August 28th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
MDL Judge Eldon Fallon orders plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees in the $4.85 billion settlement to be capped at 32%. Hooray, right? Certainly, the trial bar is capable of arguing for itself that the ruling is wrong and it is entitled to a couple of hundred million more, but I might just have to take their side here.
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In attorneys' fees; class action settlements; contingent fee; ethics; judges; procedure; Vioxx
August 20th, 2008 at 6:32 am
- Lawyers’ contingency fee is temptation to ethical corner-cutting in consumer debt collection, too [Miami Daily Business Review, Popehat; Orlando's Palmer Reifler & Associates, mass mailing of demand letters to accused shoplifters]
- Discussion continues on loser-pays with me and many others at NewTalk, and note comment from Ontario lawyer [through today]
- Age bias suit by Hollywood writers gains traction. Next, actors? [Ink Slingers via Class Action Blawg weekly review]
- Class action against Quebec lottery on behalf of problem gamblers finally set for trial [CP/Yahoo, Lee Distad via Class Action Blawg, earlier]
- Should we and other commentators avoid mentioning litigants’ real names so as not to intrude on their Google legacy? [comments at Ron Miller/Md. Injury]
- California lawmakers OK feel-good “Donda West Law” but it won’t do much to keep impulsive clients from rushing into plastic surgery [GruntDoc, Cameron Turner/EURWeb, Truth in Cosmetic Surgery Blog]
- Probably not a swift career move for lawyer to tell bar disciplinary panel “Go to hell.” [ABA Journal]
- Class action forces HUD to allocate more to some Indian recipients, so it cuts other programs, bad news for North Carolina’s Lumbee tribe [Fayetteville, N.C. Observer courtesy US Chamber]
- Environmental authorities won’t press charges against man who shot protected rattlesnake that had just attacked and bitten him [eight years ago on Overlawyered]
In age discrimination; California; Canada; compulsive gambling; contingent fee; debtor-creditor law; endangered species; Indian tribes; legal discipline; medical; movies film and videos; North Carolina
August 2nd, 2008 at 9:04 am
Analyzing the upcoming race between the incumbent, Darrell McGraw, and his clean-government opponent, Dan Greear, the West Virginia Record has an extensive story on the West Virginia attorney general’s habit of giving lucrative no-bid contingency-fee contracts to his campaign contributors, as well as holding on to settlement money for his own personal slush fund. I am quoted at length and described as “widely regarded as one of the country’s leading voices in tort reform.” Also notable are quotes from another “Washington, D.C.-based lawyer who has written articles about the need for reform.” Kim Strassel also has a good piece on the subject in Friday’s Wall Street Journal:
To Mr. Greear’s advantage, his opponent is a case study of abuse in office. Mr. McGraw, in more than 14 years as West Virginia’s attorney general, has been a pioneer in the practice of filing questionable lawsuits against big companies, secretly doling out the legal work to outside trial lawyer friends who reap millions in fees. Those lawyers then turn around and donate heavily to Mr. McGraw’s re-election.
Polls show the public, in theory, disapproves. In a Tarrance Group survey last year, 75% of West Virginians think an attorney general should publicly disclose outside contracts with lawyers. Nearly 60% think attorneys should have to competitively bid for those jobs.
It’s this that motivates Mr. Greear. “I’ve watched what’s going on and thought: ‘If I were doing this to a client, I’d lose my law license.’ I don’t think any fair-thinking person can think this is good government, or good solid legal representation for West Virginia,” he tells me.
Also helping is that Mr. McGraw’s own sense of political immortality has recently landed him, and his state, in hot water. In 2001, he appointed four private law firms to sue drug companies for alleged deceptive advertising of OxyContin. Having forced a settlement in 2004, he handed his tort allies $3.3 million of the $10 million haul. Mr. McGraw had sued on behalf of state agencies (including the state’s Medicaid program) — yet his office kept the rest of the settlement money.
