…The rise of the “confidential witness” can be traced to the Public Securities Litigation Reform Act and subsequent Supreme Court rulings, under which class-action lawyers are required to do more than just point out the obvious, that a stock price fell. They need to state “particularized facts” giving a strong inference that somebody in management, not just a faceless corporate entity, did something he or she knew was fraudulent.

To get over this hurdle, class-action lawyers frequently call upon nameless “confidential witnesses” who apparently are willing to speak with plaintiff lawyers but live in fear of their identities being revealed to anyone else.

Funny thing is, the testimony of these confidential witnesses on eventually reaching the light of day keeps not backing up the propositions the lawyers said it did. The newest embarrassment afflicts Robbins Geller, a successor law firm to Bill Lerach’s Coughlin Stoia. More: ABA Journal; City of Livonia Employees Retirement System v. Boeing.

“Judge Tosses Boeing Suit After ‘Confidential Witness’ Recants” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

The Milberg Weiss Four after prison is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Dannon yogurt settlement is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission: Coughlin Stoia in catbird seat is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

• Fear of losing even more high-quality German toy suppliers [Kathy + Matt Take Milwaukee]
• Mattel will pay $13 million to 20 plaintiff’s firms to resolve class action over toy recalls; claimed value of settlement to class (vouchers, etc.) is something like $37 million [National Law Journal, Coughlin Stoia release; earlier] Note also Rick Woldenberg’s March analysis of one recall (recall of 436,000 units premised on two cans of bad paint).
• New law “has added several new tasks [to the CPSC], many of which most charitably can be described as marginal in the overall pursuit of product safety that will divert staff and financial resources from more important safety issues.” [attorney Michael Brown, quoted at Handmade Toy Alliance Blog]
• Alarmist reporting on Boston’s WBZ affords a glimpse of “the scary people behind the law” [Woldenberg]
• Effort to help move blogger Kevin Drum up the CPSIA learning curve [Coyote]
• “The “Resale Round-up,” launched by the CPSC, finally limits the power of these merchants of death who recklessly barter second-hand toys to unsuspecting civilians at low prices…. The only question now is how did any of us survive this long?” [David Harsanyi, Denver Post]
• Among its other effects, the statute “will boost opportunities for mass-tort suits” [Crain’s Chicago Business]
• Law’s “continuing disaster for small business” illustrates difference between crony capitalism and the real kind [James DeLong, The American, with kind words for a certain “indispensable” website that’s covered the law]

PUBLIC DOMAIN IMAGES from Ethel Everett, illustrator, Nursery Rhymes (1900), courtesy ChildrensLibrary.org.

CPSIA chronicles, October 19 is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Lerach Costs Former Firm $45 Million in Fees” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Thank goodness for especially greedy lawyers in high-profile lawsuits” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

November 26 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Coughlin Stoia, AmLaw Daily and Prof. John Coffee, cont’d is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

More: OK, so maybe Brian Baxter of AmLaw Daily is just pursuing a reasonable news angle when he quotes the Coughlin Stoia lawyers doing a little victory lap and waving to the crowd. But if he’s going to quote Prof. John Coffee at such length as his big authority in support of the fee’s fairness, shouldn’t he go beyond identifying Coffee as “a professor at Columbia Law School and frequent class action critic” to spell out a little more explicitly that, you know, Coffee was hired by the plaintiff’s lawyers in this case to defend their fee request? Doesn’t that make it less surprising that Patrick Coughlin “welcomes the positive feedback” from these supposedly “unlikely legal circles” to support his case? (more background, yet more).

Update Thurs. a.m.: by yesterday evening American Lawyer had substantially “updated [the post] with new information” to reflect the Coffee relationship, and Prof. Obbie is kind enough to give me some credit for that happening.

Enron: class action lawyers set to get $688 million is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system