Patients Are Willing to Sign Contracts Against Frivolous Litigation According to Medical Justice Services, Inc.
Physicians have found an unlikely ally in fighting the high cost of medical malpractice premiums.
Their patients.
According to Medical Justice Services, Inc., a firm that fights frivolous medical malpractice lawsuits on behalf of doctors, virtually all patients are
willing to sign a contract in which they agree not to sue their doctor for frivolous reasons.
Free Popcorn And A Movie? Just Another Day On Jury Duty
It's Juror Appreciation Week in Mecklenburg County, so court officials are offering free popcorn and movies to liven up the long wait for potential jurors. But if you didn't know better you might think every week is Juror Appreciation week at the Mecklenburg County Courthouse.
Mississippi Justice on Email
Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood trekked to Washington in May to ask Congress to rewrite federal law so he can sue Gulf oil spill companies in state court. Like so many state AGs these days, Mr. Hood is looking to cash in with his Magnolia State legal home boys one more time.
For a backstage look at what's doing in Jackson, we recommend a tour through the emails made public this month as part of litigation related to Mr. Hood's last big legal shakedown, against insurers after Hurricane Katrina. As we wrote at the time, Mr. Hood used his powers of criminal investigation to soak property and casualty insurers, and to ensure that his trial bar retinue got part of the cut. A particularly large share went to tort kingpin Dickie Scruggs, who is now in jail for an unrelated attempt to bribe a judge.
EDITORIAL: Pushback on trial-lawyer tax breaks
The trial-lawyer bosses who pull the strings of most congressional Democrats are continuing to press for a special tax break through a secret deal with the Treasury. This is despite the fact that they have never been able to persuade Congress itself to approve their shenanigans. Two Republican lawmakers are right on target in fighting back against this $1.6 billion tax boondoggle.
Titans sue Lane Kiffin, USC for poaching assistant
The Tennessee Titans are suing Southern California and coach Lane Kiffin for "maliciously" luring away assistant running backs coach Kennedy Pola a week before training camp opens.
Tennessee Football Inc., the company that owns the Titans, filed the lawsuit Monday in Davidson County Chancery Court against both the university and Kiffin.
Cities, counties get boost in lead paint suit
In a critical victory for San Francisco and other cities and counties suing companies for the monumental costs of cleaning up lead paint, the state Supreme Court said Monday that local governments can enlist private lawyers and offer them a share of the proceeds.
Airline Disputes $5M Lost Bag Suit
American Airlines disputes the charges leveled against it in a $5 million class action lawsuit over a lost bag, but the woman who filed the suit is not backing down. Washington state woman filled the lawsuit after American Airlines lost her bag.
Danielle Covarrubias flew the airline last may from Seattle to Grand Rapids, Mich., and paid $25 to check her bag. She made it to her destination on time, but her bag did not. She claimed she sued the airlines when officials refused to refund the baggage fee.
Publishers sue Va prisons for banning law guide
Virginia prison officials have unconstitutionally banned inmates from receiving a book that teaches them how to file lawsuits concerning mistreatment or poor prison conditions, the book's publishers claim in a lawsuit filed Wednesday.
National Lawyers Guild and the Center for Constitutional Rights, both nonprofit civil rights organizations, sued state Department of Corrections Director Gene Johnson, officials at Coffeewood Correctional Center in Mitchells and members of the department's Publication Review Committee in federal court in Charlottesville.
The groups claim the officials violated their First Amendment and due process rights when they restricted inmates' access to their book "Jailhouse Lawyer's Handbook: How to Bring a Federal Lawsuit to Challenge Violations of Your Rights in Prison." Corrections officials claimed the book was a danger to prison security or "good order."
Local woman leads national charge over baggage fees
Airlines keep adding more and more fees - but how many things have to go wrong during your trip before you get your money back?
One local woman is trying to lead a national charge to get that answer.
Danielle Covarrubias of Tacoma has filed a $5 million class-action lawsuit against American Airlines for not only losing her luggage - but refusing to reimburse her for the baggage fee.
Mine industry sues over Appalachian permits
The coal industry filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging the Obama administration's efforts to limit surface coal mining in Appalachia.
The National Mining Association's lawsuit accuses the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers of illegally preventing mines from obtaining water quality permits in the region. If successful, the NMA says the lawsuit would free a logjam of 235 pending permit applications that have been held up for additional scrutiny by the EPA since 2009.
Founder of Harbor Freight Tools sues CEO son
The founder of Harbor Freight Tools is suing his son, whom he accuses of kicking him off of the board of directors, having him locked out of headquarters and looting the company to finance a lavish lifestyle that includes a $46 million Beverly Hills mansion.
The lawsuit is the culmination of an increasingly bitter family feud over control of the Camarillo-based imported-tool seller, which has 7,400 employees nationwide.
Allan Smidt, 81, founded the business in 1968 and his son, Eric, is chief executive officer.
$2.99M Deal Brokered in Strip Search Lawsuit: Proposed settlement covers Santa Rosa jail, 5 others in 3 states
Lawyers in a class action lawsuit involving strip searches of pretrial detainees at six jails, including one in Santa Rosa, N.M., have announced a proposed settlement with prison operator GEO Group Inc.
A Pennsylvania law firm, Chimicles & Tikellis, negotiated a $2.99 million settlement, excluding legal fees -- up to $400 for all eligible class members -- after a federal judge refused to dismiss the case.
The settlement covers GEOrun correctional facilities in Texas, Illinois, Pennsylvania and New Mexico.
Jersey City boy found alone in park, mother vows to sue day care whose staffers police say left him there
Raquel Gonzalez, 24, of Jersey City, says she plans to sue the day care center that left her 7-year-old son Jonathan alone in Mary Benson Park last Thursday, as reported by The Jersey Journal's Katie Colineri.
Between noon and 12:30 p.m., a Spanish-speaking woman found the boy crying in the park about three blocks from Future Stars Day Care, at 123 Brunswick St., according to a police report and Gonzalez.
Unable to communicate with the boy, another woman helped and was able to contact the mother.
Geauga dad sues baseball coach after son hit by pitch
The bases were loaded.
Michael Connick, a 13-year-old player on the Chardon Blizzard traveling team, was given the signal for a suicide squeeze against the North Coast Titans.
When the Munson Township boy got a pitch that was high and inside, he pulled back his attempt at a bunt.
He was again given the signal for a suicide squeeze and squared to bunt.
Only 1 percent of plaintiffs offer evidence in Texas silica MDL
HOUSTON (Legal Newsline) - Only 54 plaintiffs out of more than 5,000 in a silicosis multidistrict litigation court responded to a request for information that would have satisfied medical requirements and allowed their lawsuits to proceed.
Attorneys for U.S. Silica Co. recently told Harris County Court Judge Joseph Halbach that legislation changing the rules of silicosis lawsuits is working, while plaintiffs attorneys feel amendments should be made. Halbach is tasked with preparing a report on the effectiveness of rules changes made by the Texas Legislature in 2005.
Halbach oversees the MDL court that houses silica claims and asked for opinions from both sides.
Capped or Not, BP Oil Well Is Still Awash in Litigation
The oil spill has been stopped -- for now -- but that doesn't mean the litigation will stop flowing.
Some plaintiffs lawyers are predicting that the plugged up well is likely to trigger even more litigation as the dirtiest and most difficult job can finally get under way: assessing the damage.
"Certainly, step one was for the oil to stop flowing. The dicier part is [figuring out] where exactly is this oil," said Richard Arsenault of Neblett, Beard & Arsenault in Alexandria, La., which has about 30 oil spill lawsuits pending.
Plaintiffs lawyers are turning to their scientific experts to hone in two key issues: how far has the oil spill actually spread, and how bad is the damage.
Law may trip up 'slip-and-fall' lawsuits
A grocery clerk was cleaning up spilled milk in the dairy aisle at an Ormond Beach Publix when a woman slipped and fell, injuring her back.
The woman, Jennifer Jones, is among more than 650 people who have filed lawsuits in Volusia County courthouses since 2007 seeking damages for negligence, many for falls they claim could have been prevented.
A new law that went into effect July 1 is intended to make it harder for shoppers to win damages from businesses in "slip-and-fall" lawsuits.
Wal-Mart Strikes Back
It’s quite a role reversal: The feds are complaining about getting dragged into court, having to file time-consuming paperwork, and generally being treated like any taxpayer who get crosswise with the IRS.
It seems Wal-Mart, the 800-pound gorilla of retailers, is challenging a fine in connection with the death of a clerk at one of its stores on Long Island, who was trampled to death the day after Thanksgiving of 2008. The poor guy was overrun by a crowd — or rather mob — rushing into the store for the biggest shopping day of the year.
N.J. Bill Proposes Use of Screening Panels to Thwart Frivolous Suits Against Public Entities
Two New Jersey state legislators are pushing a measure to help ward off lawsuits, many allegedly frivolous, that are stretching the threadbare finances of state and local governments.
The bill, introduced July 1, would establish pre-litigation screening panels whose favorable review of a suit's merit would be critical to its success.
The panels, staffed by retired judges appointed by the chief justice on recall, would function as quasi-courts. Cases would be referred to them once answers are filed. The judges would have power to subpoena witnesses, documents or other evidence.
Based on all information adduced, a panel would opine whether a suit is frivolous or filed in bad faith or for harassment. The findings would be sent to the Superior Court, which could dismiss or modify the claims.
Beer pong players sue over inclusion in 'World's Funniest Commercials' (video)
We have a hilarious complaint from two individuals who showed off their deft beer pong tricks in an ad for Carlsberg and who are now suing the brewer, TBS and the production company behind "Worlds' Funniest Commercials."
If you're not familiar with beer pong, it's a popular drinking game where players (mostly college kids) throw ping pong balls in hopes of landing them in a cup of beer. The plaintiffs, Scott Tipton and Christopher Kolb, seemingly play a lot of pong, a sport the complaint notes has "tremendous appeal to the demographic most coveted by TV programmers and advertisers."
Medical malpractice suits drop but take a toll
Plastic surgeon Amelia Pare gave up doing breast reduction procedures after she was sued four times in one year. One case is still pending, two suits were dropped, and she won the other.
In the four years since, she hasn't been sued. But, unsure she could get insurance for that procedure, she still declines all requests for reduction surgeries.
For general surgeon Judy Ross, the result was more final -- after being sued three times in less than 18 months, her malpractice insurance company told her it would not renew her coverage. She now works as a regional medical director for a local firm, at half her previous salary, where she reviews worker's comp and family leave issues but sees no patients.
The Sleeper Lawsuit Against ObamaCare In Texas
The lawsuits against ObamaCare filed by state attorneys general have gotten a lot of attention, but there's another worth watching. Last month the Texas Spine & Joint Hospital, along with the Physician Hospitals of America trade group, filed suit against Kathleen Sebelius. The hospital, based in Tyler, Tex., claims that the language in the Affordable Care Act (aka health reform) banning physicians from owning hospitals is unconstitutional.
Obama’s Unethical Gift to the Trial Lawyers
After January 1, 2011, when you begin to process all the new taxes coming your way and all the deductions you can no longer take, think about this:
The nation’s largest trial lawyer trade group, the American Association for Justice, has announced it was informed by Obama Administration officials that the U.S. Department of Treasury will give its members (and all tort lawyers) a tax break on contingency fee lawsuits. The new provision is expected to mirror proposed legislation by Sen. Arlen Specter, himself a lawyer, that was previously rejected by Congress last year. That bill would have allowed attorneys to deduct up-front costs in contingency fee lawsuits.
Environmental groups say they will sue LCRA over Fayette power plant
In an early sign of how federal disapproval of a state air pollution program will filter down to Central Texas, three environmental groups said Thursday that they would sue the Lower Colorado River Authority over its operations of a coal-fired power plant near La Grange.
The environmental groups say the Fayette Power Project failed to upgrade its pollution controls as it ramped up its capacity, dodging federal regulations.
Plaintiffs' lawyer lies about Toyota
So: an anonymous blog quotes an unnamed NHTSA official saying that Toyota "planted" the WSJ story showing that NHTSA testing revealed that driver error was behind the reports of sudden acceleration.
Let's assume that the story is true: heaven forfend that Toyota tell the press that evidence exonerates it. Note that the unnamed NHTSA spokesperson doesn't say that the WSJ story is false. She even says that NHTSA knew the Journal was going to run the story. So where's the scandal? Toyota isn't allowed to talk to the press?
Dole Banana Workers Jury Award Tossed Due to Fraud
Dole Food Co., the world’s biggest producer of fresh fruit and vegetables, won dismissal of a $2.3 million California jury award to Nicaraguan banana workers who claimed exposure to pesticides.
California Court of Appeal Judge Victoria Chaney, at a hearing today in Los Angeles, threw out the 2007 verdict and the underlying lawsuit, after hearing arguments last week by Dole lawyers that the plaintiffs had lied about becoming sterile because of pesticides used at Dole’s banana farms in Nicaragua in the late 1970s.
“The judgment is vacated” Chaney said, citing “blatant” fraud, active concealment and witness tampering by lawyers in Nicaragua that deprived Dole of its right to gather evidence in the Central American country. “Retrial is not an option.”
Lawsuit Aims To Milk eBay's Cash Cow For $3.8 Billion
According to the complaint, XPRT sent eBay a confidential patent application in 2001 that the auction giant later incorporated into its own patent application. "I think the easiest evidence is that the patent office itself has rejected many of the claims based on XPRT's own patents and patent applications," says Steve Moore, a lawyer representing XPRT.
The $3.8 billion request for damages is based on a six percent "reasonable minimum royalty rate" of eBay's PayPal transaction revenues. The complaint alleges that XPRT stands to suffer an additional $3.2 billion in damages before its patents expire.
BP stock losses lead to class-action lawsuit
If you owned the stock before the crisis, it's understandable you'd be pretty irritated by the developments. And when investors are upset, they often look to securities class-action lawsuits for a venue for remediation. I'll be upfront with you. Such suits rarely pay off very well for investors. Historically, such suits have returned only five to 20 cents for every dollar lost. And that's if you get anything, which shareholders usually don't.
