May 07, 2007
The judge, the Korean cleaners, and the $65million pants
One of the folks at Patterico's blog has some interesting thoughts and background information on the $65-million-dollar lawsuit filed against a Korean-owned dry-cleaner by an administrative law judge -- because they lost his pants.
As Justin Levine notes, the outrageous legal action is allowed under a statute very similar to the one we used to have in California -- until it was amended via the initiative process.
California voters fixed the problem because the legislature was unwilling to go against the trial lawyers. As a result, these kind of abusive shakedowns are no longer common in my neck of the woods -- no thanks to the pols.
And you wonder why so many special interest groups want to do away with the initiative process?
Levine also notes there may be a racial angle to the story; the judge is Black, and there's been a long, contentious history between Asian immigrants and the Black community (remember the Korean stores targeted during the L.A. riots?).
Posted by Mike Lief at May 7, 2007 06:12 AM
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