Amateur players seeking the chords for commonly played songs are out of luck these days, since the music publishers had a fit of intellectual-property-itis and sent takedown letters to a compilation site. That’s just one of the entries in a compilation by mashable.com, “Death by Lawyer: Ten Cool Sites We Miss“, which also answers the question of why the wonderful Pandora internet radio service is available only to U.S.-based computers (via Katherine Mangu-Ward, Reason “Hit and Run”).
Author Archive
Suing emailers for a living
If you’re going to try to make a regular income out of suing commercial emailers alleging violations of the anti-spam laws, you may wish to be careful about your methods. Last month a federal court “threw out anti-spammer and self-proclaimed serial litigator James S. Gordon’s lawsuit against e-mail marketer Virtumundo. … Just as significantly, the judge also ruled the defendants can recover attorney fees.” Judge John Coughenour of the Western District of Washington ruled that that headers and “from” lines on the emails in question were not unlawfully deceptive, as Gordon had argued; Gordon had sought more than $2.3 million in damages over tens of thousands of Virtumundo emails. (Ken Magill, “Judge Tosses Anti-Spam Suit Against Virtumundo”, DirectMag, May 15; Venkat Balasubramani, “Can-Spam put to the test”, News.com, May 22). According to Ken Magill of DirectMag:
Gordon opted in to receive the e-mails and failed to use the opt-out mechanisms supplied in the subsequent messages, according to court records.
Also, during the trial it came out that Gordon’s sole source of income is from commercial e-mail disputes and that he’s cutting his friends in on the gig….
Gordon has testified that in 2006 he received no income that was not the result of a settlement of a dispute. . …He also admitted that his “clients” — apparently people to whom he provides e-mail accounts — supply him with e-mails they deem are spam for him to use in his disputes and that they get an unspecified percentage of the settlements.
(“Man, Oh Man, What a Racket”, May 22).
Also last month, a different federal court (Central District of California) resolved another CAN-SPAM case in a manner favorable to the defendant, Vonage; the court ruled that the emails sent by Vonage were probably not illegal under California law and that in any case such law would be pre-empted by the federal spam statute. Representing the plaintiffs: Seattle class-action firm and frequent Overlawyered mentionee Hagens Berman. (“The Tide Continues: Court Shoots Down Spam Class Action”, SpamNotes, May 28). Earlier on CAN-SPAM and California anti-spam law here.
“That’s how they boost their billables”
This list of “Five ways to avoid costly litigation”, from the British site Human Law Mediation, is not exactly earth-shattering, but I did want to flag Carolyn Elefant’s post linking to it at Law.com’s Legal Blog Watch, which begins:
Of course, some lawyers want to encourage, rather than avoid, costly litigation, because that’s how they boost their billables. But if your client can’t afford a costly fight, or would rather focus its energy on building its business rather than embroiled in disputes, then take a look at this tips…
Update: New trial for Julie Amero
The Connecticut substitute teacher was tried and convicted after her computer, probably owing to a malware bug, displayed smutty websites in students’ presence (Jan. 20, Feb. 15, Mar. 14). The original trial, notes Glenn Reynolds (Jun. 7), “seemed like a grotesque miscarriage of justice”; prosecutors did not oppose a defense motion for a new trial. (Nate Anderson, “Substitute teacher spared sentencing for porn pop-ups, gets new trial”, Ars Technica, Jun. 7).
Mikal Watts for U.S. Senate?
The high-rolling Texas personal injury lawyer (Mar. 7, 2005; Feb. 16, 2006; May 13, 2005; Apr. 12-14, 2002; PoL Nov. 2, 2005 and various other posts) is considering challenging incumbent Republican John Cornyn for his seat in the U.S. Senate (Jaime Castillo, “Cornyn in for a fight in ’08, but Dems don’t have it sewn up”, San Antonio Express-News, Jun. 3).
Lawyer-rating website
Debra Saunders on eHarmony suit
The San Francisco Chronicle columnist quotes me on the lawsuit (Jun. 1) filed by Linda Carlson against the online matchmaking service eHarmony.com because it won’t fix her up with a gal. I’m quoted saying that “Diversity in theory is the enemy of diversity in practice” and that although existing dating services catering to lesbians would be far likelier to get the plaintiff what she’s looking for, nowadays “It’s not just that you get the choices you want, but also choices you don’t approve of have to be taken away.” Also, a new nickname for Overlawyered: eDisharmony.com. (At some point the paper will presumably get around to correcting the misrendering of my name.) Among others quoted as commenting on the suit:
Mark Brooks, spokesman for the gay online matchmaking service myPartnerPerfect.com, said of eHarmony, “I think they’re having a bit of an unfair time of it. I think it’s their right to have a niche focus, but they’ve not quite said the right thing, and their underlying tone has riled people up.”
