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May 20 -- Suing
'til the cows come home. From a Forbes article
on why the city of Fresno, Calif. and its surrounding Central Valley are
so economically depressed: "Then there is the assault from the greenies.
In Fresno's surrounding counties, the Center
on Race, Poverty & the Environment [a unit of the federally
funded California Rural Legal Assistance -- ed.] has used lawsuits
to halt 125 new and expanded dairy projects since 1998, projects that would
have increased the state's milk cow population by a third." (Lynn
J. Cook, "Economic Death Valley",
Forbes,
May
26). See also Larry Serpa, "Dairies can coexist with environment",
Visalia
Times-Delta,
Nov.
3-4, 2001; Michael Boccadoro, "Activist groups do more to cause poverty
than cure it", Dairy Business, Feb.
2002, both reprinted at DairyCares
site. (DURABLE LINK)
May 20 -- "A Grand
Façade". "[Few Americans] have any idea about what
the grand jury is supposed to do and its day-to-day operation. That ignorance
largely explains how some over-reaching prosecutors have been able to pervert
the grand jury, whose original purpose was to check prosecutorial power,
into an inquisitorial bulldozer that enhances the power of government and
now runs roughshod over the constitutional rights of citizens." (W.
Thomas Dillard, Stephen R. Johnson, and Timothy Lynch, "A Grand Façade:
How the Grand Jury Was Captured by Government", Cato Institute Policy Analysis
#476, May 13 (executive
summary; full paper
in PDF format)) (DURABLE LINK)
May 19 -- Sauce
for the gander dept. Texas: "A major criticism of class-action
lawsuits is that the public often gets nothing but coupons while their
lawyers wind up with millions of dollars. If a proposed law makes it through
the Legislature, the lawyers may be getting coupons, too. Sen. Bill
Ratliff, R-Mount Pleasant, is proposing that lawyers who win class-action
suits get the same thing that their clients get. If half the award to the
clients is in coupons and discounts, the lawyers will get half their fees
in coupons and discounts, too." (Terry Maxon, "Bill would give attorneys
same class-action payout as clients", Dallas Morning News, May
5)(via Houston Citizens Against
Lawsuit Abuse). (DURABLE LINK)
May 19 -- "Lawyers
spoil fun". Georgia: "Families and kids who found summertime
fun
and enjoyment each year at the Krystal River Water Park in Evans will
have to find somewhere else to cool off in the months ahead. The
park is closing up shop because its liability insurance costs jumped from
$8,000 a month to a whopping $58,000 a month. Customers couldn't possibly
afford to pay the higher admission price park owner Ken Edwards would have
to charge to offset the 700-percent premium increase." (Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle,
May
11). (DURABLE LINK)
May 19 -- "Law
firms in tobacco suit seek $1.2b more". Massachusetts:
"As Beacon Hill grapples with a fiscal crisis, the lawyers who worked on
the state's lawsuit against the tobacco
industry are demanding the state now pay them an additional $1.25 billion
in legal fees. In recent court filings, four law firms, led by Brown
Rudnick Berlack Israels of Boston, asked a Superior Court judge to enforce
a contract that called for the lawyers to be given 25 percent of whatever
proceeds Massachusetts received in the case. ... The lawyers' push to obtain
more of the tobacco funds [on top of the $775 million they have already
been awarded] has roiled the legal community in Massachusetts and nationally,
with some worrying that the case will reinforce an image of avarice that
dogs trial lawyers." (Frank Phillips, Boston Globe, May 4)(see
Jan. 2-3, 2002). (DURABLE
LINK)
May 16-18 -- Go
ahead and have your Oreos (for now). The San Francisco
lawyer who announced that he was suing Kraft/Nabisco (see May
13) now says he's dropping the action and "only wanted to get the word
out
about the dangers of unlabeled fats contained in the popular black and
white cookies. ...[']Now everybody knows about trans fat.' He expressed
no remorse for using California courts as a publicity tool." (Ron
Harris, "SF lawyer says he's dropping suit against Oreo cookies", AP/San
Francisco Chronicle, May
14). Bloggers Brian Peterson (May
13) and Timothy Sandefur (May
14) have their doubts about whether it's actually consistent with legal
ethics to file lawsuits in search of free publicity for causes, while George
Mason University law professor David Bernstein, an old friend and collaborator
of ours who's just launched his own law blog, notes that (like it or not)
lawsuits are often extraordinarily effective as bids for attention (May
15, archives busted, scroll down). Meanwhile the New York Times,
which ran an "Editorial Observer" commentary favorable to the McDonald's
obesity suit (see Feb. 19), chimes in with
an article presenting the Oreo affair exclusively from the plaintiff's
point of view, with not a syllable of dissent or skepticism about the suit's
merits (Marian Burros, "A Suit Seeks to Bar Oreos as a Health Risk", New
York Times, May
14). On the other hand, Chicago
Sun-Times columnist Mark
Brown rejoices that he's "found a way to finance my children's college
education. ... I don't intend to quit until I've eaten all 45 cookies in
the package." ("In search of the lethal dose of Oreo cookies", May 14).
