Overlawyered » cy pres

November 23 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 13:02:02 +0000

Big win for Ted Frank against cy pres slush funds [CCAF, Fisher, Zywicki, CL&P, @tedfrank ("Ninth Circuit rules in my favor ... but I still think I'm right".)]
“Can the Vatican Be Subject to ICC Prosecution?” [Ku/OJ]
“Tennessee: ATS Sues City Over Right Turn Ticket Money” [The Newspaper]
“Law firms dominating campaign contributions to Obama” [WaPo]
Does that mean it’s an entitlement? Punitive damage limits face constitutional challenges in Arkansas, Missouri [Cal Punitives]
Businessman sues to silence critical blogger, case is dismissed, now files suit #2 [Scott Greenfield]
Going Hollywood? “The Supreme Court should move to Los Angeles” [Conor Friedersdorf]

Tags: Arkansas, Barack Obama, bloggers and the law, Catholic Church, cy pres, Missouri, punitive damages, red light cameras, Supreme Court, Ted Frank

Update roundup

Walter Olson — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 15:09:04 +0000

Further on stories we’ve noted in the past:

Objectors including CCAF and CEI challenge Cobell Indian trust settlement [Legal Times, PoL, earlier]
Post-mortems continue on Ohio S.B. 5 labor measure [Daniel DiSalvo, Christian Schneider, earlier]
More on divorced man’s dogged pursuit of case against wedding photographer [Above the Law, earlier]
Arkansas AG McDaniel: I’ll stop steering cy pres funds to charities [Arkansas Project, PoL, earlier]
Rochester: “Police Union Punishes DA’s Office for Not Illegally Charging Woman Who Recorded Cops” [Radley Balko, earlier]
“Men at Work lose appeal over Kookaburra riff” [Guardian via Legal Blog Watch, earlier here, etc.]
Wash. Supreme Court overturns woman’s horn-honking conviction [Seattle Times, opinion PDF, earlier here, here]

Tags: Arkansas, cy pres

October 13 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 05:36:49 +0000

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

September 19 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 05:34:48 +0000

Educator: please don’t bring lawyers to parent-teacher meetings [Ron Clark, CNN] Steve Brill: what I found when I investigated NYC teacher “rubber rooms” [Reuters] “The Six Dumbest Things Schools Are Doing in the Name of Safety” [Cracked] School waterfall liability [Lincoln, Neb. Journal-Star]
As predicted: “Dodd-Frank Paperwork a Bonanza for Consultants and Lawyers” [NYT]
“Running out of common drugs” [Josh Bloom, NY Post] Pharmaceutical shortages: the role of Medicare price controls [Richard Epstein, Hoover; earlier here, here, etc.]
DoT insists on exposing private flight plans online. Yoo-hoo, privacy advocates? [Steve Chapman]
New class action law in Mexico includes loser-pays provision [WSJ]
Newt Gingrich candidacy revives memories of his 1995 call for death penalty (with “mass executions”) for drug smuggling [NYT archive via Josh Barro; see also @timothy_watson "Sounds kinda like Shariah Law to me.")
"Cy pres slush fund in Georgia under ethics investigation" [PoL]

Tags: aviation, class actions, cy pres, Georgia, illegal drugs, loser pays, Mexico, pharmaceuticals, schools, teacher tenure

Attorney general slush funds, cont’d

Walter Olson — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 12:07:59 +0000

It’s surprising there isn’t more controversy over state AGs’ frequent practice of using moneys from lawsuit settlements for their own favored causes (as opposed to, say, handing it over to the state treasury). Now Arkansas AG Dustin McDaniel is drawing criticism for his funneling of cy pres funds to politically advantageous causes that don’t happen to have been voted appropriations by the state legislature [John Brummett, Arkansas News; Dan Greenberg, The Arkansas Project, and followup]

P.S. Related on cy pres in private class actions: Dan Popeo, WLF (Google Buzz settlement); Michael Tremoglie, LNL; Ted Frank.

