Scam pretend-lawyers pose as real Hollywood lawyers firing off nastygrams to shake cash out of illicit downloaders. [Above the Law]
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Posts tagged as:
fraud
According to attorney Jeffrey Newman in the Times of Trenton, New Jersey law allows class actions and consumer fraud suits to be based on paperwork infractions with no showing of actual harm, creating openings for opportunistic litigation:
As an attorney, I have defended numerous business owners against frivolous claims in which the plaintiff could prove absolutely no injury and he or she had received whatever service or product that was promised. Yet there was language in the purchase agreement that was found to be considered “non-compliant” with the Contractors Registration Act and the Consumer Fraud Act’s Home Improvement Contract regulations.
…Contractors who choose to use boilerplate contracts often sold in office supply stores are playing with fire, as such agreements would never withstand the scrutiny of the state’s consumer protection laws. When contractors use these forms and are sued, the courts can rule that they have to hand back to the consumer every penny — even the money they laid out for materials to do the job. … In another case, we represented a contractor whose advertisements were not in compliance. Even though the plaintiff never bought anything, our client was still sued!
Scam investigators are starting to assess the harm done by a pretend “law firm,” including $6,775 in losses to a victimized British man. Fortunate that it was just fake; imagine how much more damage the law firm might have done had it been real! [AmLaw Daily]
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Last week two trolley cars collided in downtown Memphis, and according to Allison Burton, a spokeswoman for the transit authority, some bystanders attempted to board the cars and fake injuries. Burton “said witnesses saw at least eight people run at the trolleys following the wreck” and at least two appear to have gotten in. [Commercial Appeal] Earlier bus-jumping here, etc.
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“Despite claims that she couldn’t work, rarely left home and rarely socialized because of injuries from a 1996 car accident, Dorothy McGurk, 43, was belly-dancing at home and in Manhattan for hours a day — and then spending several more hours a day blogging about [it].” Asked by a Facebook acquaintance why she wasn’t posting pictures of her dance adventures, McGurk said her ex, from whom she was demanding lifetime maintenance, “would love to fry me with that.” Her words sufficed, and Justice Catherine DiDomenico denied most of her maintenance claim as well as awarding the husband “60 percent from the sale of their house and thousands in legal fees for her ‘dilatory tactics.’” [Dareh Gregorian, New York Post]
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A local NBC affiliate covers the extraordinary lawsuit-abuse ring run by a tow-operator-gone-wrong in San Benito, Santa Clara and Monterey counties. Attorney Greg Adler deserves credit for cracking the scheme (via Legal Ethics Forum; earlier here and here).
In an elaborate scheme discussed in this space in May, a northern California towing operator towed cars without authority, then proceeded to sue the owners — and even some non-owners — for exaggerated storage and handling fees. The enterprise was eventually exposed by Greg Adler, a young lawyer who estimates that he spent 1,200 hours documenting the misdeeds. Two of the scammers are now headed to prison, with one receiving a 14-year sentence. [San Jose Mercury News via Legal Ethics Forum]
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- Supreme Court limits scope of “honest services fraud” law [Mauro/NLJ, Ilya Shapiro and Tim Lynch, Cato, Bainbridge and more]
- No, defensive medicine isn’t a myth, ask your emergency room doc [AP/Columbus Dispatch] Eagerness to share horror stories [Sharon Begley, Newsweek] “Unusual for a Democrat, Obama readily acknowledges that defensive medicine is a problem.” [AP/WaPo] “VBAC rates are low, but are obstetricians to blame?” [Lin and Tuteur at KevinMD, Replogle/Fair Warning]
- Social life of a blawger, cont’d: I sat at David Lat’s table at CEI’s evening with Judge Kozinski [Above the Law] Judge Learned Hand, writing in an antitrust case, “was very knowledgeable about everything except how the world works.” [among the many funny things Judge K. said]
- For those keeping count, at least seven Roman Catholic dioceses in this country have filed for bankruptcy in abuse scandal [Hartley]
- Business Roundtable enumerates rapidly expanding roster of federal regulatory burdens [Ted at PoL, Amend the CPSIA, Tad DeHaven and Daniel Mitchell, Cato]
- Colleges fiddle numbers to comply with Title IX, but don’t you dare call it a quota law [LegalBlogWatch, Greenfield] New report on law’s ill effects on soccer [College Sports Council, Charlotte Allen/MtC] More: Allison Kasic, IWF. And back when, I wrote on Princeton wrestling and Title IX; CSC tells how that turned out.
