- “Fan sues Insane Clown Posse after injury at Illinois concert” [St. Louis Post-Dispatch] “As Insanity is not a defense to the claim, the Clowns are now adding litigation counsel to their Posse.” [@colinsamuels]
- Suit on behalf of school-cheat son “wouldn’t have been much of a story” if dad had left argument to hired gun [Mark Bennett, earlier]
- If you can’t buy a Coke with your debit card any more, this may be why [Katherine Mangu-Ward, Reason] Related: “a ‘do-nothing Congress’ is sort of like a ‘do-nothing arsonist.’” [IowaHawk]
- L.A. judge reverses much-publicized Honda small claims award [CBS Local, earlier]
- Harris County judge deems pig “common, traditional” pet in homeowner association suit [Houston Chronicle]
- Plaintiffs, not just defendants, can use Daubert to exclude opponents’ scientific theories that fall short of general acceptance by the relevant scientific community. Why is this news when it was clearly part of the intended and expected effect of Daubert from day one? [guestposter Mark Bower at Turkewitz]
- “The unfair attack on ALEC” [Ted Frank and Jim Copland at PoL] More: Wendy Gramm and Brooke Rollins, WSJ.
Tagged as:
animals,
Daubert,
debtor-creditor law,
music and musicians
- Because judges should decide cases the way clamoring crowds want them to: “Occupy the Courts” [Althouse, Somin, earlier] Pittsburgh lawprof: bank’s office park has become public forum and is ours to seize [Daily Caller]
- Some reactions to Megaupload indictment [Julian Sanchez, Ken at Popehat]
- Kozinski, others trade quips at oral argument in Disneyland Segway ADA case [Courthouse News via Disabilities Law, earlier] “Ouch! Judge Posner eviscerates both a damages expert and the trial judge who let him testify against FedEx” [Technology Law Notes]
- Victim of NYC gun laws: “Free Meredith Graves” [NRO] “NYC Business Bled To Death Over Toy Guns” [Moonbattery]
- “Old Enough to Fight, Old Enough to Swipe: A Critique of the Infancy Rule in the Federal Credit Card Act” [Andrew Schwartz (Colorado), SSRN, via Ted Frank]
- Federal drug cops unapologetic about role in Adderall shortage [Rob Port] A failure of central planning [Reuters, Jacob Sullum and more ("Does the DEA know what 'quota' means?")] Some trial lawyers pushing to ban the drug [via Ted Frank].
- Go, my child, and steal no more: TSA agents who pilfered $40K from luggage get six months [AP via Balko]
Tagged as:
Alex Kozinski,
crime and punishment,
debtor-creditor law,
Disney,
guns,
NYC,
pharmaceuticals,
Pittsburgh,
Richard Posner
Charles Schumer, senior senator from New York, really does not seem to trust consumers to decide on their own arrangements, notes Steve Chapman.
P.S. Nor it seems is military spouse Holly Petraeus [Ira Stoll]
Tagged as:
debtor-creditor law
- “Woman suing Carnival: Ship sailed too fast, made me sick” [Gene Sloan, USA Today "Cruise Log"]
- U.S. Department of Justice sues Illinois school district for denying Muslim teacher’s request for three-week Mecca-trip leave [WaPo]
- “California Assembly Says Complying with Government Standards Not Enough to Avoid Punitive Damages” [Cal Civil Justice]
- “Four Loko Suit Is an Example of Bogus Economic Loss Classes” [Russell Jackson]
- New Benjamin Barton book on lawyer-judge bias reviewed by Larry Ribstein [TotM, earlier]
- “Prolific Colorado Consumer Attorney Filed 2/3rds of State’s FDCPA Cases Since 2007″ [ABA Journal]
- Different kind of false marking case? Judge says company knowingly claimed inapplicable patent [WSJ Law Blog]
- “Extra-special education at public expense” [five years ago on Overlawyered]
Tagged as:
California,
class actions,
Colorado,
cruise ships,
debtor-creditor law,
patent marking,
punitive damages,
religious discrimination
- A San Francisco cosmetic surgeon sues her online critics — in Virginia? [Paul Alan Levy, CL&P]
- SCOTUS ruling in “cat’s-paw” case could gut summary judgment in many bias suits [Hyman]
- Cuomo spokesman’s smart retort to Litigation Lobby attack on Medicaid reform panel [LoHud.com]
- “Tennessee Cops Posed as a Defense Attorney To Get Suspect To Incriminate Himself” [Reason]
- “Illinois golfer not liable for head shot” [Lowering the Bar]
- Trade friction mounts due to anti-India provisions in Zadroga (9/11 recovery workers) compensation bill [PoL]
- Is a tax-funded federal nonprofit entity funneling money to environmental suits against the government? [Ron Arnold, Examiner]
- FCRA class action deemed “lawsuit abuse problem in a nutshell” [Examiner editorial]
- “Fatherhood by Conscription: Nonconsensual Insemination & the Duty of Child Support” [Michael Higdon, SSRN via Instapundit]
Tagged as:
Andrew Cuomo,
Center for Justice & Democracy,
debtor-creditor law,
discrimination law,
environment,
family law,
golf,
India,
libel slander and defamation,
police,
September 11
- Report: dead woman’s name robo-signed onto thousands of collection documents [Business Insider] Or was it? [comment, Fredrickson/Collections and Credit Risk (alleging that living daughter shares name of deceased mother)] “Are faked attorney signatures the ‘next huge issue’ in the foreclosure scandal?” [Renee Knake, Legal Ethics Forum]
- “Major Verdict Threatens to Bankrupt Maker of Exercise Equipment” [Laura Simons, Abnormal Use]
- Decline in competitiveness of U.S. capital markets owes much to legal and regulatory developments [Bainbridge, related]
- Deadly Choices, The Panic Virus: Dr. Paul Offit and Seth Mnookin have new books out on vaccine controversy [Orac]
- “No one’s trying to get rich off this,” says lawyer planning suit on behalf of A train subway riders stranded during NYC blizzard [NY Daily News]
- Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna continues to seek solutions to state’s uniquely exposed litigation position, including fix of joint and several liability [Seattle Times, background here and here]
- ABA Blawg 100 picks — and a critique;
- Alabama bar orders lawyer’s law license suspended, but in the mean time he’s been elected judge [four years ago on Overlawyered]
Tagged as:
debtor-creditor law,
legal blogs,
mortgages,
not about the money,
NYC,
product liability,
recreation,
sovereign immunity,
transit,
vaccines,
Washington state
Let’s hope it doesn’t unfold that way, says Richard Epstein [Truth on the Market]
P.S. It looks as if from Congress will accord lawyers and some other professionals an exemption from Federal Trade Commission regulations on identity theft that would have lumped them in with more traditional lenders because they often do not bill clients at the time work is performed. Fair enough, one supposes, but also another indication of the truism that one’s success in dodging nonsensical regulation is often a function of one’s status as a potent lobby in Washington.
