Mikal Watts – Overlawyered

“The Lawyer Whose Clients Didn’t Exist”

Walter Olson — Sun, 26 Apr 2020 15:56:35 +0000

“A well-known attorney helped land a $2 billion settlement for Gulf Coast seafood-industry workers. But who was he really representing?” The curious tale of Texas attorney Mikal Watts and the BP spill litigation [Francesca Mari, The Atlantic]

Tags: BP Transocean oil spill, Mikal Watts

“The Lawyer Whose Clients Didn’t Exist” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Mikal Watts acquitted in Gulf spill claims fraud case

Walter Olson — Sat, 20 Aug 2016 14:13:49 +0000

“San Antonio plaintiffs’ attorney Mikal Watts was acquitted Thursday by a Mississippi federal jury of multiple fraud counts after federal prosecutors charged that he submitted the names of phony clients seeking to recover from the 2010 BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill.” Two others associated with Watts’ firm were also cleared of charges. Watts, who represented himself at the trial, had argued that he was a victim of, rather than collaborator, in the wrongful practices of others who brought potential spill claimants in as clients for his firm. “The jury found several of the defendants Watts hired in Mississippi to gather clients guilty of the fraud allegations.” [Texas Lawyer]

Tags: BP Transocean oil spill, claims fraud, Mikal Watts, Mississippi

Mikal Watts acquitted in Gulf spill claims fraud case is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

July 27 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 27 Jul 2016 04:05:49 +0000

It’s against the law to run a puppet show in a window, and other NYC laws that may have outlived their purpose [Dean Balsamini, New York Post]
L’Etat, c’est Maura Healey: Massachusetts Attorney General unilaterally rewrites state’s laws to ban more guns [Charles Cooke, National Review]
Appeal to Sen. Grassley: please don’t give up on Flake-Gardner-Lee venue proposal to curtail patent forum shopping [Electronic Frontier Foundation, Elliot Harmon]
Oil spill claims fraud trial: administrator Ken Feinberg raised eyebrows at news that Mikal Watts “was handling claims from 41,000 fishermen.” [Associated Press, earlier]
By 70-30 margin, voters in Arizona override court ruling that state constitution forbids reduction in not-yet-earned public-employee pension benefits [Sasha Volokh]
Google, Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood appear to have settled their bitter conflict [ArsTechnica, earlier]

Tags: Arizona, attorneys general, Eastern District of Texas, forum shopping, Google, guns, Jim Hood, Mikal Watts, NYC, public employment

July 27 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Liability roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 22 Jul 2016 04:05:16 +0000

Mikal Watts trial begins over claims of fraud in BP gulf spill claims [AP, Miriam Rozen/Texas Lawyer, Alison Frankel/Reuters, earlier]
If someone spilled hot coffee on you, would it take you two years to react? [Southeast Texas Record on filing just before runout of statute of limitations]
“Woman Sues Construction Company For Allowing Man To Kill Himself By Jumping From Hi-Rise And Landing On Her Car” [CBS Los Angeles]
“Families: Hamas on Facebook, so firm must pay $1B after terror deaths” [Cyrus Farivar, ArsTechnica]
Cloud of blame: “W.V. Firm Blames Almost 300 Companies In Each Asbestos Lawsuit” [Jessica Karmasek, Forbes]
Singer Collette McLafferty, sued over $75 cover-band gig, is poster person for New York bill to curb meritless lawsuits [Michaela Kilgallen, Albany Times-Union]

Tags: asbestos, Facebook, hot coffee, Mikal Watts, New York, shotgun defendant selection, statutes of limitations, terrorism, West Virginia

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

Litigation funding, mass torts, and phantom clients

Walter Olson — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 09:41:55 +0000

The Peter Thiel/Hulk Hogan story has brought the topic of litigation finance into the news, and a recent Alison Frankel column notes an alleged secret $10 million investment in the BP gulf spill case that might possibly have served as overstimulus: “Most of 40,000 seafood workers …turned out to be phantom clients…one, famously, was actually a dog.” [Reuters]

Tags: BP Transocean oil spill, champerty, litigation finance, mass tort fraud, Mikal Watts

Litigation funding, mass torts, and phantom clients is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

November 25 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 25 Nov 2015 05:15:47 +0000

Mississippi federal indictments in Mikal Watts BP case include fraud charges (arising from multiple wire transfers) against man who a decade ago, when pastor of a Hammond, La. church, pleaded guilty to fraud charges arising from fen-phen client recruitment [Robin Fitzgerald, Biloxi Sun-Herald]
Critique of Madison Fund project proposed by Charles Murray in new book By the People: Rebuilding Liberty Without Permission, I get a mention [Philip Wallach, New Rambler Review, earlier on book]
“So You Had Sex With Charlie Sheen and Want to Sue: 5 Legal Hurdles” [Eric Turkewitz, Hollywood Reporter]
“[Online form provider] LegalZoom Fought the North Carolina Bar on claims of UPL and Won” [Ben Barton, BNA]
After prison escape manhunt: “‘Psychic’ Sues Governor Of New York For Reward Money” [Bob Dorigo Jones]
Suit challenges D.C.’s methods for seizing and disposing of houses over very small tax liens [Christina Martin and Todd Gaziano (Pacific Legal Foundation, which filed an amicus brief), Washington Post, earlier on business of tax liens here and here]
Change in patent venue rules sought: “EFF asks appeals court to ‘shut down the Eastern District of Texas'” [Joe Mullin, ArsTechnica, more on E.D. Tex.]

Tags: BP Transocean oil spill, Eastern District of Texas, Mikal Watts, unauthorized practice, Washington D.C.

