Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Posts Tagged ‘Mississippi’

Fall speaking schedule

I’ll be speaking this evening (Thurs. Sept. 30) in Baltimore as part of a dinner-hour panel discussion on medical malpractice reform sponsored by the Chesapeake Lawyers’ Chapter of the Federalist Society. Other events scheduled for this fall (sponsored by the Federalist Society unless otherwise specified):

* Mon. Oct. 11, Whittier Law School, Costa Mesa, Calif.

* Tues. Oct. 12, Chapman Law School, Orange, Calif. (lunch) and Trinity Law School, Santa Ana, Calif. (late afternoon)

* Thurs. Oct. 14, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Washington, D.C., Legal Reform Summit, debating Bob Levy of Cato on federalism and litigation reform

* Wed. Nov. 10, Cato Institute, Washington, D.C., commenting on publication of Bob Levy’s new book Shakedown

* Fri., Nov. 12, Federalist Society National Lawyers Convention, Washington, D.C., panel discussion on regulation by litigation with (among others) former Mississippi Attorney General Michael Moore and Michigan Supreme Court Justice Robert Young, Jr.;

* week of Nov. 15 (exact date TBA), Fordham Law School, New York City.

To inquire about our availability for speaking engagements, email editor – at – [this-domain-name] for me or tedfrank – at – [this-domain-name] for Ted.

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U.S. News regrets

Major media foulups, cont’d: in its Sept. 20 issue, the newsmagazine U.S. News sets forth a lengthy and on the whole abject apology (couched, not at all accurately, as a “Clarification“) regarding a piece it ran in its Aug. 8 issue, “Secrets Behind the Mask“, by Christopher H. Schmitt, which had assailed the 3M company for alleged deficiencies in face masks which left workers unprotected against on-the-job hazards. The Aug. 8 article had consisted of little more than a recitation in sensational language of various claims advanced by plaintiff’s lawyers who’ve been naming 3M as a defendant for years (mostly without success) in asbestos and other workplace-injury litigation. In that respect it resembled a good many media pieces which are less a product of investigative journalism as such than of the “litigation communications” branch of public relations.

The details revealed by U.S. News’s inquiry into its own misreporting are damning indeed. Here’s the first:

Read On…

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Ten arrested in probe of Miss. fen-phen verdict

Jefferson County, Mississippi:

Ten people were arrested in Fayette on charges related to the $150 million verdict in 1999 in Jefferson County against the manufacturer of the diet drug fen-phen, FBI special agent Bob Garrity said Tuesday.

Garrity said in a statement that the arrests came after an 18-month investigation that began in November 2002 into large jury awards. The FBI started the investigation to learn how individuals became part of these lawsuits and, perhaps, how juries were picked from an area where many people are kin or acquaintances.

(“Ten charged with fraud in fen-phen case in Jefferson County”, AP/Biloxi Sun-Herald, Aug. 31; “10 arrested in probe of $150M fen-phen verdict”, Jackson Clarion Ledger, Aug. 31; WLBT-TV. See Oct. 3 and links from there. Update Oct. 20: three defendants plead guilty.

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New at Point of Law

There are all sorts of new posts over at our sister website Point Of Law. Attorney Leah Lorber, who’s appeared on this site in the past, has just joined for a week’s worth of guestblogging contributions, including posts on a Mississippi Supreme Court case undoing the joinder of 264 asbestos cases and a Kentucky punitive award against Ford Motor (in a “park-to-reverse” transmission case). On medical malpractice, Ted Frank examines the benefits of the damage limits approved by Texas voters, Jim Copland discusses my WSJ op-ed on the Kerry campaign’s ideas for reform, and I link to an informative paper by Richard Anderson of the Doctor’s Company. Law professors Lester Brickman and Richard Painter, both experts on the ethics of contingency fees, have now completed their featured discussion of the issue.

Plus lots more, including posts by me on the ABA’s plans to push reform of jury trials; how contingency-fee litigation by the state of California is straining U.S. relations with France; Eliot Spitzer, the comparison-shopper’s friend; two posts (here and here) comparing the American way of litigation with that prevailing in other democracies; how liability law affects the way certain products smell; and who you can’t trust to explain the new overtime regulations.

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A Lot of Trial Lawyers Supporting Tom Daschle

The recent (Aug. 4) fund-raising visit of Sen. Tom Daschle to Oxford, Mississippi took place “under the political radar … Not even the local daily newspaper in Oxford received advance notice of the event and there was zero news coverage of the event.” Why would the Senate Minority Leader go out of his way to raise money far from South Dakota in one of the nation’s poorest states? Well, Mississippi has some of the nation’s wealthiest trial lawyers, many of whom were in attendance, starting with Oxford’s own Dickie Scruggs, who hosted the event. “The fund-raiser sought checks made payable to ‘A Lot of People Supporting Tom Daschle’ — Daschle’s campaign committee in Washington. Daschle is in an unexpectedly tight race with Republican challenger John Thune. Thune accused Daschle of ‘ducking a debate’ to attend the Oxford fund-raising event. Trial lawyers represent Daschle’s largest group of individual contributors at $1.5 million and his second largest overall sector of givers at $1.7 million during the current cycle.” (Sid Salter, “Daschle luncheon was quiet gathering”, Jackson Clarion-Ledger, Aug. 15)(& welcome readers from Jon Lauck’s Daschle v. Thune blog and from Jason Van Beek at South Dakota Politics, who points to a similar under-the-radar Daschle fundraiser in Jacksonville, Fla. in December hosted by attorney Wayne Hogan). More: the Daschle v. Thune blog reports that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has run an ad in South Dakota assailing the Senator for blocking liability reform, drawing a testy reaction from his camp (Aug. 20, first and second posts). The first of the two posts quotes Crain’s Insider, Apr. 28:

Daschle will accept an award from the NY Trial Lawyers Assn. at a 4/29 dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria. “He is being honored for his work in opposing tort reform. Political strategist James Carville will serve as the keynote speaker”.