(DURABLE LINK)
May 16-18 -- After
California bounty-hunting scandal, lawyers win again.
When people talk about the trial lawyers' controlling the California legislature,
this is the sort of thing they have in mind. For several months editorial
and public opinion in the state has registered outrage at lawyers' use
of the state's broad unfair-competition law to extort cash settlements
from thousands of small-business owners (see Jan.
15, Mar. 3). But "The attorneys,
to the utter surprise of no one, emerged as victors in a showdown hearing
of the Assembly Judiciary Committee. Voting largely along party lines,
in what was clearly a scripted scenario, the committee killed three bills
that would have imposed some reforms on the unfair competition law -- UCL,
as it's called -- and approved a lawyer-backed substitute that contains
only superficial changes and, if enacted, would actually make it easier
to collect money in UCL cases." The committee passed "a measure written
by the personal injury attorneys lobby, Consumer Attorneys of California,
[which] in conjunction with another lawyer-written measure in the Senate,
would impose very mild new requirements on attorneys filing UCL suits,
but it would also add a provision, called 'disgorgement,' that would allow
more money to be obtained from UCL defendants and thus increase plaintiffs'
leverage. Recent state Supreme Court decisions had barred 'disgorgement'
in UCL suits." (Dan Walters: "Democrats side with lawyers over small-business
owners", Sacramento Bee,
May
9). (DURABLE LINK)
May 16-18 -- "Suit
Seeks to Keep Elephant at L.A. Zoo". "A woman has filed
suit to stop the Los Angeles Zoo from sending its female African elephant,
Ruby, to the Knoxville Zoo in Tennessee, a move she said would break a
longtime bond between the animal and a female Asian elephant, Gita." (Carla
Hall, Los Angeles Times, May
15) (see also SoCalLaw)
(DURABLE
LINK)
May 15 -- Judge
kicks class-action lawyers off case. "It was a stunning
ruling by a federal judge exposing what she saw as lawyers trying to settle
a big class-action lawsuit for their
own benefit and with little regard for their clients. U.S. District Judge
Elaine E. Bucklo last month booted six Chicago-area lawyers off a national
class-action suit that accused H&R Block Inc. of cheating customers
who took out tax-refund loans. In her ruling, she chastised the lawyers
for doing little spadework to prove their case. The settlement fund was
to be capped at $25 million for a potential class of 17 million people.
The lawyers, whom she described as 'inadequate,' would have received $4.25
million." (Ameet Sachdev, "Class-action reform pushed into spotlight",
Chicago Tribune, May
1; "Federal Judge in Illinois Rejects Settlement In Suit Against H&R
Block Over Refund Loans", BNA Class Action Litigation Report, Apr.
2; Mark Tatge, "A Pox on Both Houses", Forbes, May
26). (DURABLE LINK)
May 14 -- NTSB
blames pilot error, but airport told to pay $10 million.
"A Cook County jury awarded $10.45 million to the family of a pilot killed
in 1996 when the executive jet he was at the controls of slid off the runway
and burned at Palwaukee Municipal Airport. The pilot, Martin Koppie,
53, had been accused in earlier lawsuits of causing the crash that killed
three other people." The new verdict, on the other hand, throws $9.9
million worth of blame onto the municipalities of Wheeling and Prospect
Heights, which own and operate the airport, for allegedly locating a drainage
ditch too close to the runway. "In a 1998 report, the National Transportation
Safety Board faulted Koppie for not aborting the takeoff and co-pilot Whitener
for not taking 'sufficient remedial action.' In 2001, a Cook County jury
awarded $18.9 million to Whitener's family, who had argued that Koppie
caused the crash and Chicago-based Aon Corp. was responsible as his employer."
