May 6, 2008

Around the web, May 6

• NY judges' deplorable "Black Robe Flu" slowdown aimed at Albany lawmakers' firms [Giacalone; also see Overlawyered and my comment at NYPIAB]; Judith Kaye issues denial [NYLJ]; Kaye in judge-pay suit wants Sheldon Silver to disclose what he gets from Weitz & Luxenberg [NY Post edit]; and will a Buffalo judge kick W&L off its representation of Erie County in drug-pricing suit, with its potentially huge contingency fee? [NY Post, Buffalo News] And isn't it kinda weird that the NYT still hasn't covered this?
• Employee's having obtained and sold confidential business information no bar to winning FMLA verdict against Chase that could reach $7.6 million [Fulton County Daily Report]
• Welding rod defendants holding off the courtroom onslaught? [Fisk, Bloomberg via ABA Journal; earlier]
• Alabama's drug-pricing, oil-royalty suits stoke memories of the state's old reputation for insider justice [Tucker/AVALA, Huntsville Times]
• "Very bad idea": bill co-sponsored by Obama to force firms to identify and disclose their major beneficial owners [Bainbridge]
• "Lawsuit Reform Huge Boost to Texas Economy" per report by economist Ray Perryman for Texans for Lawsuit Reform Foundation [release; McAllen Monitor]
• Mustn't condone tobacco companies funding research that might prevent lung cancer deaths, they've got a conflict of interest after all [Shaywitz/T. Stossel, TWS]

May 5, 2008

Around the Web, May 5

• In "Who Owns John Conyers," The Examiner editorializes in support of congressional hearings into the Milberg Weiss as representative of the plaintiff's bar. The news peg is House Republican Leader John Boehner's letter to Conyers asking for the hearings.
• Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann, a Democrat, is in serious political trouble for cheating on his wife and mismanagement that produced a sexual harassment complaint. Jonathan Adler has been following his travails at the Volokh Conspiracy, noting the numerous editorial calls for Dann's resignation. And, he mentions Husker Du.
• Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) argues for a federal media shield law in a Washington Post op-ed today, responding to the contra position expressed by Attorney General Mukasey. The debate continues to concentrate almost exclusively on national security and classified information considerations. But what about business, against whom the media shield could be turned into a fierce weapon? We look at business' concerns in a post at Shopfloor.org.

• From the Wall Street Journal's Law Blog: "Brooklyn-based Eastern District of New York have formed a task force of federal, state and local agencies, involving as many as 15 law-enforcement agents and investigators that will focus on Wall Street firms and mortgage lenders."

• From the end of last week, a report on the $38 million settlement that's been reached with families of the Minnesota bridge collapse victims. The Legislature's package awards everyone on the bridge up to $400,000, with an additional $12.6 million pool for those suffering the most severe injuries and losses.
• Entertainment at the House Judiciary Committee this week, a hearing by the Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law, "The Rulemaking Process and the Unitary Executive Theory."
• The national radio program of the conservative Christian group, Focus on the Family, had a good report this weekend on judicial questionnaires and the efforts in eight states to allow judge candidates to respond to inquiries about their views and associations. More here.

• And a 10:20 a.m. addition, an op-ed in today's WSJ, "Dartmouth's 'Hostile' Environment": "[An] Ivy League professor [is] threatening to sue her students because, she claims, their 'anti-intellectualism' violated her civil rights. ...Priya Venkatesan taught English at Dartmouth College. She maintains that some of her students were so unreceptive of "French narrative theory" that it amounted to a hostile working environment. She is also readying lawsuits against her superiors, who she says papered over the harassment, as well as a confessional expose, which she promises will 'name names.'" We can start with Derrida.

