They may not be as numerous as L.A.’s, but they include some individual doozies [Denver Post via Radley Balko; earlier]
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Denver
“A police lieutenant, fired for covering up a hit and run crash involving a fellow officer [she] was involved in a relationship with, has been reinstated following an arbitration decision that chastised the city’s Police Commission.” Christine Burns also got six months back pay. The arbitrator found that Burns’s boyfriend had been treated leniently, drawing only a one-year unpaid suspension despite serious misconduct, which in turn deprived her of her right to be treated “evenhandedly and without discrimination.” [Connecticut Post]
And while we’re at it: Police union defends Denver cop fired for driving drunk at 143 mph [Tina Korbe, Hot Air; The Truth About Cars]
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Today I’m talking to state legislators courtesy of the American Legislative Exchange Council. Next week I head off for luncheon talks about my new book Schools for Misrule before Federalist Society lawyers’ chapters in Greenville, S.C. on Wed. Dec. 7, and Charlotte, N.C. on Thurs. Dec. 8. And then the following week I keynote the annual luncheon of the Colorado Civil Justice League Dec. 13 in Denver. If you’re in the audience, do introduce yourself!
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I’m currently planning speaking trips that will take me to Chicago Nov. 7-8, Greenville, S.C. Dec. 7, Denver Dec. 13, and possibly Phoenix Dec. 1. If you’ve got a speaker’s series or organization that’s in one of these places or an easy travel jump away, consider saving on travel expenses by booking me for a talk around these dates. You can contact me directly at editor – [at] – overlawyered – dot – com or Diane Morris at the Cato Institute: dmorris – [at] – cato – dot – org.
The guy had reposted a photo belonging to the Denver Post, a newspaper that’s among the clients of the copyright-enforcement mill [Westword via Romenesko, USWGO]
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- General Mills sends lawyers after local “My Dough Girl” Bakery [Consumerist via Amy Alkon]
- But he can reapply in five years: “Lawyer Takes Plea in Case Over His Hardball Litigation Tactics, Will Be Disbarred” [ABA Journal, California]
- “Shame on Elie Wiesel” for threatening a lawsuit over his fictionalization in a stage play [Terry Teachout]
- State AGs dive into HIPAA and health privacy enforcement [Nicastro, Health Leaders Media]
- More highlights from Daniel Okrent book on Prohibition [Tabarrok]
- Denver school board investment fiasco [Popehat]
- Russell Jackson on the Yoo-Hoo chocolate beverage class action [Consumer Class Actions and Mass Torts, earlier]
- California court rules state’s Moscone (”little Norris-LaGuardia”) Act unconstitutional [Workplace Prof]
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CPSIA has come at a steep price for the Northwest Denver Toy Library, which has had to throw out nearly 400 of the 500 toys in its stock because it has no way of being sure that they comply with the 2008 federal law. [9News.com Denver]
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- Asks to have $12.6 million verdict set aside because juror Twittered about the case [Little Rock, Ark.; AP/Yahoo]
- Florida legislator opposes “animal husbandry,” thinks it’s sin forbidden in Book of Leviticus. And “Larcenia” is probably the most perfect first name for a politician I’ve ever heard [Popehat]
- Eleventh Circuit upholds most charges against Alabama ex-Gov. Don Siegelman [AP/New York Times, earlier]
- D.C. Council member bullies tiny non-profit paper, says advertiser “will be held responsible” [Marc Fisher, WaPo; Brookland Heartbeat]
- “Worst teachers are rarely formally removed from the classroom” [Denver Post]
- Blogger calling fashion model a skank makes an unsympathetic figure, but the implications for blog anonymity could be serious [NY Post, Scott Greenfield, (Cit Media Law, earlier]
- Barbie says, “Governing West Virginia is hard!” [@cathygellis; Lowering the Bar; earlier]
- Student journalists are blogging dismissed professor Ward Churchill’s lawsuit against the Univ. of Colorado [Race to the Bottom via Ambrogi, Legal Blog Watch]
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In Boulder, Colorado, hair salon owner Joy Douglas “received a $1,000 ticket from an animal-control officer for coloring her white poodle, Cici, pink by using organic beet juice.” Everyone seems to agree that the dye job is not physically harmful to the pooch, who is well cared for in other ways, but Boulder has a town ordinance against animal-dyeing, aimed at Easter-season tormentors of bunnies and chicks, and several residents ratted Douglas out. She says the idea of the pink fur was to raise awareness for breast cancer. (”Boulder’s pink poodle owner preps for legal fight”, Denver Post, Mar. 11).
