Eastern District of New York Judge Jack Weinstein heard the first challenge to the Lawful Commerce in Arms Act Monday. Tom Perrotta of the New York Law Journal reports that Weinstein was dismissive of the constitutional arguments, but possibly open to the plaintiffs’ attempt to expand an exception in the Act into a loophole that would encompass virtually all litigation against gun manufacturers. (NYC Claims Exception in New Federal Law Allows Gun Suit, Nov. 23). See also Nov. 9; Apr. 13, 2004.
Archive for November, 2005
“7th Circuit Giveth–Then Taketh Away”
Budget Rent A Car won sanctions for its adversary’s filing of a frivolous appeal, but lost its ability to recover its fees when it submitted what the court, in a Judge Posner opinion, called an “exorbitant” nine-thousand-dollar bill. (David L. Hudson Jr., ABA Journal eReport, Nov. 18). But were the fees really that exorbitant? Point of Law explores why they perhaps might not have been.
Also on Point of Law:
- the Vioxx MDL rules on expert evidence;
- attorneys get $22 million while their ostensible clients get nothing, or worse than nothing;
- a study on the impact of litigation on small business;
- plaintiffs aren’t kidding when they say they’re going to make welding the next asbestos;
- how the multistate tobacco deal penalizes the growing Sun Belt states; and
- a plaintiffs’ lawyer makes an interesting nationwide cardiological diagnosis.
Two securities law blogs
Lyle Roberts’s excellent The 10b-5 Daily now has some competition in the securities-law blog arena from the other side of the aisle. Bruce Carton of Institutional Shareholder Services offers the Securities Litigation Watch and Milberg Weiss attorney Christopher Jones offers the PSLRA Nugget.
Terrell Owens update
An NFL arbitrator has upheld his suspension from the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles had not commented much to the press during the controversy, leaving the coverage relatively lopsided. The full opinion is on ESPN.com, and adds much detail showing the decision to be considerably more justified than press coverage had indicated—a worthy reminder the next time your local news gives a three-minute segment over to a plaintiff’s attorney’s unrebutted claim against a corporate defendant. Earlier Owens coverage: Nov. 14 and Jan. 27.
Unclear on the concept
Chris Newman reports: “Opposing counsel has served a request for judicial notice of facts contained in a Wikipedia article. If you understand the operative terms in that sentence, you probably understand why I’ve been chuckling all morning.”
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t files: toy safety
Maryland PIRG complains about the toy industry:
Some toy manufacturers are over-labeling toys by placing choke hazard warnings on items that do not contain small parts. This could dilute the meaning of the warning labels, making them less useful to parents.
One looks forward to the day where a Ralph Nader-founded organization intervenes as amicus in a failure-to-warn lawsuit to make the argument that liability should not be found because holding a manufacturer liable will create incentives to over-label and dilute the meaning of warnings.
Apology for redundant questions
Katie Newmark notes the following apology on her University of Chicago grad-school application:
Due to circumstances beyond our control, some race and ethnicity questions on this application are redundant. Most of this information is used to provide ad hoc reports on applicant diversity to government agencies. We apologize for the incovenience.
State of legal academia: Prof. Deborah Rhode
This also brings to mind a comment I heard at a 1992 academic feminist conference at Radcliffe College. One [of] the panelists, Stanford Law School professor Deborah Rhode, pointed out that white men constitute only 8% of world’s population and added, to great mirth and delight from the audience, “That’s a very encouraging fact.” Because, of course, all those non-white men around the world are so much friendlier to women’s rights.
Cathy retells the anecdote here with trivially different wording and a 1993 National Review article by Stephanie Gutmann, “Are all men rapists?”, includes the following: “The [65-page] committee report [on the Violence Against Women Act] cites a book by Stanford law professor Deborah Rhode, who recently announced at a conference that ‘white men make up only 8 per cent of the world population. I find that such an encouraging fact.'”
Open-source software insurance
A “consulting outfit called Open Source Risk Management has partnered with Lloyds of London underwriter Kiln and broker Miller Insurance Services to offer insurance against open-source liability” — that is to say, the risk of getting sued for use or development of open-source software. OSRM chairman Daniel Egger says he was inspired to start the outfit by SCO Holdings’s suits against IBM and other defendants over Unix-derived code: “”What was striking was the amount of uncertainty and fear caused by a relatively weak claim,” Egger said. “Just because they cried wolf doesn’t mean there aren’t wolves out there.” (Marie-Anne Hogarth, “Open-Source Software: Open to Liability”, The Recorder/Law.com, Nov. 15). See Nov. 13, 2004 and Nov. 6, 2003.
In the New Yorker
The New Yorker’s talented medicine correspondent, Atul Gawande, is said to have an article in the Nov. 14 of that magazine “about who pays the price when patients sue doctors”. It isn’t online, but the magazine’s website has posted an excellent Q & A with Gawande.