May 4, 2008

Around the Web, May 4

• The May issue of "Trial," the monthly magazine of the American Association for Justice, includes an article on In re Seroquel Prods. Liab. Litig., 2008 WL 215707 (M.D. Fla. Jan. 24, 2008). While the magazine is reserved for members, a summary of the article has been posted online: "The U.S. district court overseeing multidistrict litigation against the manufacturer of the atypical antipsychotic drug Seroquel held that documents reviewed by witnesses in preparation for depositions are not protected by the work-product privilege." Here's an article on the litigation last year at Law.com.
• Apropos the AAJ, the trial lawyers group is sponsoring is a teleseminar Wednesday, "Using the McKinsey Documents in Your Bad Faith Case." The reference is to management consultant McKinsey & Co.'s documents recommending how Allstate Corp should challenge automotive insurance claims. One of the AAJ presenters is David Berardinelli, Santa Fe trial lawyers and author of the book, "From Good Hands to Boxing Gloves." Business Week covered Berardinelli and his book in May 2006.
• Last month, All State decided to post the McKinsey documents online in response to a judge's order and fines. The 150,000 pages are available here. The decision prompted news reports, including this New Orleans Times-Picayune story, which notes that the documents do not include information about catastrophic claims, of potential use in Hurricane Katrina litigation. David Rossmiller at the Insurance Coverage Blog has more.
• This line in the registration materials for the AAJ teleseminar caught our eye. "Note: Eastern Indiana and parts of Arizona--no daylight savings -- Please be sure to note correct time for the teleseminar you register for." Nope. Indiana went all Daylight Saving Time effective April 2006, an initiative of Gov. Mitch Daniels. So if you miss the seminar because of bad info, can you sue?
• Via The Volokh Conspiracy comes news of the action by Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology. Finding: Plants have rights. "The Committee members unanimously consider an arbitrary harm caused to plants to be morally impermissible. This kind of treatment would include, e.g. decapitation of wild flowers at the roadside without rational reason."
• From the Wall Street Journal's Law Blog: "Just days before the first Bextra trial was to begin, Pfizer has struck tentative settlements with some plaintiffs who alleged that painkillers Celebrex and Bextra caused heart attacks, according to lawyers at three plaintiff firms involved in the litigation." More from Bloomberg.
• A column by Ken Connor, Chairman of the Center for a Just Society in Washington, D.C., challenging the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's "Lawsuit Climate 2008: Ranking the States." By its sample -- corporate attorneys -- the survey is inherently biased and does not reflect a good knowledge of the court system, Connor argues: "As a trial lawyer for thirty-five years, I am among the first to admit that the civil justice is imperfect. But access to the court system is a constitutionally protected right, and at a time of rampant corporate misconduct it is a right that needs to be zealously defended. Conservatives who believe in the Constitution and the need for checks and balances in our public life should agree." Connor's column is a rebuttal to a pro-survey column by Lindsay Boyd of Townhall.com
• Three-hundred-and-twenty five new laws go into effect in Utah on Monday. The Deseret News has a round-up. Many new opportunities for litigation. Here's one: The estate of a person killed by illegal drugs can sue the person who provided or administered the lethal drugs.
• A post mortem in the Orlando Sentinel of the Central Florida commuter train debacle in the Legislature: "TALLAHASSEE - Central Florida's commuter-rail project failed in the Florida Legislature because its backers didn't heed a cardinal rule of politics: Know your enemy...They thought their main opponents were residents of Lakeland, angry that the state's deal with CSX Corp. would run more freight trains through their city. They didn't realize until too late that the state's trial lawyers were grimly determined to defeat the deal."

May 3, 2008

Around the Web, May 3

• House Republican Leader John Boehner and Ranking Judiciary Member Lamar Smith (R-TX) have written a letter to House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers asking for congressional hearings into crimes and corruption of Milberg Weiss and the trial bar. They asked for hearings by May 19th, the date Mel Weiss is to report to prison. Advocates like the the American Tort Reform Association and The Examiner newspaper have called for hearings, as well. Shopfloor.org has a post on the letter, including a copy of the letter here.
• In other Milberg Weiss news, from Law.com: "John B. Torkelsen, a former expert witness in hundreds of shareholder derivative and class action cases for Milberg Weiss, pleaded guilty on Thursday to perjury charges." Also, from Reuters: "Indicted U.S. law firm Milberg LLP is in settlement talks with federal prosecutors to resolve a long-running criminal case involving accusations it paid illegal kickbacks to clients, sources close to the talks said on Tuesday."
• Former D.C. Administrative Judge Roy Pearson sues to get his city job back. And he wants damages, just not $54 million. Pearson was not reappointed to the post after his suit against his drycleaners elicited international scorn.
• A commuter rail project in Central Florida has gone off the tracks in the Legislature, with liability one of main obstacles. From the Daytona Beach News-Journal: "The Department of Transportation and Jacksonville-based CSX Transportation reached an agreement in 2007 for the state to buy the tracks from CSX, which would then lease them part time for freight. But the agreement requires legislative approval of legal liability provisions that provoked opposition from many senators and trial lawyers. One provision would have extended state sovereign immunity to private contractors hired by the state for key rail functions. Another would have shielded CSX for most liability from mishaps on the line.
• For future use in direct mail and Internet solicitations. From The Advocate, Baton Rouge: "The controversial Roe v. Wade abortion-rights ruling will be overturned if John McCain is elected president, CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin told a Baton Rouge audience Friday...'It's gone,' Toobin, also a legal affairs staff writer at The New Yorker, said after giving a speech about the U.S. Supreme Court at LSU's Paul M. Hebert Law Center. 'Maybe not during his first year or second year, but it will be overturned...'"
• From the Dallas Morning News: "AUSTIN - The Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday in favor of Houston homebuilder Bob Perry, the state's most prolific campaign contributor, in a case homeowner advocates say reflects the influence of big money over elected judges." Indeed, there is an appearance of an appearance of an appearance of a news story.

