AAJ – Overlawyered

March 9 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 09 Mar 2016 05:05:39 +0000

Jury tells Marriott to pay $55 million after stalker takes nude video of TV personality from adjoining hotel room [Business Insider]
R.I.P. John Sullivan, long-time advocate for lawsuit reform in California [Sacramento Bee]
Colleges, speed cameras, and surveillance on buses in my latest Maryland policy roundup; paid leave, publicly financed conference centers and criminalizing drinking hosts in the one before that;
AAJ, the trial lawyers lobby, “panned companies’ method of fighting class actions as unfair after member accused it of using the same strategy” [John O’Brien, Chamber-backed Legal NewsLine]
In the 1920s, battling chain stores was part of the mission of the Ku Klux Klan [Atlas Obscura]
Class-action lawyer Goodson, “husband of Supreme Court justice, recommended 2 firms that got state auditor contract” [Arkansas Democrat-Gazette]
“Indian court issues summons to Hindu monkey god Hanuman” Again? [Lowering the Bar]

Tags: AAJ, Arkansas, hotels, India, jackpot justice, Maryland

March 9 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

TCPA logic fail — and an ironic target

Walter Olson — Thu, 05 Feb 2015 05:15:15 +0000

Lawyers continue to craft class actions (here, here, etc.) demanding hundreds of millions or billions of dollars from businesses over what are often inadvertent or gray-area violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which bans unsolicited phone communication. Consumerist Ellen Taverna of NACA, the National Association of Consumer Advocates, finds talk of abuse “ridiculous” since at the same time phone users continue to report a large volume of (often patently unlawful and TCPA-flouting) call activity. Because how could there simultaneously be the one and the other? [Alison Frankel, Reuters] Unrelatedly, class actions over TCPA have found an especially ironic target: “The American Association of Justice, the national trade association that lobbies on behalf of plaintiffs’ lawyers seeking new ways to sue, itself got sued under the TCPA – by some of its own members. The AAJ was named in a class action lawsuit related to a blast fax sent to its members by a third-party vendor.” [Bryan Quigley, U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform]

Tags: AAJ, statutory damages, telecommunications

TCPA logic fail — and an ironic target is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Torts roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 04:03:39 +0000

“Targeting the red plastic gas can”: how product liability bankrupted Oklahoma manufacturer Blitz [editorial, earlier]
Summers v. Tice, the famous “which hunter shot him?” California tort case, re-examined [Kyle Graham, Green Bag/SSRN]
Paul Taylor of House Judiciary makes a case for the constitutionality of broad federal tort reform [Suffolk University Law Review via Point of Law]
New Ken Feinberg book on compensation plans in lieu of litigation [Scheuerman, TortsProf]
Hot propaganda: filmmaker Susan Saladoff faces off against Victor Schwartz on “Hot Coffee” [TortsProf]
Studies of tort reform’s effects underestimate effects of durable reforms by mixing them in with the many that are struck down by hostile courts [Martin Grace and Tyler Leverty, SSRN via Robinette, TortsProf]
Membership in AAJ, the trial lawyers’ lobby, said to be on the decline [Carter Wood, PoL]

Tags: AAJ, constitutional law, hot coffee, product liability, tort reform

Torts roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Politics roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 04:07:24 +0000

Vice President Biden raises at least hundreds of thousands of dollars at AAJ annual convention in Chicago [PoL] Romney’s law and legal policy team [Brian Baxter, AmLaw Daily]
Law star Ted Cruz advances toward Senate [David Lat, AtL]
Can Republicans make hay out of Democrats’ platform endorsement of same-sex marriage? New Pew poll, as well as May polling round, offers reasons to doubt that [my new post at Maryland for All Families]
“Why Citizens United Has Nothing to Do with What Ails American Politics” [Ilya Shapiro, The American, more]
Bridgeport mayor Joseph Ganim, of gun-suit fame, a step closer to getting law license back after serving 7-year prison term for corruption [Courant] Eight more indictments as the Connecticut corruption scandals roll on [Conn Post]
Rob McKenna’s star on rise in Washington; he’s pursued public-liability reform as the state’s attorney general [Daily Caller, earlier]
Bypassing public financing, West Virginia judicial candidates pour their own injury-law fortunes into races [Richie Heath, Charleston Daily Mail]
“How hot is it in DC today? Congressman Paul is using a paper money substitute because his actual money melted.” [Tim Carney]

