Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Guest Blogger Unveiled

It appears that I have won the Guestblogger Pageant (despite falling down and being booed by angry Mexicans), so here’s a little bit about me. My name is Christian Schneider, and I work for the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute here in lovely Madison, Wisconsin. I run the WPRI blog, a little personal project called Atomic Trousers, and as a former legislative staffer, I blogged pseudonymously as Dennis York (a blog that could generously be described as humorous). I am originally from Alexandria, VA, and I have a master’s degree in political science from the prestigious Marquette University in Milwaukee (which means I am qualified to read the newspaper). I also occasionally contribute commentaries to the show “Here and Now” on Wisconsin Public Television.

While I am not an attorney, I am a long time fan of Overlawyered.com. Plus, there’s a reasonable chance Jessica Alba will be filing a restraining order against me sometime soon, so I thought it might be a good idea to familiarize myself with the legal community.

Here are a couple past posts that people seemed to find moderately inoffensive:

Scientists to Harvest Seniors for their Coupons
Keep Your Laws Out of My Pants (and a Follow-Up)
When Religions Lobby

So there’s my resume. References available upon request.

Filed under: ,

Guestblogger tomorrow

We’ve had a record response to our call for guestblogging volunteers, and the first in a series of guests will be dropping by tomorrow to begin a week-long stint. If you’ve been meaning to volunteer but haven’t, go ahead and drop us a line — there may still be openings later in the summer.

Filed under:

Cookies-for-troops menace averted

No need to worry that greeters will be foisting cookies on returning soldiers at Bangor International Airport any more: “airport officials asked the greeters to stop serving food last month because of concern about liability and food safety. ‘We just say, “We’re sorry, we can’t give out any cookies,”‘ said Bill Knight, a World War II veteran who founded the group.” (Katie Zezima, “Airport Tries to Rein In Greeters’ Generosity Toward Troops”, New York Times, Jun. 21). Other food menaces averted: Dec. 13, 1999 (homemade pies), Jan. 29, 2001 (school cookies, country fair pies and jams), Feb. 1-3, 2002, Jan. 18 and Apr. 28, 2007 (figurines in New Orleans king cake), Apr. 15, 2004 (potluck dinners), Jul. 18, 2006 (homemade baked goods in U.K. nursing home), and Apr. 28, 2007 (candy-wrapped toy).

Filed under: ,

L.A. attorney ethics beat

A jury has convicted prominent attorney Stephen Yagman, who’s prospered greatly filing police-misconduct and civil-rights lawsuits in Los Angeles, of 19 counts of attempted tax evasion, bankruptcy fraud and money laundering. Prosecutors said Yagman led a lavish lifestyle while declaring bankruptcy, hiding assets from creditors, and failing to pay payroll tax. (“Famed SoCal civil rights attorney found guilty of tax fraud”, AP/Riverside Press-Enterprise, Jun. 22; Patterico, Jun. 22 and Jun. 23 (not sharing Duke lawprof Erwin Chemerinsky’s somber view of the verdict)). Last year (Jul. 5, 2006) Yagman sued a retired police detective who in a letter expressed “glee and profound satisfaction” over the lawyer’s indictment. For Yagman’s other appearances on this site, see Feb. 23, 2000, Mar. 18, 2005, Apr. 3, 2006, and Nov. 4, 2006.

Meanwhile, the city attorney of Los Angeles, Rocky Delgadillo, who’s figured in these columns a couple of times (grandstanding on Grand Theft Auto, Jan. 28 of last year; defending the city’s $2.7 million settlement of the firefighter dog food case, Nov. 22) seems to have landed in an ethical spot of bother himself (more).

Filed under: , , , , , ,

Pizza Hut door-swing case, cont’d

The police officer sued in the now-celebrated Madison County, Ill. case (Mar. 13, May 21) submits affidavits in his defense, pointing up some interesting angles that didn’t emerge in earlier rounds of coverage:

A Troy police officer who was ordered to pay Edwardsville attorney Amanda Verett $311,700 for a shoulder injury claims he never even came into physical contact with her during an incident Feb. 12 at the Troy Pizza Hut.

Sworn affidavits and other court documents filed by Troy officials this week, including the police chief and assistant city administrator, claim the reason officer Clarence Jackson was at the Pizza Hut in the first place was because Verett and her male law partner were causing a disturbance. Jackson was responding to a 911 call.

Verett, a family attorney in Edwardsville, filed suit against Pizza Hut and Jackson alleging she was injured when walking out the door of the restaurant while holding open the door to allow herself and Jackson to exit.

Last month a judge issued a default judgment against Jackson, who now argues his actions were on behalf of the city of Troy and should be shielded by sovereign immunity. (Steve Gonzalez, “Police officer claims he never came in contact with Verett”, Madison County Record, Jun. 21).

Filed under:

By reader acclaim: Dutch woman loses suit over not entering lottery

You can’t win if you don’t play: “A Dutch woman who claimed she suffered emotional damages due to not winning the lottery missed the jackpot in court too. Amsterdam District Court judges Wednesday rejected the claim of Helene de Gier, who said she was traumatized by not winning the country’s National Postcode Lottery, which she didn’t enter, while her neighbors did.” DeGier said one lucky neighbor had rubbed in his good luck by showing off a new Porsche, and claimed lottery ads had engaged in “emotional blackmail” by suggesting that non-entrants like herself might be sorry afterward. (AP/IHT, Reuters).

Filed under: , ,

By reader acclaim: “Woman Wins $29,000 for Topless Stroll”

Women in the other forty-nine states should not count on comparably remunerative results if it happens to them, this being a New York precedent only:

A woman arrested for exposing her breasts has accepted a $29,000 settlement from [New York City], her lawyer said.

Jill Coccaro, 27, was arrested on a topless stroll two years ago, despite a 1992 state appeals court ruling that concluded women should have the same right as men to take off their shirts. …

“We hope the police learn a lesson and respect the rights of women to go topless,” [her lawyer Jeffrey] Rothman said.

(AP/ABCNews.com, Jun. 18).

The costs of litigation

Sun General Counsel Mike Dillon, writing about litigation, repeats something I’ve long said:

Litigation is costly. Incredibly costly. But it is not the expense that is the real issue, it’s the diversion of resources. Time employees spend reviewing e-mails and documents, educating lawyers and preparing for depositions is time away from the business. That’s the real cost of litigation.

Note that these costs are not included even in PRI’s $865-billion/year estimate of the expense of jackpot justice, much less the trial-lawyer critiques of the PRI study, which is why that number, even with its problems, may well be an underestimate of the true expense.

While Sun’s strategy of keeping quiet while litigation was pending may have made sense in this particular competitor-to-competitor litigation, I think it is a very large mistake in the context of trial lawyers and activists targeting companies.

Filed under: ,