The federal government, which pays a significant portion of the state’s Medicaid bills, remains furious the program received none of the settlement, and is now threatening to withhold millions in Medicaid money. Mr. Greear is hitting hard on the uproar, using it to suggest Mr. McGraw has lost sight of why he’s suing companies, other than for the headlines.
In attorneys general; contingent fee; Darrell McGraw; politics; Ted Frank; West Virginia
July 8th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
- Business groups have signed off on dreadful ADA Restoration Act aimed at expanding disabled-rights lawsuits, reversing high court decisions that had moderated the law [WSJ; more here and here]
- U.K. man to win damages from rail firms on claim that trauma of Paddington crash turned him into deranged killer [Times Online]
- Patent cases taken on contingency lead to gigantic paydays for D.C.’s Dickstein Shapiro and Wiley Rein [Kim Eisler, Washingtonian; related last year at Eric Goldman's]
- Fort Lauderdale injury lawyer disbarred after stealing $300K in client funds; per an ABA state-by-state listing, Florida has not enacted payee notification to help prevent/detect such goings-on [Sun-Sentinel; more]
- I’ll pay top dollar for that spot under the bridge: tech firms hope to outbid patent trolls for marginal inventor rights [ABA Journal]
- Enviro-sympathetic analysis of Navy sonar case [Jamison Colburn, Dorf on Law, first and second posts via Adler @ Volokh]
- Obama proposal for youth national service “voluntary”? Well, schools will lose funds if they fail to meet goals [Goldberg, LAT; bad link fixed now]
- Not-so-independent sector: under pressure from Sacramento legislators (Feb. 6, PoL May 30), California foundations pledge to redirect millions toward minority causes [CRC]
- James Lileks on lawyer-friendly Microsoft Minnesota settlement [four years ago on Overlawyered]
In California; contingent fee; disabled rights; Florida; Navy sonar; Obama; patent litigation; patent trolls; payee notification; railroads; schools; third party liability for crime; United Kingdom
May 26th, 2008 at 8:44 am
We now know how many people signed up for the Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas class action settlement out of the millions of members in the purported class.
Tier 1 (up to $35.00) (no exchange required): 416
Tier 2 (up to $17.50) (exchange required): 22
Tier 3 ($10.00) (exchange required): 131
Tier 4 ($5.00) (no exchange required): 2,050
Disc Exchange w/o cash: 57
2676 total claimants, receiving a total cash value of at most $26,505, though likely even less than that, given that the plaintiffs’ attorneys record no actual cash distribution.
The seven “representative” class members are asking for approval to receive another $24,500, or nearly half of the total cash recovery.
Of course, as we’ve discussed, none of these people had a legitimate cause of action or suffered any legally cognizable injury. But how much are the plaintiffs’ attorneys (from thirteen different offices of twelve different law firms!) asking for for this travesty of a lawsuit and settlement–one that was entirely redundant of the taxpayer-funded investigation conducted by the Los Angeles district attorney? They claim their time devoted to the litigation was worth $1,317,433, but are “generously” claiming a 28% discount for a total fees-and-costs request of $1 million.
Recognizing that this 3774% contingent fee looks fishy to the least scrutinizing of judges applying Rule 23 review, the plaintiffs have sought to inflate the appearance of accomplishment through a $870,000 cy pres award to the National PTA and ESRB. (As I’ve discussed, cy pres awards that do not directly benefit class members should not be used to justify fee awards.) They also inflate the award by claiming that the costs of notice, administration and disk replacement should be attributed to the size of the accomplished result, thus puffing matters up to over $2 million, consisting nearly entirely of empty calories for the plaintiffs they purport to be representing.
Alas, I was the only class member to docket a formal objection to this rip-off. (While it was my idea to object, I can take no credit for the objection brief, which was written by my attorney, Larry Schonbrun.) On Thursday, the plaintiffs’ attorneys filed a brief defending the settlement, with many cites to Overlawyered as ad hominem attacks on the objection. The court’s hearing is June 25.
In class action settlements; class actions; contingent fee; cy pres; feeing frenzy; Grand Theft Auto; harmless lawsuits
May 14th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
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).
