If you’re reading our blog, you might be interested in some of the blogs that link to us, which include the ones in our sidebar to the right, Judgepedia, Right Thinking, Adam Smith Institute, Patterico, The Objective Eye, Locomotive Breath 1901, Lumpen, Rougblog, New Age, A Brief History, Tai-Chi Policy, Moorewatch, DBKP, Jane Genova, BuffaloG, Not Frequently Updated, Not PC, Nobrainer, and Walker.
This wretched proposal to pursue sensitive foreign policy goals by way of treble-damage antitrust suits against sovereign nations is met by a hail of dead cats from Below the Beltway, Gateway Pundit, Liberty Reborn, Buffalog, Coalition of the Swilling, Sense of Events, Q and O, Coyote, Politics in the Zeros, Socrates’ Academy, It’s a Funny Thing, Bronze Blog, Discerning Texan, Blog About Nothing, It Looks Obvious, NoBrainer’s, Wheeling Intelligencer, and Collideoscope, among others. Earlier here.
And yet more: Perry de Havilland, Samizdata (”a derangement of legislators”)(via ASI).
City governments, sometimes in league with private counsel working on contingency fee, “have started suing banks and mortgage companies to recoup their costs” on such services as “fire departments, police, code enforcement or even demolition” in blighted neighborhoods. “The lawsuits were filed in recent months under different theories, in state and federal court. Cleveland and Buffalo filed suits under public nuisance laws. Minneapolis’ suit was brought on consumer fraud grounds, while Baltimore took the unusual approach of filing suit in federal court under alleged Fair Housing Act violations.” Bank of New York says it was included in Buffalo’s suit against 39 lenders even though it neither originated nor purchased loans, but merely acted as trustee. (Julie Kay, “Empty Homes Spur Cities’ Suits”, National Law Journal, May 9).
William K. Mattar, 43, of Buffalo “has built a substantial auto-injury practice through the estimated $2 million he spends each year on ads produced by CJ Advertising in Nashville, Tenn.” Now three lawyers who worked for Mattar have quit in acrimonious circumstances, providing a look inside the firm’s workings. Joseph Bergen said Mattar had admitted never having tried a case and had never taken a client deposition in the nine years Bergen had worked with the firm. As business poured in from TV viewers, the lawyers say, Mattar stopped using his staff lawyers to screen the cases for likely merit, instead devolving that task on a call center in Tennessee. Meanwhile, the staff lawyers’ caseloads swelled to more than 200 cases apiece, along with which came “increased pressure from Mattar to settle a minimum of two to three cases a week each,” whether or not the lawyers felt the cases were in an appropriate posture to settle. The three are setting up their own personal-injury firm, and Mattar depicts them as disgruntled employees who are misleading clients in hopes of taking away business from him. (Michael Beebe, “Mattar’s 3 trial lawyers quit”, Buffalo News, Oct. 25; “Mattar says lawyers conspired to steal clients”, Nov. 1; Martha Neil, “Former PI Colleagues Now Battling in Buffalo”, ABA Journal, Nov. 1). For some reason the Buffalo-Rochester area has generated a steady stream of colorful stories about law firms with saturation TV-ad budgets, sometimes coupled with factory-line methods; see our earlier coverage of Cellino & Barnes/The Barnes Firm and the now-retired Jim (”The Hammer”) Shapiro, of “hand you their severed heads” fame, who conceded in a deposition that he had never tried a case.
Buffalo attorney Matthew Kolken takes issue with our Aug. 7 post “…a classic American success story”, which quotes him:
I am writing this in response to your article found at http://www.overlawyered.com/2007/08/a_classic_american_success_sto.htmlIt is no surprise that my characterization of the Levin family was taken out of context.
What the press and your article have failed to explain is that my characterization of the Levin family as a classic American success story was in reference to the hardships that the family endured prior to coming to the United States as refugees in the late 1970s.
The family left the Soviet Union with only $500.00 in their pockets, and their wedding bands, because all of their possessions and money were confiscated as property of the State.
Without even knowing the language, Mr. and Mrs. Levin worked from nothing to afford their children a better life. They did all of this within the confines of the law, and I am honored to be considered part of their family.
Unfortunately, their son made a tremendous error in judgment. He has paid for this error, and is forced to live with his regret.
Thankfully in this country the sins of the son are not the sins of the father, or of the family, and shame on you for casting derision without first knowing all of the facts.
Good day.
Matthew L. Kolken, Esq.
