• Newest “Trial Lawyers Inc.” report is on Louisiana [Manhattan Institute, Point of Law]
• Mel Weiss disbarred automatically w/strong language from judges [Matter of Weiss h/t @erwiest]
• Pro se claimant: I wrote down cure for cancer and then the darn hospital stole it! [Above the Law]
• “California Supreme Court Ruling May Deter Good Samaritans” [The Recorder; SF Chronicle with copious reader comments, GruntDoc, our coverage last year]
• Due diligence on dodgy funds? Sometimes it seems everyone’s relying on someone else to do that [Bronte Capital] Madoff fraud may date to 1970s, maybe “recent laxity” angle has been overdone [Securities Docket] “Ponzi crawl” = pub crawl whereby new person is added at each location and has to buy a round [Re Risk]
• Radley Balko on Julie Amero malware-prosecution story [Reason, earlier]
• Join Paul Ehrlich in some of the world’s most famously refuted predictions, and you too may get to be Obama’s science adviser [John Tierney/NYT, John Holdren]
• Wisconsin Minnesota pig-sitter trial set for March, claim is that defendant let star porker overfeed and gain a hundred pounds [LaCrosse Tribune h/t @kevinokeefe]
• More on the Patent and Trademark Office “acceptable error” employment case [Venture Chronicles, Jeff Nolan; earlier]
• Procter & Gamble “Satanism” case finally settles, soap giant got $19 million verdict against four Amway distributors who spread rumor [OnPoint News]
• Once filing of a suit severs the channels of communication, attorneys and clients alike begin to make up “what really happened” narratives [Settle It Now]
• Sometimes lawyers need to be formal. Don’t IM “Court denied your appeal u will b executed saturday thx” [Beck & Herrmann]
• Bangladesh hoping to build replica of Taj Mahal despite copyright claims [Times Online h/t @mglickman]
• Midnight regulations? “OMB Watch” vigilant (and with reason) during this R-2-D transition but sang different tune in 2000’s D-2-R [Gillespie, Reason]

Filed under: California, copyright, Good Samaritan, hospitals, Louisiana, Manhattan Institute, Melvyn Weiss, patent quality, pro se, Wisconsin