The law is dangerous because it’s vague (via Damon Root/Reason “Hit and Run”).
Posts Tagged ‘fraud’
Bank shouldn’t have allowed her to give scammer C$10,000
“An 86-year-old Vancouver fraud victim has taken a stand against Canada’s biggest bank, saying her Royal Bank branch shouldn’t have allowed her to withdraw $10,000 on her Visa card to give to a scam artist with no questions asked.” [CBC]
Too many giblets, they said
Russell Jackson records a federal court’s dismissal of a class action lawsuit filed against Perdue.
New at Point of Law
Things you’re missing if you’re not reading my other site:
- Federal judge tosses city of Baltimore’s case blaming its neighborhood blight on subprime lenders, but Memphis files a similar suit;
- “The catchall fraud law that catches too much”: Roger Parloff of Fortune on “honest services”;
- Moonlighting: New York state senate majority leader John Sampson joins large plaintiff’s firm in “of counsel” position, an arrangement long held by his counterpart at the New York capitol, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver;
- “Trial lawyers association outlines its 2010 legislative agenda,” Montana Gov. Schweitzer to address AAJ Maui convention, “Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, the legal angle” [all from Carter Wood]
- Biggest obstacle to juvenile corrections reform? Prison guards’ unions;
- “Investor Who Backed Unsuccessful Lawsuit is Liable for Defendants’ Legal Fees“;
- A Twombly/Iqbal debate — and the harms of liberal pleading;
- U.S. Chamber’s “Top Five Ridiculous Lawsuits of 2009″ (and many other tops-of-2009 lists).
Another “you’ve won a lawsuit settlement” scam
It’s not known whether these phishing emails come literally from Nigeria or not; they promise payouts from a fund arising from a legal settlement over auction-rate securities [Business Insider] Compare Point of Law, Sept. 19 (emails invite victims to claim supposed share of oil company environmental hazard reparations).
October 2 roundup
- Update: “Cash4Gold Drops Consumerist From Lawsuit” [its report; earlier] Unrelatedly, the same Consumers Union publication was taken in by a fake memo in which Australian McDonald’s supposedly plotted to defraud its customers [its revised post]
- “You just killed the homeowner. The bad guy is in there.” [Courthouse News and Scott Greenfield, Phoenix]
- “Reporter Who Survived Midair Crash Now on Risky ‘Libel Tourism’ Journey” [ABA Journal, Krauss/Point of Law, earlier; Joe Sharkey, Brazil]
- Permanent disbarment sought for “too drunk to join fen-phen conspiracy” Kentucky lawyer Mills [Courier-Journal]
- “Woman Blames Study Abroad Program for Rape in Mali” [OnPoint News]
- Ninth Circuit reinstates prosecution of Nevada lawyer, surgeon and consultant in injury-case furor spotlighted by Fortune mag [Legally Unbound, which by coincidence has just hosted Blawg Review #231; Las Vegas Review Journal; earlier]
- Punch line ad lib.: “Former terrorist wants to be lawyer” [Toronto Star] More: Lowering the Bar.
- “Is It So Crazy For A Patent Attorney To Think Patents Harm Innovation?” [Michael Masnick, Techdirt, Against Monopoly (Stephen Kinsella)]
If you’re not reading Point of Law
If you’re not following my other site, here’s some of what you’re missing:
- Advance-fee fraud (“Nigerian 419”) scam emails that pose as international product-liability payouts;
- Coverage of the recent Washington, D.C. developments on med-mal reform [Carter Wood and more];
- The soil from which ACORN grew;
- Judges keep swatting down California’s efforts to run its own foreign policy through reparations litigation;
- Which college majors lead to the lowest scores on the LSAT? Why, the most law-related ones;
- And the legal ethics of settlement negotiations.
Why not add Point of Law to your Google Reader or other RSS reader today, along of course with Overlawyered, if you haven’t yet?
Golden receivers, cont’d
Critics including the Securities and Exchange Commission dispute whether receivers really deserve $27 million for their work through May in cleaning up after the collapse of Texas businessman R. Allen Stanford’s empire. [AP/USA Today; earlier]
“Shrimp suit doesn’t hold water”
The New York Post reports on a putative class action brought by Marc Verzani complaining that Costco’s 16-oz shrimp platter doesn’t hold 16 ounces of shrimp. The SDNY judge noted that the platter holds other materials such as sauce and lemon wedges, and simultaneously denied and ridiculed the preliminary injunction motion. Verzani was alleging $40 million in annual damages.
Marc Dreier gets 20 years
For frauds that fleeced investors of somewhere between $400 million and $700 million, depending on whom you listen to. [NYDN] “Prosecutors have also said that Mr. Dreier, 59, a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School, stole more than $46 million from his clients. … [In a letter to the judge Dreier] said that he began stealing in 2002, taking money from the settlement proceeds that were owed to a client.” [NYT]