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Opportunistic dad sent packing

According to what the court described as “overwhelming and credible evidence,” Derrick Williams refused to acknowledge that he was the father of Lisa Farmer’s unborn child, or have any contact with Farmer. Then he learned that she’d been awarded $150,000 after being in a car accident that claimed the life of the fetus. Then he decided that he really was a deeply devoted sort of dad after all and claimed half the money. Eventually the Mississippi Supreme Court told him to get lost. (“Mississippi gets it right” (editorial), Chicago Tribune, Aug. 10).

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In the Kerry skyboxes

Unlike his running mate John Edwards, John Kerry has willingly disclosed the identities of his “bundlers”, the financiers responsible for raising large amounts of money in grouped donations. (He has 266 who’ve come in at the $100,000+ level, compared with more than 525 for George W. Bush.) Names familiar to readers of this site are well represented: “Trial lawyers who represent injured people in suits against business are prominent Kerry fans. Among his $100,000 Vice Chairmen are Florida plaintiff’s lawyer Kirk Wager, who hosted Mr. Kerry’s first presidential fund-raiser at his Coconut Grove home in December 2002, and attorneys Richard Scruggs of Mississippi and John Coale of Washington, both part of the tobacco companies’ $206 billion settlement with 46 states.” However, Mr. Kerry (like Mr. Bush, but unlike Mr. Edwards) also raises large amounts from other types of law firms, including firms known for lobbying and for general business work, including Mintz Levin and Piper Rudnick. (Wayne Slater, “Vested interests in Kerry”, Dallas Morning News, Jul. 25).

“Lawyers, especially trial lawyers, are the engine of the Kerry fundraising operation,” reports the Washington Post. “Lawyers and law firms have given more money to Kerry, $12 million, than any other sector. One out of four of Kerry’s big-dollar fundraisers is a lawyer, and one out of 10 is an attorney for plaintiffs in personal injury, medical malpractice or other lawsuits seeking damages. …

“Among the trial lawyers who raised money for Kerry early in the campaign were Michael V. Ciresi of Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi LLP, who represented Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota in its successful $6.5 billion suit against the tobacco industry, and Michael T. Thorsnes, who recently retired from his San Diego law firm after winning $250 million in settlements and verdicts.” After Kerry locked up the race, “One trend was a sharp increase in the number of trial lawyers joining the Kerry fundraising campaign. Among those soon joining as major fundraisers were John P. Coale, one of the nation’s most prominent trial lawyers, whose better-known cases include the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal, India, and at least 16 plane crashes; Robert L. Lieff, founding partner of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP, a San Francisco-based firm that lists four class-action settlements in 2004 alone totaling $176.5 million; and San Francisco lawyer Arnold Laub, whose firm Web site lists its participation in the $3.7 billion fen-phen settlement, a $185 million toxic chemical award and $4.5 million for a pedestrian accident case. … John Morgan, an Orlando lawyer whose firm specializes in medical malpractice, said he has helped raise more than $500,000 for Kerry.” (Thomas B. Edsall, James V. Grimaldi and Alice R. Crites, “Redefining Democratic Fundraising”, Washington Post, Jul. 24)(our politics archive).

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The cop and the criminal defense attorney

Ferrell Hunter, a sheriff’s deputy in Tunica County, Mississippi, was a Stakhanovite arrester of motorists on DUI charges, hailed by the state chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving as the state’s top such enforcement officer. But something MADD did not realize was that Tunica County has had a peculiarly low rate of actual conviction for DUI defendants. It turned out that Hunter had an arrangement with former Oxford attorney Joe Gregory Stewart: Hunter would provide Stewart with the names of motorists he arrested, Stewart would approach them and sign them up as clients, Hunter would then fail to make court dates so that the charges would be dropped, and Stewart would kick him back $200 or $300 per case. Now Hunter will serve three years probation after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit extortion, while Stewart was sentenced to three years probation, hit with a $20,000 fine and disbarred. (Andy Wise, “Former Tunica County Deputy Sentenced For Fixing DUI’s”, WREG, Mar. 10)(via Lori Patel).

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Mississippi passes tort reform

Following hard-fought political battles, the Mississippi legislature has passed and sent to Gov. Haley Barbour for his signature a wide-ranging bill limiting liability lawsuits. It includes a $500,000 limit on pain-and-suffering awards in medical malpractice cases, and $1 million in other cases; punitive damage caps; venue reform; joint and several liability limitation; relief of premises owners from liability to contractors’ employees for hazards known to the contractor; and product liability relief for “innocent sellers”. In recent years Mississippi has sometimes been charged with having a legal system more tilted against civil defendants than that of any other state; the new law is likely to help ameliorate that image. (Julie Finley, “Doctors praise tort bill passage”, Natchez Democrat, Jun. 3; overview of H.B. 13 at Mississippi Economic Council site; “Barbour touts tort reforms in D.C., N.Y.”, Jackson Clarion-Ledger, Jun. 10; American Tort Reform Association press release, Jun. 4). For a few highlights from our coverage of the Magnolia State, see May 15, Apr. 30, Dec. 12, Nov. 16, Nov. 12, Oct. 3, Aug. 19, Jul. 1, and Jun. 29, among many others.

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