Overlawyered » Dickie Scruggs

April 17 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 04:05:11 +0000

“The Consortium has hired Arnold & Porter, and they can threaten whomever they want, the facts be damned.” [Popehat]
Former Social Security administrators: NPR’s just imagining things, pay no attention to that report on the growth of the disability program [NADR.org, earlier] Ronald Reagan got rolled on the SSDI disability program, and we’re all paying the price [Avik Roy]
Katrina qui tam: “Jury returns verdict for the Rigsby sisters against State Farm” [Freeland, earlier]
Probate dispute had become cause celebre in Connecticut: “Judge Rules In Favor Of Caretaker In Smoron Farm Case” [Hartford Courant]
Judge’s text message complains of “‘docket from hell,’ filled with tatted-up… gap tooth skank hoes” [Above the Law]
“FTC Clarifies Obligations of Product Reviewers, But Does Not Ease Concerns” [DMLP]
“Trump Dismisses ‘Spawn of Orangutan’ Lawsuit” [Lowering the Bar, earlier]
If you’re one of those who occasionally send me links from the Alex Jones site InfoWars, now you know why I never use ‘em [Dave Weigel]

Tags: Connecticut, Dickie Scruggs, Donald Trump, FTC endorsement rules, judges, science and scientists, State Farm, wills and trusts

April 17 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

May 29 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 29 May 2012 04:06:58 +0000

Congress again debates bad idea of race-based government for native Hawaiians [Ramesh Ponnuru, Ilya Shapiro/Cato; earlier here, etc.]
“I could have been killed for blogging.” [Patterico, Scott Greenfield] Latest blogger “swatting” (bogus police call) hits RedState’s Erick Erickson [same] Incivility is a hazard for bloggers, but fear for families’ physical safety shouldn’t be [Jonathan Adler, Amy Alkon] Dear authorities in Montgomery County, Md. and elsewhere: you should know it’s not every day Radley Balko calls for tougher law enforcement. Earlier here and here.
More dying from guns than from car crashes? Eugene Volokh skewers some misleading arguments from the Detroit Free Press;
Mississippi: Judge dismisses Dickie Scruggs’s motion to vacate bribery conviction [AP; Tom Freeland and more]
Washington Times kindly cites coverage in this space on Maryland “structuring” prosecutions [editorial]. Maryland delayed foreclosures and is now paying the price in slower housing recovery [Hayley Peterson, Examiner]
Andrew Pincus defends arbitration and SCOTUS decision in Concepcion [NYTimes "DealBook"; NLJ] Effort in Florida to ease use of arbitration in med-mal disputes [Miami Herald]
Michigan Supreme Court judge Diane Hathaway, elected via 2008′s most unfair attack ad, is now in a spot of ethical bother [Ted Frank]

Tags: arbitration, Dickie Scruggs, guns, Hawaii, Indian tribes, Maryland, Michigan, mortgages

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

April 16 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 04:07:53 +0000

Although I’m known as a foe of everything John Edwards stands for, I hope he beats this campaign finance rap [Atlantic Wire]
Michael Bloomberg launches demagogic new campaign against Stand Your Ground laws, calling to mind the recent critique of the NYC mayor’s paternalist dark side by Conor Friedersdorf in the Atlantic;
Jerry Brown frees grandmother dubiously jailed in shaken-baby death [Slate, earlier]
As Scruggs (Dickey not Earl) still pursues vindication, Alan Lange looks back on Mississippi scandals [YallPolitics]
Deservedly favorable profile of Fifth Circuit judge Jerry Smith [NOLA]
In which I tell off Bill Donohue’s Catholic League for its double insult last week to gays and to adoptive parents [IGF]
“The Ninth Circuit was, believe it or not, correct” [Ilya Shapiro and Trevor Burrus, Cato, on administrative law case arising from NLRB rules change on drug rep overtime]

Tags: adoption, campaign regulation, Dickie Scruggs, Fifth Circuit, Jerry Brown, John Edwards, Michael Bloomberg, Ninth Circuit, self-defense, wrong right

April 16 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

October 12 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 05:13:02 +0000

After President Obama’s Orlando photo-op with construction workers came the high-ticket fundraiser at the home of med-mal titan John Morgan [Orlando Sentinel]
“Lawyer Sues Facebook, Says Tracking Cookie Violates Wiretap Laws” [ABA Journal]
The bone-marrow bounty that could save a life — and the law that gets in the way [Virginia Postrel]
New coalition to repeal New York’s unfair Scaffold Law;
“How the FDA Could Cost You Your Life” [Scott Gottlieb on medical device lags, WSJ]
Mississippi: new release of sealed Scruggs-scandal documents [YallPolitics, Freeland]
What I learned (about false accusation) at Dartmouth [Gonzalo Lira]

Tags: Barack Obama, colleges and universities, Dickie Scruggs, Facebook, FDA, New York, politics

October 12 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

October 6 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 05:39:43 +0000

Dodd-Frank, arms-trade laws serve to entrench bigger business against smaller [Tim Carney, Rand Simberg] Similarly with automakers and coal producers [David Henderson]
One guess as to why: “Many Physicians Feel They’re Delivering Too Much Care” [WSJ health blog, CJAC] Insurers report incidence of med-mal claims has dropped, severity has increased [National Underwriter] Roundtable on defensive medicine [Orthopedics Today]
Pinball Hall of Fame adversary doesn’t like being called a vexatious litigant [Las Vegas Weekly via @loweringthebar]
U.K. “Solicitors from Hell” gripe site has so far defied multiple efforts to shut it down [Independent]
WTC dust inhalation suits grind on on despite doubts on scientific effect [PoL, more] “Improbable Chain of Events Dooms Con Ed’s 9/11 Lawsuit” [Mark Hamblett, NYLJ]
Nathan Glazer’s work in perspective, and an interview [City Journal];
In the mail: Curtis Wilkie’s Dickie Scruggs book, “The Fall of the House of Zeus.”

