May 19, 2008

• Another Scruggs ripple: Judge Senter disqualifies two Missouri lawyers (widely nicknamed the "Trailer Lawyers") from representing Rigsby sisters against State Farm in Katrina qui tam action [Sun-Herald via YallPolitics, more, Rossmiller with link to opinion]
• "To recap the trial lawyer logic: Polls are great for calculating damages in large billion-dollar consumer fraud class action claims, but they're not appropriate for creating a ranking system for legal fairness." [Adomite/MC Record]
• Scott Greenfield is bemused by the incivility at Ann Bartow's Feminist Law Professors site: "There is no doubt in my mind that I don't get it." [Simple Justice]
• "We don't want a litigation industry," says head of largest German shareholder-protection body, of class action proposals [The Economist]
• Vermont the next Roman Catholic diocese headed for bankruptcy? [Boston Globe] Plus: Albany lawprof Timothy Lytton has a new book hailing the church abuse litigation as a "remarkable success" of the tort system, not a view that passes entirely uncontested as readers here know ["Holding Bishops Accountable"]
• By 2-1 margin, Second Circuit panel gives relatively broad reading to CAFA's scope in directing class actions to federal courts [NYLJ]
• What if female underrepresentation in the hard sciences has something to do with women's own preferences? Who do we sue then? [Elaine McArdle, Boston Globe]