Welcome back from the July 4 weekend. Here are some popular stories you might have missed from a busy last month:

• Milberg settles; Weiss sentenced; Bill Lerach gloats. Scruggs also sentenced, but Fieger beats the rap.
• Yeah, my client’s son jumped two fences labeled with a “danger” warning, but Six Flags over Georgia should have done more to keep him from being decapitated by a Batman roller coaster.
• Another lawyer blames the lawn mower manufacturer for the fact that his client was backed over with it by his father.
• My client’s 18-year-old daughter got drunk and fell off a stranger’s hotel balcony; this is the chaperone’s fault.
• I briefed and argued an objection to a bogus class action settlement–and got New York Times press coverage in the process. I also filed an amicus brief on behalf of economists in Wyeth v. Levine.
• Most-read post: Judge Kozinski’s web site and Cyrus Sanai. A gift that kept on giving.
• Employment lawyer sued by former client and former employee for sexual harassment.
• Jack Thompson finally faces legal discipline. But Stan Chesley gets immunity to testify.
• Two more parts of Jim Copland’s excellent series on asbestos.
• Sued for dangerous workplace if you allow loose-fitting clothing, sued for religious discrimination if you don’t.
• The case against Civil Gideon.
• Judge claims never to have heard of an attorney working a 15-hour day.
• Jackpot justice in Tennessee: $105 million verdict reduced to “only” $5 million on appeal as Chrysler blamed for death caused by car being hit at 70 mph. And, in Texas, forum-shopping plus failure to wear seat-belt leads to $29 million verdict against Ford over tires where car owner ignored recall of ten-year-old tire.
  
• New York court: just because you have proof of insurance fraud doesn’t mean you’re entitled to summary judgment.
• Trial Lawyers Inc.: Michigan.
• Former West Virginia Justice Richard Neely makes implausible claims about his earlier forthright statements about judicial bias in favor of wealth-redistribution.
• Spineless sycophants of the world, unite!

• Judge Sykes criticized a lawsuit over a Halloween display.

• Does the ADA prohibit wi-fi? The plaintiff is an anti-microwave activist.
  
• DC Circuit: paper money violates the law.
  
• NY attorney: my vacation plans are worth $1 million.
• Overlawyered favorite Montgomery Blair Sibley suspended in Florida and DC.

• Ted objected to the proposed Grand Theft Auto class action settlement.
• FACTA declared unconstitutional by Alabama federal judge.
  
• Merck vindicated in Texas appeal; Mark Lanier throws tantrum.
• Barack Obama and tort reform.
• Waddah Mustafa’s fly in a water bottle not worth hundreds of thousands.
• Jim Copland guest-blogged on asbestos: 1, 2, 3, 4.

With all the football and recovery from partying on New Years’ and MLK weekends, you might have missed some of our biggest posts of the month:

• Trial lawyer Mark Lanier visits our comments section to talk about the Vioxx settlement. We had continuing coverage of the $4.85 billion settlement, and Ted spoke at an AEI panel on the subject broadcast on C-SPAN.
• Walter’s phenomenal coverage of the Dickie Scruggs scandal: Jan. 13, Jan. 14, Jan. 15, and Jan. 16 (Joey Langston); Jan. 17; Jan. 21; Jan. 29.
• The “pro-consumer” bills before Congress that hurt consumers.
• Three cases of catastrophic injury to children, three deep-pocketed bystanders asked to pay.
• Racially “targeting” predatory subprime loans? The NAACP and Baltimore suits.
• Another case of employment litigation hurting employees.
• The Nataline Sarkisyan case, and the lies John Edwards (and Wikipedia) tell about it.
• Suit: You kept me from jumping off the Empire State Building.
• The Banita Jacks case and followup.
• Police more likely to sleep with than arrest prostitutes.
• Sangria illegal in Virginia?

• John Edwards’s support for wacky warnings.
• Author’s suit: Penguin labeled my book “black interest.”
• Kentucky fen-phen litigation heats up—or, at least, the critical fee documentation did when the attorneys burned it.
• Not a huge surprise: environmental lawsuits hurt environment.
• I wasn’t impressed by a trial lawyer’s claim of “forgiveness” at the punitive damages stage.
• Best or worst? Miscellaneous time-wasting spats with Bizarro-Overlawyered: medical malpractice; constitutional history; affluence, accidents and ad hominems; rollover economics.