Trial lawyers expect tax break from Treasury Department
The nation's trial lawyer group, the American Association for Justice, revealed Tuesday that it expects the U.S. Department of Treasury to soon give its members a tax break on contingency fee lawsuits.
The tax break could be similar to proposed legislation that didn't make it through Congress last year. That proposal, sponsored by U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., would have allowed attorneys to deduct fees and expenses up-front for filing contingency fee lawsuits.
Lawyers Call For Reform of Barratry Laws
On the night of May 31, 2007, Samuel and Delicia Cantu are at the home of their son in Premont, Texas. They've just learned he was killed instantly in a car wreck on Highway 77. Around 1 a.m., two men knock on the door. One is an attorney, who understands there was a Wal-Mart truck involved in the accident. Would the Cantus consider suing?
That's the story told by the affidavit behind two recent Jim Wells County indictments.
Chevron and 'Crude's' Joe Berlinger locked in a legal battle
In one of Hollywood's most gripping legal thrillers, Chevron Corp. is trying to obtain 600 hours of outtakes from a documentary film focused on oil industry environmental practices in Ecuador, sparking a court battle that has attracted the attention of 1st Amendment lawyers, top filmmakers, show business unions and a corporation that says it was defamed in another nonfiction film.
Your request is being processed... FTC Urges States To Rein In Frivolous Debt-Collection Lawsuits Overwhelming Courts
Throughout the financial crisis and deepening recession, debt collectors have been harassing Americans, often under false pretenses, in order to scare up a quick buck. Frivolous debt-collection lawsuits have now become so pernicious and prevalent that they're drowning the court system, leading the Federal Trade Commission to call Monday for new state legislation that would staunch the rising tide of baseless debt claims.
Lawsuit Over Recalled Tylenol, Other Children’s Drugs Filed
Drug maker Johnson & Johnson now faces a class-action lawsuit over recalled children’s medication, which was filed on behalf of consumers who say that the company botched attempts at compensating customers who paid for the defective drugs.
Five children’s medication lawsuits were filed by six different consumers last week in the U.S. District Court for the District of Northern Illinois. The lawsuits accuse Johnson & Johnson of fraud and racketeering, saying that the company failed to recall the drugs properly and did not do enough to allow consumers to recover losses. The plaintiffs are seeking class-action status for the Johnson & Johnson lawsuits.
Lawsuit flies after fish die
A Northbrook woman is suing a water filter company for more than $50,000 after the owner allegedly killed her koi fish.
Jan Cohen claims that Batavia-based White Water Filters LLC and owner Michael White killed her koi fish in August 2008 while working on a pond on her property, according to a suit filed recently in Cook County Circuit Court.
Koi are a selectively bred common carp originally from China, said Kurt Hettiger, senior aquarist at the Shedd Aquarium. Hettiger said that koi can range in price from about $3 to more than $1,000.
On eve of latest NCAA Football video game release, athletes still look for recourse
This time of year once excited Sam Keller. The release of the updated version of the popular NCAA Football video game series by EA Sports is an annual milestone of summer, appearing in stores about seven weeks before the college football season begins.
Keller, a former quarterback at Arizona State and Nebraska, could sit in his college living room with roommates and play as his virtual self -- or at least as a player with the same number, skin tone, height, throwing arm and home state.
Small Businesses Pay 33% of Rising Tort Costs Out-of-Pocket
A new study from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce shows that small businesses shoulder a sizable burden of the nation's tort liability costs, having paid $105.4 billion in 2008— a third of it out of their own pockets.
According to the report, small businesses bore 81 percent of business tort liability costs but took in only 22 percent of revenue.
The study, Tort Liability Costs for Small Businesses, also found that small businesses ($10 million or less in annual revenue) paid, collectively, $35.6 billion of these costs out-of-pocket rather than through insurance.
Filmmaker: I was undercover operative for law firm
A filmmaker who went to Nicaragua to make a documentary said Thursday he became an undercover operative for a Texas law firm that was suing Dole Foods on behalf of purported banana plantation workers who claim they were left sterile by pesticide exposure.
Jason Glaser testified about his transformation into a secret sleuth, saying he told none of the people he interviewed in Latin America about his dual role.
Gulf spill casts new light on tort reform debate
One of the wonders of politics is its ever-changing quality, the fact that candidates running for office or campaigning on issues never step into the same river twice.
So it is with tort reform, an issue that's been prominent on the Texas political landscape for years now, culminating in the passage of sweeping legislation and a constitutional amendment in 2003.
Plaintiffs' lawyer alleges Dole bribed witnesses
A lawyer for plaintiffs seeking to turn the tables on Dole Food Co. told a judge Wednesday that the giant firm bribed whistle blowers to testify about an alleged fraud involving purported workers on Dole banana plantations in Nicaragua.
Attorney Steve Condie represents plaintiffs who won a lawsuit against Dole and stand to lose their $2.3 million award because of fraud claims.
John Stossel Fights Frivolous Lawsuits On A Go-Cart
John Stossel’s libertarian fury has landed today on frivolous warning labels– things like “do not eat” on printer cartridges and warnings on go-carts that, when turned on, they may move. Most of these ridiculous labels are the product of frivolous lawsuits that, according to Stossel, our government is too lenient with. To prove this point, of course, Stossel presented the most important piece of evidence in the story backing his claim: a go-cart.
John Stossel: Parasitic tort lawyers hurt clients too
Tort lawyers lie. They say their product liability suits are good for us. But their lawsuits rarely make our lives better. They make lawyers and a few of their clients better off -- but for the majority of us, they make life much worse.
Years back, as one of America's first consumer reporters, I'd avenge harmed consumers by bringing cameras to the offending business and confronting the crooks. My work warned others about the dangers in the marketplace but didn't do much for the victims.
Book Review: The Rule of Lawyers: How the New Elite Threatens America’s Rule of Law, by Walter K. Olson
By Walter K. Olson
Truman Talley Books/St. Martin’s Griffin • 2003/2004 • 341 pages • $25.95 hardcover; $14.95 paperback
Reviewed by George C. Leef
Know any good lawyer jokes? They’re quite abundant and often tasteless, reflecting the widespread opinion that the legal profession is composed mostly of unethical rogues who say anything and do anything to squeeze money out of people. It certainly is not true that the entire legal profession consists of scoundrels practicing what amounts to legalized extortion, but those lawyers who do, deserve all the opprobrium of the nasty jokes — and far more.
It is that rogue element of the legal profession that draws Walter Olson’s fire in The Rule of Lawyers. Olson, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, has come to specialize in the predations of tort lawyers. He previously wrote The Litigation Explosion and maintains the website Overlawyered.com. Olson writes here about the most egregious and damaging instances of litigation run amuck and how the plaintiffs’ bar uses its enormous political muscle to prevent any sensible change. There is plenty of material here for dozens of lawyer jokes, but reading the book won’t bring any smiles, except at the author’s sardonic wit.
Repealing Iqbal And Twombly: Understanding The Physics Of Politics
Sir Issac Newton's Third Law of physics teaches us that every action causes an equal and opposite reaction.
But unlike the physical laws of motion, the law of today's Washington politics seems to be telling us that every action creates an opportunity for a disproportionate reaction, one that can reward special interests while having a profound impact on our nation.
14 seafood businesses sue BP in Jefferson County
A group of seafood restaurant owners claim they face economic difficulties after facing deprived access to their usual supplies of fresh seafood due to the sinking of a BP oil rig.
Fourteen restaurants and their owners in Jefferson, Harris, Brazoria, Hardin and Jasper counties in Texas and Mobile County in Alabama filed their suit June 24 in Jefferson County District Court against BP and its subsidiaries, Anadarko Petroleum, Moex Offshore, Transocean, Halliburton Energy Services and Cameron International Corp.
"As the oil continues to make landfall along the Gulf Coast, it will cause severe damage to the delicate wetlands and intertidal zones that line the coast of, destroying the habitats where fish, shellfish and crustaceans breed, spawn and mature," the suit states.
Legally Speaking: Cease and Desist - Or Else!
The cease and desist letter is one of those frequently-used weapons in the lawyer's arsenal - perhaps too frequently used.
While there are often many good reasons to write such a letter warning an individual or a company to stop certain activities that infringe upon another company's valuable intellectual property, some lawyers tend to go a little overboard.
On occasion, the heavy-handed tactics are met with an entertaining blend of common sense and humor.
Almost Rich
I thought my ship had come in when I received in the mail yesterday a notice from the Missouri Circuit Court, 22nd Judicial District, City of St. Louis, informing me that I may be a class member in a class action lawsuit against A. G. Edwards brokerage. “You may be a Class Member and entitled to benefits from the settlement of this certified class action lawsuit,” the Court informed me. It seems that I held shares of mutual funds between April 12, 2000, and April 12, 2005, during which time Defendants A. G. Edwards Inc. and A.G. Edwards & Sons breached their fiduciary duty to me and to other customers and were thereby unjustly enriched.
D.C.'s anti-ambulance-chasers law not working, trail lawyers and cops say
The District's law to block ambulance chasers isn't working, and crash victims are being deluged with phone calls from smarmy lawyers and self-described "investigators" shortly after being injured, according to police and the Trial Lawyers Association.
The 2006 law was intended to prevent lawyers from having access to police accident reports for three weeks after a crash. But the Metropolitan Police Department's policy allows accident reports to be released to anyone with an ID who signs a form saying they won't use the information to solicit legal business within the 21-day period.
Special Report -BP oil spill a gusher for lawyers
From a legal perspective, BP's Deepwater Horizon blowout and the 1989 grounding of the Exxon Valdez are in many respects night and day.
"The Gulf is seen to be a systemic breakdown," said Zygmunt Plater, a professor at Boston College Law School and former chairman of the Alaska Oil Spill Commission's legal task force after the Valdez disaster. "It's not just one guy who had some drinks."
Ballots, Benches and the Judicial-Selection Battle
It's an issue that won't go away but never seems to be resolved. Efforts to change the way Texas
selects its judges have been unsuccessful over the past 25 years, despite strong support from several
key state leaders and evidence that partisan voting has swept dozens of judges from office in Harris
and Dallas counties.
For more than a decade, state Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock, has authored bills and proposed
constitutional amendments that would create some form of a merit-selection system in which the
governor would initially appoint judges, who would subsequently have to run unopposed in retention
elections to keep their jobs. Duncan, a partner in Crenshaw, Dupree & Milam, says Texas' current
method of selecting judges isn't working, as judges continue to get caught in partisan sweeps.
Lawsuit prompts NCAA to screen athletes for sickle cell
Dale and Bridgette Lloyd say they didn't sue the NCAA for money. Their son Dale Lloyd II was a freshman cornerback at Rice in September 2006 when he fell unconscious on the practice field after sprinting 100 yards for the 16th consecutive time. Their son died the next day from complications associated with sickle cell trait, a genetic trait that can be detected by a blood test costing $10.
Sickle cell trait has been linked to at least nine of the 21 deaths of collegiate football players since 2000, the latest being Mississippi junior Bennie Abram in February. The trait is found in 8% of African Americans and between one in 2,000 to one in 10,000 Caucasians.
Warning: Sharp Thing May Cut Hand
Here's a case report describing a recent filing in San Francisco County:
Brendan H__ v. KatachiSF Inc. dba Katachi, No. CGC-10-501116 (San Francisco Super. Ct. filed 6/28/10). Personal injury action in which the defendants failed to warn the plaintiff that playing with a sharp sword displayed in its store would result in the plaintiff slicing his hand when he attempted to place it back in its sheath.
America’s fastest federal court?
Wondering how to get a quick resolution to a federal case? You’d be wise to avoid Wisconsin’s Eastern District federal court in Milwaukee, considered something of a slow poke, while the Western District Court in Madison is among the nation’s fastest. Long known as a “rocket docket” – legal slang for one that tries cases quickly and is often favored by plaintiffs – the court attracts high-profile suits, including one mobile phone maker Nokia filed against Apple in May.
http://www.milwaukeenewsbuzz.com/?p=141353
9 in 10 docs blame lawsuit fears for overtesting
Ninety percent of physicians surveyed said doctors overtest and overtreat to protect themselves from malpractice lawsuits.
That sentiment is more common among male doctors than female doctors, according to the survey published Monday in Archives of Internal Medicine. The findings echo a recent Associated Press story in which many emergency room doctors said lawsuit fears are the main reason for overtreating in the ER.
You Can Support Tort Reform and Still Sue People
One of the flimsier arguments from the trial lawyer crowd is that supporters of tort reform are hypocrites if they ever file a lawsuit of their own. Anthony Tarricone, president of the American Association for Justice — the trial lawyer lobby — made the claim after states challenged the constitutionality of the federal health care legislation, “Tort Reform Hypocrites: “Do As I Say, Not As I Sue.”
Tarricone is trying a “gotcha moment,” but the argument falls flat. Supporters of medical liability reform believe that frivolous lawsuits and exorbitant punitive damages increase costs for health care by causing doctors to practice expensive defensive medicine.
Frivolous Lawsuits Cost Businesses Millions Annually
According to a survey released by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Research Foundation, small-business owners rank the “Cost and Availability of Liability Insurance” as the second most important problem facing small-business owners today. This problem is a direct result in the dramatic rise of lawsuits filed nationwide in the past five years. Business owners are scrambling for relief from the cost of both liability insurance and defending lawsuits. In most cases a corporation or LLC can effectively be used to insulate personal assets against liability. However, certain states fall short of providing business owners the extent of protection they need, to keep personal assets completely safe from lawsuits.
Where Juries Are King and Trial Lawyers Make Them Sing
Welcome to Texas: home of big trials, huge damages and larger-than-life litigators for the past 25 years.