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This morning I was a guest on WTKK’s “Michael Graham Show” out of Boston to discuss the Spitzer scandal. I was also the guest of Mike Rosen on Denver’s KOA for a discussion of the case of the New York lawyer who’s suing casinos for $20 million after her out-of-control gambling ruined her career.
U. S District Court Judge Robert Matsch recently got so infuriated by the conduct of McDermott, Will and Emery attorneys Terrance McMahon and Vera Elson that he overturned a jury’s $51 million verdict, then ordered the lawyers to pay the fees and costs of the opposing lawyers, a sum that could total several million dollars. (Denver Post, Feb. 25)
From the decision (Medtronic Navigation, Inc. v. BrainLAB Medizinische, 2008 WL 410413):
In essence, the response from the plaintiff and MWE, through new counsel, is that the Court had the obligation to stop any trial conduct that stepped over the line of zealous advocacy. In short, they argue that they should not be held responsible for what they were able to get away with during the trial presentation. The adamant denial that there was any abuse of advocacy in this case is in disregard of what this Court has already concluded and displays the same arrogance that has colored this case almost from its inception. Throughout these proceedings Medtronic and the MWE lawyers have demonstrated that when they are faced with adverse court rulings, they proceed undeterred, with only superficial observance of the court’s determinations. Such conduct supports the conclusion that after the Markman rulings, Medtronic’s primary objective in pursuing this litigation was to put economic pressure on its competitor in the market.
Medtronic’s counsel proceeded cavalierly, with reckless indifference to the merits of Medtronic’s infringement claims. The continued prosecution of a claim after its lack of merit has become apparent warrants sanctions under § 1927. At trial, MWE’s conduct was in disregard for the duty of candor, reflecting an attitude of “what can I get away with?” Throughout the trial, the MWE lawyers artfully avoided the limitations of the patent claims and created an illusion of infringement. They did so with full awareness that their case was without merit.
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Jeremy Meyer has this article in the The Denver Post about a proposed plan to offer pregnant teenage mothers 4 weeks of maternity leave as official school policy. It surely is commendable when schools allow new mothers time to be with their newborns and adjust to parenthood; yet to make such accommodations official policy essentially means that it becomes a right — and all rights are ripe for litigation.
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60-year-old David J. Pfahler of Allentown, Pa., has filed suit in Denver “claiming Scott Swimm, then 7, was skiing fast and recklessly when they collided in January” at Beaver Creek. Pfahler wants upwards of $75,000 over a torn shoulder tendon which necessitated “physical therapy, vacation time, nursing and medical services provided by Pfahler’s wife, and other expenses”. Scott’s mother says he weighs 48 pounds “and couldn’t have been going more than 10 mph. ‘Who in the world sues a child?’ she said. ‘It just boggles my mind every day.’” (”Man, 60, sues boy, 8, over ski collision”, AP/Boston Globe, Dec. 20; Steve Lynn, “Boy, 8, sued in Beaver Creek ski collision”, Vail Daily, Dec. 19).
Following widespread public anger, the plaintiffs say they have been subjected to harassment in what their lawyer, Jim Chalat, calls an “electronic tar and feathering” (”Couple that sued Eagle-Vail boy hears complaints”, Vail Daily, Dec. 26; letters, Dec. 24; more coverage, Dec. 27 and Mark Wolf’s Rocky Mountain News blog; Obscure Store).
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And, as the night follows the day, there descend the class-action shareholder lawyers, led in this case by San Diego’s not-at-all-tainted Coughlin Stoia of Bill Lerach fame. (”Crocs facing possible suit despite earnings hike”, Northern Colorado Business Report, Nov. 9; Keith DuBay, “Lawyers pounce on Crocs”, ColoradoBiz Magazine/Denver Post, Nov. 15). “Imagine that! Sandals seasonal? Who knew?” (Al Lewis, “Idiots’ lawsuit is nothing but a Croc”, Denver Post, Nov. 16).