Completing our series of the Best of 2006 in a busy month:

• Frequent filer v. Kraft: pay my attorney millions because I didn’t read the label on your guacamole dip.
• ADA Week: drive-by suits and filing mills, $2.5 billion sidewalks, the separatist fringe, paper money redesign for the blind appeal, and an epileptic’s right to operate heavy equipment.
• Jesse Branham v. Ford: $31M verdict against Ford when driver drove off the road while turned around, and followup and more followup. See also multimillion dollar seatback verdicts, again blaming Ford for driver error. Ford did win an Arkansas “sudden acceleration” case, and the losing lawyer wrote in.
• Imams: we want to “hit [US Airways] where it hurts, the pocketbook.”
• Killer’s mom sues high school for not stopping him.
• Warren Buffett’s new insurance company on medmal caps.
• Class action for uninjured Nintendo Wii purchasers.
• GAO on litigation risk and drug development.
• Lawsuit: I should be allowed to anoint cubicles with olive oil
• What do wacky pro se cases teach about legal reform?
• UK patient: doc hurt my feelings by telling me to quit smoking
• California Prop 65: protecting us from cooked chicken.
• 19 year old dies moshing, sues home owner
• Bad facts make bad law—and that’s true even when the defendant wins because of that bad law.

• Judge rules paper money illegal under Rehabilitation Act, criticized by National Federation of the Blind
• Taxpayer bill for dog food meal: $2.7 million until the mayor vetoed the settlement
• More on the great 1998 tobacco robbery
• Place kicker cum Illinois Supreme Court justice wins $7 million libel judgment against newspaper daring to criticize him.
• Woman hits truck, sues truck-trailer manufacturer, wins millions
• Thomas Frankovich suspended for vexatious ADA filings
• Obnoxious Chi Psi frat boys sue Borat
• Welsh dragon sausages. Warning: does not contain dragon
• “Wrongful birth” suits reach Germany
• Activists sue, demanding foie gras ban
• Lighter manufacturers ask for more CPSC regulation

• Safety vs. “discrimination”:9th Circuit: UPS must hire deaf drivers; EEOC challenges Exxon’s pilot age limit; “To avoid charges of ‘racism,’ we disciplined black and white students differently.”
• Jackpot justice: $217M for misdiagnosed stroke in Florida (and followup)
• Trespass atop rail car, win $24 million
• Jackpot justice: $20M for $25,000 insurance claim
• Judicial elections and the New York Times
• On picking a jury
• Public Citizen and DMI caught using misleading statistics
• Encore on the falling-out-of-a-loft-bed case
• Why there aren’t DVDs of some of your favorite old TV series
• Tag banned because of liability fears
• Punitive damages and the Supreme Court
• Two more hot-coffee-lawsuit datapoints. It might be easier to list the chains that haven’t been sued for serving coffee.

In best of

• Calif. AG sues automakers for global warming
• Plaintiff: McDonald’s should’ve warned me and my boss not to be gullible. Incidentally, the circumstantial criminal case against the guy behind the insidious phone calls fell apart because his defense attorney was able to impeach the victims (in a different Louisville case) by accusing them of trying to shake down McDonald’s for hundreds of millions. So he’s still on the street. Thanks, plaintiffs’ bar!
• The burglar and the skylight: another debunking that isn’t
• First rumblings of NYC trans fat ban gets Wally TV coverage.
• Suit: plaintiff was too stupid to be admitted into law school
• Neglect your kid now, sue for $5 M later
• Lonelygirl 15 creator defends Grand Theft Auto against meritless lawsuit
• NAACP suit: unlawful for clinic to close on Jewish Sabbath
• Can we blame lawyers for pro se claims?
• New Bizarro-Overlawyered blog writers don’t realize they’re arguing for reform, or providing excellent examples of how lawyers hurt medical consumers. See also the relationship between efficiency and safety; Milberg Weiss Fellow Cyrus Dugger visits the comments in an unrelated post to make an unfounded accusation that he refuses to back up.
• Pelman allowed to sue McDonald’s over getting fat.

• Wal-Mart lawn mower suit: newspaper reporter parrots plaintiff’s attorney’s implausible tale without fact-checking
• The Kessler RICO ruling on tobacco
• NJ court: no warning that one might fall out of loft bed required
• $18 million “sudden acceleration” verdict in South Carolina
• Another way lawyers hurt safety
• ADA frequent filer forgets who he’s suing
• Lawyers fake evidence in $2B suit, still practice today
• The return of the spilled-coffee tort—or is it?
• Trial lawyer wikiality