For an example of all three, look no further than Joe Jamail's stunning 1985 victory in Pennzoil v. Texaco , at the time the largest verdict in U.S. history . In that suit, Jamail convinced a Harris County jury that Texaco knowingly interfered with his client Pennzoil's attempt to purchase Getty Oil. Jurors hit Texaco with a $10.5 billion verdict — $3 billion in punitive damages plus $7.53 billion in other damages.
Houston's 1st Court of Appeals reduced the punitives to $1 billion in 1987, and the Texas Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal. The case ultimately settled for $3 billion.
Man Bites Dog - Trial Lawyers Sued for Fraud
A prominent construction-defect law firm that boasts on its Website that it has recovered in excess of $500 million for its clients and maintains a "commitment to...high professional standards" has been sued by eight former clients in Sacramento for fraud, deceit, malpractice, and breach of fiduciary duty.
http://www.cjac.org/blog/2010/06/man-bites-dog---trial-lawyers/
Rep. Beto O'Rourke and Rep. Steve Ortega: Judicial dysfunction plagues El Paso
We would argue that a big component of this problem is the fact that our district, county and municipal judges are elected. Running for office, taking campaign contributions from attorneys regularly appearing in court, and keeping an eye on re-election prospects all contribute to a politicization of the judicial process and an environment that is less conducive to justice.
http://elpasotimes.typepad.com/crime/2010/06/rep-beto-orourke-and-rep-steve-ortega-judicial-dysfunction-plagues-el-paso.html
Judges’ lack of staying power shortchanges voters
The Texas Constitution says we elect our state judges. But we had a gentle reminder this week of how often we don't.
Debra Lehrmann of Fort Worth took the oath Monday as Gov. Rick Perry's appointed replacement for Harriet O'Neill, whose resignation from the Texas Supreme Court was effective Sunday. That means six of the current justices on the nine-member high court initially got there by appointment. Three of them replaced justices who moved to federal posts. The other three got their jobs as a result of justices who opted to quit early rather than complete the terms to which voters had elected them.
We're proud of Texas justices who ascend to the federal bench or other government service. But we're not happy with justices who quit early to return to private practice and subvert the people's right to pick replacements. Lawmakers have argued for years about whether the current system of electing judges is a good one, but until and unless it's changed, judges and justices should do what they can to avoid the appointed replacement system that's become too common.
Read more at http://www.statesman.com/opinion/judges-lack-of-staying-power-shortchanges-voters-769722.html.
Court tosses $1.25 million award in ranching feud
Some fences make good neighbors, but others lead to ranching feuds that grow so bitter, the Texas Supreme Court has to step in.
This legal issue harkens to the 2000 drought, when the Colorado River slowed to a trickle, allowing 13 head of Randy Reynolds' cattle to walk along the dry riverbed and onto an adjacent San Saba County ranch, where they were rounded up and sold for $5,327 without Reynolds' knowledge.
His neighbor, Thomas Bennett Jr., avoided spending up to 10 years in jail when he was acquitted of felony theft charges. But a civil jury found that Bennett's actions amounted to cattle theft and ordered him to pay his neighbor $5,327 for the sold cattle.
The jury also slapped Bennett with $1.25 million in punitive damages for "reprehensible" behavior that included allegations of attempted blackmail, bribery, witness tampering and doctored evidence by Bennett or associates, according to testimony and court documents.
To read more: http://www.statesman.com/news/local/court-tosses-1-25-million-award-in-ranching-769990.html.
Merck hit with $8 million verdict in Fosamax trial
Drugmaker Merck & Co. has been hit with an $8 million jury verdict in the case of a Florida woman who says Merck's osteoporosis drug destroyed her jaw bone and caused significant pain.
Merck says the verdict by a New York jury doesn't match the evidence, so it will challenge the decision.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/25/AR2010062504051.html
Divorce unmasks case chasing
Before arriving in the Rio Grande Valley in 2006, Houston lawyer Newton Schwartz knew Wilfrido "Willie" Garcia only by reputation. And in the South Texas legal community, the man was a legend. A wheeler-dealer of the first rate, the 47-year-old former emergency medical technician had amassed a $30 million fortune in just under two decades. His 8,500-square-foot home in Mission featured a private gym, a movie theater and a fine art collection that included works by Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso. And he helmed a business that brought in $1.5 million a month from its involvement in the world’s most lucrative personal injury cases.
http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/font-113785-small-span.html
Supreme Court ruling renews arbitration fairness debate
A ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court that the enforceability of an employment arbitration agreement was for an arbitrator to decide — even though the employee claimed the agreement was unconscionable — has drawn the ire of lawyers and lawmakers opposed to mandatory arbitration.
The decision gives “corporations yet another free pass to submit employees and consumers to abusive forced arbitration proceedings.” said Anthony Tarricone, president of the trial lawyers’ group American Association for Justice and a partner in the Boston office of Kreindler & Kreindler.
http://neworleanscitybusiness.com/blog/2010/06/27/supreme-court-ruling-renews-arbitration-fairness-debate/
Scruggs: A vile aftertaste lingers
The federal investigation into former Oxford trial lawyer Richard "Dickie" Scruggs has now ended.
But like someone who has eaten a bad meal, a vile aftertaste lingers for the Mississippi electorate.
The Scruggs affair shook the foundations of Mississippi's trust in the state's judicial system. Evidence of judicial bribery and intrigue that rivaled a John Grisham novel proved to be real and it will take some time for the reputation of the state's legal system to fully recover.
http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20106270305
Jury service — responsibility, right or privilege?
When the Founding Fathers wrote the U.S. Constitution in 1789, the established the basic foundation for America — the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch, and the Judicial Branch. America was off to a great start! She was given a sound framework that served her well for more than 200 years.
http://www.reporternews.com/news/2010/jun/26/jury-service-8212-responsibility-right-or/
Jury duty scam not new, but swindlers still there
In today’s world when identity theft seems more prevalent, it’s hard to believe people would easily, and readily, give up/out personal information to make it easier for theft to be committed. However, unsuspecting individuals are easily fooled when they feel threatened by a possible loss, fine assessment, or law violation.
There is a scam which has been reported since 2006 of which you may or may not be aware. I have not heard about anyone in the local area being taken in by it, but nevertheless, the email is making the rounds again. So perhaps it’s time for a refresher about this particular scam.
http://www.rockportpilot.com/articles/2010/06/23/opinion/editorials/doc4c2107059426e045639647.txt
Lawyers win big in class action suit
If you are strong enough to look inside the mind of a class-action lawyer, think back to December 2004, when Edward D. Jones & Co. agreed to pay a $75 million fine to avoid federal criminal charges for taking payments from mutual fund companies.
"Edward Jones has done something wrong? Let's sue A.G. Edwards!" So thought the class-action lawyers.
http://more.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/columnists.nsf/billmcclellan/story/e01834aa63ddd9128625774a007ef872?OpenDocument
Law Firms Sanctioned Over Billionaire Perelman's 'Frivolous' Estate Claim
A New Jersey judge has sanctioned two firms, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and Lowenstein Sandler, for pursuing a "frivolous" and "ridiculous" legal claim on behalf of billionaire Ronald Perelman against his 85-year-old ex-father-in-law.
Perelman had alleged that Robert Cohen, the father of Perelman's ex-wife, Claudia Cohen, who died in 2007, had promised Ms. Cohen that she would receive one half of Mr. Cohen's estate.
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202462735273&rss=newswire
Seeking to Balance Beauty and Safety on the Cliff Walk
The Cliff Walk, a promenade that winds more than three miles along this city’s rugged coast, is not for the vertigo-prone. It looms high over the crashing surf, drawing a constant stream of visitors who peer over the stunning precipice as they stroll.
Some wince and step back. Others dare to clamber down dirt paths that run from the Cliff Walk to the shore, and once in a while it ends badly. But state law has shielded Newport from liability — until now.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/16/us/16newport.html?scp=4&sq=lawsuit&st=nyt
Jury Awards Damages for Chinese Drywall to Homeowner
A Florida family has been awarded $2.46 million in the first Chinese drywall lawsuit to be heard by a jury. The decision was seen by some as a “bellwether” case, which could forecast how other juries may respond to similar evidence that will be presented in other trials over Chinese drywall that has caused problems for homeowners throughout the United States.
http://www.aboutlawsuits.com/jury-award-damages-chinese-drywall-10936/
RADNOFSKY OFFERS LEGAL COMPLAINT AND MEMO CALLING ON ABBOTT TO SUE WALL STREET
Democratic Attorney General Barbara Radnofsky candidate today proposed a legal framework for suing Wall Street interests to the tune of $18 billion as a remedy for the economic distress suffered by the State of Texas due to their “reckless” actions.
By providing a model “Complaint” accompanied by a model “Legal Memoranda”, Radnofsky is seeking to demonstrate that Republican incumbent Greg Abbott has failed to protect state interests when the law allows him to do so. She is encouraging other attorneys general to join in the litigation and is volunteering her services to help with the Texas lawsuit.
With substantial changes, La. contingency fee bill passes House
After several hours late Friday evening in debate, the Louisiana House voted 71-23 to pass the Louisiana contingency fee bill, which authorizes the state to hire trial lawyers on a contingency fee basis.
The House sustainably altered Senate Bill 731 before sending it back to the Senate for concurrence.
ABBOTT RESPONDS TO RADNOFSKY INITIATIVE ON SUING WALL STREET
From Jerry Strickland, Office of the Attorney General:
"The Texas Attorney General's Office has been investigating potential illegal conduct by ratings agencies and major Wall Street banks for over four months. As an executive committee member of the nationwide, multi-jurisdictional investigative team, the Texas Attorney General's Office is helping to coordinate an effort by 29 states and the federal government to investigate the relationships between Wall Street banks, the rating agencies, and the impact their conduct had on the financial crisis. Because the matter is under investigation, we cannot comment on it further at this time."
Plaintiffs Lawyers Size Up Obstacle Course for Toyota Class Action
As plaintiffs lawyers prepare to file their consolidated class action on behalf of Toyota consumers, they face an obstacle that has prevented similar claims from advancing in the past: Class members didn't actually suffer physical injuries.
The class members assert that they suffered economic injuries because their vehicles declined in value following recalls tied to sudden acceleration problems. Courts have rejected similar argument in class actions brought under products liability laws, according to plaintiffs lawyers who spoke during a March conference on the Toyota litigation.
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202462849237#&sharecode=facebook
Tarrant County judge takes seat on Texas Supreme Court
Debra Lehrmann took her place on the Texas Supreme Court on Monday, speeding through a day that included a history-laden ceremony, accolades from her new colleagues and immersion into the business of the court.
Lehrmann, the first justice from Tarrant County in 46 years, was sworn in at 9 a.m. by Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson, taking the oath of office on a Bible that once belonged to Texas hero Sam Houston.
http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/06/21/2281858/tarrant-county-judge-takes-seat.html#ixzz0raw7I0jW
Ambulance chasing law needs more bite
Ambulance chasing — the improper solicitation of clients by lawyers — is a growing problem, especially in South Texas, and needs to be addressed by lawmakers to protect the public and lawyers who operate within the law.
Attempts to strengthen the state's barratry laws did not get far last legislative session, prompting an interim House committee review of the issue before the Legislature meets again in January.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/ambulance_chasing_law_needs_more_bite_96601009.html
Reforming Main Street
The White House and Congressional Democrats like to talk about their battle against "Wall Street lobbyists," but it's the rest of the economy that could use a few more advocates inside the Beltway. As Congressional negotiators prepare their final draft of new financial regulations, the potential impact on nonfinancial companies is striking.
To be clear, not all of the profound changes coming soon to American business will be bad. This week the conference committee responsible for merging House and Senate bills agreed to save the smallest public companies from some of Washington's worst red tape. Companies below $75 million in market value will no longer have to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley law's infamous Section 404(b).
Lawyers' Fees Slashed by $2.2 Million in Suit Over Blue Cross Claims Practices
A class action settlement requiring Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey to make billing reforms is fair and reasonable, a judge ruled Tuesday, but he cut $2.2 million from the fee award to the plaintiffs lawyers.
The health insurer was prepared to pay $6.5 million in legal fees to class action lawyers when the case settled. But after an appeal by nine doctors groups who objected to the deal, the case was remanded to the Essex County judge who had approved it in 2007.
Superior Court Judge Stephen Bernstein reduced the fee award to Roseland, N.J.'s Mazie Slater Katz & Freeman to $4.3 million.
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202462747126&Lawyers_Fees_Slashed_by__Million_in_Suit_Over_Blue_Cross_Claims_Practices
BP Fund Is A Recipe For Fraud
BP has agreed to pay $20 billion into a fund that will be administered by TARP official and executive-pay czar Kenneth Feinberg. That shoves the ever-spreading Gulf spill firmly out of what we know about traditional tort law and into the strange world of mass torts like asbestos, fen-phen and Vioxx.
http://blogs.forbes.com/docket/2010/06/16/bp-fund-a-recipe-for-fraud-and-big-legal-bills/
It’s Raining Lawyers in the Gulf
Turn on a radio or television in Louisiana these days, and out comes a gusher of news and commentary on BP’s unstoppable oil leak in the gulf. Even commercial breaks are no escape from the oil onslaught.
In New Orleans, for instance, the Lakers-Celtics N.B.A. finals game last week repeatedly featured a law firm’s ad urging viewers to visit bigspill.com or to call 1-800-BIG-SPILL if they had been harmed by the slick. Similar pitches flood the radio waves.
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/16/its-raining-lawyers-in-the-gulf/
Legally Speaking: A Warning Label For The Constitution?
According to a recent survey by Findlaw, almost two-thirds of Americans can't name even one of the justices on our nation's highest tribunal, the U.S. Supreme Court.
Only 1 percent of Americans can identify all nine justices. The most recognized, according to this survey, is Justice Clarence Thomas, named by 19 percent of those surveyed. Chief Justice John Roberts is a close second known to 16 percent of the responders.