In Baltimore; Buffalo; Cleveland; contingent fee; fair housing; Maryland; Minnesota; mortgages; New York state; nuisance; Ohio
April 18th, 2008 at 9:57 am
Philadelphia federal district court judge Harvey Bartle III has awarded $567.67 million in fees to plaintiff’s lawyers in the gigantic fen-phen litigation, which has lasted nine years. Judge Bartel accepted 70 firms’ claim to have spent 578,048 hours on the suit (Alison Frankel, American Lawyer, Apr. 10). Ted, at Point of Law, notes that the sum does not include large contingent fees obtained on behalf of claimants who opted out of the group settlement.
In contingent fee; fen-phen; Philadelphia; product liability
April 17th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
- “I did not know what kind of monster we were dealing with”: dramatic testimony from Judge Lackey on Scruggs corruption [Folo; and repercussions too]
- New at Point of Law: Pork-barreling Albany lawmakers shell out for just what NY needs, three more law schools; Sarbanes-Oxley unconstitutional? Ted goes after JAMA on Vioxx; sadly, appeals court overturns Santa Clara opinion that nailed ethical problems with govt.-paid contingency fee; legal aid lawyers, to subprime borrowers’ rescue? and much more;
- Cadbury claim: we own the color purple as it relates to chocolate [Coleman]
- A world gone mad: Innocence Project directors include… Janet Reno? [Bernstein @ Volokh]
- Not unrelatedly: Can a California prosecutor be held liable for wrongful murder conviction of man freed after 24 years? [Van de Kamp versus Goldstein, L.A. Times via Greenfield]
- With all his lawyer chums from Milberg-witness days, you’d think Ben Stein could have saved the makers of his creationist movie from stumbling into textbook IP infringements [Myers, again, WSJ law blog]
- Groggy from dental anesthesia, plus a half a glass to drink: then came the three felony DUI counts [Phoenix New Times, Balko via Reynolds]
- Shell says boaters had years of notice that mandated ethanol in fuel was incompatible with fiberglass marine gas tanks, which hasn’t stopped the filing of a class action [L.A. Times via ABA Journal]
- Terrorism asymmetry: “They say ‘Allahu Akbar!’ we say ‘Imagine the liability!’” [McCarthy/Lopez, NRO]
- Deborah Jeane Palfrey convicted [WaPo; earlier]
- David Neiwert truly born yesterday if he thinks Kevin Phillips is noteworthy for his record of being right [Firedoglake; some correctives]
In Ben Stein; Cadbury; contingent fee; Deborah Jeane Palfrey; Dickie Scruggs; ethanol; Innocence Project; Janet Reno; Kevin Phillips; Milberg Weiss; prosecutorial abuse; roundups; terrorism; trade dress
March 19th, 2008 at 12:04 am
- UK: Paramedic twists ankle on steps responding to emergency call, plans to sue elderly couple [Daily Mail]
- Critics say litigiousness is part of the business plan for rental outfit Leasecomm, which has sued its customers more than 92,000 times [Boston Globe, Daily News Transcript]
- Great big predators of the alternative press? Jury awards $15 million against SF Weekly to its main competitor, Bay Guardian [SF Chronicle]
- Tacoma public schools sued after mentally ill student brings gun to school and kills classmate [KOMO]
- How the parties traded positions with each other on trade [Gordon, Commentary]
- Now Canada has its own “human rights” complaint against plastic surgeon who declines to undertake transgender-related surgery [Steyn, Macleans; earlier Catholic hospital case from California]
- Florida Supreme Court hears appeal of Joe Anderson $18 million “false light” defamation verdict against Gannett’s Pensacola News-Journal [WSJ law blog; earlier]
- Ottawa lawyer Richard Warman keeps suing bloggers and dragging websites before those Canadian hate-speech tribunals, so no criticizing him please [Levant, Five Feet of Fury (& more), Steyn]
- Discontent continues over judges’ standardless discretion in granting alimony awards [NLJ]
- Death of widow Alice Lawrence isn’t expected to end her litigation with law firm Graubard Miller over contingency fee [NYLJ; earlier]
- Labor arbitrator tells Florida school to rehire employee who reported to work with cocaine in his system [six years ago on Overlawyered]
In Canada; competition through litigation; contingent fee; false light; free trade; hate speech; hospitals; Joe Anderson; Leasecomm; libel slander and defamation; Richard Warman; roundups; Tacoma; third party liability for crime; transgender; United Kingdom
February 25th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
In the state of Mississippi during the last 5 years, 27 law firms have been retained by Mississippi Attorney General James Hood to purse state lawsuits on contingency. Those firms have collectively donated more than a half-million dollars to Hood in the last two election cycles. Apparently, the legislature is troubled by this combination of for-profit motivation and campaign fundraising, and has passed a bill to pursue competitive bidding before signing contracts of more than $500,000 with private lawyers. It also requires a review board to examine contracts, and it limits contingency fees to $1 million.