In Buffalo, a federal judge has sentenced Belarus native Maxim Levin to time served and ordered him to pay $334,000 restitution following a guilty plea over an extensive scheme of staging car crashes and submitting bogus insurance claims. The prosecution resulted in guilty pleas from roughly two dozen defendants, some of whom who were actually in Brooklyn at the time of claimed accidents hundreds of miles away in Buffalo. As part of a five-year program of supervised release, Levin is also supposed to finish his last semester at the University at Buffalo — in what field of study we are not informed, but one 2004 account described him as a prelaw student. In operating his First Buffalo Medical Clinic, Levin employed a bogus doctor, Mark Nepokroeff, who treated patients for nine years on a forged Mexican medical school diploma and was sentenced to four months. (Michael Beebe, “Man gets time served for staging crashes”, Jul. 7, and Dan Herbeck, “Ex-clinic head pleads guilty in phony claims from auto insurance”, Mar. 5, Buffalo News pay-archive coverage; BH Times, Jul. 8; Buffalo FBI office 2005 and 2007 releases; Johnsville News, Nov. 24, 2004; NY State Insurance Dept., Feb.). Like Greedy Trial Lawyer (Jul. 8), I find the most piquant element of the case to be the character testimonial given by Levin’s brother-in-law, trial lawyer Matthew L. Kolken, who wrote to Judge William M. Skretny asking leniency and describing the Levin family as “a classic American success story”. P.S. Kolken responds here.
“I’m not going to look at the evidence submitted to me. I want this plaintiff to get money. Tell each of your clients to pay up and make a contribution if they want to get out of this lawsuit.”—unnamed Buffalo Supreme Court judge, according to Brendan P. Cunningham op-ed in the June 22 Buffalo News.
“A state senator from Brooklyn said on Tuesday he plans to introduce legislation that would ban people from using an MP3 player, cell phone, Blackberry or any other electronic device while crossing the street in New York City and Buffalo.” (”Ban Proposed On Cell Phones, iPods In Crosswalk”, WNBC, Feb. 7). Comment: TechDirt, Global Nerdy, Bainbridge, Wired blog. A Blog for All rounds up links. Commenter Mike Knowland at Dvorak.org writes, “It won’t be enforced, but when someone gets hit by a car while breaking this law, the driver won’t be 100% at fault anymore.”
Mary Brzyski worked for Skidmore Inc., in East Aurora, NY, where she drove a company car that was leased from Chrysler. In 2003, Brzyski loaned the car to her 19-year-old son, Andrew, who rear-ended Jason Lapp’s car, severely injuring him. Longtime readers know what happened next. Irrational New York law (Jul. 14, 2003, Apr. 2, 2004, Feb. 2, 2005) holds the lessor liable, even when, as here, they are three transactions away and never anticipated that a 19-year-old would be driving the car. Skidmore and Chrysler have settled for $8.2 million. (”$8.2 million settlement accepted in crash suit”, Buffalo News, Dec. 15). Congress has stepped in to the breach (Aug. 4, 2005), at least until the litigation lobby undoes that reform.
The Barnes Firm, formerly Cellino & Barnes, is a powerhouse in the personal-injury business in upstate New York, where it is a ubiquitous advertiser. According to the Buffalo News, it’s built one of the largest caseloads of Vioxx lawsuits in the nation by hawking its star attorney, Brian A. Goldstein, who in television ads
described how he was uniquely qualified to represent Vioxx users. Not only was he a personal injury lawyer, he told viewers, he was a former physician and board-certified surgeon….The lawsuits accuse the drug’s maker, Merck & Co., with failing to tell patients the whole truth about Vioxx.
Goldstein, though, appears guilty of the same charge about his medical background. Georgia’s Composite State Board of Medical Examiners revoked Goldstein’s license to practice medicine on Jan. 10, 1991.
Goldstein was found guilty of providing Georgia licensing authorities with misleading and incomplete information about his education, according to records obtained by The Buffalo News. The licensing board found that Goldstein:
• Attended college and medical school at the same time in the Dominican Republic.
• Graduated from medical school less than three years after he graduated from high school.
• Received credit for courses he had not taken, had not completed or failed.
• Said he attended Tulane University when he had not, falsified his earlier training and submitted a false letter of recommendation for a residency at the Manhattan Psychiatric Center.
The hearing officer in Georgia not only recommended revocation but also said the decision should be published “as a public reprimand for [Goldstein] for his conduct.”
But none of that information was mentioned in the Vioxx ads, or in Goldstein’s biography on The Barnes Firm Web site.