The newest addition to the court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, is third with 15 percent after her highly publicized confirmation hearing last year.
http://www.setexasrecord.com/arguments/227628-legally-speaking-a-warning-label-for-the-constitution
LinkedIn communications at center of unprecedented lawsuit
In a first-of-its kind lawsuit, an IT staffing firm has accused one of its former employees of violating the terms of her noncompete agreement through her conduct on LinkedIn.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Minnesota by TEKsystems Inc., charges former employee Brelyn Hammernik of soliciting TEKsystems' employees and clients using LinkedIn.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9178100/LinkedIn_communications_at_center_of_unprecedented_lawsuit?taxonomyId=14&pageNumber=1
$23 million for lawyers, $8 million for (some of) the class
The Dewey v. Volkswagen settlement where attorneys are asking for over $23 million for recovering an $8 million reimbursement fund for a small subset of the class (but attributing tens of millions of dollars to a valuation of injunctive relief where VW and Audi send a letter to class members) has gotten a lot of reaction around the Internet. (E.g., Major, Olson (and commenters), Pero, CJAC, Passat World.)
Arbitration Showdown Looms Between Congress, Supreme Court
Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court appear headed for collision over mandatory arbitration in consumer and employment contracts.
Two actions over the last month moved the branches closer to impact: The justices agreed to decide next term whether a class action ban in a cell phone arbitration agreement is unconscionable -- one of the hottest issues in arbitration. And major financial reform legislation, which would give government agencies the power to ban or limit mandatory arbitration agreements, moved into a House-Senate conference committee.
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202462660962&rss=newswire
Reggie Bush wouldn't settle civil lawsuit and the NCAA moved in
When Reggie Bush's advisers either told him or couldn't get him to settle the claim by Lloyd Lake and Michael Michaels, for close to what was asked, the cycle that led to the NCAA punishment of USC was set in motion.
Lake and Michaels were looking for compensation, after Bush and his family received money and benefits from them while Reggie was in school. In exchange they were to represent Bush as a pro but he stiffed them. He signed with someone else.
http://www.examiner.com/x-42782-LA-Sports-Examiner~y2010m6d10-Reggie-Bush-wouldnt-settle-civil-lawsuit-and-the-NCAA-moved-in
Pot growers filed class action lawsuit against Tehama County
If there is power in numbers, area pot growers have filed a powerful lawsuit against Tehama County.
The lawsuit was filed recently by local medical marijuana patients against Tehama County's marijuana cultivation ordinance, which regulates where and how much marijuana a patient or caregiver can grow in the county.
http://www.colusa-sun-herald.com/news/marijuana-4903-county-ordinance.html
Lawsuit pits Cub against Walmart in a Midway food fight
Hey, Walmart, drop the cheese. The owner of Cub Foods is suing the nation's No. 1 food seller, demanding it stop carrying so many groceries at its just-remodeled St. Paul-Midway store, in a dispute over an old lease agreement. The case reveals the ill will between the two grocery giants at a time when traditional supermarkets are fighting off threats from powerful discounters. The Midway area is a special battleground, because the rival players sit side by side in a busy shopping district.
http://www.twincities.com/news/ci_15247416?source=rss&nclick_check=1
David Freddoso: Making automobiles safe, or making trial lawyers rich?
Would you rather have your next car designed by automotive safety experts, or by a jury of your peers?
If the question seems stupid, you might consider asking Democrats in Congress why they are so intent on the latter. Their new Motor Vehicle Safety Act contains a provision that would literally take detailed questions about automobile design safety away from the people who test cars and make the rules on how they are built, and hand it instead to randomly selected state juries.
Lawsuit by Mexico's Pemex targets US companies
Mexico's state-run oil company filed a lawsuit Monday against five companies, including the U.S. subsidiary of German chemical maker BASF, for allegedly buying stolen Mexican petroleum products.
Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, says in the lawsuit filed in a Houston court that the companies allegedly profited from the theft of natural gas condensate. It claims at least $300 million worth of condensate from the Burgos basin in northeast Mexico has been stolen since 2006.
Toyota Investors Vie for Lead-Plaintiff Lawsuit Spot (Update2)
Toyota Motor Corp. investors alleging the company failed to disclose design flaws that might cause its cars to suddenly accelerate vied to become lead plaintiffs in a group of securities class-action lawsuits.
Lawyers for investors including the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board tried to persuade U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer at a hearing today in Los Angeles to appoint their client as lead plaintiff. Lawyers named as lead counsel in a class-action case are entitled to a larger share of any recovery.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/06/07/bloomberg1376-L3O8RN1A1I4H-1.DTL
Bid to shield Mardi Gras float-builders from liability claims rejected by La. Senate panel
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - A proposal to shield Mardi Gras float-builders from some liability claims for accidents on the parade route was scuttled Tuesday by a Louisiana Senate committee after opponents argued the state shouldn't give such protections to private companies.
Rep. Jeff Arnold, D-New Orleans, said his bill was designed to stop frivolous lawsuits, extending the liability exemption already granted to Mardi Gras krewes, which are nonprofit organizations.
http://www.canadianbusiness.com/markets/market_news/article.jsp?content=D9G7AHT80
Out of Prison, Bill Lerach Now Hangs Out with the ‘Progressives’
William Lerach, genius promoter of extortionate class-action litigation in the United States, spent two years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false declarations under oath.
Now that he’s out of prison, Lerach seems to be trying to refurbish his reputation by casting his war against Wall Street as a progressive act. He speaks today at America’s Future Now! conference, a gathering of left-leaning activists organized by the Campaign for America’s Future.
http://www.shopfloor.org/2010/06/08/out-of-prison-bill-lerach-now-hangs-out-with-the-progressives/
Health reform has liability insurers looking at tort alternatives
Tort reform advocates say the medical liability system is in need of serious repair, and the federal health reform law -- while not perfect -- offers some tools to help get the job started.
That was the message delivered in May to medical liability insurers attending the annual meeting of the Physician Insurers Assn. of America, a trade group for physician-owned medical liability companies.
http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2010/06/07/prl20607.htm
Justice in the Jury Box
In 1986, when the Supreme Court reached a landmark decision forbidding prosecutors from routinely excluding blacks from juries without a good explanation, Justice Thurgood Marshall warned it would not end racial exclusions. Some prosecutors, he wrote in a concurring opinion, would simply invent phony reasons.
The grim truth in Justice Marshall’s prediction is illuminated in a new study by the Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit legal advocacy group. It shows how pervasive racial exclusions remain, particularly in the South.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/opinion/06sun2.html
Judges call him to defend their honor
From the Virgin Islands to New Hampshire, that has become the rallying cry for an increasing number of judges who feel they have been libeled by media outlets and want a ferocious litigator to file a lawsuit, or threaten one.
Since the Boston lawyer won a $2 million lawsuit on behalf of Superior Court Judge Ernest B. Murphy against the Boston Herald in 2005, Howard M. Cooper has become the go-to attorney for judges inside and outside Massachusetts who feel defamed by news reports about how they handled cases.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/06/01/judges_turn_to_boston_lawyer_to_defend_their_honor/?page=full
The Judge From Motley Rice
There may be one less trial lawyer practicing in Rhode Island soon. The bad news is that President Obama has nominated one of the East Coast's most notorious plaintiff attorneys and Democratic partisans to the federal district court in the Ocean State.
The White House would have been hard pressed to find a nominee with a more thorough antibusiness record. A former treasurer of the Rhode Island Democratic Party and partner at Motley Rice, Jack McConnell began his career litigating asbestos cases and moved on to the $264 billion tobacco settlement.
Toyota Investors Vie for Lead-Plaintiff Lawsuit Spot (Update1)
Toyota Motor Corp. investors alleging the company failed to disclose design flaws that might cause its cars to accelerate suddenly vied to become lead plaintiffs in a group of securities class-action lawsuits.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-07/toyota-investors-vie-for-lead-plaintiff-lawsuit-spot-update1-.html
Many Gulf fed'l judges have oil links
More than half of the federal judges in districts where the bulk of Gulf oil spill-related lawsuits are pending have financial connections to the oil and gas industry, complicating the task of finding judges without conflicts to hear the cases, an Associated Press analysis of judicial financial disclosure reports shows.
Thirty-seven of the 64 active or senior judges in key Gulf Coast districts in Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida have links to oil, gas and related energy industries, including some who own stocks or bonds in BP PLC, Halliburton or Transocean - and others who regularly list receiving royalties from oil and gas production wells, according to the reports judges must file each year. The AP reviewed 2008 disclosure forms, the most recent available.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GULF_OIL_SPILL_JUDGE_CONFLICTS?SITE=MSJAD&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Gov. Rick Perry settles lawsuit that claimed he hid source of $1m in illegal campaign contributions
A 2007 lawsuit alleging Texas Gov. Rick Perry unlawfully hid $1 million in illegal campaign contributions has been settled in a confidential agreement, a lawyer connected to the case said Friday.
The case was filed by Chris Bell, Perry’s Democratic opponent in the 2006 gubernatorial contest. Bell, a former Congressman, claimed that Perry tried to hide the source of money he took from Houston homebuilder Bob Perry (no relation). The suit claims the money was illegally funneled through the Republican Governors Association in the waning days of the 2006 campaign, which Perry won.
More Attorneys Exploring Third-Party Litigation Funding
Ask Louis M. Solomon where his fees are coming from these days, and you will get a complicated answer.
Solomon, who joined Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft earlier this year, counts corporations such as Bristol-Myers Squibb and PepsiCo as part of his book of business. Yet while companies like those still are generally paying his fees, lately the source of funds is not just his clients' corporate war chests but money they received from investors looking to take stakes in the lawsuits he files for them.
Solomon, 54, is among a handful of corporate litigators handling commercial disputes with outside, third-party litigation funding. Two litigation funds have in the last three years launched initial public offerings, and both are on the lookout for U.S. litigants who would allow them to finance their cases in return for a portion of any settlement or judgment.
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202459195060&rss=newswire
Judge calls asbestos litigation against CSX 'bizarre'
As Ohio County Circuit Judge Arthur Recht looked back over six years of asbestos litigation against CSX Transportation, the picture disturbed him.
"I don't think, in my years of practice both as a lawyer and as a trial judge, that I have seen the machinations that have occurred," he marveled at a May 17 hearing in Wheeling, W.Va.
http://legalnewsline.com/news/227465-judge-calls-asbestos%20-litigation-against-csx-bizarre
La. contingency fee bill introduced after oil spill
The BP oil spill might play a role in changing the way the Louisiana attorney general does business.
The Louisiana Senate is currently mulling a bill that would give the attorney general the power to hire private lawyers to represent the State on a contingency fee basis. Currently, Attorney General Buddy Caldwell can hire outside counsel, but they are paid an hourly wage.
http://legalnewsline.com/spotlight/227480-la.-contingency-fee-bill-introduced-after-oil-spill
In search of the billion dollar disaster bonanza
"I expect this will keep me busy for quite a while," said Charleston, W. Va., plaintiffs attorney Ed Hill last month. Already he has netted a boatload of fishermen and shrimpers to represent as they seek damages for the Gulf Coast oil spill.
Hill is one of hundreds of lawyers rushing to capitalize on the calamity. Will these fee-rich crusades restore alleged losses of their clients, remediate the environmental damage, or prevent future disasters?
http://setexasrecord.com/arguments/227336-in-search-of-the-billion-dollar-disaster-bonanza
New suit filed in ambulance chasing quarrel
n the latest round of a nasty fight between two South Texas plaintiff's lawyers, a lawsuit filed in Bexar County accuses lawyer Andrew Begum of operating a “well-organized criminal enterprise” designed to violate state law on barratry — commonly known as ambulance chasing.
Filed on Wednesday on behalf of Dawn Garza, a legal assistant who says she was fired after questioning these activities, the suit claims the Brownsville-based Begum firm regularly conspires with case-runners and chiropractors to “illegally solicit accident victims.”
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/new_suit_filed_in_ambulance_chasing_quarrel_95589689.html
BP Leak Ripe for Class-Action Abuse
As oil continues to gush into the Gulf of Mexico, the legal wrangling over the environmental and economic devastation caused by BP Plc’s (BP: 39.27, 0, 0%) uncapped well is underway.
As of Monday, more than 100 lawsuits had already been filed on behalf of residents and businesses in the Gulf States, who face what could be months of hardship as the spill, which has dumped millions gallons of oil into the sea, is cleaned up.
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxbusiness.com%2Fstory%2Fmarkets%2Findustries%2Fenergy%2Fbp-lawsuits-mount-experts-potential-fraud%2F&h=528a1
Judge retires before vote on Indian trust lawsuit
The federal judge who presided over a class-action lawsuit accusing the government of mismanaging Indian trust funds has retired before the Senate could vote on the $3.4 billion settlement negotiated after 14 years of litigation.
Judge James Robertson's retirement as a senior judge in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., took effect on Tuesday, said Robertson's secretary, Marlene Taylor. The judge is in his 70s.
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9G3Q6F80.htm
The Hidden Costs of Silly Lawsuits
A new name can be inducted on the Wall of Fame for frivolous lawsuits: Lauren Rosenberg. Rosenberg is suing Google because she used the popular Google Maps service to get walking directions around Park City, Utah. The directions advised her to walk on a highway with no pedestrian path. While she was walking on it, a car struck her. Rosenberg joins a very special class of plaintiffs occupied by Stella Liebeck and Roy L. Pearson. Liebeck sued McDonald’s because she spilled hot coffee on her lap while driving and Pearson sued a D.C. dry cleaner for $65 million because they lost his trousers.
http://www.frumforum.com/the-hidden-costs-of-silly-lawsuits
BP's Gulf Coast oil spill - a legal primer
To help readers navigate the legal landscape surrounding BP's mammoth oil spill (or "oil spew," as some argue it should more properly be called) in the Gulf Coast, I have looked into some of the law-related questions and statements that keep surfacing as the press and bloggers keep up with the crisis. I rely mainly here on an interview with Christopher B. Kende, an international insurance law specialist at the firm of Cozen O'Connor. Kende also teaches attorneys about the legal issues stemming from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill as a lecturer for HB Litigation Conferences.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/06/04/news/companies/bp_legal.fortune/
medicare-soon-to-go-after-liability-settlements
WASHINGTON - By finally enforcing a law requiring the reporting of all injury payments, Medicare can begin getting reimbursed for payments made to individuals who later settled liability claims.
