Overlawyered letters

Is it just me, or is there supreme irony in receiving an unsolicited fax notice of a proposed class action settlement that begins "ALL PERSONS OR ENTITIES WHO WERE SENT AN ALLEGED UNSOLICITED FACSIMILE ADVERTISEMENT…" This involves a claim brought by Cohen & Malad, LLP in Indianapolis against PrimeTV, DIRECTTV, et al, obviously for sending faxes promoting their business offerings in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Now, if we can just amend the Act to include unsolicited faxes from trial lawyers who comb through every statute to find opportunities for transferring wealth from legitimate businesses to themselves…

It looks as if the members of the settlement class would receive a certificate for a satellite system plus six months of service (as settlement awards go, that’s actually pretty good for the “victim” of an unsolicited fax, especially compared to the typical award equivalent to $3.95). The lawyers would get up to $200,000 for shuffling some papers around. The punishment seems a bit disproportionate to the crime.

I could fax a copy of the notice to you, but -- unlike the lawyers -- I feel I must receive your solicitation first. -- Rick Provost, Richmond, Va.

Separately, we heard that the New York Insurance Association has asked state attorney general Eliot Spitzer to investigate this incident ("'Just the Fax' - N.Y. Insurance Assoc. Asks State's AGO to Investigate Law Firm", ClaimsGuides.com, Apr. 5). For more on junk-fax litigation, see Jul. 19, 2003, and links from there; Dec. 3; Mar. 19. -- W.O.

Posted by Walter Olson at 9:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (1)

According to press reports, a judge in February approved a $4.75 million settlement in a suit filed against Verizon New England and its employee Roger O'Neil over an accident that severely injured 14-year-old Amy Woods in 1996. O'Neil, driving the Verizon truck, didn't hit Woods; instead, he stopped for her and waved for her to cross the street, but she was struck by a second vehicle that didn't stop. Her parents sued Verizon on the grounds that this constituted negligence ("Accident lawsuit settled between girl's family, Verizon", AP/WGGB (Springfield, Mass.), Feb. 23; Theo Emery, "Jury to decide whether driver liable for accident", Concord Monitor, Jun. 24, 2003, reprinted at Pelham (N.H.) message board).

If the facts are as presented, this seems unbelievable to me. It seems to me this should have been thrown out on public policy grounds. The law should be encouraging drivers to yield to pedestrians, not punishing them for it. -- Jim Ancona, Boylston, Mass.

Posted by Walter Olson at 9:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (2)

Last summer Dallas city manager Ted Benavides fired police chief Terrell Bolton after four years on the job. Among the reasons, according to the Dallas Morning News: "deteriorating relations with the FBI, the fake-drugs scandal, the demotion of several commanders and an unwillingness to follow Mr. Benavides' directives." Dallas also had maintained for six years straight the worst crime rate for large cities in the United States ("Bolton Meets With Attorneys, FBI To Quell Dallas Crime", NBC5i, Aug. 7, 2003). "I took my firing like a man," Bolton said at the time. If that's true, the manly way to handle being fired is to break down in tears at a subsequent press conference (Dallas Observer, Sept. 25) and then sue the city for mental anguish the equivalent of "in excess of $5 million" (Terri Langford and Dave Levinthal, "Bolton says he will sue", Dallas Morning News, Feb. 14) (reg). -- Ben Schuler, Dallas

Posted by Walter Olson at 9:29 PM | Permalink

Dude, you are wacked. The chief reason many third world countries are run by bullies and are grossly polluted is because they don't have a tort system like ours that enforces accountability and lets one's peers evaluate the merits of a claim.

Your broad-brush approach to disparaging the entire system on account of a few notable examples is reckless. -- Ernie Algorri, daalaw.com

Posted by Walter Olson at 9:16 PM | Permalink

Regarding the Tall Club of Silicon Valley (Mar. 29) and its failed lawsuit demanding extra space for airline passengers of more than 6 foot, 2 inches (men) or 5 foot, 10 inches (women): I wonder why the club thinks that tall men need to be four inches taller than tall women before they deserve special treatment in seating. Maybe they are assuming four-inch high heels. -- John Steele Gordon, North Salem, N.Y.

Posted by Walter Olson at 12:49 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (1)

Regarding Yale law professor George Priest's comments on the ruthlessness of businesses as antitrust plaintiffs (Mar. 17): I work in antitrust policy, and I can attest to the fact businesses are the major barrier to significant reform. One quick example: For the past few years, the Federal Trade Commission has enforced a policy (made up by them) prohibiting physicians from exchanging information with one another about contract offers from managed care payers unless certain conditions are met. In other words, physicians may not join with each other to respond to an HMO's contract offer without the FTC's permission. This policy benefits the HMOs, but it hurts physicians and their patients. The HMOs basically run to the FTC anytime a group of physicians rejects one of their contract offers. The FTC labels this behavior "cartel-like" and punishes the doctors accordingly.

The kicker is, large businesses tacitly support this policy because it keeps the cost of physician services artificially low, which in turn (they think) keeps their health insurance costs lower. -- Skip Oliva, Citizens for Voluntary Trade, Washington, D.C.

Posted by Walter Olson at 12:27 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (1)

I followed with interest the stories (Mar. 9, Mar. 11) about the now-defunct database tracking patients who've filed malpractice suits. The idea is that doctors could buy access to the database and choose to decline patients with a litigious history. Although the plaintiffs' bar was naturally up in arms about this, and many others were critical as well, I think it's a great idea. My late father was once sued by a patient who claimed she would have forgone radiation treatment for breast cancer if she knew how unpleasant the treatment would be. Of course the case went nowhere, but it was very painful for my father who cared only about his patients. I don't think he would have ever turned away a cancer patient, though, even a nutty one who liked to sue doctors. -- Doug Levene, Wilton, Conn.

Posted by Walter Olson at 12:11 AM | Permalink | TrackBacks (1)

I'm involved with a community gardening group here in Seattle. We grow several thousand pounds of vegetables for local soup kitchens every year, but currently our water is turned off due to system leaks. We're in desperate need of a plumber.

The Boeing company sponsors a volunteer outing it calls Boeing Community Service Day, a Saturday event (Apr. 17 this year) when its employees pitch in for a half day to help non-profit groups finish "those wish list jobs that never seem to get done". I'm sure some of Boeing's talented engineers and machinists could help with our plumbing problem, were it not for one thing: fear of trial lawyers. The email memo jointly sent out by Boeing and United Way reads: "Due to liability reasons, Boeing volunteers cannot help with plumbing, electrical, and other major structural projects". So it seems we're out of luck. -- Brian Ballard, Seattle, Wash.

Posted by Walter Olson at 12:03 AM | Permalink