The Buffalo News investigation includes various defenses of his conduct offered by Goldstein, including the following:
He also said Georgia authorities failed to consider the fact he had received an undergraduate degree from Empire State College.The News confirmed that degree from the college, which grants degrees based on life experience as well as academic studies. But the degree was granted in 1988, three years after Georgia filed charges against him.
The newspaper asks medical ethicist Arthur Caplan about Goldstein’s “selective use of parts of his medical background to recruit legal clients”. Caplan’s response: “I think it’s sleazy”. (Michael Beebe, “Did Barnes Firm lawyer tell the whole truth?”, Buffalo News, Jan. 22). Carolyn Elefant comments at My Shingle (Jan. 22), and the incident also stirs memories for blogger Gina at Together Again (Jan. 23). The law firm of Cellino & Barnes has figured in these pages before: see Jul. 15, 2005.
In Rochester there’s a food fight going on in court over a dubious local culinary specialty, the “Garbage Plate”, which consists per AP of “a heaping platter of hot dogs or hamburger, home fries, macaroni salad and baked beans smothered in a meaty hot sauce”. Nick Tahou’s restaurant has held a registered trademark to the Depression-era dish since 1992 and may fear, like the promoter of the breakfast health food in the Saki story, losing its market supremacy once rivals introduce yet more unpalatable-sounding concoctions. Copycat platters sold by other Rochester restaurants include Messy Plate, Sloppy Plate, Dog Dish and Plat du Refuse. (Ben Dobbin, “In Rochester food fight, ‘Garbage Plate’ takes on ‘Plat du Refuse’”, AP/Buffalo News, Apr. 9).
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Antoinette Millard told New Yorkers she was a Saudi princess, and ran up hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, when she was actually Lisa Walker, a divorced investment banker from Buffalo who lived in a one-bedroom apartment on 89th Street and Third Avenue. (Photo of “Antoinette” at a January society party.) She got caught when she tried to make a fake insurance claim for stolen jewelry eleven days after purchasing the policy. From Rikers Island, she’s countersuing American Express for daring to seek to recover the $951,000 she charged without paying, claiming they “should have known that [she] was acting impulsively and irrationally” because of “anorexia, depression, panic attacks, [and] head tumors” and shouldn’t have been given credit in the first place. She seeks $2 million. (Samuel Maull, AP, Nov. 24; Dareh Gregorian, “The Gall-$tar”, New York Post, Nov. 25).
In Reason, Ronald Bailey fact-checks the New York Times on the purported environmental catastrophe near Buffalo that touched off a hundred copycat toxic-tort episodes as well as the federal Superfund program (Mar. 24).
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Administrators of upstate New York cities are complaining that the cost of litigation saps their budgets: Rochester paid out $443,000 in 2002, while Buffalo writes between $700,000 and $900,000 worth of settlement checks a year. But maybe they should count their blessings: “Last year, despite its massive deficit, New York City paid out $525 million.” (Rick Armon, “More citizens taking governments to court”, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, Jul. 28). The figures represent a municipal budgetary burden of about $2 for each of Rochester’s 219,000 residents, perhaps closer to $3 if some share of the $253,000 in outlays for surrounding Monroe County is ascribed to the city. The comparable figure for New York City (in which city and county government are merged) is $65 per resident or $260 for a family of four.
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June 28-30 – Lawyer’s 44-hour workday. “Cook County State’s Attorney Dick Devine is investigating charges a lawyer routinely billed the state’s child welfare agency for more than 24 hours’ work a day on uncontested adoptions.
