Overlawyered » Cincinnati

October 14 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 04:44:05 +0000

Uh-huh: new report from federal Legal Services program calls for gigantic new allocation of tax money to, well, legal services programs [ABA Journal]
“Judge: Man’s a ‘vexatious litigator’” [Cincinnati.com]
Wisconsin governor signs bill requiring prescription to buy mercury thermometer [Popehat]
“Injured by art?” Woman sues Museum of Fine Arts Houston after fall in artist-designed light tunnel [Mary Flood, Houston Chronicle "Legal Trade"]
On Carol Browner and the cry of “environmental racism” (a/k/a “green redlining”) [Coyote]
New York: “Lawyers implicated in $9 million mortgage fraud” [Business Insider]
In Canada, as in the U.S., medical privacy rules hamper police investigations [Calgary Herald]
Stalin’s grandson loses lawsuit in Russia against newspaper that supposedly defamed the dictator [WSJ Law Blog, Lowering the Bar, Volokh]

Tags: art and artists, Canada, Cincinnati, environment, HIPAA, Houston, legal services programs, mortgages, redlining, Russia, serial litigants, Wisconsin

Cincinnati Bengals to pay $250,000 in suit over season tickets

Walter Olson — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 13:56:45 +0000

“The fans will split $50,700 with no one receiving more than $2,600 and most getting just $100. Their attorneys will get $175,000.” [Huntington, W.Va. Herald-Dispatch] More: Cincinnati Enquirer. To be fair, the main benefit of the litigation to the fans was evidently not the cash that changed hands, but the stipulation that they were not obliged to buy further tickets they said they had never agreed to buy.

Tags: Cincinnati, class action settlements, football

Football-keeping neighbor sues parents

Walter Olson — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 05:05:40 +0000

Ohio: “The 88-year-old Blue Ash woman arrested after refusing to give a 13-year-old neighborhood boy his football back after it landed in her yard has sued the youth’s parents, alleging emotional distress. The lawsuit by attorney H. Louis Sirkin on behalf of Edna Jester contends that Paul and Kelly Tanis “and their minor children ‘regularly and without permission’ enter Jester’s yard to retrieve footballs and other play items that have been ‘carelessly tossed’ onto her property, the suit adds. …The Blue Ash city solicitor and city prosecutor later dropped the misdemeanor theft charge filed against Jester after she refused a police officer’s order to return the Tanis boy’s football.” (Barry M. Horstman, “Football keeper files lawsuit”, Cincinnati Enquirer, Jan. 3).

Tags: Cincinnati, emotional distress, Ohio, recreation

Kentucky fen-phen judge bought silence of plaintiff objector

Ted Frank — Mon, 26 May 2008 13:14:00 +0000

Judge Joseph Bamberger rubber-stamped a Kentucky fen-phen settlement agreement where plaintiffs’ attorneys cheated class members out of tens of millions of dollars. In the process, his former law partner was paid millions by the settlement, which he used to buy a Florida house with Bamberger, and Bamberger himself received a $5000/month sinecure. At trial of the three lead attorneys yesterday, jurors were shown a videotape where one of the plaintiffs questioned the judge on how low her settlement was and the validity of her release; the videotape shows Bamberger browbeating the plaintiff, but then awarding her an additional $100,000 and a $1200/month life annuity on the condition that she cease talking about the settlement and her objections to it. (Jim Hannah, “Judge dressed down victim”, Cincinnati Enquirer, May 24) (h/t R.U.). For some reason yet undisclosed by prosecutors, Bamberger is on the witness stand rather than in the dock with Gallion, Mills, and Cunningham.

Tags: Cincinnati, feeing frenzy, Joseph Bamberger, Kentucky fen-phen settlement fraud, scandals

Kentucky fen-phen trial continues

Walter Olson — Sat, 17 May 2008 17:38:48 +0000

Here’s your $3 million bonus, young man, and whatever you do, don’t tell the clients how much the case settled for (Jim Hannah, “Fen-phen lawyer details bonus”, Cincinnati Enquirer, May 15; earlier)(via Slater, WSJ law blog).