Hood isn’t pleased — and the WSJ has his number:
Should state Attorneys General be able to outsource their legal work to for-profit tort lawyers, who then funnel a share of their winnings back to the AGs? That’s become a sleazy practice in many states, and it is finally coming under scrutiny — notably in Mississippi, home of Dickie Scruggs, Attorney General Jim Hood, and other legal pillars…
This kind of quid pro quo is legal in Mississippi and most other states. However, if this kind of sweetheart arrangement existed between a public official and business interests, you can bet Mr. Hood would be screaming about corruption. . . . A decision to prosecute is an awesome power, and it ought to be motivated by evidence and the law, not by the profit motives of private tort lawyers and the campaign needs of an ambitious Attorney General.”
That leaves a mark.
In attorneys general; contingent fee; Dickie Scruggs; Jim Hood; Mississippi; politics; taxpayers
February 6th, 2008 at 7:31 am
- Calling it “oppressive”, committee chair in Mississippi legislature vows to defeat proposal to ban restaurants from serving obese patrons [AP/Picayune-Item; earlier]
- Latest in whales vs. sub sonar: judge deep-sixes Bush’s attempt to exempt Navy from rules against bothering marine mammals [CNN; earlier]
- Much-criticized opener of ABC’s new series Eli Stone aired last Thursday, and Orac takes a scalpel to the vaccine-scare script [Respectful Insolence, which also covers new autism studies]
- Scary proposal approved by California assembly would strong-arm larger private foundations — and businesses that deal with them — into “diversity” numbers game [Lehrer/Hicks @ L.A. Times]
- New Dutch study finds thin people and nonsmokers cost health system more in long run than obese and smokers — theories behind Medicaid-recoupment litigation are looking more fraudulent every day, aren’t they? [AP]
- Late, but worth noting: blogger nails John Edwards’s demagoguery on Nataline Sarkisyan case [Matthew Holt @ Spot-On, via KevinMD; more here, here, and from Ted here]
- Puff piece on food-poisoning lawyer William Marler [AP/KOMO]
- Ready, set, all take offense: Sen. McCain likes to tell lawyer jokes [WSJ law blog]
- In suit charging UFCW with “racketeering”, Smithfield cites as an underlying offense union’s having lobbied city councils to pass resolutions condemning the meatpacker; company has hired Prof. G. Robert Blakey, who denies the RICO law he drafted is a menace to liberty [Liptak, NYT; some earlier parallels in federal tobacco suit]
- Golden age of comic books was 1930s-1950s, but golden age of comic book litigation is now [NLJ]
- New at Point of Law: Hillary’s “disastrous” mortgage scheme; Qualcomm sanctions ruling could curb discovery abuse; if Mel Weiss has been kind to you, why drop him down memory hole?; new academic theory on uniformity of contingency fees; the trouble with patenting tax avoidance strategies; and much more [visit][bumped Wed. a.m.]