Tags: AAJ, Connecticut, Joe Biden, Maryland, same-sex marriage, West Virginia

Politics roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

February 27 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 05:08:07 +0000

Department of Transportation cracks down on distraction from cars’ onboard information and entertainment systems; Mike Masnick suspects the measure won’t work as intended, as appears to have been the case with early texting bans [Techdirt; earlier here, etc.] “Feds Push New York Toward Full Ban On Electronic Devices In Cars” [Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit; Truth About Cars]
Oh no: Scott Greenfield says he’s ceasing to post at his exemplary criminal defense blog after five years [Simple Justice, Dave Hoffman]
California not entitled to pursue its own foreign policy, at least when in conflict with rest of nation’s: unanimous “blockbuster” decision by en banc 9th Circuit strikes down law enabling insurance suits by Armenian victims [AP, Alford/OJ, Recorder, related, Frank/PoL]
Playboy model’s $1.2M award against Gotham cops is a great day for the tabloids [NYDN]
To hear a pitch for fracking-royalty suits, visit the American Association for Justice convention, or just read the New York Times [Wood, PoL]
What the mortgage settlement did [John Cochrane, earlier]
Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978 blows up an adoption: “She’s a 2-year-old girl who got shoved in a truck and driven to Oklahoma with strangers.” [Reuters, SaveVeronica.org]

Tags: AAJ, adoption, autos, California, Indian tribes, insurance, legal blogs, mortgages, oil industry, reparations

February 27 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

July 18 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 13:13:46 +0000

Per New Jersey court, overly sedentary home office job can result in valid worker’s comp claim [Courier-Post, NJLRA]
Trial bar’s AAJ denies it played “direct” role in backing “Hot Coffee” [WaPo, some background]
“Cop repeatedly harasses waitresses, never disciplined. Feds defend their civil rights by . . . suing the restaurant.” [Palm Beach Post via Radley Balko]
On “unauthorized practice of law” as protective moat around profession’s interests, Britain does things differently [Gillian Hadfield via Andrew Sullivan; related, Larry Ribstein] Forthcoming book by Robert Crandall et al urges lawyer deregulation [Brookings]
“The Treaty Clause Doesn’t Give Congress Unlimited Power” [Ilya Shapiro, Cato on Golan v. Holder case headed to Supreme Court]
The small bank regulatory shakedown blues [Kevin Funnell] Why is the Department of Justice including gag orders as part of its enforcement decrees against banks on race and lending? [Investors Business Daily via PoL] “Emigrant fights back against mortgage-discrimination suits” [Fisher, Forbes] Dodd-Frank squeezing out community banks [Funnell]
“North Carolina to Seize Speeding Cars That Fail to Pull Over” [The Newspaper] “With what, a tractor beam?” [James Taranto]

Tags: AAJ, banks, constitutional law, harassment law, hot coffee, international law, mortgages, New Jersey, North Carolina, traffic laws, workers' compensation

July 18 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Susan Saladoff documentary “Hot Coffee” at Sundance

Walter Olson — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 17:15:09 +0000

At Abnormal Use, Nick Farr brings some scrutiny to what’s looking like the big trial-bar media venture of the season.

P.S. And a follow-up that really stands on its own as a resource: “The Stella Liebeck McDonald’s Hot Coffee Case FAQ“

Tags: AAJ, hot coffee, litigation lobby, movies film and videos, Stella Liebeck

Susan Saladoff documentary “Hot Coffee” at Sundance is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Bowles-Simpson commission proposes med-mal reform

Walter Olson — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 13:13:50 +0000

Like others who’ve looked at the question of how to close the federal government’s vast budget deficit, it finds promise in the idea of curbing liability payouts and defensive medicine. Trial lawyers are vowing to fight. [National Law Journal, Point of Law]

Tags: AAJ, defensive medicine, medical malpractice

Bowles-Simpson commission proposes med-mal reform is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Counsel shall not make any derogatory remarks generally about trial lawyers”

Walter Olson — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 21:14:37 +0000

A breach-of-contract trial under way in D.C. this week “pits the trial lawyers group American Association for Justice against its would-be lender, Wachovia Bank.” [ABA Journal]

Tags: AAJ, banks, lawyers

“Counsel shall not make any derogatory remarks generally about trial lawyers” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

July 15 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:49:02 +0000

More outcry over report of big new Treasury tax break for injury lawyers [Chris Moody, Daily Caller, Wood/ShopFloor]
Geologists’ annoyance over bill to oust asbestos-containing serpentine as California state rock makes NYT front page [yesterday; Dan Walters, Facebook group, Calif. Civil Justice, Bailey via Adler, earlier]
Great moments in international human rights: “Known al-Qaeda Operative Could Not Be Deported [from UK]” [Foster, NRO]
“Is the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act a Government Cash Cow?” [Koehler, FCPA Professor]
Franklin Mint case cont’d: “Manatt Tries to Beat Back Malicious Prosecution Lawsuit” [Baxter/American Lawyer, earlier]
“Washington’s parasites take aim at Apple” [David Boaz, Philadelphia Inquirer]
Gubernatorial bid by Rhode Island attorney general Patrick Lynch seems to have fizzled [Jessica Taylor, Politico via Law and More]
Go explicit or go home: Georgia abolishes implied private rights of action [PoL, my Reason take years ago]

Tags: AAJ, Apple, asbestos, attorneys general, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, international human rights, Rhode Island, sanctions, taxes, terrorism

July 15 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system