Overlawyered » contingent fee

November 29 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 14:50:29 +0000

UK: “Premiums to soar as accident claims lawyers push up cost of motor insurance, MPs hear” [Telegraph]
John Stossel on death by FDA [Reason] Disapproving stance on e-cigarettes might cost lives [Balko] Company abandons pioneering stem-cell research after running up $45 million in costs to win FDA approval of initial safety tests [Technology Review] NYT can be obtuse about regulatory costs [Cowen]
No, we’re not allowed to let you out of the van to relieve the call of nature [Ted at PoL]
“Economic Damages Are Affirmed Though Plaintiff’s Earnings Rose After Accident” [NJLJ]
A shame about the business climate in Hawaii [Inverse Condemnation]
“Massachusetts Lawyer Loses License for a Year for Charging $93.8K Contingent Fee, Absent a Contingency” [Martha Neil, ABA Journal]
Movement “rapidly gaining steam” in U.S. to prohibit anonymous sperm donation [Glenn Cohen, Prawfs]

Tags: assisted reproduction, contingent fee, damages, FDA, Hawaii, United Kingdom

November 29 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“I always tell my clients, if you start a big disturbance, you’ll get a bigger compensation package.”

Walter Olson — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 17:52:39 +0000

Although not conducted through the legal system, some battles in China over alleged injury from medical malpractice make for an interesting compare-and-contrast exercise, right down to the role of contingent fees:

Medical personnel advocates complain that the more violent incidents are staged by hired thugs, paid by families of the deceased in hopes of winning compensation from the hospitals. … The Chinese have even coined a word for the paid protesters: yinao, meaning “medical disturbance.”

“It has become a very sophisticated system for chasing profits. Whenever somebody dies in a hospital, the yinao will get in touch with the family and offer their services in exchange for 30% to 40%,” said Liu Di, who is setting up a social network for medical professionals.

[L.A. Times]

Tags: China, contingent fee, medical malpractice

“I always tell my clients, if you start a big disturbance, you’ll get a bigger compensation package.” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Atlanta police shooting aftermath

Walter Olson — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 05:05:01 +0000

Kathryn Johnson, 92, “was shot and killed by police during a botched drug raid in 2006,” resulting in a payout of millions of dollars by the city. Now Rev. Markel Hutchins, who made public appearances as spokesperson for Johnston’s family, is suing her estate, saying he had an understanding to receive 10 percent of any recovery. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, WABE] (& note commented controversy over whether “botched raid” is accurate.)

Tags: Atlanta, contingent fee, police

Atlanta police shooting aftermath is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Margaret Little reviews Lester Brickman

Walter Olson — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 13:57:23 +0000

In the new issue of the Federalist Society’s Engage, Margaret Little reviews Lester Brickman’s Lawyer Barons: What Their Contingency Fees Really Cost America, one of the most important new books on tort law in years (review, PDF). Excerpt:

No scholar has studied the role of the contingency fee in America more comprehensively than Professor Lester Brickman. He has now published a definitive book that examines the historic, economic, and political legacy of this American means of financing the always elusive quest for justice. …

Litigation, while public in name, takes place out of the public eye. … the defense bar is up to its elbows in preserving these arrangements because of the mirror image benefits they derive from the expansion and complexity of tort liability.

Tags: contingent fee, Lester Brickman

Margaret Little reviews Lester Brickman is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

U.K. auto insurance rates soar

Walter Olson — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 11:42:57 +0000

A House of Commons select committee “identified the principal cause as ‘a rapid growth in the number of personal injury claims management firms, which are using direct cold-call marketing techniques to encourage people to make claims who otherwise would not have done so’”. [Philip Johnston, Telegraph]

Tags: chasing clients, contingent fee, insurance, United Kingdom

U.K. auto insurance rates soar is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

UK: “‘No-win, no-fee’ changes announced by Ken Clarke”

Walter Olson — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 16:37:17 +0000

England has been experimenting in recent years with versions of contingent and conditional fees previously barred by ethical rules; following widespread discontent about the results, including high insurance rates, the Cameron government plans a new wave of tinkering. [BBC]

Tags: contingent fee, United Kingdom

UK: “‘No-win, no-fee’ changes announced by Ken Clarke” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Bonuses for prosecutors, cont’d

Walter Olson — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 11:16:08 +0000

More thoughts on why bonuses tied to prosecutors’ measured “accomplishments” — in this case, conviction rates at a Colorado prosecutor’s office — are such a bad idea. Very similar logic helps explain the historically prevailing ban on contingency fees for lawyers in most Western legal systems. [Tim Lynch, Cato; WSJ Law Blog; related earlier (Harris County, Tex.)](& welcome Above the Law, Truth on the Market visitors)

Tags: contingent fee, prosecution

Bonuses for prosecutors, cont’d is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Swiss sledders, skiers seldom sue

Walter Olson — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 12:33:51 +0000

“The tree trunks, exposed banks and other hazards whizzing past represent a cornucopia of potential tort suits under U.S. law, yet somehow the Swiss manage to operate these runs without being sued into oblivion.” Dan Fisher at Forbes has a go at explaining why. More: Bill Childs, TortsProf (many U.S. states relatively protective of winter sports providers).

Tags: contingent fee, Europe, insurance, juries, skiing, Switzerland

Swiss sledders, skiers seldom sue is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Office productivity prizes for prosecutors

Walter Olson — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 05:15:57 +0000

Like other variations on contingency pay for those charged with enforcing the law, they sound like a really bad idea [Greenfield]

Tags: contingent fee, prosecution

Office productivity prizes for prosecutors is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

January 14 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 05:19:23 +0000

When naming a new law, please, no acronyms, no victim names, and no assumptions about what it will accomplish [WSJ Law Blog on Brian Christopher Jones's recommendations] More: Wood.
America’s Most Irresponsible Public Figure® — that would be RFK Jr. — sounds off on Tucson massacre [Hemingway, Examiner]
More press attention for CPSC’s dubious consumer complaint database [Washington Post; my take last month]
An appellate win for Internet anonymity in Pennsylvania [Levy, CL&P]
Santa Clara lead paint case: Supreme Court won’t review government misuse of contingency lawyers [Wood, ShopFloor]
DC cops’ “post and forfeit” policy deserves scrutiny [Greenfield]
“Philosophy Explains How Legal Ethics Turn Lawyers Into Liars” [Kennerly]
“Marshall, Texas: Patent Central” [six years ago on Overlawyered]

Tags: contingent fee, CPSC, online speech, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Washington D.C.

January 14 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system