- By popular demand: Alexis Brennan gives hot chocolate to daughter in carseat, little girl spills drink and burns herself after mom drives away, mom sues Starbucks; press mentions one hot coffee case where plaintiff won, and none of the dozen-plus where plaintiffs had claims thrown out. (This case is distinguishable from the McDonald’s coffee case if the mother’s claim that she specifically asked for a low-temperature drink holds up.) [Indianapolis Star; WRTV]
- Former placekicker and current Illinois Supreme Court Justice Robert Thomas wins $7 million libel judgment from newspaper that dared to criticize him. Newspaper unable to defend truth of its reporting, because its discovery requests were blocked by claims of “judicial privilege.” [Lattman; Bashman]
- Copyright trolls inhibit hip-hop music. Is that a bug or a feature? [Tim Wu @ Slate]
- Judge to class action plaintiffs: tell me about your dealings with Milberg. [Point of Law]
- “Plaintiff draws $1.26M penalty. Judge sends developer message: ‘Scorched-earth litigation’ will cost you.” [Knoxville News]
- Second Circuit: Illegal aliens may sue for wages at U.S. levels. [Madeira v. Affordable Housing Foundation; New York Sun; both via Bashman]
- UK Guy Fawkes crowd forced to resort to “virtual bonfire” because of liability fears over real one. [Evening Standard; apologies for losing the hat-tip]
- Burlington Northern & Santa Fe to artists: don’t paint paintings of our trains or else. [CL&P Blog]
- Borat update: “One immediate handicap the two fraternity brothers bring to this legal battle is an inability to find a lawyer who knows how to spell ‘aisle.'” [Slate]
- ATLA on the offense in the new Congress, but their fifth Congressional target, Heather Wilson, held on to her seat against AG Patricia Madrid (Sep. 13). [Point of Law; Albuquerque Tribune]
- Reliving deregulation debates. [Wallison @ AEI]
- Inconsistent Internet gambling ban violates existing treaty, may result in trade sanctions; Congress must now decide whether to annoy anti-gambling Puritans, American IP content providers, or horse-racing and lottery industry. [Slate]
- Roundup of links on new UK law on derivative suits. [Point of Law]
- World ends: minorities and women hardest hit, as applied to noneconomic damages. [Point of Law; Roth CPA]
Posts Tagged ‘Illinois’
November 14 roundup
- Plaintiffs’ lawyers and Clinton appointee damage, almost kill the entire pension system. [Point of Law] Earlier: POL Aug. 8.
- Another view of the elections on liability reform. [National Law Journal]
- Second verse, same as the first: illegitimate Wal-Mart class action (Jul. 22, 2004 and links therein) being repeated against Costco, presumably other retailers to follow. [Point of Law; Wall Street Journal]
- “I can see why, if you’re sitting in a roomful of lawyers, you might come to that conclusion. But no one outside of that room would say: ‘Hey, that’s a good idea. Let’s sue Daniel Moore.’” U of Alabama sues locally famous artist and alum for using school colors in painting famous Alabama football moments. [NYT; Lattman]
- Roundup of links as Illinois Justice Bob Thomas’s attempt to squelch public criticism goes to the jury. [Bashman]
- Silver v. Frank, Round III. [Point of Law]
- Ninth Circuit illegitimately overturns another death sentence; Supreme Court reverses for the second time. [Ayers v. Belmontes; SCOTUSblog; Daily Pundit; NY Times; WaPo]
- Chief Roberts on Nightline. [ABC News; Prawfsblawg via Bashman]
- Sam Peltzman interviewed on podcast. [Econtalk]
November 6 roundup
- Election day is tomorrow; the roundtable is still going on our sister website. [Point of Law]
- One reason the election is important: judicial nominations. Bill Clinton appointed 378 judges; Bush, in six years, 266, with 45 vacancies. [National Law Journal]
- Update: Illinois appellate court rejects Judge Maag’s $110M libel suit. (Earlier: Dec. 23, 2004 and links therein.) [Bashman]
- Does Professor Charles Silver’s single-variable time series on Texas doctor supply tell us anything about reform, as he claims? Did doctors push reform down the throats of an “anonymous and dispersed” group? I argue no. [Point of Law; Silver @ Bizarro-Overlawyered]
- Professor Paul Horwitz questions the convenience of the death-bed statements of the decedent in Williams v. Philip Morris. [PrawfsBlawg]
- More threatened Borat-related litigation (Nov. 29) from Mahir “I kiss you” Cagri and from Gypsies. The latter is resulting in film censorship in Germany. [Wired; Sydney Morning Herald]
- “We live in a very litigious society; it makes it more difficult for a physician to be a good Samaritan.” [MetroWest Daily News via Kevin MD]
- Add Art Bell to the list of people threatening to sue bloggers. [Workbench]
- Twenty years of Scalia. [Weekly Standard]
November 3 roundup
- Don’t forget Point of Law’s featured roundtable discussion on the midterm elections. [Point of Law]
- Public Citizen’s consumer law blog is holding a book club, and they’ve invited AEI’s Michael Greve into the hostile territory to discuss his book on consumer-fraud class actions. Both the book and the discussion are must-reading. [CL&P; CL&P; CL&P]
- Lester Brickman and others talk about mass tort screening fraud on your iPod. [Federalist Society]
- November 8 in DC: the Kaiser Family Foundation is hosting a big panel on health courts. [Common Good]
- Roundup of links on the outrageous Illinois Chief Justice Robert Thomas libel suit. This really deserves a longer post by itself. [Bashman]
- Melvin Dummar is back in court with his implausible Howard Hughes lawsuit. [AP/MSNBC via ATL]
- Barney Frank also doesn’t like the internet gambling ban. [Frank via Evanier]
- Today’s outrageous Ninth Circuit decision: a 2-1 invalidation of a meth-addict’s guilty plea for murder. Judge Bybee’s dissent tears it apart. [Smith v. Baldwin; The Recorder; Above the Law]
- Clint Bolick of Institute for Justice, on the other hand, defends judicial activism in an interview with Russell Roberts. [Cafe Hayek]
- Have we mentioned the new website with all of Judge Richard Posner’s opinions in one place? [Project Posner]
“Trial Lawyers Inc. — Illinois”
At Point of Law (Oct. 18), Jim Copland announces a new report from the Manhattan Institute’s Trial Lawyers Inc. project:
This afternoon, the Manhattan Institute released Trial Lawyers, Inc.: Illinois, A Report on the Lawsuit Industry in Illinois 2006. The first comprehensive look at litigation in the Prairie State, the report synthesizes work done by the Illinois Civil Justice League, American Tort Reform Association, and U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform, among others. The report also includes new information, such as the percentage of 2004 contributions to the Illinois State Democratic Party that came from plaintiffs’ lawyers and their firms (78 percent) and Illinois’ quantitative rank in terms of its medical-malpractice liability as a percentage of gross state product (49th of the 50 states) and its corporations’ self-insured liability as a percentage of GSP (48th).