May 1, 2008

Around the Web, May 1

Apologies if this seems heavy on the tort reform movement today, but it's what I focus on at the National Association of Manufacturers and there's lots going on...

• Dan Pero of the American Justice Partnership officially unveils his American Courthouse blog today. (He's had a soft opening for a few weeks, making sure the staff is up to his rigorous demands.) If you're interested in the politics of state judicial selection, this is the place to go.
• Sherman Joyce of the American Tort Reform Association and Victor Schwartz of Shook, Hardy & Bacon ponder the prospects of Attorney General John Edwards in this Examiner column, "Don't outsource work of U.S. attorney general." Scary stuff: "The only legal barrier standing in the way of a plaintiff's lawyer as AG awarding his friends hefty contingency fee contracts is an executive order issued by President George W. Bush that bans federal departments from hiring outside lawyers on a contingency fee basis. But that order could be nullified by a new president."

• How about U.S. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal? The Wall Street Journal's Holman Jenkins chatted with Connecticut House Speaker Jim Amann -- who's not seeking re-election -- summarized in the e-mail, "Political Diary." "As to the 2008 presidential race, Mr. Amann says the winner will be... Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. That's because, if Hillary Clinton wins, Mr. Blumenthal is destined to become her attorney general. If Barack Obama wins, Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd will take a cabinet position and open up a senate seat for Mr. Blumenthal. If John McCain wins, Joe Lieberman will become defense secretary, again opening up a senate seat for Mr. Blumenthal."
• Hugh Hewitt, the radio talk show host and law professor (Chapman University Law School), in his weekly syndicated column, "On Heparin: A Few, Kind Words For Plaintiffs' Lawyers." Over at Shopfloor.org, we note Hewitt's fine commentary on the move to list the polar bear as an endangered species, a stalking horse for global climate change regulation.

• Marc Fisher, the Washington Post's very good Metro columnist, took note in his Raw Fisher blog of the judge's dismissal of Raelyn Campbell's $54 million lawsuit against Best Buy: "[Just] because the plaintiff was smart enough to glom onto the enormous worldwide publicity that the District's favorite administrative law judge, Roy Pearson, won in his case last year against his neighborhood dry cleaner does not mean--thank goodness--that her lawsuit was going to be taken seriously by the court."
• The newly chosen president-elect of the Wisconsin State Bar is Douglas W. Kammer, long active in the Wisconsin Academy of Trial Lawyers. Good profile in the Portage Daily Register, which notes Kammer ran on a single issue: voluntary membership. In other trial lawyer news, the American Association for Justice announced the hiring of new press secretary, former Democratic activist and Obama-for-President staffer, Amaya Smith.
  

April 30, 2008

Around the Web, April 30

• Good Wall Street Journal opinion section today. Business columnist Holman Jenkins updates us on the pursuit of corporate backdating cases, which he says deserve skepticism: "Two hundred civil lawsuits remain, and the trial bar is stuck on the wicket of showing any harm to shareholders. Sayeth the National Law Journal: 'Of those made public, few settlements have reached proportions that lawyers anticipated at the start of the backdating scandal.' What about criminal cases? All eyes now are turned to Henry Nicholas III, former CEO and cofounder of the chip company Broadcom."
• Also in the WSJ, Floyd Abrams writes on the increasing ability of British libel law to chill speech in the United States. He cites the case of Rachel Ehrenfeld, sued in England by Saudi banker Khalid Bin Mahfouz for her 2003 book, "Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Funded and How to Stop It." New York legislators have passed a bill to give U.S. citizens sued for libel abroad the right to obtain a declaration here that their works are protected under American law. Gov. Paterson has until today to sign the bill.
• NAM lobbying lawsuit update, from the Blog of Legal Times: "The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit yesterday granted an expedited schedule to an appeal of lobbying disclosure laws filed by the National Association of Manufacturers...The ruling set a briefing schedule with the last brief due July 2, which leaves open the possibility that the court could rule on the appeal by July 21, the next deadline for a quarterly disclosure filing." The NAM's materials on the case are available at the NAM Legal Beagle website, here.
• NPR's Morning Edition carries a story on U.S. Border Patrol checkpoints affecting purely domestic ferry runs among the San Juan Islands, Wash. It's easy enough to kayak over from a Canadian island and just board a ferry, hence the checkpoints. Checkpoints are common in the southwest, but new for Washington State, so outrage ensues. The NPR story copies an April 22 piece in the Seattle Times. "[In] this comparatively affluent county, where there isn't a single stoplight, angry islanders are unsatisfied. They've complained to their congressional delegates and recently asked the American Civil Liberties Union to monitor the situation and provide legal advice." Did we mention the outrage?
• The Grand Junction (Co.) Daily Sentinel reports: "Local doctors rejoiced Tuesday after state lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee struck down a bill aimed at increasing the amount of money medical malpractice victims could seek in court...[snip] Senate Bill 164 would have redefined damages in medical malpractice cases and allowed malpractice victims to seek up to $468,010 in damages."