In contingent fee; John Edwards; Melvyn Weiss; Mississippi; Navy sonar; Netherlands; roundups; tobacco; vaccines
December 2nd, 2007 at 2:30 pm
Speculation continues to mount that central bribery-scandal figure Timothy Balducci may be cooperating with prosecutors, and perhaps has been doing so for some time; Balducci had not yet been arraigned as of this weekend, and the indictment quotes extensively from conversations he held with other defendants, in addition to those that took place in Judge Lackey’s bugged chambers. (Peter Lattman and Ashby Jones, “In Scruggs Probe, Focus Turns to Another Lawyer”, WSJ, Dec. 1)(sub-only). In the latest of his extensive posts on the case, David Rossmiller adds to the picture: “From the verbatim quotes by Balducci given in the indictment, one logically can surmise that investigators had substantial recorded evidence that would have given them tremendous leverage over Balducci in obtaining his cooperation against the others.” In addition, certain elements in the indictment’s description of Balducci’s actions suggest that by mid-October, presumably flipped by investigators, he had begun taking steps that could be used to document targets’ knowing participation in the conspiracy (in particular, his return to Dickie Scruggs to finance a purported second-round bribe, and his statement in the presence of Zach Scruggs and Sidney Backstrom that “we paid for this ruling”).
Rossmiller also analyzes the underlying Jones v. Scruggs dispute over legal fees, in which the Jones firm, formerly one of the five participants in the Scruggs Katrina Group (SKG), alleges that it was “frozen out” and ejected by the remaining four firms, allotted only token fees after shouldering the substantial work of case briefing. Why would it have been advantageous to the Scruggs firm to have Judge Lackey shunt this dispute into arbitration? One key reason is that proceeding with a court battle, even if successful, might have risked exposing to the public many of the internal workings of SKG and perhaps also of Scruggs’s own firm. (Having read the Jones complaint, I would note that Jones was alleging that Scruggs had made a common practice of squeezing collaborating lawyers out of their fee shares in earlier, unrelated litigation during his career. The evidence put forth to support such an allegation, apart from whether it turned out to support a claim for punitive damages, might result in public airing of all sorts of messy and embarrassing episodes from the past.)
John Jones and Steve Funderberg, the lawyers whose firm sued Scruggs et al in the underlying Jones v. Scruggs suit, have given an interview to the Mississippi press; Jones says he knows Scruggs well and has represented him in court, but that the relationship changed drastically “when the money hit the table”; of go-between Balducci, Funderberg said, “Knowing Tim Balducci as I do, I am utterly flabbergasted that he would ever be a part of something like that or believe he could ever get away with something like that”. (Jon Kalahar, “Former Scruggs Colleague Says Money Changed Him”, WTOK, Nov. 30).
At Y’AllPolitics, Alan Lange traces many of the recurring connections between the dramatis personae and notes that the “whole crowd” was deeply involved in the much-criticized MCI contingency-fee back taxes negotiation, which we posted on at the time at Point of Law. “Attorney General Jim Hood allowed his largest campaign contributor, Joey Langston, to be the plaintiff lawyer and also appointed Tim Balducci as a Special Assistant Attorney General in that case”. Langston, for whom Balducci used to work, is now among lawyers representing Scruggs.
Some noteworthy reactions to the indictments: “This is maybe the worst day of my life,” says longtime Scruggs friend Don Barrett, quoted in an Associated Press piece that also rounds up some of the high points of Scruggs’ career (Michael Kunzelman, “Scruggs’ career in jeopardy”, AP/Hattiesburg American, Dec. 1). “I’m disappointed in him,” Katrina client Lyman Cumbest of Pascagoula, who’s suing State Farm, said of Scruggs. “With all the money he had, he didn’t have to bribe a judge. He’s got more money than he could ever spend.” (”FBI probe in judicial bribe case to continue”, Jackson Clarion-Ledger, Nov. 30). Byron Steir at Mass Tort Litigation Blog comments (Nov. 30):
If true, all of these allegations suggest remarkable hubris in at least some of the top plaintiffs’ lawyers. One wonders about the effect of a lifestyle of private jets and multiple wins of multiple millions (or tens of millions) in fees. One also wonders about the effect of high-risk, winner-take-all, contingency fee litigation. Brash and aggressive personalities seem to thrive in such an environment — but they too must keep in mind that lawyers ultimately serve the client (not the other way around) and that no one (especially not the lawyer) is above the law.
