Frontiers of client-chasing, U.K. edition is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

A federal judge in Las Vegas today issued a potentially devastating ruling against copyright enforcer Righthaven LLC, finding it doesn’t have standing to sue over Las Vegas Review-Journal stories, that it has misled the court and threatening to impose sanctions against Righthaven. … [U.S. District Court Judge Roger] Hunt’s ruling today came in a 2010 Righthaven lawsuit against the Democratic Underground, operator of a big political website.

One of DU’s message board posters had reprinted without permission, but with link and credit, four paragraphs’ worth of an article under copyright to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which is one of a number of newspapers with working agreements with RightHaven. And this part’s interesting:

In their counterclaim [which Judge Hunt allowed to proceed], attorneys for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a digital free speech group based in San Francisco, hit Righthaven and Stephens Media with allegations of barratry (the alleged improper incitement of litigation); and champerty (an allegedly improper relationship between one funding and one pursuing a lawsuit)….

Some fans of entrepreneurial lawyering in the academy and elsewhere have sought to portray rules against barratry and champerty as wrongheaded survivals of a much older approach to the role of the legal profession. But it looks as if EFF — no one’s idea of a Blackstone-reading antiquarian club — just put those rules to powerful use. [Las Vegas Sun]

P.S. Bloggers who settled wonder: can we get our money back?

“Judge rules Righthaven lacks standing to sue, threatens sanctions over misrepresentations” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

February 15 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Separately, Groklaw has analyzed what happened in one sample case. Of the furor aroused by the lawsuits, “I think the benefits are worth the negative publicity,” said one executive with the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s owner at a September panel.

The entrepreneurial copyright litigation firm has also now signed up the Denver Post as a new affiliate, and has made a splash by suing the owner of the Drudge Report over its use of a photo allegedly swiped from the Colorado newspaper, an offense (if proven) presumably not as readily defended under “fair use” doctrine as some others over which it has sued.

Righthaven update is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Let’s you and him fight is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

P.S. Good round table at New York Times “Room for Debate”, check out in particular the Paul Rubin and Richard Epstein contributions; Kenneth Anderson/Volokh (“insurable interest”).

NY Times on litigation finance is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“More Attorneys Exploring Third-Party Litigation Funding” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

• Federal judge tosses city of Baltimore’s case blaming its neighborhood blight on subprime lenders, but Memphis files a similar suit;
• “The catchall fraud law that catches too much”: Roger Parloff of Fortune on “honest services”;
• Moonlighting: New York state senate majority leader John Sampson joins large plaintiff’s firm in “of counsel” position, an arrangement long held by his counterpart at the New York capitol, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver;
• “Trial lawyers association outlines its 2010 legislative agenda,” Montana Gov. Schweitzer to address AAJ Maui convention, “Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, the legal angle” [all from Carter Wood]
• Biggest obstacle to juvenile corrections reform? Prison guards’ unions;
• “Investor Who Backed Unsuccessful Lawsuit is Liable for Defendants’ Legal Fees“;
• A Twombly/Iqbal debate — and the harms of liberal pleading;
• U.S. Chamber’s “Top Five Ridiculous Lawsuits of 2009″ (and many other tops-of-2009 lists).

New at Point of Law is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

• Administration now seeks to take credit for med-mal reform as part of health care plan. How believably? (related here, here, here, here, etc.)
• Also related, if less closely: health care bill packed with goodies for labor;
• Trial lawyers continue push in Congress to restore minimally demanding notice pleading standard by overturning Supreme Court’s Iqbal, Twombly decisions;
• Imprisoned exec of Union Bank of Switzerland wants billions as whistleblowing bounty for assisting federal tax investigators;
• “Right and Left Join Forces on Criminal Justice” — the NYT coverage;
• “New Connecticut Law Tries to Trip Up ‘Runners’ and the Lawyers Who Hire Them”; Connecticut AG Blumenthal to push mandatory hospital error disclosure;
• Third-party litigation finance is getting more controversial;
• “The ethics counsel to the New York state senate told senators to hand-deliver ethics filings, rather than mailing them, to avoid coverage under the federal mail fraud statute.”
• More on public pension funds, securities class-action lawyers, and campaign contributions.

New at Point of Law is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

May 24 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system