Scott Greenfield, Eric Goldman and Marc Randazza/Citizen Media Law have details of a bill introduced by Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.)
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From the monthly archives:
March 2010
“Police in Washington state will have the power to take any car for at least twelve hours under legislation passed unanimously by the state House earlier this month and considered by a Senate committee yesterday.” The bill would provide for minimum 12 hour impoundment of any vehicle in a DUI arrest, whether or not the charges are dropped or the vehicle is owned by an innocent third party. “The Towing and Recovery Association of Washington is one of the main lobbying organizations pushing for the adoption of the law.” [TheNewspaper.com]
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Do we even have a procedure for that? And does it matter that they were cleared of the charges? [Radley Balko]
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If the comprehensive patent reform amendment announced today is passed, qui tam plaintiffs who have been hunting for expired patent numbers to bring false marking suits will be out of luck. Only “competitive[ly] injure[d]” parties will be able to sue for false marking. The Senate bill, if enacted, would have sweeping retroactive effect even for still-pending but earlier-filed actions.
Earlier on false marking suits here, here, etc.
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And now someone must pay [The Smoking Gun]
More: Jon Coppelman consults Ogletree’s “settlement calculator”.
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A judge has ordered a satirical website to remove an article about a fictional attack by a giraffe at a Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana wildlife center. The center had argued that the article was not clearly labeled as satire and had been taken for real by some readers. A lawyer for the center says his client is asking “to have the story permanently removed from the site and to prevent Hammond Action News from ever distributing it.” Having handed down a temporary restraining order, the judge will consider the permanent removal request March 15. [The Advocate; Hammond Action News]
P.S. Commentary on the story from Ken at Popehat, who links another local story reporting that president of wildlife park threatened college-student satirist with “criminal charges, FCC charges, fraud charges, an IRS complaint, a governor’s office complaint, and a federal lawsuit” (h/t commenter Doug).
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The movies-by-mail service cut a deal with Warner Bros. in which it agreed to make subscribers wait 28 days before sending out a new DVD release from the studio. A customer now claims it’s an agreement in restraint of trade. [NY Daily News]
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Robert Ambrogi at LawSites checks out one recent entry.
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And then demands attorneys fees over unjustified litigation; the dispute was over a parking ticket issued to one of its own departments which it wrongly presumed to be legally independent. Another local council won a fine against itself which it then had to pay, according to British author Barrie Segal [Lowering the Bar, Times Online "Money Central"]
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- “Toyota Recall: Scandal, Media Circus, and Stupid Drivers” [Dushane, Car & Driver via Prof. Bainbridge] Some parallels with Audi sudden-acceleration panic [Michael Fumento, who also questions recent numbers] More: Mike Allen, Popular Mechanics via Instapundit (“why widespread theories about electrical throttle problems and electromagnetic interference are misguided”); and Fumento on braking capacity.
- Overly hot sandwich caused $2 million worth of damages, he says, though it’s true he didn’t seek immediate medical attention [Lowering the Bar, earlier]
- Rick Esenberg on judicial recusal wars in Wisconsin and nationally [Point of Law first and second posts] In Circle of Greed, lawyer/felon Lerach flings recusal issue against late father of Carly Fiorina [Gerstein, Politico; our earlier Lerach coverage]
- And more: Notwithstanding earlier denials, Lerach did lobby President Clinton to veto securities litigation reform act [Gerstein, Politico]
- Claim by Connecticut AG and Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal: lawsuits he files “actually create jobs” [Wood, PoL]
- Setback for prolific patent litigant Bender [Zura via Joe Mullin, related]
- Following complaints by traditional video store competitors, prosecutor threatens criminal charges unless DVD rental kiosks remove R- and even PG-rated films [Indianapolis Star via Indiana Law Blog]
- Lawyers send clients to chiropractor, he sends clients to lawyers, circle of life continues [Louisville Courier-Journal via Legal Blog Watch]
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Great interview with the prolific and influential UCLA law professor (and founder of the Volokh Conspiracy blog) in which he talks about the Bill of Rights, the “hostile environment” menace to free speech, why we should not necessarily expect judges to strike down bad laws, concealed carry and the gun control issue, and the nannyism potential in tort law (& welcome Erin Miller, SCOTUSBlog readers).