And more: “It just boggles the mind,” said Biloxi trial lawyer Jack Denton. “Here is a man who has had an enormous amount of success, who reached a level very few attorneys, if any, have reached. Why would he risk everything over a legal dispute over attorneys’ fees?” David Rossmiller, quoted in the same story, has one possible reply, which is that people may begin reevaluating “how this amazingly successful man got to be so amazingly successful.” (Richard Fausset and Jenny Jarvie, “Katrina lawyer at the eye of a storm”, Los Angeles Times, Nov. 30)(& welcome Tom Kirkendall readers).
In arbitration; attorneys general; contingent fee; Dickie Scruggs; Jim Hood; Joey Langston; Katrina; Mississippi; scandals; State Farm; Timothy Balducci
December 1st, 2007 at 9:49 am
Alice Lawrence had timely paid $18 million over 22 years to Graubard Miller in a lengthy dispute over her husband’s estate. The law firm had billed her on an hourly basis—until there was a $60 million settlement offer on the table, at which point it suddenly renegotiated its retainer agreement to be a 40% “contingent fee”, though there was obviously nothing contingent about the award, and the firm wasn’t offering to repay the money it had already billed. Five months later, there was a $105 million settlement—and Graubard Miller claimed as its fee for the five months of work $42 million of the $45 million additional money that it had negotiated, for a total of $60 million for the case. Lawrence asked the New York courts to protect her, but a 4-1 majority of the Appellate Division upheld the decision (via Lattman). The New York Times article (not to mention Bizarro-Overlawyered, which unsurprisingly doesn’t care much about fraud and rip-offs when they’re occasioned by attorneys against widows) doesn’t even begin to mention the fact that the “contingent fee” didn’t provide any risk for the law firm: the retainer agreement had a floor whereby Graubard Miller got to charge an hourly rate for the first year of trial even if it didn’t collect anything, guaranteeing it another $1.2 million on top of the $18 million it had already collected. The best coverage in the New York Law Journal, which notes that Graubard Miller schnorred another $7.8 million in gifts and gift taxes from Lawrence, whose total payment thus totaled nearly $68 million. (Anthony Lin, “Late 40 Percent Retainer Pact Survives Widow’s Dismissal Bid”, Nov. 29; Anthony Lin, “Widow’s Suit Seeks Return of $50M in ‘Excessive’ Fees and Gifts”, Sep. 16, 2005).
Unfortunately for Lawrence’s case, she did negotiate the Graubard Miller firm down from its original 50% (!) contingent-fee proposal, so in one sense she wasn’t completely the unwitting pawn of the firm, even though Graubard Miller failed to suggest that she consult independent counsel about the multi-million dollar negotiation. The question becomes whether the attorney-client relationship is at all fiduciary, or whether it’s purely contractual—in which case, one wonders why there is such an elaborate screening mechanism to permit prospective attorneys to participate in the guild in the first place.
It’s nice that the New York courts are so respectful of contracts that they dismiss cases at an early stage of the litigation. One hopes that they do that in situations other than those involving the fiduciary duties of attorneys.
Continue Reading »
In contingent fee; ethics; feeing frenzy
November 29th, 2007 at 12:05 am
Once again, the combination of contingency fees and law enforcement spells trouble: an article by Tresa Baldas in the National Law Journal reports that controversy is mounting over the activities of private firms that go after noncustodial parents’ child support obligations in exchange for a percentage share of the bounty (”Suits collecting around child support collectors”, Sept. 17, no free link). “Critics of the industry — many of them lawyers — claim that private collectors of child support are engaging in predatory practices, such as charging excessive contingency fees as high as 50%, and using aggressive collection tactics that run afoul of federal laws.” The private agencies escape the scrutiny of federal debt collection laws and have been operating effectively without regulation, but state lawmakers are now moving to fill the gap, with 13 states having passed laws intended to protect the services’ clients (if not always their adversaries) by capping fees, prohibiting the agencies from collaring state-directed payments, and giving clients more leeway to withdraw from contracts.
