Overlawyered » loser pays

April 25 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 04:15:01 +0000

Eugene Volokh on civil liberties problems with the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization [first, second posts]
More coverage of the “N.C. vs. diet advice blogger” story we noted in February [Sara Burrows/Carolina Journal, Brian Doherty/Reason]
A case for an administrative alternative to asbestos litigation [Michael Hiltzik, L.A. Times] More on administered compensation funds [Adam Zimmerman, Prawfs]
Scuttle-the-boat insurance fraud scheme goes amusingly wrong [Lowering the Bar]
“To lower prices at the pump, abolish the boutique fuel regime” [Steven Hayward, Weekly Standard]
Supreme Court denies certiorari in NYC rent control case [Trevor Burrus, Cato; earlier here and here] But it does grant cert in Cato-backed property rights action [Ark. Fish & Game v. U.S.; Shapiro]
New Zealand’s innovative public policies: left, right or something else? [Eric Crampton] Let’s be more like the Scandinavian countries [Tim Worstall, UK] Don’t forget loser-pays…

Tags: asbestos, bloggers and the law, domestic violence, eat drink and be merry, insurance fraud, loser pays, New Zealand, North Carolina, oil industry, Supreme Court, Sweden, Victim Compensation Fund

April 25 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

April 18 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 04:05:17 +0000

“MPAA: you can infringe copyright just by embedding a video” [Timothy Lee, Ars Technica]
NYC: fee for court-appointed fire department race-bias monitor is rather steep [Reuters]
Larry Schonbron on VW class action [Washington Times] Watch out, world: “U.S. class action lawyers look abroad” [Reuters] Deborah LaFetra, “Non-injury class actions don’t belong in federal court” [PLF]
Will animal rights groups have to pay hefty legal bill after losing Ringling Bros. suit? [BLT]
You shouldn’t need a lobbyist to build a house [Mead, Yglesias]
“Astorino and Westchester Win Against Obama’s HUD” [Brennan, NRO] My two cents [City Journal] Why not abolish HUD? [Kaus]
“Community organized breaking and entering,” Chicago style [Kevin Funnell; earlier, NYC]

Tags: animal rights, bloggers and the law, Chicago, class action settlements, class actions, fair housing, land use and zoning, loser pays, mortgages, movies film and videos, NYC, real estate

April 18 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Universal be not proud

Walter Olson — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 11:21:57 +0000

Veoh, like YouTube, pioneered the idea of enabling users to self-post video to the Internet. Then Universal, the entertainment company and owner of many copyrights, began a particularly aggressive campaign of litigation against it. Though Veoh Networks won a judicial decision in its favor, Universal appealed, having also taken the unusual step of suing three Veoh investors personally. In December the Ninth Circuit reaffirmed Veoh’s victory, but in the mean time Veoh had declared bankruptcy. Company founder Dmitry Shapiro recalls:

As you can imagine the lawsuit dramatically impacted our ability to operate the company. The financial drain of millions of dollars going to litigation took away our power to compete, countless hours of executive’s time was spent in dealing with various responsibilities of litigation, and employee morale was deeply impacted with a constant threat of shutdown. Trying to convince new employees to join the company in spite of this was extremely challenging.

By the end, “The company that we had built, that was once valued at over $130 million was gone,” writes Shapiro. Ron Coleman writes:

Under the American Rule, the cost of maintaining a meritorious defense to relentless litigation is prohibitive and what fee-shifting is available favors is applied with sickening asymmetry, virtually always favoring the party to which legal fees mean the least.

According to Eric Goldman, “This case’s real result is that Veoh is legal, but Veoh is dead – killed by rightsowner lawfare that bled it dry.” Mike Masnick points out that Universal is still pursuing its action.

