http://overlawyered.com Chronicling the high cost of our legal system Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:11:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/february-9-roundup-3/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/february-9-roundup-3/#comments Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:07:43 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=27470

Ninth Circuit panel strikes down California’s Prop 8 [Volokh, Kerr, Magliocca, Lithwick, Steve Chapman]

Judge dismisses PETA “killer whales enslaved” case [Caroline May/Daily Caller, CNN, earlier]

“Patent Troll Claims Ownership of Interactive Web – And Might Win” [Joe Mullin/Wired, earlier; more on testimony by Web father Tim Berners-Lee] Update: Ding Dong! Jury rejects claim;

“Further Analysis of the Bottle-Rocket Case” [Lowering the Bar, earlier]

As patients suffer: “The War Over Prescription Painkillers,” start of a Radley Balko series [HuffPo parts one, two so far]

Richard Epstein on federal fiat and Yale disciplinary procedure [Defining Ideas] Under new-style rules at Yale, will a professor even be aware he’s been accused and henceforth is to be “monitored”? [KC Johnson]

Jim Copland testimony on abuses in government contingent-fee litigation [Manhattan Institute, PDF] “Parens patriae” proposal to replace class actions with state attorney general suits, but with private entrepreneurial bar still in saddle [Adam Zimmerman/Prawfs on Myriam Gilles/Gary Friedman, SSRN]

Tags: animal rights, attorneys general, class actions, colleges and universities, Ninth Circuit, patent trolls, pharmaceuticals, same-sex marriage, Yale

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/february-9-roundup-3/feed/ 3 http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/class-action-lawyers-swarm-around-buyout-deals/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/class-action-lawyers-swarm-around-buyout-deals/#comments Wed, 08 Feb 2012 05:30:12 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=27439 Merger announcements often trigger a spate of press releases announcing that securities plaintiff’s firms are “investigating” the situation. Even if the evidence of wrongdoing is absent and the financial analysis thin, lawsuits may be the next step, because that’s where the money is [David Nicklaus, St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

Tags: class actions, securities litigation

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2012/02/class-action-lawyers-swarm-around-buyout-deals/feed/ 1 http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/constitutionality-of-class-actions/ http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/constitutionality-of-class-actions/#comments Fri, 13 Jan 2012 12:09:24 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26825 Northwestern U. lawprof Martin Redish, a well respected academic, has marshaled a careful argument that important elements of the modern American class action lawsuit are unconstitutional. So why, Mark Herrmann wants to know, have defense lawyers not yet taken the opportunity to bring Redish’s theories to judges’ attention in an actual case?

Tags: class actions, constitutional law

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2012/01/constitutionality-of-class-actions/feed/ 1 http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/december-13-roundup-2/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/december-13-roundup-2/#comments Tue, 13 Dec 2011 05:43:41 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=26078

“The real cost of patent trolls” [Brad Feld, PoL on BU study] Survey finds patent litigation booming [Corporate Counsel, Reynolds Holding/Reuters] Company claiming patent on wi-fi-in-stores unlikely to sue retail customers “at this stage” [Patent Examiner] Retrospective on crustless-sandwich case [Peter Smith/Good, earlier]

Louisiana federal court holds severe obesity to be disability under ADA [Sam Bagenstos, related]

Florida: many cops remain on job despite evidence linking them to crimes [Balko on Sarasota Herald-Tribune investigation]

“FDA Regulation Could Doom Cigar Shops” [Jacob Sullum]

Ted Frank vs. Brian Fitzpatrick on class action fees [PoL, David Lat on Federalist Society panel]

Orange County keeps mum about partnerships it’s entered with plaintiff’s attorneys Robinson, Calcagnie and Thomas Girardi [Kim Stone, Fox & Hounds] Maybe like “private attorney generals”? Fannie/Freddie genre of government-sponsored enterprises called “monstrous moral hybrids” [Mark Calabria, Cato]

Posner: lawyers appeared more likely to run junk-fax suit for own interests than clients’ [Beck, Trask (Creative Montessori Learning Centers v. Ashford Gear LLC)]

Tags: class actions, Florida, Los Angeles, obesity, patent litigation, patent trolls, police, public employment, tobacco

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/12/december-13-roundup-2/feed/ 2 http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/that-should-take-care-of-the-annoyance-problem/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/that-should-take-care-of-the-annoyance-problem/#comments Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:06:41 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25177 A judge has ruled that the notice to class members of a class action over unsolicited faxes should be delivered by … fax [Christina Stueve, Madison County Record; related editorial]

Tags: class actions, Madison County

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/that-should-take-care-of-the-annoyance-problem/feed/ 2 http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/october-13-roundup-2/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/october-13-roundup-2/#comments Thu, 13 Oct 2011 05:36:49 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=25043

Behind the antitrust assault on Google [Jerry Brito, Josh Wright, more]

Rapid rise of lawsuit lenders [WSJ] And a Searle Civil Justice Institute conference on third party financing of litigation;

More law firms muscle into class action against e-book publishers [PaidContent] Fifth Circuit questions cy pres [Trask] And a new edition of the Federalist Society’s Class Action Watch is out;

When the house painters announce they’re not leaving: “Britain plans to tighten anti-squatter laws” [NYT]

“Courts Call Out Copyright Trolls’ Coercive Business Model, Threaten Sanctions” [EFF] “Righthaven’s Copyright Trolling is a Bankrupt Idea” [Cit Media Law] More: Vegas Inc.