Tags: autos, banks, defensive medicine, Dickie Scruggs, Ground Zero dust lawsuits, September 11, serial litigants, small business

October 6 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

September 12 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 12:37:28 +0000

Ninth Circuit: Holland America cruise line not responsible for customer’s swimming mishap at Mexican beach [Metropolitan News-Enterprise]
“President Perry would mean high noon for trial lawyers” [Kurt Schlichter, Washington Examiner; Politico; Prof. Bainbridge ("If the trial lawyers hate Rick Perry, maybe I should reconsider him")] Christie praises Perry’s “laudable” record on liability reform [PolitickerNJ] “Perry’s ‘loser pays’ is an economic winner” [Patrick Gleason and Jason Russell, Washington Times; Mass Tort Prof; background] Missing the point on the Texas med-mal experience [Coyote, earlier here, here, etc.] A bad sign: Gov. Perry reaches out to Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio [NRO, background] Another: courting social conservative vote, he pledges interference in state marriage law Houston Chronicle.
Alan Lange and Tom Dawson discuss their Dickie Scruggs book [Above the Law, background]
Hospital pays $25M to settle lawsuit charging lack of Katrina preparedness [White Coat]
Democratic majority on CPSC plans to ram through burdensome CPSIA testing and certification rule next month [Commissioner Nancy Nord, more]
For matching willing buyers with sellers through Canadian pharmacy ads, Google agrees to pay fine of $500 million, a forfeiture geared to the revenue the pharmacies (not it) took in from the ads [Atlantic Wire, Chris Fountain]
“Woman Won’t Have to Pay for Her Own Cavity Search” [Lowering the Bar]

Tags: advertising, CPSC, CPSIA, cruise ships, Dickie Scruggs, forfeiture, Google, hospitals, Katrina, Rick Perry, same-sex marriage, Texas

September 12 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

July 10 roundup

Walter Olson — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 05:53:52 +0000

Jury rejects Jamie Leigh Jones rape claim against Halliburton/KBR. Next, a round of apologies from naive commentators and some who used the case to advance anti-arbitration talking points? [WSJ; Ted Frank/PoL and more; WSJ Law Blog (plaintiff's lawyers sought shoot-the-moon damages)]
Time magazine vs. James Madison on constitutional law (spoiler: Madison wins) [Foster Friess via Ira Stoll]
Andrew Trask reviews new Curtis Wilkie book on the Dickie Scruggs scandal;
“Right to family life” evolution in human rights law deters UK authorities from deporting various bad actors [Telegraph]
Paging Benjamin Barton: How discovery rules enrich the legal profession at the expense of the social good [PoL]
USDA heeds politics, not science, on genetic crops [Henry Miller/Gregory Conko, PDF, Cato Institute Regulation]
“Legal Questions Raised by Success of Monkey Photographer” [Lowering the Bar]

Tags: agriculture and farming, arbitration, constitutional law, Dickie Scruggs, discovery, immigration law, international human rights, United Kingdom

July 10 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

June 24 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 05:04:47 +0000

“Law Prof Threatens Suit over University’s Plan to Reinstitute Single-Sex Dorms” [ABA Journal, WSJ Law Blog; John Banzhaf vs. Catholic U. in Washington, D.C.]
Mississippi: Dickie Scruggs files motion to vacate conviction in Scruggs II (DeLaughter case) [Freeland, YallPolitics] Before defending Paul Minor’s conduct in cash-for-judges scandal, review the evidence [Lange, YallPolitics and more]
Woman who filmed cop from own yard charged with obstructing his administration of government [BoingBoing]
East St. Louis, Ill. jury awards $95 million in sexual harassment, assault case against Aaron’s rental chain [ABA Journal]
Connecticut unions demand investigation of conservative Yankee Institute think tank [Public Sector Inc.]
“Court Upends $1.75M Award, Finding Plaintiff Lawyer’s Remarks Prejudicial” [NJLJ]
Hold it! San Francisco debates bathroom rights for schoolkids [C.W. Nevius, SF Chronicle]

Tags: colleges and universities, Connecticut, Dickie Scruggs, Paul Minor, San Francisco, Washington D.C.

June 24 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

David Rossmiller on the Dickie Scruggs scandal

Walter Olson — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 15:29:17 +0000

David Rossmiller, whose blog provided some of the most penetrating analysis of the Dickie Scruggs judicial corruption scandal of 2007-08, has now penned a review of one of the books to emerge from the scandal, “Kings of Tort” by Alan Lange and Tom Dawson. Rossmiller, an Oregon lawyer, also has some kind words for my book The Rule of Lawyers, published a few years earlier, which lays out the background for the scandal by showing how once-obscure plaintiff’s lawyers in states like Mississippi, working with courts known for “home cooking” and in alliance with local political figures, had begun redistributing billions of dollars in big-ticket litigation from tobacco and asbestos on down. [Mississippi College Law Review PDF via Insurance Coverage Blog; related here and here]

Tags: Dickie Scruggs

David Rossmiller on the Dickie Scruggs scandal is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

New book on Dickie Scruggs downfall

Walter Olson — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 05:05:24 +0000

“The Fall of the House of Zeus,” by veteran newspaper reporter Curtis Wilkie, is reviewed at Lemuria Books and the Wall Street Journal. An earlier book on the same subject was “Kings of Tort”, by Alan Lange and Tom Dawson. We covered the Scruggs scandal extensively in 2007-2008.

Tags: Dickie Scruggs

New book on Dickie Scruggs downfall is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system