April 28, 2008

Around the Web, April 28

• Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's interview with "60 Minutes" is online at the CBS News website. A 4,200-word story AND video. The major revelation: Scalia's an originalist. NPR's Nina Totenberg also had an interview with Scalia on "Morning Edition" today.
• Business Week celebrates the successes of Tanya Andersen, who has back pain and a quiet voice, "Yet this woman is behind a fierce assault on the music industry and its tactics for combating music piracy on the Internet." Relevance, your editor! Andersen is suing the Recording Industry Association of America for conspiracy, committed while it pursues music pirates. The article in the April 24th issue is entitled, "Does She Look Like a Music Pirate?" The class-action lawsuit is Andersen v. Atlantic, filed in the U.S. District Court, Portland (OR) District.
• In New York, the AP reports: "A federal appeals court on Friday reinstated a lawsuit by credit card holders that claimed some of the nation's biggest banks joined forces to prevent class-action suits...The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said lawyers for the credit card holders might prove the banks agreed to make it harder for individuals to make legal claims by requiring them to go to arbitration.
The case, a class-action antitrust suit, is Ross v. Bank of America N.A. (06-4755-CV), and the court's order is here. The plaintiff's counsel is Merrill G. Davidoff of the Philadelphia firm, Berger & Montague.
• An editorial in the Memphis Commercial Appeal, "Only a baby step": "Supporters of tort reform in Tennessee are touting a measure approved by the General Assembly as a step toward eventual passage of comprehensive legislation that will revolutionize medical malpractice litigation...That's an optimistic assessment that might be borne out in the future, but it's far from a certainty."
• Is Rex Morgan from Tennessee? Anyway, from the Sunday Rex Morgan comic strip, dialogue in a storyline about an outbreak of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and a dead boy. That nice Dr. Reed was just served in a malpractice lawsuit. "Dr. Morgan: Isn't Max Mallory one of those lawyers who advertises on TV? June Morgan, R.N: That's right. He's Max the Ax, Legal Warrior."

Update (4 p.m.): The Comics Curmudgeon website notes something we overlooked: Max the Ax can't spell subpoena.

April 25, 2008

Around the Web, April 25

• Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader, covering a news conference: "Gov. Matt Blunt is declaring victory in fighting frivolous lawsuits and "runaway personal injury" financial judgments against physicians....Since Blunt got medical malpractice tort reform passed three years ago, total claims against Missouri doctors dropped 61 percent from 2005 to 2006, according to state figures." The AP story is here.

• The Daily Oklahoman reports that tort reform appears to have died in this year's legislative session the sponsor pulls the bill. "Rep. Daniel Sullivan, R-Tulsa, pulled Senate Bill 156 after Republicans joined Democrats to defeat an amendment that would have let voters decide whether to cap contingency fees at 33 percent instead of 50 percent for attorneys in personal injury cases." SB 156 generally tracked the tort reform measure vetoed by Gov. Brad Henry last year. More at The Journal-Record.

• The U.S. Chamber and Institute for Legal Reform publish web columns providing more context on their 2008 Legal Climate survey of the states. Bryan Quigley dissects the shoddy responses of the American Association of Justice: "It seems that the entire set of plaintiffs' lawyer talking points are recycled, tired, and out of step, along with their notion of the actual facts. But we do appreciate the help they bring in drawing attention year after year to our study." And the ILR's Lisa Rickard reminds us all: "Legal Reform is a Constant Process, Not a One-Time Event."

