August 1, 2005

Here's a request for readers of this site. Some well-placed folks are planning to take up the question of the unfairness of "one-way" fee shifting (plaintiffs collect if they prevail, but defendants don't, and the definition of what it means to prevail is often itself unfairly stacked). This unfairness might be addressable by turning one-way fee statutes into two-way; by reverting to a so-called "American" (neither side pays) rule; by working to fix lopsided definitions of what it means to prevail; or by some combination of these approaches. (More: May 31).

So here's the reader request: these folks are in a hurry to line up well documentable case histories of unfairness arising from current federal one-way fee-shifting statutes. Federal only, like this and this, please (not state statutes like this and this and this one). They need the examples within the next couple of days (yes, they should have planned ahead, but I just heard from them now). And, of course, the case histories need to be highly checkable and to exemplify unfairness even in the face of skeptical scrutiny. The best examples will probably already be the subject of existing court opinions or news coverage.

If you've got examples, send them along to editor [at] [this-domain-name]. [cross-posted at Overlawyered]