The best line comes when Saunders brings up the earlier case (Mar. 29, 2006) of the attorney who sued eHarmony because it wouldn’t let married guys like him look for dates: “Married and litigious — what a catch, girls.” (“Disharmony: The new tolerance”, Jun. 7). More: Rick Sincere, John Corvino.
June 8 roundup
- Litigation as foreign policy? Bill authorizing U.S. government to sue OPEC passes House, and is already contributing to friction with Russia [AP; Reuters; Steffy, Houston Chronicle; earlier here, here, and here]
- Albany prosecutors charge boxing champion’s family with staging 23 car crashes, but a jury acquits [Obscure Store; Times-Union; North Country Gazette]
- New at Point of Law: Bill Lerach may retire; Abe Lincoln’s legal practice; Philip Howard on getting weak cases thrown out; “Year of the Trial Lawyer” in Colorado; and much more;
- Multiple partygoers bouncing on a trampoline not an “open and obvious” risk, says Ohio appeals court approving suit [Wilmington News-Journal]
- Skadden and its allies were said to be representing Chinatown restaurant workers pro bono — then came the successful $1 million fee request, bigger than the damages themselves [NYLJ]
- Who will cure the epidemic of public health meddling? [Sullum, Reason]
- Turn those credit slips into gold, cont’d: lawsuits burgeon over retail receipts that print out too much data [NJLJ; earlier]
- Lawprof Howard Wasserman has further discussion of the Josh Hancock case (Cardinals baseball player crashes while speeding, drunk and using cellphone) [Sports Law Blog; earlier]
- “Women prisoners in a Swedish jail are demanding the ‘human right’ to wear bikinis so they can get a decent tan.” [Telegraph, U.K.]
- Disbarred Miami lawyer Louis Robles, who prosecutors say stole at least $13 million from clients, detained as flight risk after mysterious “Ms. Wiki” informs [DBR; earlier at PoL]
- Indiana courts reject motorist’s claim that Cingular should pay for crash because its customer was talking on cellphone while driving [three years ago on Overlawyered]
Update: Judge unseals Shell case fee carve-up
Updating our Apr. 9 item about the New Orleans federal judge who sealed the division of fees in the settlement of a class action:
Five attorneys who served on a closed-door committee that helped U.S. Judge Ivan Lemelle decide how to divvy up $6.6 million in legal fees in a settled federal lawsuit over tainted gasoline steered nearly half the money to their own firms, court records unsealed this week show.
Of 32 plaintiff’s attorneys and law firms involved in the case over fuel-gauge damage caused by contaminated gas made at Shell-Motiva refinery in Norco, the four top fee recipients — set to collect between $480,000 and $1.1 million — each had a member on the five-lawyer team that Lemelle formed last fall to recommend how much to pay the 79 lawyers who worked on the case. …
Dane Ciolino, a Loyola Law School ethics professor who petitioned the court to unseal the records on behalf of attorneys who claimed they were shortchanged, said Tuesday he was intrigued by the money roster.
“I think it’s very interesting that of five attorneys on the fee committee — those five out of the 32 firms (in the case) — managed to get roughly half the fees,” he said. “Being on the fee committee apparently is good work.”
The New Orleans Times-Picayune had also petitioned to unseal the records. (Michelle Krupa, “Lawyers steered settlement money to own firms”, New Orleans Times-Picayune, Jun. 5).
Tobacco suit stresses race angle
“Accusing tobacco companies of preying on black people, a Miami attorney is seeking $1 billion in damages on behalf of a Coral Springs, Fla., woman whose mother and grandmother both died of smoking-related health problems.” Reporter Forrest Norman of the Daily Business Review, the south Florida legal paper, quotes me expressing skeptical opinions about the suit. In Florida’s earlier Engle tobacco litigation, plaintiff’s lawyer Stanley Rosenblatt came in for sharp criticism at the appeals level for the way he demagogued the racial angle; I covered the case here, here and here. This week’s case was brought by solo practitioner J.B. Harris, who said of the tobacco-company defendants, “If I could, I’d try to have them charged with genocide.” (“Suit Accuses Tobacco Firms of Targeting Black Consumers, Seeks $1 Billion in Damages”, Jun. 6).