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It would appear U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn has reached the end of his patience with attorney Mark E. Brennan, and then some. Throwing out a $1.2 million verdict obtained by Brennan against the city of Denver on a claim of age discrimination against a firefighter, Judge Blackburn condemned Brennan’s courtroom antics as “disgraceful” as well as “boorish and unprofessional”:
“In over 19 years on the bench, I have seen nothing comparable,” the judge wrote. “Such disrespectful cockalorum, grandstanding, bombast, bullying and hyperbole as Mr. Brennan exhibited throughout the trial are quite beyond my experience as a jurist, and, I fervently hope, will remain an aberration during the remainder of my time on the bench.”
(Daniel J. Chacon, “Judge points to lawyer’s antics in junking $1.2 million ruling”, Rocky Mountain News, Oct. 6). No response from Mr. Brennan is recorded yet in the news coverage assembled by Google. The dictionary, incidentally, defines “cockalorum” as “boastful talk; crowing”. P.S. Brennan’s response, as reported in the Rocky Mountain News (via ABA Journal); also more details at On Point News.
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- RIP, Ladies Nights in Denver [Denver Westword; earlier Feb. 12; earlier i in California: Jun. 7, Aug. 19, Aug. 2003; and New Jersey, Jun. 2004]
- “A cop sues McDonalds because of the slimy stuff a couple of teens put in his sandwich. His biggest problem may be that he didn’t even take a bite” [Turkewitz]
- Montana Supreme Court: hunter can’t blame state for being attacked by bear [On Point]
- Don’t: provide your criminal client with means to escape [Fulton County Daily Report]; alter documents responsive to discovery requests [The Recorder]; hide evidence in multi-billion dollar insurance litigation [NY Sun via Lattman]; or videotape your fellow lawyers changing clothes [ATL].
- Reason #473 why I live in Virginia instead of DC: DC police catch two in middle of attempted burglary, just after being released from prison, decide to let them go because they can’t figure out what to charge them with. Good thing residents aren’t allowed to own guns to defend themselves, right? [PTN]
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North Carolina attorney general Roy Cooper deserves credit for making it clear to all that the players were innocent and not merely unprosecutable (Stuart Taylor, Jr., “An unbelievable day”, Newsweek, Apr. 12 (web-only)). Cooper may not deserve so much credit for sparing the false accuser any public legal consequences (John Podhoretz, “Let the liar be named and shamed”, New York Post, Apr. 12). Durham DA Mike Nifong is in richly deserved trouble, of course but it would be wrong to let the press off the hook for its many sins in covering the case (Howard Kurtz, “Media Miscarriage”, Washington Post, Apr. 12; K.C. Johnson, Apr. 12 (on the New York Times’ reporting; check other entries at his blog for the sins of the Durham Herald-Sun, Newsday, etc.)). And let’s not forget the Duke faculty, or at least large portions of it (Vince Carroll, Rocky Mountain News, Apr. 12).
See these links for our extensive earlier coverage of the case.
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“Voters last November approved Amendment 41, which limited gifts to most government employees and their families to $50. The constitutional amendment was put on the ballot by wealthy entrepreneur Jared Polis and the public-interest group Common Cause.” It soon emerged that the measure might prohibit the award of university scholarships to children of government employees or the award of the Nobel Prize to a government-employed scientist. Highly placed Coloradans have been scurrying about for weeks now trying to figure out what to do. (Lynn Bartels and Alan Gathright, “Pressure to fix ethics law”, Rocky Mountain News, Feb. 6; Lynn Bartels, “GOP’s May says Polis ‘threatening’ in Amendment 41 talk”, Rocky Mountain News, Feb. 9; Chris Frates and Jeri Clausing, “Fix it yourself, backers of 41 told”, Denver Post, Jan. 31; Mark Hillman (former Colo. state treasurer), “Ethics amendment creates an ethical dilemma”, Independence Institute, Jan. 25; text of Amendment 41 (PDF); Peter Blake (columnist), Rocky Mountain News, Nov. 15, Dec. 20, Jan. 3, and Jan. 20).
