Overlawyered » Ground Zero dust lawsuits

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

March 16 roundup

Ted Frank — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:22:39 +0000

Are you a member of Tyson chicken or H&R Block Express IRA class action settlements?

Jim Copland on Harry Reid and the trial bar. [NRO]

Jim Copland on the Ground Zero settlement, which may pay lawyers $200 million—but the judge plans fee scrutiny. [NY Post; NY Daily News]

Kevin LaCroix interviews the Circle of Greed authors. [D&O Diary]

Judgeships: Rhode Island lead paint trial lawyer in despite mediocre rating, but Sri Srinivasan out because of his clients—not Al Qaeda, but, heaven forfend, eeeevil corporations like Hertz.

There’s no evidence that workers on automotive brakes (which sometimes contain asbestos) get mesothelioma at a greater rate than the rest of the population, but auto companies still get sued over it. Ford fought one in Madison County, rather than settle, and won. [Madison County Record]

Overview of defensive medicine at work. [AP]

Pantsless Rielle Hunter on John Edwards: “He’s very honest and truthful.” [GQ]

Tags: asbestos, Bill Lerach, class action settlements, defensive medicine, Ford Motor, Ground Zero dust lawsuits, Harry Reid, judicial nominations, Madison County, politics, Rhode Island, Rielle Hunter

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

“Congress Is Again Weighing Aid for Ground Zero Rescuers”

Ted Frank — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:13:40 +0000

The New York Times quotes my testimony to the hearing on H.R. 847.

Unfortunately, the story incorrectly refers to AEI as a “lobbying organization,” which it is definitively not. It is unimaginable how the Times could have made this mistake, given that just three weeks ago, they had to correct an identical mistake; the senior editor has promised me a correction.

Tags: Ground Zero dust lawsuits, media bias, New York, New York Times, September 11, Ted Frank, workers' compensation

“Congress Is Again Weighing Aid for Ground Zero Rescuers” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

New Yorker magazine on James Zadroga

Ted Frank — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 22:54:38 +0000

I just got to the September 15 issue near the bottom of my pile of unread mail, and there’s an excellent piece of reporting by Jennifer Kahn on the case of James Zadroga, the police officer who worked at Ground Zero in the wake of 9/11 whose death was attributed to exposure to dust and was a symbol for the thousands of plaintiffs in that litigation–until the New York medical examiner found evidence that prescription drug injections were responsible for the lung scarring. Kahn’s article is tremendously damning on that question. Zadroga’s name was successfully used to get legislation passed in New York state, and similar legislation (on which I testified) is pending in Congress to open the taxpayer fisc to thousands of questionable claims.

Tags: Ground Zero dust lawsuits, New York, September 11

New Yorker magazine on James Zadroga is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

More on the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund

Ted Frank — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 19:14:22 +0000

Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee posed additional questions to me about my congressional testimony on the legislation to expand the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund to cover Ground Zero dust litigation and “psychological injury.” I have posted my answers on line.

Tags: emotional distress, Ground Zero dust lawsuits, September 11, Ted Frank, Victim Compensation Fund

More on the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Napoli Bern sues disgruntled client

Walter Olson — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:20:15 +0000

Watch what you say about lawyers dept.: The high-profile mass tort firm of Napoli Bern Ripka and Associates LLP recently filed a defamation suit in Suffolk County, N.Y. against ex-client Scott Spielberg, a former cab driver who lives in Nevada.

The firm claims that Mr. Spielberg defamed the firm when he wrote to the office of the Manhattan district attorney asking prosecutors to open an investigation into what Mr. Spielberg alleges is the firm’s mishandling of earlier litigation involving the diet drug fen-phen.

The lawsuit also claims that Mr. Spielberg slandered the firm in conversations he had with a New York Times reporter, Anthony DePalma, who wrote a lengthy article about the involvement of a name partner at the firm, Paul Napoli, in the fen-phen litigation.

Yet, Mr. DePalma’s article doesn’t quote Mr. Spielberg or mention him at all. Napoli Bern is representing the vast majority of thousands of ground zero workers in their suits alleging that the city failed to protect them from toxins at the site that have caused respiratory and other illnesses. …

“They don’t want me to be able to talk to the press or law enforcement,” Mr. Spielberg said of the suit against him.

(Joseph Goldstein, “Seeking To Cut Off Criticism, Law Firm Sues Former Client”, New York Sun, Jun. 6).

Tags: fen-phen, Ground Zero dust lawsuits, libel slander and defamation, Napoli Bern, watch what you say about lawyers

Napoli Bern sues disgruntled client is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

House Judiciary Committee hearing on 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund

Ted Frank — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 15:41:28 +0000

The hearing is now on-line (I’m at the 55:18 mark; Maxine Waters is at the 2:10:20 mark), as is my written testimony.

Things I should’ve said: that a dictator did a good job in the past hardly means that a dictatorship is a good idea, even if you can reappoint the same dictator. But one can be dumbfounded by the stupidity of some questions.

Earlier: April 1 and March 31.

Tags: about the site, Ground Zero dust lawsuits, Maxine Waters, September 11, Ted Frank, Victim Compensation Fund

House Judiciary Committee hearing on 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2007

Ted Frank — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:08:04 +0000

Speaking of Ground Zero dust lawsuits, I will be testifying Tuesday morning about H.R. 3543‘s proposal to reopen the September 11 Victim Compensation Fund to potentially hundreds of thousands of new claimants.

(Bumped Tuesday with SSRN link to testimony.)

Tags: Ground Zero dust lawsuits, Napoli Bern, politics, September 11, Ted Frank, Victim Compensation Fund

James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2007 is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

NY Times on Ground Zero dust lawyer

Walter Olson — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:20:41 +0000

In Sunday’s Times reporter Anthony DePalma takes a much-needed look at attorney Paul Napoli and his Napoli Bern law firm, which is now representing thousands of plaintiffs claiming injury from 9/11 dust inhalation and before that made its name in the fen-phen litigation. Among the controversies that have trailed it to the present day from that affair: charges that it divvied up settlements in a way favorable to its own fee interests, and that it used unreliable “echo mill” expert reports from echocardiologists attesting injury to fen-phen claimants. Prof. Lester Brickman, friend of this site, is quoted extensively. See our extensive earlier coverage at Overlawyered: Dec. 16, 2002, Sept. 21, 2003, etc. (echo mills); Dec. 28, 2001, Feb. 14, 2005, and Mar. 29, 2007 (settlement practices); Feb. 25, 2008 (broad net cast in 9/11 suits)(cross-posted from Point of Law).

Tags: ethics, fen-phen, Ground Zero dust lawsuits, Napoli Bern

NY Times on Ground Zero dust lawyer is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

9/11 dust

Walter Olson — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 11:19:28 +0000

Ramon Gilsanz, a structural engineer with a small office in Manhattan, showed up at the World Trade Center site to pitch in after the disaster; like many others, he started as a volunteer and found his role evolving into a subcontractor at the city’s request. Now, like about 130 other structural engineers, he is named in many of 8,000 lawsuits filed by the Paul Napoli firm and others over dust exposure to various bystanders. He and another structural engineer said they worked alongside the other rescue and cleanup workers and were never assigned responsibility for air quality. (Jim Dwyer, “For Engineer, a Cloud of Litigation After 9/11″, New York Times, Feb. 23).

Tags: deep pocket, Ground Zero dust lawsuits, Napoli Bern

9/11 dust is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system