• And your guest blogger makes a point at the NAM blog, Shopfloor.org, about the inconsistency of the New York Times' editorialists over the years. On Thursday, the Times attacked the National Association of Manufacturers for suing to stop new lobbying disclosure provisions: "The law was plainly written to smoke out stealth lobbying organizations, not to protect Washington insiders." Yet in a 1995 editorial on McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission, the Times applauded a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that found the First Amendment protected the distribution of anonymous election pamphlets. The NYT: "The Court thus protects unpopular people who might not voice their views if forced to identify themselves." Our point: The First Amendment protects both the lonely pamphleteer AND Washington insiders.

April 24, 2008

Around the Web, April 24

• The headline says it all (almost). From today's Examiner, "Pelosi betrays her own House for a slew of trial lawyers." It's a tough editorial on the Speaker's preference for the Senate version of CPSC legislation, instead of the more balanced House-passed version. "In the name of reforming the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the Senate version would create bureaucratic red tape galore, while enabling the sort of class-action jackpot justice that enriches plaintiffs lawyers at the expense of consumers and shareholders." The bill also turns state attorneys general loose on a territory ripe for even more politically motivated litigation.

• Speaking of headlines, here's one from today's on-line Birmingham News: "Corporate lawyers call Alabama civil court judges incompetent, juries unfair." The story's based on the Institute for Legal Reform's new survey of the states. Good sub-hed, too: "Plaintiff lawyer group calls survey propaganda ."

• Back to the House. Andrew C. McCarthy at The National Review Online reminds us that legislation to enact needed Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act amendments remains blocked by House leadership over the issue of retroactive legal immunity for telecom companies that complied with lawful federal requests to aid in the monitoring of cross-border communications. The trial lawyers are calling the shots, he argues in "Dems Unserious on Surveillance": But now: "Democrats legal position has become even more untenable, thanks to an unlikely Bush ally: the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, generally regarded as the nation's most liberal. In a significant Fourth Amendment decision on Tuesday, a three-judge panel unanimously held that laptop computers, including the e-mail communications stored in them, may be searched without a warrant if a person attempts to carry them into or out of the United States."

• The election fraud and conspiracy trial of Geoffrey Fieger and Ven Johnson gets under way today in Detroit. The Detroit Free Press reports the trial is expected to take 5-1/2 weeks. Thank goodness it's not 5-2/3rds weeks.

• Good piece in Legal Newsline covering blogger Kathleen Seidel's victory over abusive claims from trial lawyer Clifford Shoemaker of Virginia, who sought information about "documents pertaining to the setup, financing, running, research and maintaining." Shoemaker is a vaccine-mercury-autism attorney.

April 23, 2008

Around the Web, April 23

• Sen. Tom Coburn, R-OK, appears to have been satisfied that legislation to ban employers and insurers from discriminating on the basis of genetic testing will not open the gates to civil rights lawsuits from employees, The New York Times reports in "Congress Near Deal on Genetic Test Bias Bill." Coburn says, "We would have created a trial lawyers' bonanza." The bill is the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (S. 358).

• Authority and funding for a Central Florida commuter train system is making its way through the Florida Legislature in fits and starts, The Orlando Sentinel reports, "Orlando-area commuter-rail deal gets sidetracked." Senate Majority Leader Dan Webster, R-Winter Garden, is trying to salvage the $450 million plan, financed in part through a $2-a-day surtax on rental cars. Welcome to Disneyworld. The plan also raised to $250 million of insurance coverage the state would buy to pay accident claims, and, AND, "And it would allow trial lawyers to collect higher fees after rail accidents."

• From the AP, West Virginia: "CHARLESTON -- A federal judge has blocked West Virginia election officials from enforcing several disclosure rules governing political advertising, agreeing with an advocacy group that they are too vague...U.S. District Judge David Faber partly granted the preliminary injunction sought by the Center for Individual Freedom, which seeks to run ads in the state Supreme Court race before the May 13 primary." The Center for Individual Freedom's website is here, and a March news release on its lawsuit is here. The case is Center for Individual Freedom, Inc. v. Ireland et al. Filing briefs against the Center were Citizen Action Group, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and the state Democratic Party, Employment Lawyers Association and Association for Justice.

• This has been a big issue in the blogosphere, a harassing subpoena against a blogger for criticizing trial lawyers. From Slashdot: "Ares writes.. "In a follow-up to Blogger Subpoenaed for Criticizing Trial Lawyers, Katherine Seidel's blog indicates that not only has she successfully quashed her subpoena, but the lawyer issuing said subpoena is now under orders to appear and explain why the courts shouldn't sanction him for it. This should be interesting, because in addition to Ms. Seidel's subpoena in New Hampshire, the lawyer issued a similar subpoena to a doctor and a Harvard professor under similar circumstances." Congrats!