Next year, Medicare managers will also require a report on every injury claim. Medicare can recover from plaintiffs, plaintiffs' lawyers, defendants and insurers, which could mean a windfall for the program.
The Medicare managers will require plaintiffs' lawyers to explain to clients that settlement negotiations must protect Medicare's interest.
http://legalnewsline.com/news/227428-medicare-soon-to-go-after-liability-settlements
W.M. Wrigley, Jr. Company Class Action Settlement In Class Action Lawsuit Over Eclipse Gum Natural Germ Killing Labeling
W.M. Wrigley, Jr. Company has agreed to pay up to $7 million dollars to settle a class action lawsuit pending against it (hereinafter “Wrigley” or “Defendant”) in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida (styled Carol D. Smith v. W.M. Wrigley, Jr. Company, Case No. 0:09-cv-60646-JIC), alleging that Wrigley engaged in deceptive advertising by including on its package labels that its Eclipse gum brand was scientifically proven to help kill germs that cause bad breath as a result of a natural ingredient, Magnolia Bark Extract (“MBE”), according to class action settlement news reports.
http://classactionlawsuitsinthenews.com/class-action-settlement-agreements/w-m-wrigley-jr-company-class-action-settlement-in-class-action-lawsuit-over-eclipse-gum-natural-germ-killing-labeling/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ClassActionLawsuitNews+%28ClassActionLawsuitsInTheNews%29
Former Texas justice to represent BP in state litigation
Former Texas Supreme Court Justice Scott Brister will lead BP Exploration and Production's defense in state litigation over the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
On May 21, Brister asked judges on the state multi district litigation panel to consolidate cases before three judges and transfer them to a single judge. The cases involve 10 plaintiffs and seven intervenors.
http://www.setexasrecord.com/news/227249-former-texas-justice-to-represent-bp-in-state-litigation
Heavyweight battle between Umphrey, Coon wages on in civil court
Although an arbitrator recently mediated a dispute between the Provost Umphrey law firm and Brent Coon over attorneys' fees garnered from asbestos litigation, the heated battle between the plaintiff's attorneys wages on civil court.
Coon, a former attorney at Walter Umphrey's firm, in February persuaded Judge Milton Shuffield to seal an arbitration award stemming from a lawsuit over asbestos attorney's fees on the basis that it was none of the public's concern.
http://www.setexasrecord.com/news/227279-heavyweight-battle-between-umphrey-coon-wages-on-in-civil-court
Racial Discrimination in Jury Selection Remains Widespread, According to EJI Study Released Today
Nearly 135 years after Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to eliminate racial discrimination in jury selection, people of color continue to be excluded from jury service because of their race, especially in serious criminal trials and death penalty cases. EJI today released a new report, “Illegal Racial Discrimination in Jury Selection: A Continuing Legacy,” which is the most comprehensive study of racial bias in jury selection since the United States Supreme Court tried to limit the practice in Batson v. Kentucky in 1986.
http://blackpoliticsontheweb.com/2010/06/02/racial-discrimination-in-jury-selection-remains-widespread-according-to-eji-study-released-today/
Oops! Katrina Global Warming Lawsuit Backfires
Remember back to October 2009, when the 5th Circuit Court ruled that a lawsuit against companies that produce greenhouse gases could go forward from folks who say these companies made Hurricane Katrina worse. Yeah, about that After an unusual about-face prompted by a late recusal, a federal appeals court has scrapped a ruling that said the nation’s largest producers of greenhouse gas emissions could be sued for the damage caused by global warming.
http://www.thepiratescove.us/2010/06/03/oops-katrina-global-warming-lawsuit-backfires/
For Businesses, Bully Lawsuits May Pose New Threat
Who's afraid of the big, bad boss?
A significant number of U.S. workers say they are— and soon those in New York may be able to sue their employers, including small businesses, for any suffering they experience at the hands of a toxic boss or other workplace bully.
Earlier this month, the Empire State's Senate passed a bipartisan measure that would allow workers who've been physically, psychologically or economically abused while on the job to file charges against their employers in civil court. The bill applies to organizations of all sizes, unlike other employee-friendly laws that exempt small businesses, such as the federal government's Family and Medical Leave Act. It also holds employers responsible for the bullying of workers by colleagues and not just supervisors
Cleanup Costs and Lawsuits Rattle BP’s Investors
BP shareholders are fleeing the company’s stock amid growing uncertainty about the ultimate bill for cleanup costs, lawsuits, fines and damage to the oil giant’s reputation.
BP’s shares fell an additional 15 percent on Tuesday, as investors reacted to news that the latest effort to stem the gushing oil in the Gulf of Mexico failed over the weekend. It is the steepest drop in shares in about two decades.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/02/us/02liability.html?src=mv&pagewanted=print
East Texas doctors file federal lawsuit against health care bill
TYLER, TX (KLTV) - Texas Spine and Joint Hospital of Tyler filed a joint lawsuit with Physician Hospitals of America, Thursday.
The lawsuit questions the constitutionality of a specific part of the health care bill. PHA said Section 6001 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act prohibits physician-owned Medicare hospitals from expanding after March 23, 2010.
PHA said new physician-owned Medicare hospitals that are not certified as Medicare providers prior to December 31, 2010 are now banned.
Chinese Drywall Issues Known in 2006
Chinese manufacturer Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin Co., or KPT, knew of defects in its drywall as far back as 2006, yet thousands of homes were still built using the wall board, forcing thousands of homeowners to endure a rotten-egg odor and corroded wiring, according to email communications recently made public.
http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2010/06/02/chinese-drywall-issues-known-as-early-as-2006/?KEYWORDS=lawsuit
Two lawsuits against 'hot fuel' practice in Kansas get class-action status
The legal battle against “hot fuel” is warming up with two lawsuits against the practice in Kansas becoming the first in the nation to receive class-action status.
U.S. District Judge Kathryn Vratil in Kansas City, Kan., has ruled the two suits meet the standards to represent not just the few individuals named in the suits, but other, unnamed consumers allegedly affected by the hot-fuel practice.
http://www.kansascity.com/2010/06/02/1988802/two-lawsuits-against-hot-fuel.html
FDA Certification No Shield to Suit Against Generic Drug Makers
Generic drug manufacturers are not insulated from lawsuits by an FDA approval process that certifies such drugs as the "bioequivalent" of their brand-name predecessors, a federal judge has ruled.
In a 29-page decision in In re Budeprion XL Marketing & Sales Litigation, U.S. District Judge Berle M. Schiller refused to dismiss a suit brought by consumers who were previously taking Wellbutrin, a brand-name antidepressant drug, and claim they experienced side effects upon switching to generic buproprion.
The suit alleges that two manufacturers -- Teva Pharmaceuticals and Impax Laboratories -- became aware of the problem, but failed to warn the public about differences that affected the release rate of the active ingredient.
ISSUES IN-DEPTH: Tort reformers, trial lawyers agree on need to fight barratry
Welcome to Bizarro World, the mythical planet in the “Superman” cartoons where reality is backwards. Wheels are square. Good is evil. And Texans for Lawsuit Reform and the Texas Trial Lawyers Association agree with each other.
The House Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee entered Bizarro World May 27, when both Texans for Lawsuit Reform and the Texas Trial Lawyers Association endorsed additional legislative action to crack down on barratry – the practice of attorneys’, or their agents’, soliciting business from potential clients, often at the scene of the accident or close to an accident.
Ambulance chasing in cross hairs
Testifying before the state House Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee, plaintiff's lawyer Bill Edwards of Corpus Christi described a person based in Hidalgo County who earned millions of dollars by referring cases to plaintiff's lawyers.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/ambulance_chasing_in_cross_hairs_94983684.html?c=y&commentSubmitted=y#comments
BP Leak Ripe for Class-Action Abuse
As oil continues to gush into the Gulf of Mexico, the legal wrangling over the environmental and economic devastation caused by BP Plc’s (BP: 41.58, -0.35, -0.83%) uncapped well is underway.
As of Monday, more than 100 lawsuits had already been filed on behalf of residents and businesses in the Gulf States, who face what could be months of hardship as the spill, which has dumped millions gallons of oil into the sea, is cleaned up.
http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/industries/energy/bp-lawsuits-mount-experts-potential-fraud/
Florida Verdict May Threaten EMS Availability
http://www.epmonthly.com/whitecoat/2010/05/florida-verdict-threatens-ems-availability/
A $500 million damage award hardly makes news anymore
Outside Nevada, a Clark County district court jury's award of $500 million in damages to a man who contracted hepatitis C during a colonoscopy did not make much news. Guess the public -- or editors -- have become inured to jackpot justice, but as a vast expansion of failure to warn liability, the award warrants more attention.
http://www.pointoflaw.com/archives/2010/05/a-500-million-d.php
Altria “bullish” on lawsuit outlook, CEO says
Altria Group Inc.'s top executive expressed confidence yesterday that the nation's largest tobacco company can defend itself against a wave of smoker lawsuits in Florida. He also defended the company's recent attempt to remove four members of a mostly government-appointed scientific board that will advise the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on its new regulatory authority over tobacco products.
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/business/local/article/B-ALTR21_20100520-221410/345957/
Fen-phen attorney Melbourne Mills disbarred
Despite his acquittal on criminal charges in Kentucky's fen-phen scandal, Melbourne Mills Jr. was permanently disbarred Thursday from practicing the law. In a unanimous opinion, the Kentucky Supreme Court said it was stripping Mills of his license for violating 17 ethics rules, including taking more than $100 million in fees, with Shirley Cunningham Jr. and William Gallion, from Kentucky's $200 million settlement of the state diet-drug case.
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100520/NEWS01/5200327/1008/Fen-phen+attorney+Melbourne+Mills+disbarred
Krugman and Oil Spills, cont’d
Last week Paul Krugman seized on the Gulf oil spill as another occasion to bash libertarians in general and the great Milton Friedman in particular. On Friday David skewered the Times columnist over his odd rhetorical ploy of treating politicians’ failure to follow Friedman’s principles as a refutation of those principles. Now economist Alex Tabarrok at Marginal Revolution reports that Krugman also completely misunderstands the current set of laws governing oil spill liability:
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2010/05/18/krugman-and-oil-spills-contd/
Novartis Verdict Opens Door for More Gender Bias Lawsuits
In a case experts say will open the door for more gender bias lawsuits, pharmaceutical giant Novartis was ordered on Wednesday to pay $250 million in punitive damages to current and former U.S. female employees who accused the company of discriminating against them.
http://www.inc.com/news/articles/2010/05/novartis-gender-bias-case-opens-door-for-more-lawsuits.html
Queens woman Karen Costa sues Petco after cat with lion-sized temper takes bite of her finger
A Queens woman who adopted a tabby at a Petco fair thought she was getting a friendly, housebroken cat.
Instead, she says, a feral creature with a lion-sized temper moved in - and took a chunk out of her finger.
Climate Change and the Courts
One of the most destructive mass litigation theories ever devised—the climate tort—is working its way through the courts, and now with a troubling twist. To wit, green plaintiffs may have found a way to handpick sympathetic judges.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704635204575242361135307650.html?KEYWORDS=Tort
Lawyers lining up for class-action suits over oil spill
On April 21, with the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig still in flames, John W. Degravelles and a group of other lawyers sued for damages. In the first of at least 88 suits filed since the disaster, they were seeking compensation for the widow of a Transocean worker who went missing and is presumed dead.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/16/AR2010051603254.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR
Toronto woman sues Rogers after her affair is exposed
A Toronto woman says the billing practices of Rogers Wireless Inc. led to her husband discovering her extramarital affair.
Now the woman, whose husband walked out, is suing the communications giant for $600,000 for alleged invasion of privacy and breach of contract, the results of which she says have ruined her life.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/crime/article/810236--toronto-woman-sues-rogers-for-exposing-her-affair
Judge Rules In Backyard Smoking Trial
An Albuquerque couple that claim their neighbor's cigarette smoke is creating a health hazard had their day in court Monday. Plaintiffs Jesus and Pat Martinez said their neighbor Linda Garcia's smoking in her own backyard hurt their quality of life, and filed a suit against Garcia.
http://www.koat.com/news/23585644/detail.html
Pampers class action lawsuit blames new Cruisers with Dry Max for diaper rash
Two class action lawsuits have been filed against Pampers, made by Proctor & Gamble (P&G), over their newest diaper brand. Pampers Cruisers, which were released in a new design earlier this year, are being blamed for an outbreak of numerous severe cases of diaper rash around the country. Some claim that the diaper brand has triggered chemical burns in the worst cases of harm to children.
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-16813-Legal-News-Examiner~y2010m5d14-Pampers-class-action-lawsuit-blames-new-diapers-for-diaper-rash
Parent Can Sue Ex for Turning Children Against Him
One parent can sue the other for allegedly poisoning his relationship with their children, an appeals court said May 3 in the first New Jersey recognition of a cause of action for infliction of emotional distress for such conduct.
A lower court had dismissed the claim as barred by the Heart Balm Statute, but the Appellate Division, in Segal v. Lynch, A-805-08, said the statute applies only to claims based on the loss of a marital or conjugal relationship.
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202457878809&rss=newswire
Michigan inmate sinks teeth into prison lawsuit
A former Michigan inmate who claims he was denied toothpaste for nearly a year can sue prison officials, citing his constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment, a federal appeals court said.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/offbeat/view.bg?articleid=1253443&srvc=rss
Lawsuits Over Oil Rig Disaster Spill Into Court in Louisiana, Mississippi
More litigation is gushing out of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
In Mississippi, two commercial shrimpers on Monday filed a $5 million class action in federal court in Gulfport, alleging the oil spill could destroy their livelihoods. The plaintiffs are represented by Sheehan & Johnson in Biloxi, Miss., and Gambrell & Associates in Oxford, Miss.