• Junk faxers get a bigger bounty than Osama bin Laden (and here)
• Wore boxer shorts to game, sues over yearbook photo
• Mistaken for Michael Jordan, so he sues
• Revealed preference for trans fats
• 151-proof rum is flammable, who knew?
• Plaintiff sues Con Ed because Dr. Bartha blew himself up with gas
• Red Buttons, comedian, litigant
• “Sued for expressing “glee” over lawyer’s indictment”
• Town seeks to hold parents liable for kids’ drinking in homes

• Family sues MySpace when 14-year-old daughter sneaks out of house to meet 19-year-old boy; the arrested alleged rapist also threatens suit.
• Plaintiff can sue Illinois Burger King for being hit by car that crashed through restaurant.
• Plaintiff fakes injuries, wins millions, drives doctor out of Illinois.
• “You’re going to get accident cases of people that aren’t really hurt, you say they’re hurt and you send them to the doctor.” But everybody does that!
• How speed limits hurt consumers.
• Programmer plaintiffs win overtime wages at the cost of bonuses and stock options; lawyers get contingent fees for “victory.”
• Day care center kills child with lawn mower, lawn mower company liable for $2M.
• Commenter disregards self-heating coffee warning, seeks lawyer: “Our microwave was destroyed, our kitchen was covered in dried latte”
• Alleged cost of bad behavior exceeds all money in existence.
• What are consumer hellholes?

Class actions galore:

• Class action plaintiffs: $5 discount on new 2-year cell-phone contract; lawyers, $5.5 million
• Class action plaintiffs: literally worthless coupon; lawyers, $975,000
• Class action against LA Angels seeking $4,000/tote bag leads to Frivolous Lawsuit Night in Altoona
• When bringing a class action complaining about a missing 10 calories in the label, make sure your named plaintiff wasn’t adding crumbled cookie toppings to the low-fat dessert.
• E-mail a lawyer, discover you’re a named class-action plaintiff; whereas Milberg Weiss is accused of just buying their plaintiffs through illegal kickbacks, as well as purchasing a thinktank fellowship.

That’s not to say that there weren’t other types of lawsuits:

• “Student Sues Illinois University After Deer Attack”
• $14M “wrongful birth”
• Legal right to “emotional support goats”?
• Wet t-shirt lawsuits create perverse incentives

• Respirator manufacturers spent 90% of their income defending themselves against hundreds of thousands of shotgun lawsuits, though they haven’t lost one.
• The bait and switch of “abstinence” education
• One reason for high gas prices on the East Coast: junk-science MBTE cases.
• Chrysler liable when unattended toddler shifts van (with key left in ignition) out of park and falls out of car.
• “Please don’t feed the trial lawyers”
• Sadly, Joe Jamail’s deposition video is no longer on YouTube, but there are always the anecdotes. Update: back on YouTube as of Jan. 8
• 14 years, $14.5M; 14 minutes, $1.2M plus punitives. Who says non-economic damages aren’t irrational?
• Prop 65: “shaking down the defendants for ubiquitous trivia”

• Tried to outrun subway train, wins $1.4M
• Texas undercover agents preemptively arrest drinkers in bars for being drunk.
• IDEA: school choice for legally savvy parents.
• Not about the money files: $175 million suit against BGE
• County 25% responsible for employee’s murder of husband
• The Trevor Law Group’s new shakedown practice?
• When jurors bring expertise
• Even Madison County asbestos juries have their limits.
• Future sexually-frustrated-fan celebrity class actions

A busy month:

• Target sued because website not accessible to the blind.
• Sued for taking baths too early.
• The winning plaintiffs’ attorney responds to our post objecting to a $29 million verdict.
• “Fair housing” suit against Craigslist.
• Rhode Island jury endorses nuisance theory against lead paint manufacturers
• Maquiladoras spend $17M defending themselves against junk science.
• “Customer of size” loses suit against Southwest Airlines.
• $160 million for (someone else’s) beating
• Mississippi jackpot justice.
• Dallas Observer doesn’t owe $1 billion.
• Flying shrimp not so fatal after all.
• Warren Meyer’s favorite lawsuit.

• James Frey meets a million little plaintiffs. And then some.
• Lawsuit garners restaurant second review.
• Sherri Carlson blames Nickelodeon and Kellogg for having to say no to her kids.
• PPA litigation fizzles.
• Missouri court throws out $80M sudden acceleration verdict on appeal.
• E-mail and litigation.

We’ve added, along the right column of this site’s front page, a new sidebar feature entitled “Greatest Hits”, linking to a selection of our and readers’ favorite posts from the past (and maybe a stray article or two we’ve written fitting the theme). It’s intended as a rotation, so periodically some posts will drop off and be replaced with others.

An archive of links from the feature follows the jump.

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