Tags: Cincinnati, ethics, feeing frenzy, fen-phen, Kentucky, Kentucky fen-phen settlement fraud

May 16 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 16 May 2008 14:19:29 +0000

Polar bears on parade: “Lawsuits are not the best way to force the public into solving planet-size problems such as climate change.” [Christian Science Monitor editorial]
Jury convicts private investigator Anthony Pellicano, trial of entertainment lawyer Terry Christiansen set for July [Variety; earlier]
Knockoff sneakers differed from Adidas original in having two or four stripes instead of three, didn’t save Payless Shoes from getting hit with $304 million verdict [American Lawyer]
Following up on our discussion of municipal tree liability: Michigan high court OKs homeowner class action over sewer line damage from city trees [AP/MLive]
Attorney Franklin Azar, of Colorado TV-ad fame, says jury’s verdict ordering him to pay a former client $145,000 was really a “big victory” for him [ABA Journal]
Annals of tolling-for-infancy: “Dog bite 10 years ago subject of civil suit” [MC Record]
Feds indict Missouri woman for cruel MySpace hoax that drove victim to suicide: Orin Kerr finds legal grounds weak [@ Volokh]
“I blame R. Kelly for Sept. 11″: some ways potential jurors managed to get off singer’s high-profile Chicago trial [Tribune; h/t reader A.K.]
Update: “click fraud” class actions filed in Texarkana against online ad providers have all now settled [SE Texas Record; earlier]
Judge orders dad to stay on top of his daughter’s education, then jails him for 180 days when she fails to get her general equivalency diploma [WCPO, Cincinnati; update, father released]
Lawyers still soliciting for AOL volunteer class actions [Colossus of Rhodey; earlier]

Tags: Anthony Pellicano, AOL, Arkansas, Cincinnati, click fraud, climate change, Colorado, fathers, global warming, jury selection, Michigan, Missouri, MySpace, roundups, Texas, tolling, trees

February 19 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 00:05:56 +0000

Raising ticket revenue seems more important to NYC authorities than actually recovering stolen cars [Arnold Diaz/MyFoxNY video via Coyote]
Subpoena your Facebook page? They just might [Beck/Herrmann]
Rhode Island nightclub fire deep pockets, cont’d: concert sponsor Clear Channel agrees to pay Station victims $22 million, adding to other big settlements [ProJo; earlier]
Manhattan federal judge says “madness” of hard-fought commercial suit “presents a cautionary tale about the potential for advocates to obscure the issues and impose needless burdens on busy courts” [NYLJ]
Wooing Edwards and his voters? Hillary and Obama both tacking left on economics [Reuters/WaPo, WSJ, Chapman/Reason, WaPo editorial]
Sad: if you tell your employer that you’re away for 144 days on jury duty, you actually need to be, like, away on jury duty [ABA Journal]
New at Point of Law: Florida “three-strikes” keeps the doctor away; court dismisses alien-hiring RICO suit against Tyson (and more); Novak on telecom FISA immunity; fortunes in asbestos law; Ted on Avandia and Vioxx litigation; new Levy/Mellor book nominates Supreme Court’s twelve worst decisions; and much more;
U.K.: “Lawyers forced to repay millions taken from sick miners’ compensation” [Times Online]
Outside law firm defends Seattle against police-misconduct claims: is critics’ beef that they bill a lot, or that they’re pretty good at beating suits? [Post-Intelligencer]
Cincinnati NAACP is campaigning against red-light cameras [Enquirer]
Omit a peripheral defendant, get sued for legal malpractice [six years ago on Overlawyered]

Tags: asbestos, Avandia, Barack Obama, Cincinnati, Clear Channel, deep pocket, Facebook, FISA, NYC, red light cameras, Rhode Island, Rhode Island Station nightclub fire, roundups, Seattle, telecom immunity, Vioxx

More about Joseph (”Joey”) Langston, part II

Walter Olson — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 00:53:47 +0000

As a number of commentators have noted (e.g. Brett Kittredge @ Majority in Mississippi, Alan Lange @ YallPolitics), Booneville attorney Joey Langston, who just entered a guilty plea on charges of judicial corruption, is someone accustomed to throwing the weight of his pocketbook around in Mississippi politics. In particular, he has been among the biggest donors to incumbent Mississippi attorney general Jim Hood, even as Hood employed Langston and partner Tim Balducci on contract to handle the controversial MCI tax bill negotiations, with their resulting $14 million legal fees payable to Langston et al, and the potentially very lucrative Zyprexa litigation.

Equally interesting in some ways, however, are Langston’s activities on the national political scene. To take just one example: this CampaignMoney.com listing tabulates the top “527″ contributions to a group called the Democratic Attorneys General Association, whose political and electoral mission is implied by its name. In the listing, two donors are tied for first place, with contributions of $100,000 apiece. One is the large Cincinnati law firm of Waite Schneider Bayless Chesley, associated with one of the country’s best-known plaintiff’s lawyers, Stanley Chesley. The other $100,000 contribution is from Joey Langston.