In Louisiana, Houston's Lanier Law Firm filed a proposed class action on Monday in federal court in New Orleans on behalf of a fishing company claiming financial injuries from the spill.
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202457611865&rss=newswire
Woman sues, says 16 years of inhaling microwave popcorn vapors gave her 'popcorn lung'
A Queens woman is suing a food giant, claiming she got "popcorn lung" by inhaling vapors from microwaved munchies she consumed at least twice a day for 16 years.
Agnes Mercado claims ConAgra, the maker of Act II popcorn, is responsible for irreversible lung disease that will one day require a transplant.
Raising BP's Oil Spill Liability Limit - No Matter What the Constitution Says
Even though the Constitution expressly forbids passage of ex post facto laws, some in Congress and at the White House want to retroactively raise the amount for which British Petroleum is liable in the April 20th oil well calamity.
Ex post facto is Latin for "after the fact." And an ex post facto law is one that is enacted or changed to apply retroactively to a crime or other action.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20004217-503544.html
NM woman sues, alleges HPV vaccine hurt daughter
An Albuquerque woman has filed a lawsuit over a vaccine intended to protect women from cervical cancer, alleging it caused physical and behavioral problems in her teenage daughter. The lawsuit filed by Tracy Wolf said her now-16-year-old daughter was diagnosed with a seizure disorder, encephalitis and other health problems after receiving Gardasil's three-shot series in 2007 and 2008, the Albuquerque Journal reported in a copyright story Monday. http://www.kmph.com/Global/story.asp?S=12416624
Congressman seeks GAO probe of asbestos trusts
WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, the leading Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, on Thursday asked the director of the Government Accountability Office to investigate the secrecy behind trusts created to pay asbestos-related claims against bankrupt companies.
In his letter to Acting U.S. Comptroller General Gene Dodaro, the Texas Republican expressed concerns that the trusts -- created under 11 USC �524(g), through the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1994 -- operate in secrecy, which leads to fraudulent injury claims including double-dipping.
http://setexasrecord.com/news/226470-congressman-seeks-gao-probe-of-asbestos-trusts
Suit filed against Chuck E Cheese over playground injury
A Harris County woman blames employees at Chuck E. Cheese for failing to adequately supervise her son as he played on a slide and fell from it, breaking his arm.
Pat Wilson, individually and on behalf of her minor son, King Hall, filed a lawsuit April 23 in Jefferson County District Court against CEC Entertainment, doing business as Chuck E. Cheese.
http://setexasrecord.com/news/226462-suit-filed-against-chuck-e-cheese-over-playground-injury
Class Action Lawyers Get $850,000, Class Members Get Nothing
Plaintiff lawyers who filed a ridiculous class action lawsuit against three manufacturers of Bluetooth headsets will receive $850,000 under a settlement approved by a federal judge. While the lawyers got their astronomical fees, guess what the members of the plaintiff class got?
http://www.bobdorigojones.com/2010/05/01/class-action-lawyers-get-850000-class-members-get-nothing/
Teacher with rabbit phobia to sue 14-year-old for drawing bunny
The teacher, from Vechta, Germany, says she was traumatised by the drawing, and claims the girl knew it would terrify her.
She had transferred to the school where a pupil from her former school had just become a pupil and told her new friends about the teacher's fear of rabbits.
"We did it for fun and out of curiosity", one of the girls told a court, adding, "We wanted to see if she would really freak out."
School officials removed her from the class and now the teacher is seeking compensation for her terror and her loss of earnings, her lawyer Manfred Bormann told the court.
The case continues.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/7657569/Teacher-with-rabbit-phobia-to-sue-14-year-old-for-drawing-bunny.html
America Needs More Jobs Not Lawsuits
As policymakers consider ways to put Americans back to work, they should keep this simple formula in mind: More lawsuits equal less job growth, says Tom Donohue, President and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The business community has long warned that increased litigation can suck the life out of a state’s economy. For businesses both large and small, one frivolous lawsuit can mean the difference between job creation and stagnation, according to Donohue.
http://www.texasinsider.org/?p=25958
Student brought to court in chains for shirking jury duty
A 19-year-old college freshman missed class Tuesday when a federal judge decided to teach her a civics lesson by ordering federal marshals to haul her in chains from school to court to explain why she shirked jury duty.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6978779.html
Utah Mulling Bill to Protect Physician Apologies
An apology or explanation can be priceless to the loved one of someone who died during surgery, but many physicians are afraid that any condolences or expressions of sympathy or regret will end up being costly to them in the event of a malpractice lawsuit. This creates an unfortunate “Catch-22,” as experimental projects have shown that apologies could actually prevent lawsuits from being filed because the injured party feels that his or her grievances are being addressed and aired.
http://www.renalandurologynews.com/utah-mulling-bill-to-protect-physician-apologies/article/168710/#
Why Physicians Oppose The Health Care Reform Bill
After the debate has ended and the lobbyists have moved on to their next clients, health care will be left the way it started, a physician and a patient sitting in a room trying as best as they can to prolong health and forestall sickness. Fortunately the many victories and losses claimed by both ends of the political spectrum will not change this shared pursuit.
http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/28/health-care-reform-physicians-opinions-contributors-daniel-palestrant.html
The Great Pretender
He founded a law firm in Corpus Christi. He referred personal-injury cases to powerful litigators across South Texas. And he lived the high-rolling life of a successful plaintiff’s attorney. There was just one problem: Mauricio Celis was not a lawyer.
http://www.texasmonthly.com/2010-05-01/letterfromcorpuschristi.php
Pennsylvania company is 89th to collapse under asbestos claims
PHILADELPHIA - Durabla Manufacturing, a Pennsylvania company that made sealing products, collapsed under the weight of 108,000 asbestos suits. U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno of Philadelphia, responsible for asbestos claims nationwide, received notice on April 12 of Durabla's bankruptcy.
Asbestos litigation has bankrupted 89 companies in 28 years, according to the Crowell Moring firm in Washington. Among the earliest was Johns-Manville in 1982; and among the latest was General Motors last year.
http://www.setexasrecord.com/news/226328-pennsylvania-company-is-89th-to-collapse-under-asbestos-claims
Hair-sucking vacuum spurs $200K lawsuit
A north suburban woman claims a "defective" vacuum cleaner sucked her hair out of her scalp when it broke during use -- and she is now suing the Ohio-based vacuum-maker for more than $200,000.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/2195848,CST-NWS-vacuum24.article#
Government Report Now Says Health Care Reform Plan Will Add To Deficit. Rekindles Debate On Need For Liability Reform.
Surprise, surprise! The federal Health and Human Services Department has just released a report saying that the sweeping health care reform plan recently signed into law will increase costs to taxpayers. See the Associated Press report here.
http://www.bobdorigojones.com/2010/04/23/government-report-now-says-health-care-reform-plan-will-add-to-deficit-rekindles-debate-on-need-for-liability-reform/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BobDorigoJones+%28Bob+Dorigo+Jones%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher
Cry 'fowl' Over Duck Hunt
You’ve read some hunting and fishing stories in this column over the years, but boy, have a I got a duck hunting story for you this week.
Lonnie Levasseur of Brazoria County, Steven Englehart of Houston and Levasseur’s son-in-law went duck hunting Dec. 9 with a guide from Larry Gore’s Eagle Lake & Katy Prairie outfitters.
http://www.fbherald.com/articles/2010/04/09/opinion/doc4bbf5c771826e669305414.txt#blogcomments
Mine tragedy ad may result in ethics charge
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (Legal Newsline) - The law firm that ran advertisements in the wake of the recent Raleigh County mine tragedy is expecting an ethics complaint.
http://legalnewsline.com/news/226755-mine-tragedy-ad-may-result-in-ethics-charge
Frivolous Lawsuits Slow Innovation, as University Researchers With Big Ideas Make Lucrative Targets, Says IP Advocate Founder
Her own lawsuit might be over, but her fight has just begun.Dr Renee Kaswan, founder of IP Advocate (www.IPAdvocate.org) and former University of Georgia Veterinary Ophthalmology professor, recently settled her long-standing legal battle with the University of Georgia Research Foundation (UGARF).
http://www.ad-hoc-news.de/frivolous-lawsuits-slow-innovation-as-university--/de/Unternehmensnachrichten/21230343
Family of boy shocked while climbing electrical tower considers lawsuit
No matter who you are or where you live, life can change in an instant.
On March 7, it happened to Jordy Penaloza.
That afternoon, the 6th-grader with the big smile who lived soccer was shocked while climbing a four-sided tower near his northwest Harris County home.
Jordy was airlifted to Memorial Hermann Hospital with burns over 70-percent of his body and a broken back.
http://www.khou.com/news/Family-of-boy-shocked-while-climbing-electrical-tower-sues-CenterPoint-Energy-91534619.html
Law firms seek to represent dead miners' families
Little more than a week after the disaster, competition among lawyers to represent the families of 29 men killed in the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster has begun.
Massey Energy, the mine's owner, has deep pockets. Lawyers who represent the families could make millions in fees if they can prove company management showed a conscious and deliberate disregard for safety.
http://www.dailymail.com/News/statenews/201004130944?page=2&build=cache
Study: Malpractice worries help drive health costs
A substantial number of heart doctors — about one in four — say they order medical tests that might not be needed out of fear of getting sued, according to a new study.
Nearly 600 doctors were surveyed for the study to determine how aggressively they treat their patients and whether non-medical issues have influenced their decisions to order invasive heart tests.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g1X8n7Ct5xyKui-jeaw4JVS8AXYwD9F2DTP81
The Torturous Teen Award #4: Suing Mom For Facebook Interference
..the sixteen year old boy who sued his Facebook-meddling mom!
Holy Smokes! So it comes to this!
http://www.chron.com/channel/momhouston/commons/TorturedbyTeenagers.html?plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3a7ad5c5ca-3a95-48f8-961c-349e3f2acea9Post%3a027dc930-1e5c-4f01-9e90-93a5d0638870
Frivolous Lawsuits Over Perfume
Did you know in 2008 a lawsuit was filed and finally won last month, by a Detroit city employee who said a co-workers perfume made it challenging for her to do her job? This receives one of our stupid lawsuit awards for sure.
http://www.newsweird.com/2010031707/stupid-lawsuits-criminals-laws/frivolous-lawsuits-body-odor-perfume-197
Community City Museum Fights Back Against "Frivolous Lawsuits" -- Via Facebook
The same thought has undoubtedly crossed the mind of anyone older than thirteen who has ever visited the City Museum and gazed upon its warren of tunnels, its seven-story tornado slide and, especially, the outdoor jungle gym comprised of material salvaged from destroyed buildings: "This place is a lawsuit waiting to happen."
http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2010/04/city_museum_fights_back_against_frivolous_lawsuits_via_facebook.php
Taming the Litigation Beast
When the going gets tough, Americans litigate. More than the citizens of any other country on the planet or any civilization in history, Americans seek to resolve their disputes in the courtroom. While issues of national significance are resolved in the U.S. Supreme Court, minor disputes are argued every day before small-claims courts in towns and cities across the country. Whether it's a matter of national security or just a minor dispute among neighbors, we know that a court can ultimately resolve the case, and that we have a right to our day in court.
http://www.businessweek.com/print/investor/content/apr2010/pi2010046_401849.htm
Get Ready America: The costs of Litigation, Insurance & Defensive Medicine Will Be Passed On
As legal commentator Stuart Taylor has written, “Playgrounds all over the country have been stripped of monkey bars, jungle gyms, high slides & swings, seesaws and other old-fashioned equipment once popularized by President John F. Kennedy’s physical-fitness campaign. The reason: thousands of lawsuits by people who hurt themselves at playgrounds … Now kids sit at home and get fat – and their parents sue McDonald’s.”
http://www.texasinsider.org/?p=24749
Litigation Fears Impact Physician Work Hours
A new study published in the Journal of Law and Economics (2009;54:635-663) has revealed that physicians work fewer hours when their risk of litigation increases. Researchers Eric Helland, of Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, Calif., and Mark H. Showalter, of Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, found that physicians work an average of 1.7 hours less per week when their expected medical liability risk rises by just 10%. The researchers calculated that a reduction of 1.7 hours per week is the same as “one in 35 physicians leaving a workforce entirely, or about 21,000 physicians.”
http://www.renalandurologynews.com/litigation-fears-impact-physician-work-hours/article/166925/
Judge tosses out law limiting medical, legal contact
AUSTIN — A federal judge has overturned a 2009 Texas law barring medical professionals from contacting victims within 30 days of an accident or lawyers from contacting people within a month of an arrest.
U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel, ruling in a case brought by a Houston lawyer and an Austin chiropractor, called the prohibitions, which legislators said were aimed at unethical solicitations, unconstitutional, saying the law infringed on free speech rights.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6932263.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=ping.fm
Op-Ed: Caring for Patients in a Time of Change
The health system reform bill we opposed is now law. While the legal and political wrangling will go on for years, the physicians of Texas remain committed to our patients. We want to keep what’s good and fix what’s broken in our health care system. Frankly, we cannot allow our political views or the new law to get in the way of what medical care is all about: physicians caring for our patients. Patients and their doctors must work together to take advantage of this change. We cannot waste this opportunity to improve the quality of care we provide. We also must keep a constant eye out for opportunities to improve the new law.
http://www.texmed.org/Template.aspx?id=8489
Tort reform faces constitutional challenge in Washington
Washington Supreme Court justices on Feb. 25 heard oral arguments in a case that will decide the fate of a tort reform measure aimed at curbing unnecessary medical liability litigation.
The 2006 law requires patients to notify defendants of any intentions to sue at least 90 days before filing a medical liability action.
http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2010/03/22/prsf0326.htm
The survey asked 1,482 corporate lawyers and executives about various aspects of states' legal systems
AUSTIN, Texas (Legal Newsline)-The legal climate in Texas has improved over the past seven years but Beaumont is still getting negative national attention, a survey released today of top corporate lawyers and business executives shows.