“According to records obtained by Cook County Public Guardian Patrick Murphy, Joyce Britton had a busy week in April 2001: On Monday, April 9, she worked 34 hours. On Tuesday, she worked 44 hours. On Wednesday it was 29; 33 on Thursday, 25 on Friday, 42 on Saturday. … Britton billed the agency $862,000 for fiscal years 2000 and 2001. The second-most-active attorney handling uncontested adoptions billed $285,000.” (Abdon M. Pallasch, “Did adoption lawyer really work 44 hours in one day?”, Chicago Sun-Times, Jun. 25). (DURABLE LINK)
June 28-30 – Tobacco settlement funds go to tobacco promotion. An investigation by the Charlotte Observer finds that of the $59 million that the state of North Carolina has spent so far in proceeds from the tobacco settlement, nearly three-quarters — “about $43 million — has gone toward production and marketing of N.C. tobacco”. (Liz Chandler, “N.C. spends settlement on tobacco, not health”, Charlotte Observer, Jun. 23) (via Andrew Sullivan — scroll to third item). (DURABLE LINK)
June 28-30 – Ambulance driver who stopped for donuts loses suit. Sad news for the hero of our Nov. 2-4 item: “A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a former ambulance driver who claimed he was wrongfully fired after stopping for doughnuts while transporting a patient to a hospital.” Larry Wesley “stopped for doughnuts in July 2000 while he was taking an injured youth to Ben Taub Hospital” and was fired after the boy’s mother complained. U.S. District Judge Lee Rosenthal “ruled that Wesley’s claims that other employees received lesser sanctions were not supported by the record, and he also failed to show that he was treated more harshly than other drivers.” (”Judge dismisses lawsuit filed by ambulance worker fired for doughnut stop”, AP/KRTK Houston, Jun. 27). (DURABLE LINK)
June 28-30 – More on gambling as next-tobacco. The Newark Star-Ledger’s take; quotes our editor (Judy DeHaven and Kate Coscarelli, “Gaming Industry Could Be Next Target of a Big Tobacco-Type Lawsuit”, Newhouse News Service, Jun. 24)(see May 20-21). (DURABLE LINK)
June 27 – Pledge marathon. Even Justice William Brennan seemed to recognize that it tends to damage the good name of religious unbelief to associate it in the public mind with theories of hair-trigger unconstitutionality which encourage running to court over the most minute details of official ceremony. See Eugene Volokh (multiple posts); “One Nation Under Blank” (editorial), Washington Post, Jun. 27; Megan McArdle (and reader comments); Walter Dellinger, “Logically Speaking, the 9th Circuit Doesn’t Exist”, Slate, Jun. 27; David G. Savage, “9th Circuit just following form”, L.A. Times/ Houston Chronicle, Jun. 26. Update: also see columns by Steve Chapman, “Coming to terms with our Constitution”, Chicago Tribune, Jun. 30; Jonathan Foreman, “The real pledge problem”, New York Post, Jul. 1. (DURABLE LINK)
June 26-27 – “Win Big! Lie in Front of a Train”. Per a case summary in a recent New York Law Journal, “A State Supreme Court jury in Manhattan had awarded $14.1 million to a woman who was hit by an E train. The accident occurred on May 3, 2000, in a subway tunnel just north of the 34th Street station on the Eighth Avenue line. … What was she doing in that strange place to begin with? It seems the woman, then 36, had entered the tunnel and lain down on the tracks. The police concluded later that she was trying to kill herself. She denied it, though she also said she could not remember how she had ended up there.” No wonder the Bloomberg administration is pushing municipal tort reform (Clyde Haberman, New York Times, Jun. 25)(see also Oct. 23, 2001, Dec. 17, 2001). (DURABLE LINK)
June 26-27 – Asbestos: saving the Crown jewels? “In a decision that is sure to grab the attention of the asbestos personal injury bar, a Philadelphia Common Pleas judge has dismissed Crown Cork & Seal as a defendant in 376 pending asbestos cases. Judge Allan J. Tereshko found that Philadelphia- based consumer packaging company Crown Cork & Seal qualifies for relief under a new Pennsylvania law that limits the successor liability of asbestos defendants whose liability results only from merging or acquiring companies that produced asbestos products. Under the law, the company must be incorporated in Pennsylvania prior to May 2001 and must show that its liabilities in asbestos lawsuits have equaled or exceeded the ‘fair market value’ of the company whose acquisition resulted in the successor liability.” (Shannon P. Duffy, “Pennsylvania Court Upholds Law Limiting Asbestos Liability”, The Legal Intelligencer, Jun. 13)(see Jun. 27, 2001). (DURABLE LINK)
June 26-27 – “Ex-Teach’s Suit: Kids Abused Me”. Sued if you do, sued if you don’t dept.: trial is set to start today in Brooklyn “in a ground-breaking lawsuit filed by a former special education teacher who charges he was harassed by students. … Vincent Peries, who is from Sri Lanka, says students at Francis Lewis High School in Queens mimicked his accent, tossed paper balls at him,” and made fun of his ethnic background. “School officials don’t deny Peries was harassed — but argue that they can’t discipline special ed students for slurring a teacher. ‘This is because students with that classification have already been identified as having behavioral problems, and the verbal misconduct might be considered a manifestation of their disability,’ city lawyer Lisa Grumet wrote in court papers. Special ed students can be suspended only for incidents involving physical violence, drugs or a dangerous weapon, according to Board of Education regulations.” (John Marzulli, New York Daily News, Jun. 25)(& welcome Joanne Jacobs readers) (& update Jul. 24; city settles with him for 50K). (DURABLE LINK)