- Former student of Prof. Robin West defends homeschooling [Sub Specie]
- Not too long ago: “My environmental advocacy organization would only fill the company cars at BP” [Stoll]
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According to prosecutors in Santa Clara County, a “lawsuit mill” formed part of an extensive “tow-and-sue” criminal scheme in which a towing operator sold towed cars without notifying the owners and then added insult to injury by going after the owners for storage and handling fees. Paul Stephen Greer, also known as Vincent Cardinalli Jr., pleaded no contest to fifty-nine felonies. Prosecutors say Greer, who operated tow trucks in Clovis, Gilroy and Hollister, sued parties that did not own the vehicles, arranged for falsified proof of service so as to obtain quick default judgments against defendants never apprised of his suits, and engaged in perjury. [San Jose Mercury-News, press release]
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Lowering the Bar has details on the latest California case alleging fraud. Food Liability Law Blog wonders whether it and the related Crunchberry suit will make for an “endless loop” of courtroom activity. Earlier here, etc.
P.S. Don’t miss our funny reader comments on this one.
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The law is dangerous because it’s vague (via Damon Root/Reason “Hit and Run”).
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“An 86-year-old Vancouver fraud victim has taken a stand against Canada’s biggest bank, saying her Royal Bank branch shouldn’t have allowed her to withdraw $10,000 on her Visa card to give to a scam artist with no questions asked.” [CBC]
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Russell Jackson records a federal court’s dismissal of a class action lawsuit filed against Perdue.
Things you’re missing if you’re not reading my other site:
- Federal judge tosses city of Baltimore’s case blaming its neighborhood blight on subprime lenders, but Memphis files a similar suit;
- “The catchall fraud law that catches too much”: Roger Parloff of Fortune on “honest services”;
- Moonlighting: New York state senate majority leader John Sampson joins large plaintiff’s firm in “of counsel” position, an arrangement long held by his counterpart at the New York capitol, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver;
- “Trial lawyers association outlines its 2010 legislative agenda,” Montana Gov. Schweitzer to address AAJ Maui convention, “Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, the legal angle” [all from Carter Wood]
- Biggest obstacle to juvenile corrections reform? Prison guards’ unions;
- “Investor Who Backed Unsuccessful Lawsuit is Liable for Defendants’ Legal Fees“;
- A Twombly/Iqbal debate — and the harms of liberal pleading;
- U.S. Chamber’s “Top Five Ridiculous Lawsuits of 2009″ (and many other tops-of-2009 lists).
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It’s not known whether these phishing emails come literally from Nigeria or not; they promise payouts from a fund arising from a legal settlement over auction-rate securities [Business Insider] Compare Point of Law, Sept. 19 (emails invite victims to claim supposed share of oil company environmental hazard reparations).
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- Update: “Cash4Gold Drops Consumerist From Lawsuit” [its report; earlier] Unrelatedly, the same Consumers Union publication was taken in by a fake memo in which Australian McDonald’s supposedly plotted to defraud its customers [its revised post]
- “You just killed the homeowner. The bad guy is in there.” [Courthouse News and Scott Greenfield, Phoenix]
- “Reporter Who Survived Midair Crash Now on Risky ‘Libel Tourism’ Journey” [ABA Journal, Krauss/Point of Law, earlier; Joe Sharkey, Brazil]
- Permanent disbarment sought for “too drunk to join fen-phen conspiracy” Kentucky lawyer Mills [Courier-Journal]
- “Woman Blames Study Abroad Program for Rape in Mali” [OnPoint News]
- Ninth Circuit reinstates prosecution of Nevada lawyer, surgeon and consultant in injury-case furor spotlighted by Fortune mag [Legally Unbound, which by coincidence has just hosted Blawg Review #231; Las Vegas Review Journal; earlier]
- Punch line ad lib.: “Former terrorist wants to be lawyer” [Toronto Star] More: Lowering the Bar.
- “Is It So Crazy For A Patent Attorney To Think Patents Harm Innovation?” [Michael Masnick, Techdirt, Against Monopoly (Stephen Kinsella)]
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If you’re not following my other site, here’s some of what you’re missing:
- Advance-fee fraud (“Nigerian 419″) scam emails that pose as international product-liability payouts;
- Coverage of the recent Washington, D.C. developments on med-mal reform [Carter Wood and more];
- The soil from which ACORN grew;
- Judges keep swatting down California’s efforts to run its own foreign policy through reparations litigation;
- Which college majors lead to the lowest scores on the LSAT? Why, the most law-related ones;
- And the legal ethics of settlement negotiations.
Why not add Point of Law to your Google Reader or other RSS reader today, along of course with Overlawyered, if you haven’t yet?
Critics including the Securities and Exchange Commission dispute whether receivers really deserve $27 million for their work through May in cleaning up after the collapse of Texas businessman R. Allen Stanford’s empire. [AP/USA Today; earlier]