The Madison County Record has already reported on the new study here.
More coverage: Adam Jadhav, “Metro East courts have improved somewhat, think tank concludes”, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Oct. 19.
October 17 round-up
- Interview with ICJL’s Ed Murnane on Madison County judiciary elections. [Madison County Record; see also Illinois Justice Blog]
- London pension fund: oops, we just sued BP [Point of Law]
- New York court throws out mold suit with systematic rebuttal of the junk science involved. [Point of Law]
- Next mass tort: anti-psychotic drugs. [Mass Tort Litigation Blog]
- “Vibrant, dynamic, gravitas, ambitious, hungry and 17 other words or phrases have been banned by one of Britain’s top recruitment agencies for fear of falling foul of new anti-ageism laws.” [Telegraph (h/t F.R.)]
- Israel Supreme Court: compensatory damages don’t include cost of prostitute visits. This actually reversed a lower-court decision to the contrary. [Avi Bell/PrawfsBlawg via Above the Law]
Chutzpah files: Madison County judge-shopping
Illinois, like some other states, allows parties to request a single change of judge as of right. That statute is questionable enough public policy as it is, but Madison County judges had interpreted the rule to permit class action plaintiffs to obtain automatic changes for each plaintiff in the case—thus effectively permitting a class action attorney to pick his judge. Madison County Chief Judge Ann Callis has changed the rule so that it limits substitution of judge to only one time as a right, and the Korein Tillery law firm is now challenging that rule’s constitutionality, which could delay its implementation for a couple of years if they get the right judges to hear the case. (Steve Gonzalez, “‘Judge shopping’ rule challenged by Tillery firm”, Madison County Record, Aug. 31; Brian Brueggeman, “Law firm set to challenge court ban on automatic judge change”, Belleville News-Democrat, Sep. 1). (Cross-posted at Point of Law.)
“Lawsuit: Shopping Center Aided Attacking Squirrel”
Skokie, Illinois: “A woman who says she was attacked by a squirrel after walking out of the Tiffany and Co. jewelry store at the Old Orchard Shopping Center in 2004 filed suit against the shopping center Monday, saying its employees ‘encouraged’ the squirrel’s presence by feeding it.” In her suit, Marcy Meckler says the Westfield Corp., which manages the shopping center, “was negligent in, among other things, failing ‘to warn the plaintiff of the squirrel’s presence'”. (Sun-Times/CBS2Chicago.com, Aug. 14).
Guestblogger thanks, welcome, etc.
Our thanks to Peter Morin, who’s been pitching in as guestblogger over the last week to supplement Ted’s efforts. Peter’s writing can be found at his blog Wave Maker. And welcome to Chris Tozzo of KipEsquire, who joins today in the same role. I’ll be posting occasionally, but probably less often than usual.
Also, over at Point of Law, check out the contributions of guestbloggers Gail Heriot (San Diego lawprof associated with The Right Coast) and Al Adomite (Illinois Civil Justice League). In particular, Gail’s post on the contrasting liability treatment accorded to “doers” and “talkers” deserves a wide audience.
Fantasy sports leagues? Shut ’em down
A class-action law firm, Gardy & Notis, is suing ESPN, Viacom, Disney, CBS, Hearst, and The Sporting News, among others, alleging that their participation in the thriving field of fantasy sports leagues violates the anti-gambling laws of New Jersey. DeadSpin notes (Jul. 31) that named plaintiff Charles Humphrey “is a resident of Colorado, not New Jersey, and he points out in the suit that he, in fact, has never played any of these fantasy games, unlike you, you heathens.” Humphrey’s press release is here and the complaint (PDF) is here (via Bill Childs and Kevin Heller). The complaint asserts a right to recovery under qui tam (bounty-hunting) laws of Illinois, Georgia and the District of Columbia which allow random outsiders to file lawsuits to recover moneys reaped by way of unlawful gambling.