June 26-27 – “‘Vexatious litigant’ vows he’ll keep coming back”. Portrait of a Texas frequent litigant who’s filed more than twenty lawsuits over the past two years, against a list of defendants that includes more than a dozen judges and assorted other officials. Among factors working in his favor, aside from our general lack of a loser-pays rule: “pauper status” rules providing for the waiver of filing fees, and a lack of cross-checking that might allow the clerk in one county to learn that Mr. O’Dell is under a court order handed down in another county to petition for approval before filing any more suits in the state. (Lisa Sandburg, San Antonio Express-News, Jun. 24). (DURABLE LINK)
June 24-25 – Reparations roundup. Someone should start a weblog devoted to reparations links, it’d be easy to fill:
* In the fall of 2000, ABC’s “20/20″ and New York Times reporter Barry Meier distinguished themselves by collaborating on a devastating exposé of “personal injury lawyer Edward D. Fagan, [who] recreated himself four years ago as [a] media-savvy figure behind huge lawsuits on behalf of Nazi victims” as the Times’s abstract puts it. The investigation (to quote ABC) “found serious questions being raised about this so-called savior, now accused of ignoring and neglecting some of the very clients he had promised to help”. ABC interviewed well-known legal ethicist Stephen Gillers, who spoke in startlingly blunt terms of his opinion of Fagan’s client-handling record (”I think it’s despicable”; “This is client abuse, in my view, and it should not be allowed to continue”.) As for Fagan’s allegedly pivotal role in developing the WWII claims, “‘We essentially worked around him,’ says New York University law professor Burt Neuborne. ‘I mean, he was, he was there, but, but he played, if I tell you zero, I mean zero role in developing the legal theory, in presenting the legal theory, and in participating as a lawyer,’ says Neuborne.” (Brian Ross, “A Case of Self-Promotion?”, ABCNews.com, Sept. 8, 2000; Connie Chung, Sam Donaldson and others, “The Survivors” (transcript), ABCNews “20/20″, Sept. 8, 2000; Barry Meier, “An Avenger’s Path: Lawyer in Holocaust Case Faces Litany of Complaints”, New York Times, Sept. 8, 2000 (abstract leads to fee-based archive); Barry Meier, “Judge Warns Lawyer to Pay Past Penalties”, Sept. 13, 2000 (same)).
But credulity springs eternal — at least in those portions of the press not industrious enough to do a Google search or two to check out the background of a lawyer re-emerging into the headlines. Last week, Fagan was all over the papers announcing that he was going to file reparations suits against Western corporations on behalf of victims of the late apartheid regime in South Africa. Britain’s Observer swallowed his pitch whole, bannering its article “Lawyer who championed those who suffered in the Holocaust fights for South Africa’s oppressed” and calling Fagan the “American lawyer who won compensation for Holocaust victims”. We’re sure that would come as news to Prof. Neuborne. (Terry Bell, “Apartheid victims sue Western banks and firms for billions”, The Observer, Jun. 16).
* On New York’s Niagara Frontier: “Thousands of Grand Islanders were thankful and relieved Friday after a federal judge ruled that the Seneca Indians do not own the land beneath their homes, businesses and public buildings”. U.S. District Judge Richard C. Arcara ruled that not only did the Seneca tribe relinquish any legal claim they might have had to the relevant tracts of New York state way back in 1764, but “there is no archaeological evidence that the Senecas ever actually set foot on the Niagara Islands.” But landowners on the island are nowhere near achieving clear title to the properties they once thought they owned, since the Senecas vow to appeal. (Dan Herbeck and T.J. Pignataro, “Sigh of relief”, Buffalo News, Jun. 22).
Meanwhile, litigation by other tribes continues to wreak havoc across a wide swath of New York State (see Nov. 3-5, 2000 and links from there). Last fall another such case ended with a federal judge’s ruling in favor of the Cayuga tribe, which 200 years ago sold the 64,000-acre tract to the state in violation of the U.S. Trade and Intercourse Act. The verdict was $36.9 million to which the judge added $211 million in interest for a grand total of $247.9 million, considerably below the $2 billion that the tribe’s lawyers had been asking for, a request that had reflected the tendency of a sum starting off long enough ago to grow to the sky through the miracle of compound interest. (Margaret Cronin Fisk, “200-Year-Old Land Dispute Nets $247.9 Million”, National Law Journal, Oct. 17). See also John Caher, “New York State May Be Solely Liable for Indian Land Claims”, New York Law Journal, Apr. 2 (suit by Oneidas “demand ‘ejectment’ of the City of Syracuse”). Update Jun. 29, 2005: Second Circuit panel throws out Cayugas’ suit and damage award as inconsistent with recent Supreme Court decision in City of Sherrill.