“Twombly is the Logical Extension of the Mathews v. Eldridge Test to Discovery” [Andrew Blair-Stanek via Volokh, Frank] “Four more reasons to love TwIqbal” [Beck] “O’Scannlain says 9th Circ has adopted ‘Iqbal lite’ pleading standard, ‘Same insufficient complaints, fewer dismissals!’” [@ScottKGraham on dissent in Starr v. County of Los Angeles, PDF]

Florida farms sell raw milk as (wink) “pet food” [Sun-Sentinel]

Tags: antitrust, class actions, cy pres, food safety, Google, litigation finance, pleading, RightHaven

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/october-13-roundup-2/feed/ 1 http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/october-4-roundup-2/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/october-4-roundup-2/#comments Tue, 04 Oct 2011 05:45:14 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24880

Mass torts specialists vs. vendor: “Prominent Plaintiffs’ Attorneys Ordered to Pay Up After Losing Breach of Contract Trial” [Above the Law]

“You’ll have to get it on the street” — NYC’s thriving black market in pesticides [NYT, more]

Benjamin Barton on his new book, “The Lawyer-Judge Bias” [Truth on the Market, earlier here, etc.]

Medicare will not press “secondary payer” liability clawback claims below $300 [Miller and Zois, PoL, NLJ]

Class action roundup: “Sleeper” Supreme Court case raises question of whether class action certification requires consumer harm [Fisher/Forbes] Important Easterbrook opinion in Aqua Dots case puts curbs on class certification [PoL, Fisher/Forbes, Beck] Frey, Mortenson et al.: “The non-fiction class action” [Trask, OUP blog; earlier here, etc.]

Free speech roundup: Canada proposal could criminalize linking to alleged hate speech [Hosting Industry Watch] More on Canadian denouncers of speechcrime [Ken at Popehat] You don’t say: “$60,000 Ruling Against Truthful Blogger Tests Limits of the First Amendment” [Citizen Media Law] What happens when a defamation plaintiff asks a court for a takedown order? [same] Argentina: subpoenas step up pressure on reporters, editors who report on economy [NYT via Walter Russell Mead]

Should the law punish energy companies whose operations kill birds? Depends on whose osprey is being gored [Perry]

Tags: class actions, free speech, free speech in Canada, hate speech, Medicare, NYC, oil industry, online speech, pesticides

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/10/october-4-roundup-2/feed/ 2 http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/cant-squeeze-the-last-20-of-toothpaste-from-the-tube-sue/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/cant-squeeze-the-last-20-of-toothpaste-from-the-tube-sue/#comments Thu, 29 Sep 2011 10:57:08 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24840 “The full volume of toothpaste will not be dispensed, no matter how hard the consumer tries to squeeze,” complains the lawsuit filed against Procter & Gamble by Jonathan Rothstein of Encino, Calif., needless to say as a class action [LA Weekly]

Tags: class actions

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/cant-squeeze-the-last-20-of-toothpaste-from-the-tube-sue/feed/ 21 http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/judge-blasts-lead-plaintiffs-firm-for-epic-failures-in-securities-case/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/judge-blasts-lead-plaintiffs-firm-for-epic-failures-in-securities-case/#comments Fri, 23 Sep 2011 12:51:03 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24737 “Bernstein Leibhard has been chastised by a federal judge for revealing after six years of lawyering that the lead plaintiff in a securities case never bought the funds at issue.” [Mark Hamblett, New York Law Journal]

Tags: class actions, securities litigation

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]]> http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/judge-blasts-lead-plaintiffs-firm-for-epic-failures-in-securities-case/feed/ 2 http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/free-help-from-securities-class-action-lawyers/ http://overlawyered.com/2011/09/free-help-from-securities-class-action-lawyers/#comments Tue, 20 Sep 2011 05:07:24 +0000 Walter Olson http://overlawyered.com/?p=24702 Following murmurs about pay-to-play, South Carolina has turned down offers from local powerhouse Motley Rice and from Labaton Sucharow, whose attorneys had donated $12,000 to Attorney General Alan Wilson. [The State]

Tags: attorneys general, class actions, Labaton Sucharow, Motley Rice, securities litigation, South Carolina

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