A Harris Interactive survey shows that since 2002, courtroom fairness in the Lone Star State has improved. This year, state ranked 36th in the nation for court fairness, up from 2002 and 2003, when Texas ranked 46th in the nation.
http://legalnewsline.com/news/226261-texas-legal-environment-improves
Tort reform key to cutting soaring healthcare costs
There are many reasons that most Americans strongly oppose the Washington health care takeovers being considered by Congress.
While families and businesses are struggling against skyrocketing health care costs, the Democrats’ plan would increase premiums by 10-13% for families buying coverage on their own. And though the next generation will be forced to address a $12 trillion national debt, the President has proposed spending another $2.5 trillion on new entitlement programs.
http://thehill.com/opinion/op-ed/87901-tort-reform-key-to-cutting-soaring-healthcare-costs
Asbestos Turnabout
Most asbestos trials feature tort lawyers mauling defendant companies. But last week a federal jury in Mississippi turned the tables on a pair of plaintiffs attorneys accused of filing corrupt cases. Let's hope it's a trend.
The jury found that William Guy and Thomas Brock committed fraud as part of an asbestos lawsuit they filed in 2001 against Illinois Central Railroad Co. The jurors concluded that the lawyers knew their clients had lied about taking part in an earlier asbestos suit. And they ordered the lawyers to pay $210,000 in actual damages and—turnabout is fair play—a further $210,000 in punitive damages to Illinois Central.
South Carolina Supreme Court Overrules Junk Science And $18 Million Verdict In Acceleration Lawsuit
Anyone interested in the legal and consumer safety ramifications of the alleged acceleration problems involving Toyota vehicles will want to take note of a decision just handed down by the South Carolina Supreme Court in a case involving another automaker.
http://www.bobdorigojones.com/2010/03/16/south-carolina-supreme-court-overrules-junk-science-and-18-million-verdict-in-acceleration-lawsuit/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BobDorigoJones+%28Bob+Dorigo+Jones%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher
Tort Reform Makes a Comeback
After being relegated to the back burner for months, tort reform has begun bubbling to the surface in editorials, polls, and at last month's televised healthcare summit. The focus has largely remained on how states can rein in unnecessary and expensive medical malpractice lawsuits. But a recent court case in Illinois, a new poll suggesting a high prevalence of "defensive medicine", and the glimmer of a bipartisan proposal for special "health courts" might provide the impetus for reform at the federal level.
http://www.the-hospitalist.org/details/article/587815/Tort_Reform_Makes_a_Comeback.html
The Truth About Tort Reform
If the president is serious about bipartisan health-care reform, he must include real lawsuit-abuse reform that produces savings for the American people.
According to the Harvard School of Public Health, 40 percent of medical malpractice suits filed in the U.S. are “without merit.” Yet despite the frivolous nature of many of these suits, juries often award millions of dollars to plaintiffs — and their trial lawyers. These predatory suits amount to legalized extortion and require doctors to purchase malpractice insurance at great expense. A Department of Health and Human Services study found that unlimited excessive damages add between $70 billion and $126 billion annually to health-care costs.
http://healthcare.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YzIxNzUzYjNhZmJhMzUzMDE0YzI4NzQzNWJlNmE2ZGM=
Frivolous Lawsuits
Frivolous lawsuits affect all of us. Frivolous lawsuits clog the court systems, taking time away from the "real" cases. While everyone does have the right to sue anyone else, some people take this to extremes, bringing about frivolous lawsuits in hopes of a big lawsuit payday. Frivolous lawsuits are a part of the much more complex arena of lawsuit abuse where tort reform may be needed for rational justice to take place.
http://www.personal-injury-info.net/frivolous-lawsuits.htm
Houston lawyer staking claim in Toyota litigation
Standing at the bottom of the sunny Houston courthouse steps last week, lawyer Mark Lanier called a press conference largely to mark his legal turf and try for a stake in what's expected to be multibillion-dollar litigation against Toyota.
In the weeks since the Japanese car maker's January recall of millions of cars to fix a mechanical problem with the accelerators, lawyers in Texas and around the country have smelled Toyota's corporate blood in the water and mustered.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/6902059.html
Junk Science Begets Junk Lawsuits
It's said that the most dangerous place in the world is between a politician and a camera. The same could be said about getting between trial lawyers and the courtroom.
The rush to the courts is under way, triggered by two recent rulings allowing global warming claims to go forward against energy defendants for their emissions of carbon dioxide. A third such ruling may be coming soon, even though it becomes more obvious every day that man-made global warming is a myth and such lawsuits are frivolous.
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=522957
Texas Sized Tort Reform
Advocates have written open letters to politicians describing it as “the least-expensive and best-known way to lower healthcare costs.” Detractors have blogged that it has saved almost no money and instead “gutted patient rights.” Among the recent templates for whether and how to proceed on the contentious issue of tort reform, Texas has become a prime example of either the wisdom or the folly of capping medical liability payouts, depending on your vantage point.
http://www.the-hospitalist.org/details/article/574165/TexasSized_Tort_Reform.html
Behind the Rise and Fall of a Class-Action King
Peter J. Henning follows issues related to white-collar crime for DealBook’s White Collar Watch.
William S. Lerach is among the most famous lawyers of the late 20th century, reviled by scores of corporate executives and their attorneys while celebrated by the trial bar and individual investors. Mr. Lerach earned millions of dollars in fees from class-action cases, making more than most lawyers in traditional law firms could ever dream about.
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/01/behind-the-rise-and-fall-of-a-class-action-king/
From Bully to Felon
In 1972, a young lawyer co-authored an article for the University of Pittsburgh Law Review. He targeted class-action securities lawsuits, calling them "procedural monstrosities." They were legal extortion, he said, in which plaintiffs simply use "allegations as a bargaining weapon to be disposed of when an appropriate premium has been extracted from the defendant."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704625004575089751518568796.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
I'm suing You, And You, And You...
We’ve all heard enough talk about Toyota’s recalls and quality control troubles of late, and I’ll do my best to not repeat what’s already been said about the company. Frankly, I’ve grown tired of it, and I’m sure some of you have as well.
http://www.impomag.com/scripts/ShowPR.asp?RID=13297&CommonCount=0
Toyota Situation Provides Great Opportunity for America to Examine the Frivolous Lawsuit Epidemic
AUTO CENTRAL - February 6, 2010: There was a time in America, when people would try to make something out of themselves via hard work, ingenuity, and a little luck; sometimes a lot of luck. But along with the proliferation of TV sound-bites replacing well thought out and articulated statements, and the beatification of untalented celebrity nitwits, more and more we are getting overrun by bloodsucking leeches who think they're entitled to endless welfare or obscene frivolous lawsuit settlements.
http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2010/02/06/464779.html
Attorney Ronald Rodriguez sponsors ethics seminar on the scourge of barratry Running in Reverse: Pursuing Barratry Claims
The scourge of barratry in our legal system is touching many lives in a negative way and adversely affecting many lawyer’s careers and earnings. Barratry is what is referred to as the process by which disputes and quarrels are created in order drum up business. The Texas Penal Code states that it is a third degree felony to solicit professional “employment either in person or by telephone for himself or another” by lawyers or their representatives. But barratry is still rampant in this state on the part of some unscrupulous lawyers and their “runners.”
http://laredosnews.com/info.php?id=158
Lawyer: BP case attorney owes $50,000 to hotel
An attorney who earned “eight-figure” settlements for his clients in the 2005 BP refinery explosion still owes the San Luis Resort nearly $50,000, according to an attorney and court documents.
http://galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=a00a73a7685512f6
Odor in the Court
Forget all the rhetoric about the Jacksonian premise of a popularly elected judiciary. The public wants cash out of the courtroom — and that could mean pushing elections out, too.
http://www.texastribune.org/stories/2010/feb/02/keeping-appearances/
Appeals court candidates tout experience
Two Austin attorneys touting their experience and grasp of legal nuance are vying for a spot on the 3rd Court of Appeals, which covers a 24-county swath of Central and West Texas and hears some of the state's most complex cases.
http://www.statesman.com/news/local/appeals-court-candidates-tout-experience-207406.html
Judge throws out billion-dollar suit against LCRA
The Lower Colorado River Authority scored a major victory Monday over the San Antonio Water System when a state district judge threw out a lawsuit against the river authority.
http://www.statesman.com/news/local/judge-throws-out-billion-dollar-suit-against-lcra-207271.html
Time to consider judicial reform
Bexar County's March primary elections will feature seven local contested judicial contests. When the general election rolls around in November, 17 countywide judicial elections will be on the ballot.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/Time_to_consider_judicial_reform.html
So, what say you - is a larger per diem the best way to ensure citizens answer the call of jury duty? What else could be done to make the experience more palatable for potential jurors?
So, what say you - is a larger per diem the best way to ensure citizens answer the call of jury duty? What else could be done to make the experience more palatable for potential jurors?
http://mddailyrecord.com/ontherecord/
Lawsuit abuse obstructs job creation
While American businesses and families spent 2009 coping with the effects of a severe recession, the plaintiffs' bar was hard at work bringing a whole new round of outrageous lawsuits on behalf of clients hoping to get rich quick by winning the litigation lottery.
http://www.wvrecord.com/arguments/224240-their-view-lawsuit-abuse-obstructs-job-creation
High court urged to hear False Claims Act case
A leading conservative public interest law firm has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to review a lower court decision that allows trial lawyers to use the federal False Claims Act as a tool for regulating the marketing activities of pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers.
http://www.setexasrecord.com/news/224074-high-court-urged-to-hear-false-claims-act-case
Trial bar seeks to expand liability, end arbitration clauses
The national trial lawyers group outlined its 2010 legislative agenda Monday, announcing that the group plans to take aim at mandatory arbitration clauses and push to expand civil liability, among other initiatives.
http://www.setexasrecord.com/news/224071-trial-bar-seeks-to-expand-liability-end-arbitration-clauses
Schwarzenegger faces 'uphill battle' getting tort reforms
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has made tort reform part of his five-point economic agenda for his final year in office, but it's unlikely the Republican governor will get the changes he seeks to the state's civil code, political and legal observers said Sunday.
http://www.legalnewsline.com/news/224925-schwarzenegger-faces-uphill-battle-getting-tort-reforms
Public Safety at Risk: Fear of Lawsuits Changes Common Sense Behavior
As cold weather’s grip begins to put much of our country into a deep freeze, I would like share a winter-related lawsuit story from my hometown in northern Michigan that I think you’ll find interesting…and disturbing.
http://www.bobdorigojones.com/2010/01/03/public-safety-at-risk-fear-of-lawsuits-changes-common-sense-behavior/
Top Five Most Ridiculous Lawsuits of 2009 Announced
The U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) announced today the top five vote getters of its 1st Annual Most Ridiculous Lawsuit of the Year Poll. Nominees were drawn from the monthly Most Ridiculous Lawsuit poll winners, chosen by visitors to FacesofLawsuitAbuse.org, a public awareness campaign Web site that aims to show how abusive lawsuits affect small businesses and average families in very real ways.
http://www.instituteforlegalreform.com/component/ilr_media/30/pressrelease/2009/490.html
How Our Lawsuit-Happy Society Affects Charities, Part Two
In my last post, I revealed that a Florida soup kitchen could have served 40,000 meals to the needy with the money it spent defending itself against a misguided lawsuit that was eventually dismissed. Unfortunately, the impact that lawsuit abuse has on charities and community organizations can be as devastating on humanitarian groups as it is on for-profit job providers.
http://www.bobdorigojones.com/2009/12/23/how-our-lawsuit-happy-society-affects-charities-part-two/
Making It Easier For Charities To Help The Poor
During the holiday season, I think we all listen a little more closely to the appeals from charities that fill the airwaves. That why I’ve been using my last few weekly radio commentaries to reveal how lawsuit abuse has had a negative impact on so many humanitarian groups — even when they’ve done nothing wrong.
http://www.bobdorigojones.com/2009/12/18/making-it-easier-for-charities-to-help-the-poor/
Judicial Hellholes® 2009
The latest ranking of America's most unfair jurisdictions in which to be sued has been revealed in the American Tort Reform Foundation's Judicial Hellholes® 2009/2010 report. Read the full report (3 MB PDF) or start with the executive summary below.
http://www.atra.org/reports/hellholes/
Texas No Longer Magnet for Junk Lawsuits
It's good not to be considered a 'hell hole.'
For the first time ever, 1200 WOAI news reports four counties in the Rio Grande Valley and three along the Texas Gulf Coast area have been removed from the list of so called 'judicial hell holes,' designated by the American Tort Reform Foundation as counties where greedy out-of-state lawyers could file junk lawsuits, in expectation of getting a huge jury verdict jackpot.
Small Businesses Share Stories of Frivolous Lawsuits
Two small business owners and the founder of a nonprofit organization - all targets of abusive lawsuits - are speaking out about their legal ordeals at www.FacesOfLawsuitAbuse.org as part of a nationwide public awareness campaign launched today by the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) that demonstrates how abusive lawsuits affect real people in very real ways.
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/small-businesses-share-stories-of-frivolous-lawsuits-78979187.html
Whopper of a Lawsuit: Woman Wants Burger King to Pay for Text Messages
Who says teenage stalkers and demanding bosses send the most irksome text messages? Not Elizabeth Espinal.
The New Yorker recently sued Miami-Dade's mammoth supplier of most things fast and greasy, Burger King, claiming the company acted like an ex-boyfriend who couldn't take a hint: It repeatedly text-messaged her -- with spam ads -- although she told it to get lost.
http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2009/12/whopper_of_a_suit_woman_wants.php
CBO Reaffirms Tort Reform Would Save $54 Billion Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dc/2009/12/cbo-reaffirms-tort-reform-woul.html#ixzz0ZJf03s6z
Some Democrats were not satisfied with a Congressional Budget Office finding that tort reform could cut the deficit by $54 billion — about 10 times more than previous estimates.