Tagged as:
banks,
debtor-creditor law,
product liability,
Richard Epstein
ABA Journal: “A South Carolina lawyer known for his TV commercials and billboards has turned over $994,000 in cash kept in a closet of his Myrtle Beach law office after a court-appointed bankruptcy investigator stressed the importance of disclosing his assets.” In initial filings, attorney Pavilack said he owed an estimated $72,500,000 to creditors and had $50,000 in assets; two months later he revised the asset disclosure upward to $8.9 million. A bankruptcy examiner says Pavilack’s financial affairs are in disarray and that it may be impossible to disentangle what he owns or where money went given a pattern of unexplained money transfers among a maze of business accounts. [Myrtle Beach Sun-News via Lowering the Bar]
Tagged as:
debtor-creditor law,
South Carolina
The Pennsylvania attorney general has sued a debt collection company in Erie, charging that it operated a bogus “courtroom” to mislead or confuse debtors. “Consumers also allegedly received dubious ‘hearing notices’ and letters – often hand-delivered by individuals who appear to be Sheriff Deputies – which implied they would be taken into custody by the Sheriff if they failed to appear at the phony court for ‘hearings’ or ‘depositions’,” claims AG Tom Corbett [Corbett press release; WTAE]
Tagged as:
debtor-creditor law,
Pennsylvania
- O.J. Simpson trial 15 years after [Tim Lynch, Cato at Liberty; a couple of my reactions back then]
- Hackers expose internal documents of British copyright-mill law firm [Steele, LEF] Insult to injury: now that target law firm may be fined for privacy breach [same]
- BAR/BRI antitrust case: “Judge Cites ‘Egregious Breach’ of Ethics, Slashes Law Firm Fee from $12M to $500K” [ABA Journal]
- “Confessions of former debt collectors” [CNN Money via CL&P]
- Big investigative series on prosecutorial misconduct [USA Today]
- “Even with malpractice insurance, doctors opt for expensive, defensive medicine” [Jain/WaPo] “Medical malpractice suits drop but take a toll” [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Paul Carpenter, of the Allentown Morning Call, on problem and possible solutions] A contrary view: Ron Miller.
- “Card check is dead … long live card check” [Hyman]
- “Canada: Deported Russian spy sues for readmittance” [four years ago on Overlawyered] A role model for some in the spy ring recently deported from the U.S.?
Tagged as:
antitrust,
attorneys' fees,
card check,
copyright,
debtor-creditor law,
defensive medicine,
OJ Simpson,
Pennsylvania,
prosecutorial abuse
Elizabeth Warren denounces the proliferation of fine print, but does she understand why it’s happened? [Ted at PoL]
Tagged as:
debtor-creditor law
Tagged as:
class actions,
debtor-creditor law,
failure to warn,
hospitals,
Michigan,
music and musicians,
Nevada,
recreation,
restaurants,
videogames,
workplace
- “Sources: Trial lawyers expect tax break from Treasury Department” [Legal NewsLine, PoL, earlier; measure would reportedly replicate contents of bill that didn't pass Congress]
- No doubt totally unrelated: eight Dem Senate candidates journey to Vancouver for AAJ fundraiser [The Hill, David Freddoso, ShopFloor, more]
- Report: elderly man jailed after making “bomb” joke about carry-on at airport [NBCNewYork]
- New York debt collection law firm files 80,000 actions a year, critics say errors and lack of documentation inevitable [NYT]
- Kimberly-Clark: quit letting asbestos plaintiffs forum-shop against us [SE Texas Record] How a new asbestos defendant can get “passed around” among claimants [Global Tort, scroll] Prosperity of one Cleveland asbestos law firm I’d never heard of [Briefcase]
- North Carolina court of appeals: employee rushing to bathroom after getting off work not acting within scope of employment [Matthews v. Food Lion, PDF]
- “Curse of the greedy copyright holders” [Woodlief, WSJ, via de Rugy, NRO; TechDirt]
- Update: “Ninth Circuit suspends Walter Lack, reprimands Thomas Girardi” [famed California lawyers tripped up in Dole suit; Legal Ethics Forum, PoL, earlier]
Tagged as:
AAJ,
asbestos,
banana pesticide litigation fraud,
copyright,
debtor-creditor law,
forum shopping,
Harry Reid,
taxes,
terrorism,
Thomas Girardi
