The new softcover edition of The Rule of Lawyers, promoted in this space only a few days ago, arrived this afternoon from the printers. Yes, it looks nice. The front inside pages reprint eight excerpts from favorable reviews the book received last year in its hardcover edition, including the following from Gene Epstein at Barron’s: “With a marvelous combination of irony, insight, and outrage, Olson covers the whole range of opportunistic litigation over tobacco, asbestos, breast-implants, autos, and guns. And yes, he knows that tobacco and asbestos can kill people, and that corporations aren’t angels. Olson even proposes sensible ways of reforming the jury system that might actually make a difference.” The hardcover edition continues to be available here.
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Great Tobacco Robbery developments
In March Moody’s lowered its rating of New York City’s tobacco settlement bonds (which securitize the future flow of booty to the city from the great 1998 robbery) in light of the Second Circuit’s highly significant decision in Freedom Holdings v. Spitzer (see Jan. 12) exposing the settlement to antitrust challenge (Reuters/Forbes, Mar. 23). The Second Circuit itself denied a petition for rehearing (opinion Mar. 25 in PDF format). The General Accounting Office published a report confirming that states are spending most of the proceeds on their general budgets rather than on anything related to the weed or its effects (March report in PDF format, via the University of Tennessee’s AgPolicy.org page on tobacco litigation, which has a number of useful resources), which in turn touched off a number of caustic commentaries (“States Spend Mega-Billion Tobacco Settlement On Budget Shortfalls”, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Mar. 23; Christine Hall, “States Spend Tobacco Settlement on Budget Shortfalls”, Heartland Institute, May 1; see Nancy Zuckerbrod, “States rely on tobacco settlement to fix budgets”, AP/Louisville Courier-Journal, Mar. 23). Also check out the debate between CEI’s Sam Kazman and ever-blustering Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal on CNNfN (Mar. 18). Vice Squad (Mar. 27) has further updates on the efforts of state governments to curtail small and independent cigarette producers by way of protecting the anticompetitive arrangements established in the 1998 settlement (see Feb. 28). And the Clinton-initiated federal racketeering lawsuit against the tobacco industry, the continued prosecution of which must surely count as among the low points of the Bush Administration’s domestic record, is apparently headed toward trial in September or thereabouts (“Federal suit against tobacco moves toward trial”, AP/Helena Independent Record, Mar. 22).
The Rule of Lawyers: the softcover edition
If you enjoy this website, and especially if you want to learn more about the “big” lawsuit campaigns that generate fortunes for lawyers and tag industries with billions in liability, you would probably enjoy my book The Rule of Lawyers, which got a fair bit of attention when it was published last year. Now St. Martin’s, the publisher, has come out with a new softcover edition, just now posted on Amazon at an attractively priced $10.47. It includes a newly written epilogue in which I discuss major developments of the last year such as the fast-food litigation, the enactment of comprehensive tort reform in Texas, and the surprise move by the ABA to support reform of asbestos and class-action litigation, as well as the latest twists in gun, tobacco, fen-phen and lead paint courtroom battles, among others.
The hardcover edition of The Rule of Lawyers continues to be available here and seems to be a popular gift for Father’s Day and for new graduates, law school or otherwise. The Manhattan Institute maintains a site that compiles publicity about the book, related op-eds, etc. As for the spanking new softcover, the publisher tells me that the first copies will be in hand today, and that it will ship later this month. Its back cover is graced with an excerpt from Robert Lenzner’s rave review of the book for Forbes.com, in which he calls it: “A truly gripping read about tort lawyers … a brilliant expose of the way courts are being overwhelmed by mass tort actions.” (& thanks to David Giacalone for (end of item) his kind words).
Update: zoo elephant’s social life
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge George Wu “is giving the Knoxville Zoo six months to report back on the social life of an African elephant named Ruby.” The Humane Society of the U.S. sued challenging Ruby’s transfer from the Los Angeles Zoo, saying she would be made unhappy at separation from her friend Gita, a fellow pachyderm (see May 16-18 and Jun. 2, 2003). “‘As far as I’m concerned, it’s the first time in America that we’ve had a Superior Court judge bend over backwards to see if an elephant is happy,’ said Gretchen Wyler, vice president of the U.S. Humane Society’s Hollywood office.” (AP/WATE-TV Knoxville, Apr. 28) (via Brian Noggle).