November 25 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“That Time a Dog Claimed $46,000 in Damages From the BP Oil Spill”

Walter Olson — Mon, 16 Nov 2015 05:15:58 +0000

Paul Barrett, Bloomberg/Washington Post, quotes the indictment:

On or about January 16, 2013 defendant MIKAL C. WATTS submitted or caused to be submitted a ‘Presentment Form’ to BP claiming ‘costs and damages’ in the amount of $45,930.00 in the name of ‘Lucy Lu’ and claiming ‘Lucy Lu’ was a deckhand on a commercial seafood vessel. ‘Lucy Lu’ was a dog.

More from Alison Frankel, Reuters, on the Texas lawyer’s “fighting for the little guy” rhetoric: “If Watts did what he’s alleged to have done, it’s no excuse that his crimes were committed in litigation against BP.”

Tags: BP Transocean oil spill, claims fraud, Mikal Watts

“That Time a Dog Claimed $46,000 in Damages From the BP Oil Spill” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Liability roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 11 Nov 2015 06:02:49 +0000

“Is Arbitration Awful? The New York Times Thinks So.” [New Jersey Civil Justice Institute, earlier here and here] And speaking of that paper, I’m going to miss Joe Nocera’s incisive coverage of the litigation business in his column, often linked here; he’s off to other duties at the Times [Politico/New York]
Yet more from the Times, longread on litigation investing and champerty: “Should You Be Allowed To Invest In a Lawsuit?”
Mikal Watts through the years: “It was part of my strategy to affect the stock price, which I was very successful at.” [Madison County Record, more]
“No negligence liability for injuries by fellow players in contact sport” [Eugene Volokh, martial arts, Colorado Court of Appeals]
Defense lawyer claims adversary had advance word about jury deliberations, grabbed $25 million settlement [Chicago Law Bulletin]
Is data privacy the next source of mass lawsuits? [Chamber Institute for Legal Reform]
Funds needlessly drained: “Asbestos reforms needed to protect first responders and veterans” [Rep. Blake Farenthold, The Hill]

Tags: arbitration, asbestos, champerty, litigation finance, Mikal Watts, privacy, sports

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

Liability roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 29 Oct 2015 04:05:59 +0000

Mechanics of high-volume injury litigation: “A disgruntled former law firm employee spills secrets on a mass tort factory” [Paul Barrett, Business Week] More on chasing clients: new Chamber Institute for Legal Reform research finds 23 of top 25 Google key words linking ads to user searches are for personal injury law firms; TV advertising by lawyer is projected to reach $892 million in 2015, up 68% from 2008. Yet more: Daniel Fisher/Forbes (“San Antonio car wreck attorney” goes for $670 per click on Google), Tampa Bay Times (“Highly groomed attorney duo …shown moving in slow motion on courthouse steps to a hard rock beat”);
Flurry of other new papers by U.S. Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform, many connected with its annual Legal Reform Summit, include one on how the trial bar has been successful at lobbying the Obama administration. Plus a new edition of “101 Ways to Improve State Legal Systems”;
In speech, Rudolph Giuliani recalls tort-law challenges he faced as NYC mayor [Corpus Christi Caller-Times]
A quarter century later, trial lawyers’ initiative to take revenge against insurer adversaries continues to harm California insurance customers [Ian Adams, “The troublesome legacy of Prop 103,” R Street Institute, paper in PDF, summary]
A story we’ve covered before: Mississippi attorney general Jim Hood and the flow of funds from and to private lawyers he hires [Steve Wilson/Mississippi Watchdog, quotes me]
Most New York counties have passed resolutions calling for reform of the state’s unique scaffold law [Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York]
You’d think indictment of Mikal Watts, Texas law major-leaguer with friends in high D.C. places, would be playing bigger in the press [Tim Carney]

Tags: California, chasing clients, insurance, Jim Hood, Mikal Watts, Rudolph Giuliani

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

Politics roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 26 May 2014 13:35:06 +0000

NY Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver hangs blame for a retrospectively unpopular position on the *other* Sheldon Silver. Credible? [NY Times via @jpodhoretz]
Julian Castro, slated as next HUD chief, did well from fee-splitting arrangement with top Texas tort lawyer [Byron York; earlier on Mikal Watts]
10th Circuit: maybe Colorado allows too much plebiscitary democracy to qualify as a state with a “republican form of government” [Garrett Epps on a case one suspects will rest on a “this day and trip only” theory pertaining to tax limitations, as opposed to other referendum topics]
“Mostyn, other trial lawyers spending big on Crist’s campaign in Florida” [Chamber-backed Legal NewsLine; background on Crist and Litigation Lobby] “Texas trial lawyers open checkbooks for Braley’s Senate run” [Legal NewsLine; on Braley’s IRS intervention, Watchdog]
Contributions from plaintiff’s bar, especially Orange County’s Robinson Calcagnie, enable California AG Kamala Harris to crush rivals [Washington Examiner]
Trial lawyers suing State Farm for $7 billion aim subpoena at member of Illinois Supreme Court [Madison-St. Clair Record, more, yet more]
Plaintiff-friendly California voting rights bill could mulct municipalities [Steven Greenhut]
John Edwards: he’s baaaaack… [on the law side; Byron York]
Also, I’ve started a blog (representing just myself, no institutional affiliation) on Maryland local matters including policy and politics: Free State Notes.

Tags: attorneys general, California, Colorado, constitutional law, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, John Edwards, Kamala Harris, Maryland, Mikal Watts, politics, Sheldon Silver, State Farm, state high courts, Tenth Circuit

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