Best Buy – Overlawyered

May 6 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 06 May 2008 00:04:53 +0000

Raelyn Campbell briefly captured national spotlight (“Today” show, MSNBC) with $54 million suit against Best Buy for losing laptop, but it’s now been dismissed [Shop Floor; earlier]
Charmed life of Florida litigators Stanley and Susan Rosenblatt continues as Miami judge awards them $218 million for class action lawsuit they lost [Daily Business Report, Krauss @ PoL; earlier here, here, and here]
Lerach said kickbacks were “industry practice” and “everybody was paying plaintiffs”. True? Top House GOPer Boehner wants hearings to find out [NAM “Shop Floor”, WSJ law blog]
It’s Dannimal House! An “office rife with booze, profanity, inappropriate sexual activity, misuse of state vehicles and on-the-job threats involving the Mafia” — must be Ohio AG Marc Dann, of NYT “next Eliot Spitzer” fame [AP/NOLA, Adler @ Volokh, Above the Law, Wood @ PoL; earlier]
Sorry, Caplin & Drysdale, but you can’t charge full hourly rates for time spent traveling but not working on that asbestos bankruptcy [NLJ] More: Elefant.
Fire employee after rudely asking if she’s had a face-lift? Not unless you’ve got $1.7 million to spare [Chicago Tribune]
Daniel Schwartz has more analysis of that Stamford, Ct. disabled-firefighter case (May 1); if you want a fire captain to be able to read quickly at emergency scene, better spell that out explicitly in the job description [Ct Emp Law Blog]
As expected, star Milberg expert John Torkelsen pleads guilty to perjury arising from lies he told to conceal his contingent compensation arrangements [NLJ; earlier]
Case of deconstructionist prof who plans to sue her Dartmouth students makes the WSJ [Joseph Rago, op-ed page, Mindles H. Dreck @ TigerHawk; earlier]
How’d I do, mom? No violation of fair trial for judge’s mother to be one of the jurors [ABA Journal]
First sell the company’s stock short, then sue it and watch its share price drop. You mean there’s some ethical problem with that? [three years ago on Overlawyered]

Tags: asbestos, attorneys' fees, bankruptcy, Best Buy, Bill Lerach, Connecticut, Dartmouth, disabled rights, Eliot Spitzer, firefighters, jackpot justice, John Torkelsen, kickbacks, litigation lobby, Marc Dann, Milberg Weiss, Ohio, roundups, Stanley and Susan Rosenblatt, tobacco

May 6 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Lost laptop = $54 million?

Walter Olson — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 00:04:07 +0000

Bob Sullivan, MSNBC “Red Tape”, Feb. 12:

How much compensation does a consumer deserve for the loss of a laptop computer loaded with personal information? Raelyn Campbell figures it’s $54 million — if you throw in a little extra for lost time and frustration.

Six months after bringing a damaged laptop computer into a Best Buy electronics store for repairs, and three months after the firm admitted losing it, Campbell filed the whopper of a lawsuit recently in Washington, D.C., Superior Court….

Tags: Best Buy, tech through 2008

Lost laptop = $54 million? is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Best Buy: sorry for sending that nastygram

Walter Olson — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 00:06:10 +0000

First the giant retail chain sent a nastygram to an improvisational troupe that staged an unannounced performance at one of its stores and then sold parody T-shirts that imitated the retailer’s graphics. Then it sent a nastygram to a blog that had reported on the incident. Then, as p.r. disaster loomed, it apologized for sending the nastygram — the second one, at least, the one to the blogger. (Laughing Squid, Dec. 12)(via Turkewitz).

Tags: Best Buy, bloggers and the law, nastygrams, parody, trade dress

Best Buy: sorry for sending that nastygram is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Planning litigation fraud at Best Buy

Ted Frank — Sun, 09 Oct 2005 00:20:58 +0000

Craig Newmark pointed me to this post exploring how Best Buy’s poorly-structured sales incentives allegedly permits a clever customer to negotiate for an HDTV below cost. But what really fascinated me was the first comment to the post (creative capitalization and spelling as in original):

If you are daring and want an easy $7,000, just act REALLY suspicous, and once you got everyone in the store asking if they can help you and the Loss Prevention guy up front staring at you, walk out the door. If they stop you, get everyones info who was involved in the stop. MAKE SURE YOU LET THEM KNOW YOU WERE EMBARRASED!!

Call a lawyer (this may cost you a few bucks). One letter or phone call to the district loss prevention manager will result in them settling, which in my experience has always been $7000.

We covered similar shakedowns Mar. 1 and Jul. 12.

Tags: Best Buy, ethics

Planning litigation fraud at Best Buy is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system