Legal Humour Blawg

Max Mosley, the 68 year old multimillionaire president of the International Automobile Association, is in court in London, England suing News of the World newsgroup for taping and publishing his sadomasochistic adventures with several women, in a fancy Chelsea apartment. The party cost about $5,000.00 and involved a bit of a Nazi motif as some of the women shouted commands in guttural German and wore army boots and Luftwaffe jackets. Mosley notes that he is proud of his sadomasochistic tendencies but is really pissed that exposure of same came to the attention of his wife who until then was oblivious...

Hi and welcome to this week's newsletter. If it's in the news and it's got a legal slant, we'll do a blawg on it.British barristers have their wigs in a knot and having the time of their lives doing it at the Max Mosley trial in London, and arguing over sadomasochism.  Read Marcel’s blawg about this event in Das Boot.And speaking of Englishmen, July 11 has just marked the anniversary of the publication of Charles Dickens’ “Tale of Two Cities”.  Enjoy Marcel’s take on this classic with A Far, Far Better Tale. All of this is in addition to a selection...

A U.S. District Court ordered Google to turn over zillions of bits of data detailing the personal video habits of YouTube watchers, to Viacom Inc. Viacom is suing Google for allegedly unlawfully posting copyrighted material such as South Park clips, on YouTube and it plans to use this data against Google in its billion dollar claim. Needless to say, privacy advocates everywhere have their knickers in a knot as supposedly Viacom can conceivably glean previously unknown information from this data and use it to the detriment of YouTube users, myself included.Though not a frequent YouTube visitor, I have surfed the...

British immigration authorities have denied design and culinary guru Martha Stewart entry into England for a business trip. The reason cited for their decision is her American criminal record, wherein she was convicted a couple of years ago for some stock related activities and sentence to jail for 6 months. A UK Border Agency spokesperson commented, "We continue to oppose the entry to the UK of individuals where we believe their presence in the United Kingdom is not conducive to the public good or where they have been found guilty of serious criminal offences abroad."Now how in the world is...

Hi and welcome to this week's newsletter. If it's in the news and it's got a legal slant, we'll do a blawg on it.British authorities have denied Martha Stewart entry into the UK for a business trip.  As expected the authorities are most concerned about the best interest of the public.  Enjoy Marcel's blawg, Martha Stewart - No Tea For You, where you read about how banning Martha Stewart will protect England. And on the topic of honesty, have you ever noticed how many expressions there are for the term, "honesty."  And how many of these find their way into our...

Tim Hortons was in the news recently when a story surfaced about an employee getting fired for giving a toddler a freebie Timbit. Another story followed about a week plus long trial wherein an employee was suing for wrongful dismissal for allegedly stealing a toonie.  And now here comes the big one.  Franchisees are staring a class action for 1.95 billion dollars claiming that a couple of years ago, Tim Hortons made them switch from freshly oven baked donuts to frozen donuts which the franchisees heat up in expensive microwaves they were forced to buy. They claim their profit margins...

Hi and welcome to this week's newsletter. If it's in the news and it's got a legal slant, we'll do a blawg on it.Tim Hortons is in trouble again. Franchisees are suing the donut giant seeking class action certification claiming they are losing profits big time since TH made them switch from freshly baked donuts to frozen and microwave heated donuts.  Marcel sees a fresh class action about to happen, by consumers who suffer nervous shock on hearing the news about their favourite donuts being micro zapped.  Read all about it in his blawg, Class Donuts.Speaking of round objects, is...

New York lawyer Richard Roth is suing Delta Air Lines for $1 million for damages for his family’s ruined vacation last Christmas. Due to delays in leaving New York, they missed the connecting flight in Atlanta to Buenos Aires and Delta would not readily put them on another flight. Roth had to wait three days in Atlanta before rebooking with another airline to Argentina. On top of that his luggage got delayed for five days and he lost about $21k for unused hotel bookings.  Bravo Richard Roth. No doubt we all are finding airlines’ service and attitude getting increasingly atrocious....

Hi and welcome to this week's newsletter. If it's in the news and it's got a legal slant, we'll do a blawg on it.Richard Roth is suing Delta Air Lines for ruining his family's vacation.  Roth says Delta had dealt with him arrogantly and rudely.   Although juires are fine, we miss that champion of the underdog,  the late Lord Denning, in dealing with cases like this.  Please enjoy Airline service? Call Iron Justiceman, where Marcel resurrects His Lordship to judge this case. As well develop more instant rapport with your clients by becoming multilingual.  It's not as hard as you may...

The Supreme Court of Canada recently tossed out Martin Mustapha’s fly in the Culligan water tank case. Mr. M, an Ottawa hairdresser, used to order Culligan spring water for his home use. One day in 2001 he noticed a dead fly floating around aimlessly in his water cooler. He apparently freaked out and suffered major psychological trauma including depression. He developed an aversion to water, avoiding drinking and showering. Mustapha sued Culligan and was successful. The trial judge awarded him over $300,000 in damages. Culligan appealed and the Ontario Court of Appeal said, “uh uh”, (not an uncommon legal maxim)....