So they asked the CBO to explain why. And got the same answer in a letter sent today to Sen. Jay Rockefeller.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dc/2009/12/cbo-reaffirms-tort-reform-woul.html#ixzz0ZJfBGeUS
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dc/2009/12/cbo-reaffirms-tort-reform-woul.html
Bad Suits Need Labels
Most people assume when they order coffee it’s going to be served hot. That’s why people with brains were outraged in 1994, when a jury awarded a woman $2.86 million after she burned herself on hot coffee purchased from the fast-food purveyor.
http://cherokeescout.com/articles/2009/12/08/opinions/doc4b1eb97f7cc18206308796.txt
Terror by Trial Lawyer
If you think it's outrageous that Navy SEALs who helped capture one of Iraq's most wanted terrorists now face court-martial on charges they roughed him up, just wait. It may get worse. Tomorrow morning, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on a bill introduced by Arlen Specter (D., Pa.) that would make it easier for terrorists to sue military and federal law-enforcement officials.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748703939404574568130713843644.html
9 Ridiculous Lawsuits Filed By Inmates
While some prisoners read books and write letters, others are busy dreaming up great works of fiction and writing them down so they can be filed as lawsuits. They often request insane amounts of money for grievances like creamy peanut butter being substituted for crunchy and cold toilet seats – but also want ridiculous amounts of cash (or money orders) when they believe prison officials have implanted chips in their brains, brainwashed them with laser beams or used their bodies for experimentation.
http://regretfulmorning.com/2009/11/9-ridiculous-lawsuits-filed-by-inmates/
Tort reform and 'corporate' America
The article in the Mail Tribune Friday, Nov. 13, about Susan Saladoff's film documentation of "corporate America's manipulation of the U.S. justice system to prevent lawsuits" looks more like an attempt to become the Michael Moore of personal injury attorneys. A trial lawyer and plaintiff's attorney, Saladoff will not be showing the main thrust of this lobby: This isn't about justice; this is about money.
http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091122/OPINION/911220320/-1/NEWSMAP
Howard Marcus: Texas tort reform lures doctors
Regarding tort lawyer Patrick C. Barry’s Oct. 23 piece, “ ‘Texas justice’ will not fix health care”: Texas-style lawsuit reforms may not fix health care, in and of themselves, but they sure will improve patients’ access to care. As a physician who relocated from Newport to Austin, I can attest to the dramatic Texas turnaround.
Even without some of its prized goals, American Medical Association backs House health care plan
Led by Temple cardiologist J. James Rohack, the American Medical Association committed in May to support the White House's effort to expand coverage to millions of uninsured and dramatically cut health care costs.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/healthscience/stories/110609dnmetamalobby.3e26c85.html
Neurosurgeons` Stand Firm: Protect Patient Access, Limit Government Intrusion
American Association of Neurological Surgeons(AANS) and Congress of Neurological
Surgeons (CNS) announced their opposition to H.R. 3962, the "Affordable
Healthcare for America Act," currently under consideration by the House of
Representatives.
http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS13032+06-Nov-2009+BW20091106
Blue Dog congressman pushes tort reforms in health bill
Just as Texas Republican lawmakers were warning darkly that the latest House healthcare bill would undo the Lone Star State's tort reform, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, persuaded Democratic leaders Monday night to add a "pre-emption" provision which would keep legal reforms already made by Texas and other states to keep medical costs down.
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/AP/story/1316939.html
You, Too, Can Sue Over Global Warming!
In their class-action lawsuit, the landowners claim that these emissions contributed to global warming, which caused sea levels to rise. That in turn, the lawsuit claims, exacerbated the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina.
http://nestmannblog.sovereignsociety.com/2009/11/you-too-can-sue-over-global-warming.html
Shockey: Lawsuit reform is a key to Texas’ economic stability
Before Texans for Lawsuit Reform, Texas was called the "Lawsuit Capital of the World" by The Wall Street Journal. The Old West challenge of "I’ll meet you on Main Street at high noon," had been replaced by "I’ll see you in court," because, in Texas, anybody could sue anybody for anything with no fear of repercussions.
http://www.star-telegram.com/242/story/1727955.html
The Malpractice Problem
The extra imaging study, the extra day in hospital at the end of an admission, the repetitive laboratory testing, the admission to the hospital to be "sure" about the diagnosis are all inherent in the culture of American medical care. The avoidance of litigation has become ingrained into all aspects of medical care. Since physicians are not liable for the increased costs of care but are liable for any error or missed diagnosis, it would be foolish for them to act in any other fashion. The costs of this mindset cannot be easily assessed by surveys.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/017/128xtpzs.asp
Climate Legislation has to Include Tort Reform
Bob Tippee, Editor of O&GJ recently pointed out the threat of a litigation spree emerging from the Government climate meddling, potentially threatening oil & gas and power industries as well as all businesses and private investors. In the end the consumer has to pay and the ill-advised politicians.
http://www.glgroup.com/News/Climate-Legislation-has-to-Include-Tort-Reform-44446.html
More companies choosing litigation over arbitration, study shows
The love affair corporations have had with arbitration may be over, according to the recently released Fulbright & Jaworski LLP 2009 litigation trends report.
In past surveys, many corporations stated a preference for arbitrating a legal dispute — versus taking the case to trial. Judging by this year’s survey results, however, that trend may be reversing itself.
http://sanantonio.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/stories/2009/10/26/story3.html
CBO Underestimates Benefits of Malpractice Reform
Earlier this month, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said medical-liability reforms could save about $11 billion annually. This assessment is a gross underestimate of the potential benefits of reform and was intended to give cover to congressional Democrats who say malpractice-liability costs are trifling. But a full accounting shows the benefits would be a hefty $242 billion a year, more than 10 percent of America's health expenditures.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703573604574491690229571588.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Abusive Litigation
Abusive Litigation: Which industry will the trial lawyers go after next? A suit filed by Mississippi property owners who had losses from Hurricane Katrina might provide a glimpse of the mischief to come.
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=509682
Richard Weekley: Tort reform healed Texas health care
NEWS REPORTS that have flooded the media since the national health-care debate began have, for the most part, accurately reported the positive impact of medical-liability reforms passed in Texas in 2003. What has not been reported is the relentless and ongoing trial-lawyer attack against tort reform in Texas and nationwide.
Civil justice reform still has a place
As congressional leaders meet behind closed doors to merge a compromise by the Senate, House and White House on a health care reform plan before the holidays, some might believe the task seems monumental. Add the concept of civil justice reform to the mix, and the job may appear impossible because of political forces on each side.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/28507.html
Activist's Opposition to Tort Reform Measure Emerges as Key Issue in State Chair's Race
"Please allow me to set my record straight," Adams said. "I am a strong supporter of Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR) and their goal to eliminate frivolous lawsuits.
http://www.capitolinside.com/members/aaaa-gop-chairfight.htm
Hungry like the trial lawyer
In the most prominent 2008 case regarding the wolf’s removal from the Endangered Species list, lawyers demanded $669,000 in legal fees for just over 1,000 hours of work. A judge awarded them less than half that amount in that particular case, but a mere five other recent wolf litigation cases netted $1 million for a handful of wolf lawyers.
http://www.sfexaminer.com/opinion/columns/oped_contributors/64328187.html
The Scoop Blog: Tort Reform Could Reduce Malpractice Insurance Premiums by 10 Percent
Although the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) now believes that tort reform would significantly curb defensive medicine and its cost, the agency’s numbers are still far short of the savings claimed by some advocates for tort reform.
James R. Copland: Here's what is stopping tort reform
In his September 9, nationally televised speech before a joint session of Congress, President Obama made news by saying that medical-malpractice litigation "may be contributing to unnecessary costs" in the U.S. health-care sys¡©tem.
Since then, trial-lawyer advocates--including their lobbying arm, the American Association for Justice (AAJ), and various allied "consumer" groups such as the Center for Justice and Democracy--have been engaged in a fierce counter-attack. Front-and-center among the lawyer-advocates' arguments is that litigation is too small a piece of the health-care puzzle to make much difference.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Manhattan-Moment/Here_s-what-is-stopping-tort-reform-8379073-64098807.html
Judge puts solicitation ruling on hold
A ruling on of the constitutionality of an amended state barratry law that prohibits doctors, chiropractors and other professionals from soliciting clients has been put off for at least a month.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/63908547.html?c=y&commentSubmitted=y#comments
Tort Reform Could Save $54 Billion, CBO Says
Congressional budget analysts said Friday that lawmakers could save as much as $54 billion over the next decade by imposing an array of new limits on medical malpractice lawsuits -- 10 times more than previously estimated.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/09/AR2009100904271.html
The Unemployment Costs Of Our Tort Law System
In today's speech to the Americans for Prosperity gathering in D.C., just as with last Thursday's talk to the Distributors' Council and next Tuesday's speech to the California Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse meeting in San Diego, I will focus a lot of my remarks on the growing burden on American employers of the costs of litigation.
http://www.hughhewitt.com/blog/g/f4c9fa21-9d02-4866-9622-629c9118239e
Lawsuit reform must be part of health care change
Tort reform works in Texas. News reports that have flooded the media since the national health care debate began have, for the most part, accurately reported the positive impact of medical liability reforms passed here in 2003.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/6649787.html
HHS will fund $25 million in tort reform projects
The White House quickly followed up on President Obama's pledge to authorize medical liability demonstration projects, announcing Sept. 17 the availability of $25 million in grants to be doled out to states by the Dept. of Health and Human Services.
http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2009/09/28/gvsd1001.htm
You Want Health Reform? Look at Texas
Here’s a great idea for health care makeover—one you’ve heard precious little about from the Obama administration, which claims to be so determined about reducing health care costs: Redo the laws on medical liability, counsels Texas Sen. John Cornyn. And then sit back and watch malpractice premiums fall and overall expenses slump as the trial lawyer spiders look for other flies caught in the frivolous-lawsuit net.
Why Medical Malpractice Is Off Limits
Eliminating defensive medicine could save upwards of $200 billion in health-care costs annually, according to estimates by the American Medical Association and others. The cure is a reliable medical malpractice system that patients, doctors and the general public can trust.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204488304574432853190155972.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Trial lawyers watch as a new financial regulator is born
The bill, HR 3126, would establish a new regulatory agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, which would consolidate some regulatory functions while splitting others apart -- it's the financial equivalent of the Department of Homeland Security.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Trial-lawyers-watch-as-a-new-financial-regulator-is-born-60372187.html
You May Have Been Injured: The Need for Tort Reform
Just a week or so ago I was watching the news and, of course, the topic was health care reform. All of a sudden, I realized one thing that needed to be fixed when it comes to health care. It wasn't anything the talking heads were talking about that convinced me. It was a commercial.
http://www.crosswalk.com/news/commentary/11608792/
National Voter Survey: Health Care Reform and the Legal System 2009
Last week, Common Good and the Committee for Economic Development released a joint poll that shows that 67% of American voters support the health court concept.
Trial Date Set to Challenge New Texas Fraud Law
Recently enacted legislation that seeks to criminalize present day ambulance chasing is under attack by a small group of health professionals and lawyers who want to continue the practice, says the Texas Committee on Insurance Fraud, an industry group of insurance companies, state agencies and other associations that seek to put an end to insurance fraud.
Tort Reform? We've Already Done It
In his address last week, President Obama said he had talked to some doctors and learned that medical procedures were being done that may not be necessary due to fear of medical malpractice lawsuits, and he entertained the idea of tort reform, saying we could try it in some states with pilot projects.
Curb lawsuits to reform health care
There’s an old joke about the boy who goes to the doctor and uses his index finger to point all over his body, explaining “it hurts here, here, here and here.” The doctor sighs and says, “Son, your finger is broken.” This poor kid was looking for his ailment in all the wrong places. That’s exactly what’s happening in Washington as our leaders grapple with health care reform. They’re missing what’s really broken.
http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2009/09/14/editorial1.html
Red State Solutions For Blue State Problems
Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress are proposing “blue state” solutions for the problems facing America today. Increased regulation, universal health care, heavy government spending and climate change legislation. But if one is too look at the different states in America, one can see that this may be exactly the wrong thing to do.
Promise of scrutiny could save asbestos defendants
"In the short term, it will force defendants to spend more to prove their innocence," he said. "But in the long run, it will save them money by discouraging frivolous lawsuits that are based on junk science. And that is good for the employees that are working for those companies and fighting for their jobs.
Texas - Law Firms Lessons From Texas Medical Malpractice Reforms
The most significant changes took place as part of Texas House Bill 4 in 2003. It put a $250,000 cap on non-economic damages. Its passage reflected a belief in the Texas legislature that there were too many lawsuits against healthcare providers. In the early 2000s, doctors were leaving Texas, resulting in a shortage of healthcare providers.
Tort Reform Is Key to Health Reform
Though common-sense Americans have repeatedly raised the issue of tort reform while discussing health care legislation with members of Congress during town hall meetings this month, too may lawmakers and analysts still stubbornly insist that medical liability lawsuits do not contribute significantly to rising health care costs. These lawmakers and analysts are wrong.
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=336004677519666
Mexican national seeks $30M from tire companies over fatal rollover in Texas
The plaintiff is seeking $6 million in damages for emotional pain, torment and mental anguish and is also seeking up to $24 million in exemplary damages.
Health care reform is essential; slowing it down is more so
Any legislation passed should include meaningful tort reform similar to what Texas passed in 2003, limiting the amount hospitals and doctors pay in cases involving medical malpractice.
Fiscal Conservatism and the Soul of the GOP The Texas governor on Arnold, Sarah, ObamaCare and the future of his party.
Mr. Perry's state underwent a critical tort reform that was codified in the state constitution. The payoff is that Texas is now outpacing California economically.
Tort reform favored over health care reform, survey finds
Two-thirds of Americans would like to see health care costs cut in ways different than President Barack Obama and Congress are considering in their health insurance reform plans.
Poe opposes health care bill, supports Texas tort reform at town hall meeting
Congress should consider implementing Texas' medical tort reforms on a national level.
Texas economy shining brightly despite recession
In Texas, business is booming. In 2008, 70 percent of all jobs created in the United States were created in Texas.
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2010