industry for two decades as head of Public Citizen. NPR lionized her last August with a piece, "Consumers' Crusader Joan Claybrook Steps Down."

The "Morning Edition" story also brought up the usual allegations of a "revolving door" -- lobbyist to official to lobbyist, with the Bush Administration being the point of complaint. OK, but wouldn't it then warrant mention that the current head of the NHTSA, David Strickland, is a former lobbyist for the American Association of Trial Lawyers? The trial lawyers' lobby, now American Association for Justice, is offering materials to its members designed to aid them in litigation against the car company.

Around the web, February 4

• DOT-'n'-GM Secretary LaHood: Did I say to stop driving Toyotas? Naughty me [Bloomberg, Business Insider, Hodak Value, earlier and more]
• Penn State is doing an Iqbal/Twombly symposium next month [Workplace Prof]
• Plaintiff's prior back injury no bar to sustaining of Bronx jury's $1.5 million award for subway slip [Hochfelder]
• Oklahoma AG Edmondson: Don't blame me for setting up my lawyer friends in chicken farm case, courts threw out the theories on which they'd have gotten rich [Muskogee Phoenix]
• Advocates push for "workplace bullying" law in Massachusetts [Fox]
• Messy divorce between class-actioneer Michael Hausfeld and his former firm, Cohen Milstein [ABA Journal, Hallman, AmLaw Litigation Daily]

January 29, 2010

State of the Union, cont'd

UCLA lawprof Adam Winkler, at HuffPo, says "Alito Was Rude (But Right)". His colleague Stephen Bainbridge invokes Abner Mikva. Bradley Smith at NRO gets into some of the details of foreign money and U.S. politics. And Roger Clegg at NRO catches the President being tendentious on the topic of job-bias enforcement.

More: Randy Barnett (Georgetown) in today's WSJ:

In short, the head of the executive branch ambushed six members of the judiciary, and called upon the legislative branch to deride them publicly. ...

Then there is the substance of the remark itself. It was factually wrong. The Court's ruling in Citizens United concerned the right of labor unions and domestic corporations, including nonprofits, to express their views about candidates in media such as books, films and TV within 60 days of an election. In short, it concerned freedom of speech; in particular, an independent film critical of Hillary Clinton funded by a nonprofit corporation.

While the Court reversed a 1990 decision allowing such a ban, it left standing current restrictions on foreign nationals and "entities." Also untouched was a 100-year-old ban on domestic corporate contributions to political campaigns to which the president was presumably referring erroneously.

That is a whole lot to get wrong in 72 sanctimonious words. Clearly, this statement had not been vetted by the president's legal counsel. Solicitor General Elena Kagan, for example, would never have signed off on such a claim. Never.

Around the web, January 29

Tour of the states edition:

• "It Is New Jersey, But Business to Business Sex Harassment?" [Michael Fox]
• California as "litigation magnet"? State high court hears asbestos venue case [CalLaw "Legal Pad", Cal Biz Lit]
• New York wins big round in $13 billion wholesale pricing suit against drug makers [Longstreth, AmLaw Litigation Daily]
• Florida state Sen. Dave Aronberg praises trial lawyers' response to drywall problem, three guesses as to what's his day job [Broward-Palm Beach New Times]
• Pennsylvania lawyer: "I like the idea, and I will be shot for this, of a cap on damages'' [Paul Carpenter/Allentown Morning Call]
• Class action connections in the New Mexico AG's office: "Ex-Associate's Suit Proceeds Against Labaton Over Origination Fees" [NYLJ]

January 18, 2010

Around the web, January 18

• Massachusetts Senate race could give Republicans the added vote they need to block EFCA [Cal Labor Law] New poll shows union members opposing card check [Workforce Fairness Institute via Eric B. Meyer]
• ObamaCare demonstration projects: "Oregon Seeks $300,000 Tort Reform Grant" [Lund Report]
• Employers advised to make staff "sign and acknowledge receipt" of not-so-favorable performance reviews [Schwartz]
• Any and all tactics? Website of Center for Justice and Democracy offers "kudos" for disruption of Detroit Auto Show [Pop Tort]
• Market for directors' and officers' insurance on the rise in Europe as lawsuit risks mount [Kevin Lacroix]
• Kirk Hartley of the Global Tort blog, a key stop for coverage of asbestos and bankruptcy issues, is switching law firms.
  

January 16, 2010

Around the web, January 16

Employment-law edition:

• Something wicked this way comes - Congress's 2010 employment law agenda [Hyman, Ohio Employer's Law]
• New volume, "Labor Rights in the Era of Globalization" [Workplace Prof]
• Not your father's New Hampshire: new Granite State plant-closing law goes beyond federal requirements [Michael Fox]
• "Top 10 Wage-and-Hour Settlements Tally 44% More in 2009" [ABA Journal on Seyfarth paper]
  
• Smuggling the "workplace bullying" crusade into ... hospital accreditation? [Michael Fox]
• "Caregivers as a Protected Class?" [new paper on "family responsibilities discrimination"; Workplace Prof]
  

January 2, 2010

Around the web, January 2

• "At Dechert -- and Elsewhere? -- Litigation Coming Back to Life" [WSJ Law Blog]
• But the private sector still can't do it: "State Dept Argues for Continuation of Mandatory Retirement Age for Foreign Service" [Workplace Prof]
• Are taxpayers entitled to scrutinize doings of "labor studies" centers at public universities? [Inside Higher Ed, Michelle Malkin]
• Uh-oh: proposal to create private right of action under FCPA [FCPA Professor, more] Enforcement of the statute ten years ago, and today [same]
• Objectors to Wal-Mart Massachusetts wage/hour settlement seem to have upped payout by $20 million [AmLaw]
  
• Paul Cassell on dismissal of Blackwater guard prosecution [Volokh]

December 23, 2009

Around the web, December 23

• Towers Perrin/Tillinghast survey predicts pickup in tort costs [Mark Hofmann, Business Insurance; Daniel Hays, National Underwriter; report in PDF]
• New $23 million slug of money for EEOC enforcement is couched as backlog reduction so that must be okay [NLJ]
• Ameet Sachdev of Chicago Tribune interviews Mark Herrmann on law blogging; why most blogs that come out of big law firms aren't very good [Beck & Herrmann]
• Illinois Supreme Court reverses economic damages Baycol class certification [Drug & Device Law, Jackson] "Federal Court Refuses to Certify Personal Injury Class in Suture MDL" [Jackson] "Federal Court Allows Nationwide UCL Class Action via California's Unfair Competition Law" [Cal Civil Justice]
• Ninth Circuit accuses Jerry Brown's office of making false statements to court in pharmacist case [Egelko, SF Chronicle via Legal Ethics Forum]
• "Erosion of ownership rights" [Quin Hillyer, Washington Times]

December 18, 2009

Franken anti-arbitration measure stays in defense bill

And Talking Points Memo is still misleadingly promoting it as a "rape amendment". [Jottings of an Employer's Lawyer]

December 15, 2009

Most expensive seats in the house?

Class action lawyers sue retailers over failure to provide chairs for cashiers [California Civil Justice]