CNBC “Kudlow & Cramer” tonight
I’m scheduled to be a guest on CNBC’s popular “Kudlow & Cramer” business talk show this evening, live from New York between 5 and 6 EDT (probably around 45 minutes after the hour). I’ll be discussing the recent $1 billion fen-phen verdict in Texas (see Apr. 28), as well as mass tort and class action litigation generally. My book “The Rule of Lawyers”, which discusses all these topics and was published by St. Martin’s last year, is available through Amazon here.
Insurer on hook for $150K for $8K chiropractor bill
In May 1995, Dawn Goodson’s car was rear-ended by a car insured by American Standard. Fourteen months later, in July 1996, Goodson and her children spent $8,000 on a chiropractor. Goodson submitted an insurance claim three months later.
You might imagine a wee bit of skepticism on the part of the insurance company. Goodson hadn’t gone through American Standard’s PPO, which meant that the bills were higher than they would have been; moreover, American Standard was skeptical that a chiropractor’s 1996 treatment for three individuals was medically necessary as a result of the 1995 accident, and asked for an independent medical evaluation. Nevertheless, American Standard, after initially offering to pay part of the bill, eventually paid the full medical bills in April 1998.
Not good enough: Goodson sued three months later, seeking damages for “emotional distress.” A jury awarded $75,000, and doubled it with $75,000 of punitive damages. The Colorado Supreme Court affirmed Monday, holding that the eighteen-month delay in full payment was grounds for recovery of non-economic damages. You can guess what the eventual consequence will be for Colorado insurance rates now that an insurer is potentially subject to penalties of over 2000% for questioning a claim, but the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association paints it as a victory for the consumers who will now have to pay for the meritless claims insurers will pay out of fear of lawsuit. (Howard Pankratz, “Court says tardy insurers liable for emotional damages without proof of loss”, Denver Post, May 4; Karen Abbott, “Insurer is ordered to pay family $300,000”, Rocky Mountain News, May 4; Goodson v. American Standard Insurance Company of Wisconsin opinion).
Milberg Weiss breakup
Lyle Roberts notes that Milberg Weiss (see Feb. 4, Jan. 11, Jul. 1, Apr. 18, 2002, other earlier posts) has quietly completed its long-announced breakup. While one of the successor firms keeps a variant of the Milberg Weiss name, the milberg.com domain name is relegated to an announcement of the split. (Jonathan Birchall, “Tough kids split into two gangs”, Financial Times, May 3). UPDATE: more press coverage links at The 10b-5 Daily.
Update: judge OKs tire settlement
Despite objections from rival plaintiff’s lawyers and others, state district judge Donald Floyd in Beaumont, Texas, has approved the settlement of a class action on behalf of consumers who own or owned recalled Firestone tires allegedly prone to tread separation. The settlement excludes anyone who has filed actual claims of personal or property injury related to the tires. Class members (other than 45 named plaintiffs who will receive $2,500 each) will get no monetary compensation, but will have the right to trade in the tires if they did not respond to the earlier recall, and Firestone has pledged another $65 million for education and safety programs. The class action lawyers, meanwhile, which include Beaumont’s Provost Umphrey, will get $19 million. See our reports of Sept. 19 and Oct. 8. (Brenda Sapino Jeffreys, “Judge Approves $149 Million Firestone Tire Settlement”, Texas Lawyer, Mar. 22).
Send Overlawyered a letter, go on TV
Viewers of Catherine Crier’s show on Court TV yesterday (see yesterday’s entry) should follow these links to find out more about the stories we discussed: lawsuit over unsolicited faxes results in unsolicited faxes to clients; the perils of road courtesy; lawyers paying per click for searches on words like “mesothelioma”; Florida divorce lawyers send “Dear Prospective Client” letters to persons who don’t know yet that they’re being divorced (& see Apr. 14); and court refuses to enforce scuba diving waiver. The highlight came when Crier interviewed by telephone Overlawyered reader Rick Provost of Richmond, Va., who wrote a letter to the editor alerting us to the story after receiving an unsolicited fax advising him of his rights in the class action lawsuit.
Catherine Crier show today
I’m scheduled to appear again on Court TV’s Catherine Crier Live this afternoon (5-6 p.m. EDT, check listings for time of broadcast in other time zones), discussing more stories from this website (including stories sent in by readers on our letters page).