* Ah, the healing and emollient qualities of the reparations movement, which holds out the promise of putting racial frictions finally behind us: “A new Mobile Register - University of South Alabama survey shows that while 67 percent of black Alabamians favor the federal government making cash payments to slave descendants, only 5 percent of white Alabamians agree. Among the supporters is J.L. Chestnut, a black Selma lawyer who is part of a national legal team preparing to file reparations litigation. … ‘In five years of polling in Alabama, I have never seen an issue that was so racially polarizing,’ Nicholls [Keith Nicholls, the University of South Alabama political science professor who oversaw the survey] said. He added that the mere mention of reparations and an official U.S. government apology for slavery — another issue addressed in the poll — caused many white respondents to get so angry that they had trouble completing the interview.” (Sam Hodges, “Register-USA poll: slavery payments a divisive question”, Mobile Register, Jun. 23). (DURABLE LINK)
June 21-23 – “Trolling for litigation on eBay”. Via Ernie the Attorney: “Someone bought a packaged cheese stick that supposedly had a human hair. They want to sue, and have posted the following description of the item bid for on Ebay: ‘You are bidding on the opportunity to represent us in a civil proceeding. Naturally, our discovery of this apparently tainted product has traumatized us, and we may never be able to truly enjoy cheese (or other dairy products, or other processed foods, or other food for that matter) ever again. We reserve the right to review winner’s qualifications upon auction end. Winner must be a licensed attorney.” Before you ask, no, we don’t know whether the person who posted the auction is serious or not, though our guess is that they’re not. Update 20:45 EDT Friday: it looks as if the eBay authorities have removed the auction. It was discussed by users on eBay Forums (Jun. 21). (DURABLE LINK)
June 21-23 – Tobacco fees: a judge gets interested. Here’s one to watch closely: a Manhattan judge may finally be getting ready to delve into some of the ethical questions raised by the 1998 tobacco settlement, or at least the $25 billion portion of it that covers New York state. The judge “has asked the New York attorney general’s office and several law firms to justify $625 million in attorney fees awarded” as part of New York’s settlement with the tobacco industry (see May 11, 2001). “Citing unspecified ethical concerns, Supreme Court Justice Charles E. Ramos ordered state lawyers and attorneys from six firms that represented the state to explain why the fees should not be set aside. One ground for vacating the fees, the judge said, could be that the arbitrators who awarded them may have ‘manifestly disregarded well established ethical and public policies.’ Ramos suggested that the court had the power to not only ask a new panel of arbitrators to determine reasonable fees, but to vacate the entire $25 billion settlement, approved by another judge in 1998, if such action was warranted. He also said the issue could be referred to the Departmental Committee on Discipline and require the outside firms to produce time sheets detailing their roles in the litigation.” (Tom Perrotta, “New York Judge Cites Ethics Concern Over Tobacco Case Fees”, New York Law Journal, Jun. 20). (DURABLE LINK)
June 21-23 – 11th Circuit reinstates “Millionaire” lawsuit. “A federal appeals court has reinstated a lawsuit alleging that ABC discriminates against disabled people trying to become contestants on ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire.’ The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided that the lawsuit contained a valid claim that the show’s qualifying system, which uses touch-tone phones, violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.” (see Nov. 7, 2000; Brian Bandell, “Lawsuit Reinstated Against ABC Show”, AP/New York Post, Jun. 19; Susan R. Miller, “Disabled Floridians Get Shot at ABC’s ‘Millionaire’”, Miami Daily Business Review, Jun. 21). (DURABLE LINK)
June 21-23 – Welcome Grouse.net.au readers. We’re picked as link of the day on this Australian site for June 21. Also for Jun. 21, we’re Mr. Quick’s “Link of the Day”. Among blogs sending us visitors lately: Tres Producers, Flyover Country, Aaron Haspel’s God of the Machine, Hollywood Investigator, Bob Owen of the Twin Cities, Ross Nordeen, Ravenwolf, Jon Garthwaite’s TownHall C-Log, Junkyard Blog, Now You Listen to Me Little Missy, and many others, as well as the links page of premier Cathblogger Amy Welborn. (DURABLE LINK)
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