(Michael Higgins, "$10 million award in '96 plane crash", Chicago Tribune,
May
7). (DURABLE LINK)
May 14 -- "Prosecutor
had ordeal as defendant". An assistant Massachusetts attorney
general gets caught up in charges of sexual harassment that mushroom into
criminal charges before eventually collapsing, not before turning his life
and reputation upside down. "Exculpatory evidence that surfaced during
[Michael] Atleson's trial, prosecutors now say, cast serious doubt on the
credibility of his accusers." Despite Atleson's acquittal and the
withdrawal of other charges against him, a spokesman for Suffolk District
Attorney Daniel Conley has no apologies: "The system worked for Mr. Atleson",
he claims. Read the story and see whether you agree (Ralph Ranalli,
Boston Globe, Apr. 14) (DURABLE
LINK)
May 13 -- Lawsuit's
demand: stop selling Oreos to kids. "Oreo cookies should
be banned from sale to children in California, according to a lawsuit filed
by a San Francisco attorney who claims that trans fat -- the stuff that
makes the chocolate cookies crisp and their filling creamy -- is so dangerous
children shouldn't eat it. Stephen Joseph, who filed the suit against
Nabisco last week in Marin County Superior Court,... [is a "public interest
lawyer" who has also] formed a nonprofit corporation called BanTransFats.com,
Inc." (Kim Severson, "Lawsuit seeks to ban sale of Oreos to children
in California", San Francisco Chronicle, May
12). "Fast food restaurants
are facing claims that hamburgers can be as addictive as heroin in the
next twist to the obesity lawsuits that threaten McDonald's and Burger
King. John Banzhaf, the self-styled 'legal terrorist' who pioneered tobacco
litigation in the 1960s," contends that studies suggest that fat-laden
food can produce the same sorts of changes in the brain as powerful drugs.
(Simon English, "Burgers are 'as bad as heroin', activist claims", Daily
Telegraph (UK), May
9). More: Lance Gay, "Food industry balks at mandatory labeling",
Scripps Howard/Bremerton, Wash. Sun, May
9; "A Twinkie Tax", CBS News, May
12. (& update May 16-18: suit dropped)
(DURABLE
LINK)
May 13 -- Update:
court installs valedictorian. "A high
school student won sole rights to Moorestown High School's valedictorian
title Thursday when a judge ruled that she should not have to share the
honor with two other students." (see May 3-4)
"U.S. District Judge Freda Wolfson ordered the Moorestown district to name
Blair L. Hornstine the valedictorian for the class of 2003." ("Student
Wins Valedictorian Lawsuit In Moorestown", NBC10.com, May
9). Kimberly Swygert has a lot of commentary on the case at her No.
2 Pencil blog (May
9, May
2). (DURABLE LINK)
May 12 -- Shouldn't
have let him get so drunk. Australia: "A Norlane man is
suing Geelong Football Club for allowing him to get too
drunk at a president's lunch. ...In Supreme Court documents seen by
the Geelong Advertiser, Gregory Allan Clifford claims he consumed
'excessive quantities of liquor' supplied by the club at a president's
lunch about two years ago. Mr Clifford claims he fell down a set of stairs
at the club function and severely injured himself. In the civil lawsuit
against the club he claims the club should have exercised reasonable care
to conduct the function in a way where people drinking were reasonably
safe." In a case that made considerable headway in the Australian
courts before recently being dismissed, a woman sued a New South Wales
rugby club for allegedly continuing to serve her alcohol although she was
intoxicated; the "woman had claimed she was hit by a car while 'wandering
drunkenly' 100 metres away from the club, the Supreme Court documents said."
(Natalie Staaks, "Cats sued", Geelong Advertiser, May 8, no longer
online) (via Brain Graze)
(DURABLE LINK)
May 12 -- Malpractice
studies. Congress's Joint Economic Committee publishes
a new study finding that the medical
malpractice litigation system performs poorly in both its major social
roles: deterring medical negligence and fairly compensating the negligently
injured. Reform including liability limits would offer substantial
benefits that could include billions in annual budgetary savings to the
federal fisc and improvements in medical care affordability that could
permit millions of Americans to be priced back into the health insurance
market. (Senior Economist Dan Miller, "Liability for Medical Malpractice:
Issues and Evidence", Joint Economic Committee, May
(PDF format)). A similar study, focusing on Texas: Chris Patterson, Colleen
Whalen and John Pisciotta, "Critical Condition", Texas Public Policy Foundation,
April
(PDF format). In an April poll of Texas Medical Association members,
nearly two-thirds of the 1,027 physicians responding "say the climate in
which they practice medicine has forced them to deny or refer high-risk
cases in the past two years." ("Doctors forced to limit or deny patient
care", Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse Houston website, undated).
Although Massachusetts's situation is not as bad as that as many other
states, it is still seeing a departure of respected doctors from the liability-wracked
field of obstetrics. "'You start to think maybe this isn't worth
it,' said Dr. Ronald Rubin, 41, of Shrewsbury, who gave up obstetrics after
being sued and is now completing an anesthesia residency. 'My case was
dismissed, but I got deposed. It was six years of going back and forth
and taking time off from work. It took a tremendous toll.'" (Liz Kowalczyk,
"Insurance costs leave one less baby doctor", Boston Globe, Apr.
27). And following a tripling of its insurance premiums, a 16-doctor
radiologist practice in the Daytona Beach, Fla. area has announced that
it intends to stop performing mammograms, which is particularly problematic
since the practice currently performs the majority of the mammograms carried
out in Volusia and Flagler counties. ("Radiologists say they'll stop
performing mammograms on June 1", AP/Daytona Beach News-Journal,
May
8)(see Nov. 2, 2000). (DURABLE
LINK)
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