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“It doesn’t matter whether you have a case or not.” Reflections on legal friction between competing websites that assist in bringing reporters together with sources [Alain Raynaud, FairSoftware, via Pete Warden]
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Before the sensational revelations of corruption in juvenile justice sentencing, investigators had been tipped off about suspicious judicial handling of car-crash arbitrations and suits filed by attorneys in the Pennsylvania county. Those are rumored to be among the focus points of ongoing probes directed at attorneys as well as judges and those in other branches of government. [Legal Intelligencer]
So says the health department in Ventura County, Calif., rebuffing the B & B Do It Center of Camarillo. [Ventura County Star]
More: In a followup story (h/t gitarcarver), county officials say they were drawn into enforcement action because the store had been demonstrating barbecue makers using actual meat, and then proceeded to add the edict barring coffee and doughnuts.
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Kim Strassel reviews it in the Wall Street Journal:
Much of the riveting detail in “Circle of Greed” comes from Mr. Lerach, who cooperated fully with the authors. They seem to buy his line that his actions were motivated by his desire to protect innocent shareholders from greedy corporations. The book’s overall argument—as the title suggests—is that it was corporate greed that created Mr. Lerach and provided a model for his ethical failings. That claim is unfair to the many honest companies who were Lerach victims and implausible in any case, thanks to the authors’ own vivid evidence of Mr. Lerach’s outsize criminal behavior.
More: At New York Times “DealBook” (via Pero), Peter Henning reviewing the same book traces Lerach’s downfall in part to the nature of his famous “I have no clients” practice:
Clients are an important constraint on lawyers, the restriction on their desire to push as hard as possible for every little victory in a case. …
When your opponent is your enemy, and you can say whatever you want because there is no client there to restrain your baser instincts, then at some point you will step over the line and perhaps eventually pay a price.
Henning also recounts Lerach’s famous vendetta against scholar/consultant Daniel Fischel (“I will destroy you”), which put the world on notice of the class actioneer’s character years before the main scandal hit.
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I’ll be on KOGO-600 AM’s Top Story with Chris Reed tonight at 6:35 pm Pacific discussing recent CCAF cases and the problem of bad class action settlement cases generally.
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- “Trial Lawyers vs. Toyota” [Holman Jenkins, Jr./WSJ] Rep. Towns’s hearing didn’t even pretend to be other than showcase for trial bar [Wood, PoL; Henry Payne coverage in National Review here, here, here, and here] And make way for the inevitable investor suits [Daily Breeze]
- “Obama open to curbing medical malpractice suits” [AP/WaPo] Related: The Hill; advice from Newsweek’s Evan Thomas [Jim Pinkerton]
- Why doesn’t the Securities and Exchange Commission hire finance people? “They’re overlawyered. They’re poisoned by lawyers.” [Harry Markopolos interviewed by Deborah Solomon, N.Y. Times]
- “Plaintiffs Lawyer’s ‘Reptile’ Strategy Bites Back” [Fulton County Daily Report] Plus: Max Kennerly wonders why it was admitted into evidence;
- “Facebook plus divorce equals flammable situation” [Tampa Bay Online]
- Officials get wined, dined and more: “Paying public pensions to sue” [Forbes]
- Parents sue many defendants in Colorado ice cream shop crash [Denver Post]
- Called for jury duty yesterday, and Tweeting the results: arts critic/biographer Terry Teachout and conservative writer Michelle Malkin.
Could the legislative results be even worse than CPSIA’s? The Handmade Toy Alliance notes that legislation in several states purports to ban all presence of the heavy metal, which is ubiquitously found in nature at small concentrations. The worst bills, they say, are pending in California, Illinois, New Jersey, and Connecticut. More: NJ.com (New Jersey bill)
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