When the wrong defendant is named in a civil complaint — wrong in the sense of being “different guy with the same name” — you might think it would be relatively routine to order the complainant to compensate the bewildered target. But it’s actually unusual enough to rate news coverage. [Jim Dwyer, “Hello, Collections? The Worm Has Turned,” New York Times]
Posts Tagged ‘debtor-creditor law’
November 3 roundup
- American Federation of Teachers backs off earlier aggressive trademark stance against critical website [AFT Exposed via Ron Coleman, earlier]
- Unintended but ever-so-predictable consequence of cash-for-clunkers: cheap used cars now a lot less cheap [Coyote]
- Strange that Pat Robertson doesn’t seem to know hate-crime laws cover crimes motivated by religious bias [Neiwert]
- Court rules against New York law firm’s debt collection practices [ABA Journal]
- Trouble amid the Lamborghinis: rumors swirl of financial defalcations at prominent south Florida law firm [WSJ Law Blog and more] Plus: Rothstein’s huge bipartisan political donations [DBR]
- Ohio: “Man dressed as a Breathalyzer for Halloween is arrested for DUI” [Obscure Store]
- Blawg star Mark Herrmann (Drug & Device Law) writes a brief in Supreme Court case on (unrelated) topic of prosecutorial immunity for misconduct [Scott Greenfield]
- Administration’s task force on medical liability reform meets amid signs it won’t accomplish much [Wood, ShopFloor; related, Stanley Goldfarb/Weekly Standard]
Class action against debt collectors
Surely it would have been possible to line up a lead plaintiff who did not himself turn out to run a competing collection agency [ABA Journal]
Foreclosure-relief scams
The incoming president of the state bar of California is blasting lawyers for their role. [L.A. Times]
“Filial responsibility” laws and nursing home bills
A number of states have what are sometimes known as filial responsibility laws which obligate adult children to pay for their parents’ medical and nursing-home care. In Pennsylvania, nursing home lawyers have been known to pursue lawsuits against out-of-state children who are estranged from the parents in question. (Monica Yant Kinney, “If mom can’t pay, adult child must”, Philadelphia Inquirer, Jul. 12).
More on these laws: Jane Gross, NYT; Everyday Simplicity; Do Ask Do Tell.
The Chrysler haircut
Larry Ribstein has some pertinent comments about the rolling reinvention of debtor-creditor law going on as the Administration redistributes bankruptcy priorities away from traditional creditors and toward the UAW. And Mickey Kaus credits me with perhaps more prescience than I actually possess about the union role (not that I always venture the cynical prediction…)(cross-posted from Point of Law). More: Michael Barone, Ken Silber.
P.S. Joe Weisenthal is reminded of an episode of lawlessness that I wrote about a few months back: “Before The Chrysler Mess, There Was Republic Windows”. Incidentally, those who wonder what sort of signals the incoming Administration was sending last December about the illegal Chicago plant occupation may be interested to learn that late last month Vice President Joe Biden and Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin paid a visit to the reopened Republic Windows plant, a visit which from a news account sounds as if it might fairly be described as “triumphal” in tone.
Advice: don’t accept friend requests from debt collectors
At least unless they really are your friends.
“Sewer service” and civil defendants
If allegations by New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo are true, one of the most fundamental elements of due process for civil defendants — notice of a pending legal action through service of process — simply gets ignored in thousands of instances. “Sewer service” was a major concern of court reformers in the 1960s; it sounds as if the problem may never actually have gone away. [Newsday, Popehat]
Buying (or selling) a used car
A legal hazard you might not have expected.
Kozinski grudge-match litigant, cont’d
Readers may remember Cyrus Sanai as the litigant with the big grudge against Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski who proceeded to launch a campaign trying to destroy Kozinski’s career (with some help from the Los Angeles Times). Now a California appeals court has issued the latest ruling in Sanai’s decade-long dispute with the owner of a Newport Beach apartment he once rented. Shaun Martin at California Appellate Report has details on the ruling, which sends the fight back to the lower courts. Martin calls it “a tale of litigation run amok. A tale that explains, in part, why some people hate lawyers; and, in particular, engaging in transactions with them.”
P.S. Sanai, in our comments section, says we’re wrong: for one thing, we described him as having sued the owner of the apartment he once rented when in fact “the complaint at issue is against UDR’s successor in interest, First Advantage Corporation, and UDR’s owner, Harvey Saltz”.