Overlawyered » Ben Stein

Ben Stein vs. Kyocera

Walter Olson — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 12:43:46 +0000

Maybe his old Milberg pals will rep him? A public personality’s curious lawsuit after missing out on a spokesperson job [Felix Salmon, earlier]

Tags: Ben Stein

“Company hawking ‘free’ credit scores goes after blogger who calls this a bait and switch”

Walter Olson — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 04:10:25 +0000

Paul Levy at Consumer Law & Policy reports that a firm called Adaptive Marketing has brought a pre-litigation discovery proceeding seeking to unmask the identity of a pseudonymous blogger who accused the firm and its parent, Vertrue, of improper business practices. The company “ran into controversy a few months ago for using former New York Times columnist Ben Stein in its TV ads for ‘free credit scores.’” More: Felix Salmon, and an update from Levy. Related: new AP story on rash of lawsuits seeking to reveal identity of anonymous bloggers and commenters.

Microblog 2008-10-12

Walter Olson — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 03:59:59 +0000

The Brokers with Hands on Their Faces Blog [via Radley Balko] #
Still undecided on Calif.’s anti-gay Prop 8? Here’s why every paper of note in the state advises voting no [Box Turtle Bulletin] # Also radio’s John & Ken [same] #
Ben Stein 2007, meet Ben Stein 2008 [Felix Salmon] #
Everyone was glad to see Anchorage, Alaska restored as a salmon habitat but then… [Anchorage Daily News via Ted] #

Tags: Alaska, Ben Stein, environment, same-sex marriage, Twitter

Yoko Ono vs. Ben Stein

Walter Olson — Wed, 21 May 2008 20:29:32 +0000

Can’t-they-both-please-lose? dept.: Columbia’s Tim Wu is confident that excepting 15 seconds of Lennon’s Imagine for purposes of criticizing it will count as fair use, which one may hope would be true without necessarily predicting that the courts will agree (WSJ law blog, May 20; earlier).

Tags: Beatles, Ben Stein, copyright, movies film and videos

April 29 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:03:00 +0000

“Dog owners in Switzerland will have to pass a test to prove they can control and care for their animal, or risk losing it, the Swiss government said yesterday.” [Daily Telegraph]
72-year-old mom visits daughter’s Southport, Ct. home, falls down stairs searching for bathroom at night, sues daughter for lack of night light, law firm boasts of her $2.475 million win on its website [Casper & deToledo, scroll to "Jeremy C. Virgil"]
Can’t possibly be right: “Every American enjoys a constitutional right to sue any other American in a West Virginia court” [W.V. Record]
Video contest for best spoof personal injury attorney ads [Sick of Lawsuits; YouTube]
Good profile of Kathleen Seidel, courageous blogger nemesis of autism/vaccine litigation [Concord Monitor*, Orac]. Plus: all three White House hopefuls now pander to anti-vaxers, Dems having matched McCain [Orac]
One dollar for every defamed Chinese person amounts to a mighty big lawsuit demand against CNN anchor Jack Cafferty [NYDN link now dead; Independent (U.K.)]
Hapless Ben Stein whipped up one side of the street [Salmon on financial regulation] and down the other [Derbyshire on creationism]
If only Weimar Germany had Canada-style hate-speech laws to prevent the rise of — wait, you mean they did? [Steyn/Maclean's] Plus: unlawful in Alberta to expose a person to contempt based on his “source of income” [Levant quoting sec. 3 (1)(b) of Human Rights Law]
Hey, these coupon settlements are giving all of us class action lawyers a bad name [Leviant/The Complex Litigator]
Because patent law is bad enough all by itself? D.C. Circuit tosses out FTC’s antitrust ruling against Rambus [GrokLaw; earlier]
“The fell attorney prowls for prey” — who wrote that line, and about which city? [four years ago on Overlawyered]

*Okay, one flaw in the profile: If Prof. Irving Gottesman compares Seidel to Erin Brockovich he probably doesn’t know much about Brockovich.

Tags: antitrust, asbestos, autism, Barack Obama, Ben Stein, coupon settlements, Erin Brockovich, forum shopping, free speech in Canada, Germany, hate speech, jackpot justice, John McCain, Kathleen Seidel subpoena, libel slander and defamation, Mark Steyn, nanny state, parody, roundups, Switzerland, vaccines, West Virginia

April 17 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 23:31:08 +0000

“I did not know what kind of monster we were dealing with”: dramatic testimony from Judge Lackey on Scruggs corruption [Folo; and repercussions too]
New at Point of Law: Pork-barreling Albany lawmakers shell out for just what NY needs, three more law schools; Sarbanes-Oxley unconstitutional? Ted goes after JAMA on Vioxx; sadly, appeals court overturns Santa Clara opinion that nailed ethical problems with govt.-paid contingency fee; legal aid lawyers, to subprime borrowers’ rescue? and much more;
Cadbury claim: we own the color purple as it relates to chocolate [Coleman]
A world gone mad: Innocence Project directors include… Janet Reno? [Bernstein @ Volokh]
Not unrelatedly: Can a California prosecutor be held liable for wrongful murder conviction of man freed after 24 years? [Van de Kamp versus Goldstein, L.A. Times via Greenfield]
With all his lawyer chums from Milberg-witness days, you’d think Ben Stein could have saved the makers of his creationist movie from stumbling into textbook IP infringements [Myers, again, WSJ law blog]
Groggy from dental anesthesia, plus a half a glass to drink: then came the three felony DUI counts [Phoenix New Times, Balko via Reynolds]
Shell says boaters had years of notice that mandated ethanol in fuel was incompatible with fiberglass marine gas tanks, which hasn’t stopped the filing of a class action [L.A. Times via ABA Journal]
Terrorism asymmetry: “They say ‘Allahu Akbar!’ we say ‘Imagine the liability!’” [McCarthy/Lopez, NRO]
Deborah Jeane Palfrey convicted [WaPo; earlier]
David Neiwert truly born yesterday if he thinks Kevin Phillips is noteworthy for his record of being right [Firedoglake; some correctives]