Tags: Arkansas, attorneys general, cy pres

CCAF announces “multiple victories”

Walter Olson — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 05:24:12 +0000

Ted Frank’s class action settlement reform group, the Center for Class Action Fairness, has announced “multiple victories” in ongoing cases arising from settlements by Apple, Classmates.com, Toyota, HP, and gasoline retailers. Among the topics addressed in objection: exaggeration of benefits supposedly provided for the class, excessive attorney fees, and diversion of proceeds to groups unrelated to the class. Details here.

Tags: class action settlements, cy pres, Ted Frank

March 23 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 14:35:27 +0000

New Yorker suing boss for $2M because working in New Jersey caused him “anguish” [Biz Insider]
British lawyer’s libel threats impede UK publication of Paul Offit vaccine book [Respectful Insolence]
Lawsuit settlement leads to Florida push to curb tobacco discounter [WSJ; background, Jeremy Bulow]
Allegation: attorneys made personal use of cy pres fund in Armenian genocide settlement [PoL]
“Telecommuting employees raise special wage and hour issues” [Hyman]
UK bias cops wonder whether to ban gay-preferred along with gay-not-preferred guesthouses [Ed West, U.K. Telegraph]
Copyright mills: “Local law firm wants to defend people sued by local law firm” [TBD] Related: [Citizen Media Law, Coleman]
“Top 10 Reasons to Not Open a Bar or Restaurant in NYC” [NY Enterprise Report]

Tags: cy pres, fair housing, libel slander and defamation, New Jersey, NYC, restaurants, RightHaven, tobacco settlement, vaccines, wage and hour suits

NYC’s outrageous Apple settlement

Walter Olson — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:01:58 +0000

Among its most insidious features, notes Ira Stoll, is a $2.5 million cy pres fund earmarked for “corporate governance programs at 12 universities across the country,” and which will predictably encourage such academic programs, at law schools and elsewhere, to align themselves further with the agenda of the plaintiff’s securities bar and against the interest of actual shareholders at companies like Apple. I’ve got much more about cy pres law school slush funds in Schools for Misrule, forthcoming. [Future of Capitalism; Jim at PoL]

Tags: Apple, colleges and universities, cy pres, Michael Bloomberg, NYC

August 16 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 12:25:26 +0000

Former producer at “Oprah” show — yearning for the simpler life? — takes job at rough blue-collar outfit. One $500K harassment settlement later… [Des Moines Register]
“Insurer writing ‘loser pays’ policies to defendants” [LNL]
“$1.4 Million Award Reversed due to Attorney’s ‘Inflammatory’ Comments” [DBR]
New book examines shaky evidentiary basis of international criminal law convictions [Nancy Combs]
Litigation slush funds, cont’d: new Department of Justice rules steer public settlement money to private advocacy groups [York, Examiner]
Second Circuit upholds Judge Weinstein’s steps to curb conspiracy to evade protective order in Zyprexa case [Drug and Device Law, Dan Popeo, NYLJ] More from the busy Dr. David Egilman: “Plaintiff’s Expert Files Appeal in ‘Popcorn Lung’ Lawsuit” [On Point News and more] Also: “Being an Expert Expert Doesn’t Make You an Expert” [Zacher, Abnormal Use]
“FTC Seeks to Clarify — and Justify — Its Blogger Endorsement Guidelines” [Citizen Media Law]
“Winnebago cruise control” and suchlike urban legends are purposely devised and spread by sinister interests, or so claim L.A. Times and Prof. Turley [five years ago on Overlawyered]

Tags: cy pres, expert witnesses, FTC endorsement rules, harassment law, international human rights, Iowa, loser pays

Litigation slush funds, cont’d: Arkansas

Walter Olson — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 05:21:39 +0000

Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel has bestowed $100,000 to assist in construction of the Arkansas Fallen Firefighters Memorial on the grounds of the state Capitol. The money came from the settlement of a lawsuit against the Pfizer drug concern, the connection of which to the cause of fallen firefighters is at best obscure. [Arkansas Online]

Tags: Arkansas, attorneys general, cy pres

Overlawyered » cy pres

November 23 roundup

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