Continue Reading »
In Atlanta; attorneys general; contingent fee; ethics; family law
October 30th, 2007 at 12:32 am
- Law firm of King & King in D.C. lost its chance at a contingency fee when its client elected not to pursue the case, so naturally it sued the client [Robert Loblaw @ eNotes; D.C. Circuit ruling for client, PDF]
- How hot is the sausage gravy at Bob Evans? $5,000 worth of hot, says wrist-burned West Virginian [W.V. Record]
- Kid on bicycle suffers catastrophic head injury, lawsuit blames road’s steepness and “dangerous wooden posts” alongside [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
- Genarlow sprung [Volokh and everyone else; earlier]
- Better hope you make it to Chapel Hill: Fayetteville, N.C. loses 24-hour neurosurgery cover [F'ville Observer via KevinMD; trial lawyers' response]
- Fans sue Aerosmith over canceled Maui concert [AP/IHT]
- Class action over poor-quality Kia brakes yields $5.6 million jury verdict, but do lawyers really deserve $4.1 million? [Legal Intelligencer] More: whoops, covered already just below;
- We don’t care what your wishes might be, we’re putting you on the ventilator to protect ourselves [RangelMD]
- Tawdry sex angles aside, this really sounds like a cautionary tale of the dangers of liberal amendment of pleadings [Lat]
- Observation on traffic-cams: “I’m sick of living in a world in which legal trouble can be generated by robots.” [Scheie via Reynolds]
- Read all about it: we side with Paul Krugman and Atrios [four years ago on Overlawyered]
In contingent fee; Hawaii; roundups; West Virginia
September 5th, 2007 at 12:22 am
Seventeen months ago, I noted that the most expensive Google AdSearch term was “mesothelioma lawyers” topping the charts at C$54.33. I further noted that such rich referral costs suggested that lawyers were rent-seeking and unethically obtaining surplus from clients, and bidding it away to search for new clients instead of lowering their rates.
How have things changed since? Well, lawyers have gotten slightly more sophisticated: the most expensive Google AdSearch term as of July 9, 2007, is “mesothelioma treatment options“, and, aside from a couple of medical facilities, the vast majority of advertisers are for law firms or fronts for law firms. And the price for that search term is C$69.10, up about 27% in just over a year, demonstrating the rent-seeking involved. David Giacalone comments on the related issue of fixed contingency fees that take advantage of litigants.
In chasing clients; contingent fee
August 24th, 2007 at 12:13 am
That’s one description of why some law firms have been reluctant to cross the psychological threshold of $1,000/hour fees for top lawyers’ services. That doesn’t mean they’re not going ahead with the increase, though. (Debra Cassens Weiss, “Top Lawyers Bill $1,000 an Hour”, Aug. 22; Althouse, Aug. 22; WSJ Law Blog, Aug. 22; Barry Leonardini, Aug. 22). It’s still fairly paltry compared with some contingency fees, of course, as with the tobacco-Medicaid caper, where the Litigation Lobby successfully defeated as too chintzy a $20,000/hour cap and some estimates of fees obtained ran five times that high.
In contingent fee; ethics; tobacco
June 15th, 2007 at 8:50 am
I’ll be speaking at Federalist Society events Wednesday, June 20 in Austin and Thursday night, June 21 in Houston on the issue of contingent fees in class actions. Other speakers include the Charles Stuckey of State Farm, Brian Anderson of O’Melveny & Myers, and (one hopes) a plaintiffs’ attorney to be named later. I hope to see lots of Overlawyered readers there.
In class actions; contingent fee; Houston; State Farm