Tags: Ben Stein, contingent fee, Dickie Scruggs, ethanol, Innocence Project, Janet Reno, Kevin Phillips, Milberg Weiss, prosecutorial abuse, roundups, terrorism, trade dress

Lerach: “Everybody was paying plaintiffs”

Walter Olson — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:59:16 +0000

“A prominent class-action lawyer facing sentencing today for secretly paying plaintiffs to file securities lawsuits, William Lerach, is suggesting that the under-the-table practice was widespread and was not isolated to the firm he helped run for decades, Milberg Weiss. … Despite the highly publicized travails of what was once America’s leading class-action law firm, there has been little public discussion of whether other firms may have emulated the secret payment scheme Lerach and other Milberg lawyers devised.” Notwithstanding a request by Lerach’s lawyers that the letters from his friends and supporters asking clemency be sealed from public inspection, most of the letters have become public, revealing the identities of such entirely unsurprising Lerach backers as Ralph Nader (who in this one particular case did not favor prison for white-collar criminality) and Ben Stein, known to readers of these pages (though apparently not to many readers of his New York Times column) as an expert witness hired repeatedly by Lerach to help portray sued companies’ conduct in the harshest possible light. (Josh Gerstein, “Lerach Says Payoffs Were Widespread”, New York Sun, Feb. 11). Another letter writer: Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) And the list of letter-writers (PDF) includes “two redacted names in between Gordon Churchill and Charles Cohen”, leading to speculation that one or both surnames might be “Clinton”. It seems unlikely, though, that either prominent ex-White House resident would have risked the sort of negative publicity involved even as a gesture to acknowledge Lerach’s past favors. (CalLaw “Legal Pad”, Feb. 8)(corrected shortly after posting to reflect release of most letters by stipulation of parties, not judicial order). Update 4 p.m. EST: sentence is 24 months.

Tags: Ben Stein, Bill Lerach, class actions, ethics, Milberg Weiss, Ralph Nader

November 7 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 04:07:49 +0000

“I’ve always thought that promoting yourself as a ‘Super Lawyer’ or ‘Best Lawyer’ was pathetic, self-aggrandizing and meaningless.” [Larry Bodine; Karen Donovan, Portfolio ("cheesiest"); ABA Journal]

That big campaign by bossy public health groups and tobacco-suit veterans for legal restrictions on fat in the American diet is still with us, even as its scientific credibility falters [Tierney, NYT]

“1,700 Connecticut Attorneys Suspended Over $110 Bill” — now that sounds like a bargain [ABA Journal]

Blackwater meets Elmer Gantry? John O’Sullivan shouldn’t plan on being invited to the Edwards inaugural [NRO Corner]

Nor would it be prudent to invite Felix Salmon and Ben Stein to the same dinner party [Portfolio; more]

Truly dreadful idea from feminist Northwestern lawprof Kimberly Yuracko: constitution obliges states to ban sexist homeschooling [SSRN via Prawfsblawg; Serious Learning, Ragamuffin Studies, TalkToAction, Marcy Muser]

New at Point of Law: some results of Tuesday’s election; employers whipsawed on risk of fetal injury; signs of exhaustion at long jury trials; wanna become a law professor?; 9/11 dust injury, or ground-up pills in his bloodstream?; more on Chevron/Texaco and the Ecuador Indians; dept. of New York Times self-parody; and more;

Lawyer who sued McDonald’s over cheese-allergic client served cheeseburger (Aug. 10, Sept. 1) asks to be released from case, says he’s quitting law practice [LegalNewsLine]

Of seven leading White House aspirants, all but McCain have law degrees, and all the other six but Romney practiced as lawyers [Liptak, NYT]

UK: “A lorry driver sentenced to 150 hours’ community service for a drunken racist assault has been let off after probation chiefs claimed the punishment could breach EU working hours limits.” [Daily Mail]

Notation on Scruggs’s court file: to be “kept away from the press” [five years ago on Overlawyered]

Tags: Ben Stein, chasing clients, Chevron, Connecticut, Dickie Scruggs, Europe, Ground Zero dust lawsuits, John Edwards, juries, law schools, McDonald's, sued if you do, United Kingdom

“Ben, take off your clown suit for a minute”

Walter Olson — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 00:08:03 +0000

Larry Ribstein has some advice for Times business columnist and not always intentional comedian Ben Stein (Sept. 3).

Tags: Ben Stein, class actions

Peacocks in the barnyard

Walter Olson — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 10:17:09 +0000

Los Angeles Times reporter Molly Selvin wanted my opinion of class-actioneer Bill Lerach for this profile, so I gave it. Holding up the other end of the discussion are Lerach fans Jamie Court, of Harvey Rosenfield’s outfit, and actor/humorist/ expert-economic-witness-in-Milberg-cases Ben Stein (”Unsettling Days for King of Class Actions”, Jul. 23)(cross-posted at Point of Law).

Tags: Ben Stein, Bill Lerach, class actions, Milberg Weiss

Overlawyered » Ben Stein

Ben Stein vs. Kyocera

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