Law Music Video: So Sue Us

This week's installment in the "Law Music Videos" series is So Sue Us by Dance Hall Crashers. Law music videos played before your class starts will positively contribute to learning.

Shot Girls: Employees or Independent Contractors?

You are in a bar, enjoying an evening with some friends. One friend has clearly had too much enjoyment and is loudly calling attention to himself and his condition. He is approached by a young woman, barely 18years old, who you have seen many times during the evening carrying a tray of brightly colored shots through the bar, selling them to customers.  She approaches your friend and in a matter of a few minutes, she manages to sell him 3 shots at $6 each, which he downs in succession.  He slips the "shot girl" a generous tip as she moves on to approach another group of revelers. Later that night, your friend drives his car into an intersection against a red light and paralyzes the driver of another car. Certainly, there must be dram shot liability under these circumstances! But wait - the bar owner says that the "shot girl" was not his employee.  Rather, she is an independent contractor - an entrepreneur - earning tips for her services. Is this a scam to avoid liability or is it a legitimate "yellow cab" arrangement? As with most situations in law, it depends . . . on the details of the relationship.

Some of these arrangements sound a but sketchy from a liability standpoint.  Others seem to be better organized from a legal standpoint to take advantage of the independent contractor liability rules. Do the shot girls have to carry dram shop insurance?

The Legal Environment of Business is indeed a landscape of craggy hills, leaving a cache of caves and crannies for the clever to covet.

Contract Cases and Lyrical Learning

R.B. Caswell's youtube channel features songs about cases in Contracts Law. What a great way to introduce or wrap up a concept or case discusssion!

Here is another youtube channel with a similar idea.

Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff Gordon from R.B. Caswell's perspective:

"Frivolous" Lawsuit Stories Exposed by Cracked.com

The website Cracked.com reports on 6 Famous "Frivolous Lawsuit" Stories That Are Total BS. Undergraduate students are very familiar with the Cracked website which provides a healthy dose of humor and sarcasm to the youger generation.  Warning! Cracked does not hesitate to express its ideas in language that you would otherwise try to avoid in class. So, I wouldn't put this up on the projector, but I might assign it on a syllabus.

A sampling of other Cracked articles of interest:
5 Awesomely Sarcastic Supreme Court Decisions
7 Bullshit Police Myths Everyone Believes (Thanks to Movies)
The 5 Most Wildy Illegal Court Rulings in Movie History
7 Brilliant Movie Lawyers (Who Suck at Their Job)
6 Judges Who Went Completely Insane on The Bench

Guest Blogger - Henry Lowenstein: Proximate Cause or Cable Remote?

Henry Lowenstein from Coastal Carolina University shares the following video resource:

A colleague of mine (Professor Mark Mitchell, Marketing) passed on some of the new TV ads being run by DirectTV to encourage consumers to switch from cable TV to their direct service.  They are hilarious.  The one below had me thinking on the issue of "proximate cause" when we teach about torts in our legal environment classrooms.  Who really is responsible for injury?  Who really should pay?  What are the limits of the logic?  Is the cell phone company responsible for the distracted driving that leads to an accident or is it the maker of the device itself, or the road, or the car company who didn't warn not to look at the GPS screen while driving?  The road to netting potential tortfeasors could be endless and only the courts, juries and legislators put some limitations on it.  Common sense and personal responsibility often get lost in the legal "static." 

The big complaint about the U.S. legal system and raised in debates on tort reform is the expansion of tort theories, by plaintiff attorneys seeking new ways of making cases and cashing-in for "victims" and themselves.  So the DirectTV might be a funny way to approach the topic.   Is the cable tv company the proximate cause of this individual's "assault."  Does he have a cause of action against his cable company for various forms of tort liability and compensation?

Editor's Comment: Maybe this guy could sue Direct TV for not speedily convincing him to switch from cable?

Mildred and Richard Loving Photos Released

Newly discovered photos of Mildred and Richard Loving taken in 1965 have been made public. The Lovings were the plaintiffs in the Supreme Court case that struck down Virginia's anti-miscegenation laws. The photos were discovered during the making of a documentary, The Loving Story, due for release in February.  Click here to see the newly released photos.

Featured case: Loving v. Virginia.

The video below is a new release of a live performance of Nanci Griffith's musical tribute to the Lovings.

Law Music Video: We The People (Constitution Song)

This week's installment in the "Law Music Videos" series is We the People (Constitution Song) written and produced by Sandy Wilbur and performed by sonme talented youngsters from Cambridge Central School (NY?). Law music videos played before your class starts will positively contribute to learning.