In presidential politics, Langston has recently been a repeat donor to the quixotic (and, since Iowa, defunct) campaign of Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), a lawmaker whose high degree of seniority on the Senate Judiciary Committee makes him important to ambitious lawyers whether or not he ever attains the White House. When the Scruggs scandal was still in its early stages, the WSJ law blog (Dec. 10) noted that two key figures in the affair, Tim Balducci and Steve Patterson, were strong backers of the Biden campaign: “Their bet on Biden was that he wouldn’t win the presidency but would become Secretary of State under a Hillary Clinton administration, according to two people familiar with their thinking.” The Journal reprinted (PDF) an invitation to an Aug. 10, 2007 fundraising reception for Biden at the Oxford (Miss.) University Club, sent out above the names of six hosts, three of whom (Scruggs, Balducci and Patterson) were soon indicted. Scruggs, of course, is better known for his support of Mrs. Clinton, a fundraiser for whom he had to cancel after the scandal broke.

Campaign-contributions databases such as OpenSecrets.org and NewsMeat indicate that Langston has been a prolific and generous donor to incumbent and aspiring Senators across the country, mostly Democrats (Murray, Cantwell, Daschle, Nelson, etc.) but also including a number of Republicans who might be perceived as swing votes or reachable, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Susan Collins (Me.), and Arlen Specter (Penn.)

Incidentally, some critics have intimated that Langston’s generous support to DAGA, the Democratic Attorneys General Association, should actually be interpreted as a roundabout gift to Hood, who was the beneficiary of interestingly timed largesse from DAGA. It does not appear, however, that any of the parties involved — Langston, Hood or DAGA — have acknowledged any connection between the timing of the donations (& welcome Michelle Malkin, David Rossmiller, YallPolitics readers).

[Second of a two-part post. The first part is here.]

Tags: Arlen Specter, attorneys general, Biden, Cincinnati, Dickie Scruggs, Hillary Clinton, Iowa, Jim Hood, Joe Biden, Joey Langston, Lindsey Graham, Maria Cantwell, Mississippi, Patty Murray, politics, scandals, Stan Chesley, Timothy Balducci, Tom Daschle

Suspended NFL players file disabled-rights claims

Walter Olson — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 00:07:35 +0000

Middle linebacker Odell Thurman of the Cincinnati Bengals and Tampa Bay Bucs cornerback Torrie Cox, both suspended for repeat violations of the National Football League’s substance abuse policy, filed complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging discrimination on the basis of being regarded as disabled, with alcoholism being the disability. The Americans with Disabilities Act has been construed to prohibit discrimination against rehabilitated alcoholics, but not to protect current substance abuse. However, the line distinguishing behavior regarded as current from that regarded as past can be hazy. (Len Pasquarelli, “Bengals’ Thurman, Bucs’ Cox file discrimination claims against NFL”, ESPN.com, Aug. 17). Paul Secunda discusses at Workplace Law Prof (Aug. 23).

Tags: Cincinnati, disabled rights, sports

Kentucky fen-phen lawyers are jailed

Ted Frank — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 17:35:07 +0000

“The court finds that there is a serious risk that the funds will be moved offshore and that with these funds at their disposal, the defendants will flee to a country with which the United States has no extradition treaty or otherwise disappear,” U.S. District Judge William Bertelsman wrote in the Friday order sending Shirley Cunningham Jr., William Gallion, and Melbourne Mills Jr. to jail without bond until the January 7 trial date. (Jim Hannah, “Fen-phen lawyers are jailed”, Cincinnati Enquirer, Aug. 11). We have lots of coverage of the Kentucky fen-phen lawyers, who have been found in a civil case, to have misappropriated $62 million of settlement funds by overcharging on attorneys’ fees and other diversions. Cincinnati attorney Stan Chesley, who has not been criminally indicted, is also civilly liable on part of his $20 million fee for helping to negotiate the settlement, with the scope of liability yet to be determined; trial has been delayed while the criminal trial is pending.

Tags: Cincinnati, fen-phen, Kentucky, Kentucky fen-phen settlement fraud, Melbourne Mills Jr., scandals, Shirley Allen Cunningham Jr., William Gallion

Overlawyered » Cincinnati

October 14 roundup

Related posts

Cincinnati Bengals to pay $250,000 in suit over season tickets

Related posts

Football-keeping neighbor sues parents

Related posts

Kentucky fen-phen judge bought silence of plaintiff objector

Related posts

Kentucky fen-phen trial continues

Related posts

May 16 roundup

Related posts

February 19 roundup

Related posts

More about Joseph (”Joey”) Langston, part II

Related posts

Suspended NFL players file disabled-rights claims

Related posts

Kentucky fen-phen lawyers are jailed

Related posts