Chronicling the high cost of our legal system
From the monthly archives:
Lauren Rosenberg of Los Angeles “is suing Google because Google Maps issued directions that told her to walk down a rural highway. She started walking down the highway — which had no sidewalk or pedestrian paths — and was struck by a car.” [Sarah Jacobsson, PC World; Seth Weintraub, Fortune ("If Google told you to jump off a cliff, would you?"); Lowering the Bar; BoingBoing, Search Engine Land]
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David Bernstein at the Volokh Conspiracy recalls a 2006 lawsuit over whether neo-Nazis had a right to wear swastika pins in a Southern California restaurant against its management’s wishes, and extensive reader discussion ensues.
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Huntington Beach, Calif.: “The parents of a 5-year-old girl have filed a claim against the city after the girl fell off the monkey bars, breaking her arm and chipping her tooth.” [Deepa Bharath, Orange County Register] More: J-Walk.
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The latest lawsuit from Geoffrey Fieger raises the question whether the sort of mildly embarrassing episode you might once have dined out on for a few weeks now qualifies as something you should be able to retire on. Kevin Underhill wonders too.
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The girl, described as a chronic runaway, got herself a job at the Emperors Gentleman’s Club in Tampa, and now mom wants damages. [WTSP.com]
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It seems the Senate-passed financial reform bill includes whistleblower bounties and other legal goodies. [Whistleblower Law Blog] On tax informants, see our post of Wednesday.
Bonus: Amy Kolz at American Lawyer (”Serial whistle-blower Joseph Piacentile makes millions helping the government uncover fraud. That’s how the False Claims Act is supposed to work. Or is it?”). And David Walk at Drug and Device Law assails as “dumb,” credulous, and based upon a biased sample a New England Journal of Medicine feature on whistleblowing in the pharmaceutical industry:
The New England Journal of Medicine bills itself as “the world’s most influential medical journal,” and it unquestionably publishes groundbreaking articles about medicine. But all too often in recent years the NEJM has strayed from what it knows — medicine – into what it doesn’t – law and public policy, particularly tort policy. No longer content with editorials encouraging litigation against anyone but doctors, the NEJM now publishes public policy advocacy pieces dressed up as scientific studies, with the implicit suggestion that those studies should get the benefit of the NEJM’s good name in public policy debates.
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I’ve got a new post up at Cato at Liberty about a regulatory squeeze I’ve covered in this space before, and which could work out to the sorrow of “locavores” and others interested in alternatives to supermarket fare.
Except that even a cursory reading of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s news release should have kept the magazine from jumping to any such conclusion. Michael Fumento explains.
According to prosecutors in Santa Clara County, a “lawsuit mill” formed part of an extensive “tow-and-sue” criminal scheme in which a towing operator sold towed cars without notifying the owners and then added insult to injury by going after the owners for storage and handling fees. Paul Stephen Greer, also known as Vincent Cardinalli Jr., pleaded no contest to fifty-nine felonies. Prosecutors say Greer, who operated tow trucks in Clovis, Gilroy and Hollister, sued parties that did not own the vehicles, arranged for falsified proof of service so as to obtain quick default judgments against defendants never apprised of his suits, and engaged in perjury. [San Jose Mercury-News, press release]
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BLT has the latest update on litigation we have been following for a good long while.
State Farm asks a family to pay for the bumper damage after its dog is run over [AFP, Ontario]
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The complainant says management proposed to place her on “weight probation” when she had trouble fitting into her uniform at the winks-and-wings eatery. She’s suing under Michigan discrimination law, which is unusual in making weight a protected category. [WSJ Law Blog]
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Lawyers sued German automaker VW charging that water could leak into the car from the sunroofs on some of its models. Ted Major is not enthralled with the resulting settlement:
For many class members (such as myself), the only benefit they will receive is a piece of paper to put into the owner’s manual that says “check your sunroof drains every 40,000 miles.” That’s it, no reimbursement, no inspection, no free drain cleaning, nothing.
Lawyers say that and other benefits to class members, including an $8 million repair fund, are worth $125 million and justify a fee of $30 million plus $1.5 million in expenses. A fairness hearing in federal court in New Jersey is scheduled for June 26.
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It’s attractive enough to have lured private equity money:
Three years ago, the I.R.S. began offering bigger rewards — 15 percent to 30 percent of whatever money the government recovered — in a move that has turbocharged the agency’s whistle-blower program. …
Among the lawyers, hedge funds and investors who may provide the financing for class-action lawsuits and whistle-blower cases against government contractors, the reinvigorated I.R.S. program has attracted attention.
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Lowering the Bar has the word on a potentially time-beguiling app (at least if legal process is your thing). But maybe this counts as one too [CrunchGear on "class action lawsuit generator against AT&T" that documents dropped calls]
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The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing has agreed to stop investigating citizens on the theory that their political speech in and of itself constitutes a potential violation of housing discrimination laws. I’ve got more on the case at Cato at Liberty. Related earlier here and here.
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