February 8, 2010

"Study says genetics, not environment, may be cause of S. Boston scleroderma cluster"

Another suspected toxic-exposure cluster goes the way of the Long Island breast cancer scare and many other epidemics-that-weren't [Boston Globe via Fumento/CEI]

February 5, 2010

Trial nears in 9/11 toxic exposure cases

New York City is under pressure to settle.

Around the web, February 5

• One-way injury fee shifts? More on ominous procedural proposals in England and Wales [Burch, Mass Tort Lit]
• Client-chasing legal "news services" often inaccurately recount air mishaps [Aero-News.net via Steele, LEF]
• Feds to probe alleged cluster of cleft palate cases near Kettleman City, Calif. waste dump [L.A. Times, more]
• Saying "So..." in a certain way might let slip your Yale Law background [Horwitz, Prawfs]
• In an unfree country, corrupt officialdom may be better than the alternative [FCPA Blog, more]
• Lots of trade associations expressing policy views in one place: Biz Central (via Pat Cleary)

February 3, 2010

Around the web, February 3

• "Obama's Stealth Push for Card Check" [Chris Brown, Frum Forum, Bret Jacobson/Roll Call, ShopFloor coverage of yesterday's Craig Becker confirmation hearing]
• "We're not finished with Toyota," says transportation secretary LaHood [Stoll, earlier; Reuters via Robinette]
• Powering New England at permanent recession levels? Pollution suit seen as bid to close Salem Harbor coal-fired utility plant [Boston Globe] Opponents seeking immediate closure of Vermont Yankee nuclear plant [WCAX]
• More on SEC global warming disclosure guidance [Carter at ShopFloor, earlier]
• "Game-changing day at the SEC": now it can use cooperation agreements and deferred prosecution agreements [FCPA Professor]
• That's what happens (well, at least sometimes) when you let nonlawyers write legal blogs [Turkewitz]

January 29, 2010

SEC to require climate-change disclosure; global warming as next-asbestos?

On a party-line 3-2 vote, the SEC says companies need to disclose global warming exposures, and its critics suspect that politico-environmental objectives may be more at play here than motives of investor protection [Megan McArdle, Jonathan Adler] Meanwhile, as John Schwartz reports at the New York Times, advocates of global warming litigation have taken heart from a couple of favorable rulings and hope to reverse the dismissal of the much-watched Kivalina suit. A Swiss Re report (PDF, via Pero) is also being read as backing for the view that the suits are not going away soon. Christopher Fountain has this observation:

It's notable that the Eskimos bringing this Alaskan suit live on a barrier island, by definition a temporary, always moving geological structure. If they can win damages for the result of living on earth, who can't?

P.S. And here's analysis from Bainbridge (companies already must report important exposures, SEC's "guidance may muddy the waters," and "Investors don't get much of value from [the newly required] disclosures") and Ribstein ("what really bothers me is that firms (meaning, of course, their managers and shareholders) have been forced, upon penalty of fines and damages, to participate in the contentious global warming debate").

January 26, 2010

Around the web, January 26

• "The Coming Counter-Reformation in Securities Litigation" [Boris Feldman via Kevin LaCroix] "Could new regs bring more lawsuits?" [CFO.com]
• "Obama's reckless blast at the Court" [Steve Chapman] Related on Citizens United: Jacob Sullum.
• "Workers seek $500 million over benzene vapor release at Texas City refinery" [SE Texas Record]
• Claim: more California lawyers have turned to dishonesty because of economic recession [Above the Law]
• "$165 Million Schering-Plough Class Action Settlement Includes $37 Million in Fees" [NJLJ, securities fraud]
• "Bonus is poison": a tale of financial managers and their incentives [Hodak Value]

January 20, 2010

"The EPA Power Grab"

Matthew Fernholz at the Marquette Faculty Law Blog on the agency's greenhouse-gas ruling.

December 30, 2009

David Bernstein, "Getting to Causation in Toxic Tort Cases"

The George Mason lawprof and longtime Point of Law favorite has a new paper on SSRN: "While there is a voluminous scholarly literature on various aspects of toxic tort litigation, this Article's unique contribution is to articulate the new consensus on causation standards, document and criticize the various ways plaintiffs attempt to evade these standards, and defend the courts' adherence to traditional notions of causation against their critics."

December 21, 2009

Around the web, December 21

• A seeming, or a real, increase in black lung disease? [Stier, Mass Tort Lit]
• NERA releases 2009 securities litigation study [Kevin Lacroix, Lyle Roberts]
• Honest Services Fraud & Antitrust: Will Supreme Court Re-Write Rules For "Competition Crimes"? [Dugan/Botti, WLF]
  
• Name of NYT's Morgenson might be on the cover of that business book, but check the fine print [Stoll, Future of Capitalism]
• Continuing the discussion: "Vanderbilt Law Review En Banc PCAOB Roundtable" [ConcurOp]
• Big plaintiff firms continue push into patent litigation [Baxter, AmLaw Daily]
• "Wyeth v. Levine Scholarship Roundup" [Civil Pro/Fed Courts Blog]
• Wrongful opinion punished? "Civil Conspiracy Lawsuits Filed Against Climate Change Deniers" [SolveClimate]

December 17, 2009

EPA's "environmental blackmail"

The agency's carbon dioxide endangerment ruling "is an attempt to force Congress's hand," writes Max Schulz at City Journal.