Welcome news from New York’s highest court: “A battered woman’s failure to prevent her children from witnessing her own abuse does not automatically give protective agencies license to remove the child, the New York Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday in a groundbreaking opinion.” (John Caher, New York Law Journal, Oct. 27). Four years ago (see “Battered? hand over your kids”, Jul. 12, 2000) the New York Times reported that city child protection authorities were removing children from homes in which one parent was found to have committed an act of domestic violence on the other, including such actions as slaps and shoving. “The rules encourage victims of abuse to conceal it, fearing their kids will be taken from them if they tell medical or social workers.” Update Dec. 19: New York City agrees to change policy.
Archive for October, 2004
Update: billions demanded over WTC cleanup health effects
“Hundreds of people who worked on the World Trade Center cleanup have filed a class action lawsuit against the leaseholder of the towers and those who supervised the job, alleging they did little to protect workers from dust, asbestos and other toxins in the air. … David Worby, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said he will seek billions of dollars” from Silverstein Properties and four construction companies that oversaw the removal of 1.5 million tons of debris, no doubt teaching a lesson to future construction companies so rash as to volunteer their services for an emergency mission. A spokesman for Silverstein “said the cleanup was conducted by the city and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. ‘We had no control over that operation and no ability to supervise what safety precautions were taken’.” (Karen Matthews, “Class Action Filed Over Health Effects of World Trade Center Cleanup”, AP/Law.com, Sept. 14). See also Nov. 21-22, 2001.
In today’s WSJ
I’ve got an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal (Walter Olson, “Stop the Shakedown”, Oct. 29) discussing ballot measures that voters will decide in six states next Tuesday on litigation reform. For more on California’s s. 17200 “unfair competition” law, discussed in the second half of the piece, follow this link; for more on malpractice law, see our medical liability pages (latest/ earlier).
Also at Point of Law
All sorts of other stuff is going on at our sister website:
* An all-new featured discussion on medical liability has just begun, proceeding from the publication of an important new empirical study by Stanford prof Daniel Kessler;
* Legal ethicist and law prof Lester Brickman has a commentary on a Manhattan judge’s questioning of legal fees in 9/11 cases;
* The Manhattan Institute is seeking applications for a research fellowship on legal issues;
* Law prof Michael DeBow, familiar to many readers for his guest postings here, is joining the Point of Law blog as a regular contributor, with comments already on flu vaccine, the dismissal of a charity hospital suit, FDA jurisdiction over tobacco, and a new antitrust blog;
* Ted Frank contributes items on malpractice by expert witnesses and on a new study suggesting that experts suffer from some of the same biases as lay observers in high-damage cases, on whether much “pro bono” litigation really helps the public, and on “Robin Hood” school-finance suits;
* Jim Copland welcomes a new and improved website, LegalReformNow;
* I’ve got posts on sanctions for wrongful litigation (did you know federal judges liked the sanctions in their old, stronger form?), collective business guilt, ski slope disclaimers, Sarbanes-Oxley, Judge Posner’s view that both Sherlock Holmes and law reviews are much overrated, liability’s burden on small businesses, and insurance broker scandals (posts in progress). Much more, too; bookmark the site today.
Update: “O’Reilly Harassment Case Settled Out of Court”
Per Reuters, “Fox News Channel commentator Bill O’Reilly and a co-worker who had accused him of sexual harassment [see Oct. 18] have agreed to settle and dropped all allegations against each other, lawyers for Fox said on Thursday.” “How could anyone demand $60 million for conversations on which they could have hung up?” wonders Wendy McElroy in her FoxNews.com column (“The Sad Evolution of Sexual Harassment”, Oct. 27). Celia Farber was hoping O’Reilly would fight rather than settle; her take, which arises from personal experience in one of the most celebrated harassment trials of the Nineties, is passionately felt and worth reading in full (“No Sexual Dealing”, New York Press, vol. 17, issue 43). And Beldar has some speculations about the terms of the settlement and what they suggest about the strength of the two sides’ cases.
Bank error not in your favor, collect $250,000
Illinois: “A Madison County woman hopes that at least $250,000 will sufficiently relieve emotional distress she suffered when Bank One allegedly failed to remove unauthorized charges from her account.” Marsha Eubanks is “[r]epresented by Lakin Law Firm attorney Thomas Maag, son of Illinois Supreme Court Justice candidate Gordon E. Maag”. (Steve Gonzalez, “Woman hopes $250k will bring peace of mind”, Madison County Record, Oct. 19).
The campaign: new at Point of Law
Over at our sister website Point of Law, Jim Copland memorializes one of the more entertaining moments of this election season: arch-litigation advocate Ralph Nader’s denunciation of Sen. John Edwards as a “sniveling coward” for not more forcefully countering Vice President Dick Cheney’s support for malpractice reform at their debate. Jim also comments on trial lawyers’ role in the recent Sinclair Broadcasting brouhaha. Finally, there’s a link to a provocative George Will column on the presidential race from earlier this month.
Gregoire the gregarious
Attorney General Christine Gregoire of Washington, a leading figure in brokering the 1998 tobacco settlement that ensured cartel-based profits for big tobacco companies and gigantic fees for the lawyers who sued them, is now in a close race for governor of the state. Very helpfully, she’s getting political contributions (via the Democratic Governors Association) from plaintiff’s-side lawyers such as Richard Scruggs, Joseph Rice and Steve Berman who were made exceedingly rich by the settlement, and who’ve given more than $1 million to the DGA in the space of a month. And another grateful contributor to the DGA is the lawyer who represented … Philip Morris. Isn’t it great when people can get along? (Ralph Thomas and Andrew Garber, “Out-of-state donors feed Gregoire fund”, Seattle Times, Oct. 28). For more, see Oct. 11, 2004, and Jul. 17 and Sept. 13-14, 2000.
“Attorneys who fought ADM get $132 million”
Coca-Cola, Pepsico and other buyers of high-fructose corn syrup got $531 million in the largest in a series of settlements arising from charges of price-fixing against Archer Daniels Midland, the agribusiness giant, and its competitors. So by the logic of bounty-hunting, it was only fair for plaintiff’s counsel to pocket a quarter of the sum. (Andy Kravetz, Peoria Journal-Star, Oct. 15; “Archer Daniels Midland to Pay $400M”, AP/Forbes, Jun. 17; account of case at class action firm of Kaplan Fox, Jul. 19).
“Ford wins cop-car suit”
In Belleville, Ill., a St. Clair County jury has ruled that the Ford Motor Co.’s Crown Victoria police cruiser is not defective and not unreasonably susceptible to fuel-fed fires after high-speed rear-end collisions. A class action on behalf of Illinois police departments had been filed in the famously pro-plaintiff county. The verdict represents a rebuke to trial lawyers who’ve been campaigning nationally for some time against the vehicle: see Nov. 5, 2003 and Sept. 29, 2004. (Bloomberg/Detroit Free Press, Oct. 16; Beth Hundsdorfer, “Ford earns victory in police car suit”, Belleville News-Democrat, Oct. 16).