Tags: copyright, loser pays

Universal be not proud is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

European roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 05:05:33 +0000

Overseas press excoriates new FATCA tax-Americans’-foreign-earnings law; some foreign banks now turn away American customers [Dan Mitchell, Cato, Reason] “The Fatca story is really kind of insane.” [Caplin & Drysdale's H. David Rosenbloom, NYT via TaxProf] Will Congress back down? [Peter Spiro/OJ, more]
Important new book from James Maxeiner (University of Baltimore) and co-authors Gyooho Lee and Armin Weber on what the U.S. can learn from legal procedure overseas: “Failures of American Civil Justice in International Perspective” [TortsProf]
Don’t do it: British administration mulls further move away from loser-pays rule in search of — what exactly, a yet more Americanized litigation culture? [Guardian, Law Society]
Apparently in Norway it’s possible to lose one’s kids by feeding them by hand [Shikha Dalmia, Reason]
Financial transaction tax? Ask the Swedes how that worked out [Mike "Mish" Shedlock, Business Insider]
Notes from conference on globalization of class actions [Karlsgodt] Related: Adam Zimmerman;
“Another conviction in Europe for insulting religion” [Volokh; Polish pop star] Campus secularists’ speech under fire in the U.K. as “Jesus and Mo” controversy spreads to LSE [Popehat] British speech prosecution of soccer star [Suneal Bedi and William Marra, NRO]

Tags: Child Protective Services, Europe, free speech, hate speech, loser pays, Norway, Sweden, taxes, United Kingdom

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

“Business Leaders for Loser-Pays”

Walter Olson — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 16:17:36 +0000

In a new Cato post, I explain why I wish such an organization existed.

Tags: lobbyists, loser pays, Mississippi

“Business Leaders for Loser-Pays” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Art scholars fear authentication lawsuits, cont’d

Walter Olson — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:18:30 +0000

The Art Newspaper takes up a trend we’ve noted before in this space:

In New York, the art lawyer Ronald Spencer, of Carter, Ledyard and Milburn, agrees with Sanig. “This is a very serious problem. Specialists are often academics earning $100,000 [or less] a year and they can’t afford litigation they are fearful of being a defendant in a lawsuit, even if they should win.” He admits that there are more of these cases in the US: “It’s a cliché, but we are more litigious here.” He says that the US system, whereby the plaintiff does not have to pay the legal fees of the successful defendant, encourages this.

Tags: art and artists, loser pays

Art scholars fear authentication lawsuits, cont’d is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Texas deadline suit-filing, cont’d

Walter Olson — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 15:38:17 +0000

After we passed along a recent report that Beaumont, Texas lawyers had filed 59 lawsuits the day before the state’s new “loser-pays” package of litigation reforms was to take effect, Texas attorney Brooks Schuelke responded on Twitter as follows (re-formatted and edited for clarity), saying that the issue wasn’t the loser-pays provision, but a separate “responsible third party” provision that set a malpractice trap for lawyers that delayed: “The responsible third party provisions allowed a defendant to name a party, and then plaintiff could join them even if the statute of limitations had expired. The law was changed to remove the ability to sue regardless of the statute of limitations. But defendant can’t name a party not disclosed in discovery. The amendment means we have to file suit long before the statute of limitations expires to send discovery asking defendant to name who it might name. So many cases nearing the statute of limitations had to be filed before the effective date of the change or else they could be victim to the amendment.”

Tags: loser pays, statutes of limitations, Texas

Texas deadline suit-filing, cont’d is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Day before ‘Loser Pays’ launches, Beaumont lawyers file 59 lawsuits”

Walter Olson — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 10:36:02 +0000

I’m on record as noting that the Texas bill labeled as “loser pays” doesn’t do nearly as much to revamp litigation incentives as its name implies, but if lawyers rushed to beat the deadlines on its provisions, they must be expecting it to make at least some difference. [Chamber-affiliated Southeast Texas Record]

More: Texas attorney Brooks Schuelke offers a different explanation for the last-minute rush.

Tags: loser pays, Texas

“Day before ‘Loser Pays’ launches, Beaumont lawyers file 59 lawsuits” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

A timeless legal remedy

Walter Olson — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 12:06:23 +0000

Loser-pays in ancient Greece. [Pero]

Tags: loser pays

A timeless legal remedy is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Loser-pays” reform in Texas

Walter Olson — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 16:42:09 +0000

It’s a welcome development, but as I told Reuters, by the time it got through the legislative process there was less there than the name had promised. More at Cato. [Reuters link keeps changing, fixed for the moment]

Tags: loser pays, Texas

“Loser-pays” reform in Texas is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system