Two Milwaukee-based law firms, Hupy & Abraham and the McNally Law Offices, have been gathering up vehicle-crash police reports in the famously litigation-friendly Illinois counties east of St. Louis, and then soliciting persons named in the reports to file injury claims. “Some local police departments, including Belleville, Edwardsville, O’Fallon and the Madison County Sheriff’s Department,” have resisted the demands, based on worries about citizen privacy and identity theft, or have sought to charge for per-report access, which would discourage mass scooping up of names. The McNally firm, however, “sends a copy of a letter from Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office, which states the police have to allow viewing of the reports, at no charge.” (Brian Bruegemann, “Ambulance chasing? Lawyers zero in on metro-east clients”, Belleville News-Democrat, Sept. 28). Ron Miller at Maryland Injury Lawyer says the practice contributes toward giving the plaintiff’s bar a bad name, and corresponds with attorney Michael Hupy whose firm figures in the story. We covered the phenomenon earlier here and here.

• Trips over firefighter’s bag at rescue scene, now wants cash from city [Salem, Mass., News]
• Oh, my: “Bidens owe SimmonsCooper [huge mass tort firm in Madison County, Ill.] $1 million in hedge fund deal” [MC Record, earlier] Update: plenty more in a Wednesday WSJ editorial.
• Florida Supreme Court rejects latest attempt by attorney Montgomery Blair Sibley to resist discipline [North Country Gazette]
• “Women’s advocacy groups have persuaded Congress to begin intensive Title IX equity reviews of science programs.” Bad news for American academic science [Sommers, AEI/Teachers College Record]
• You may have run into everyone’s favorite fashion law blog. But did you know there’s also a furniture law blog? [Womble Carlyle; via Blawg Review #179 at Securing Innovation]
• Eavesdrop on jury deliberations, get wind of defense verdict, move quick to settle case? That would be a very naughty thing for a lawyer to do [American Justice Partnership]
• Myrhvold the last straw: “Up until now I have been criticized in many corners for taking the side of so-called patent trolls. …No tax policy could ever do as much damage to an economy.” [Gene Quinn, PatentFools.com, also via above]
• Okay, towns, build sidewalks or else [four years ago on Overlawyered]

Add the August 28 LA Times to the list of newspapers looking askance at Joe Biden and his family’s cozy relationship to judicial-hellhole asbestos attorneys, in this case Madison County’s SimmonsCooper. (Chuck Neubauer and Tom Hamburger, “Business dealings of Biden family could be problematic for him”, Aug. 28). Unfortunately, the article somehow manages to miss the rationale for creating the trust fund, which was the degree to which so much asbestos litigation in the country is abusive.

Update: also, Am Law Daily.

Does class actioneer Stephen Tillery really want to call renewed public attention to his settlement with Sears, in which the settling lawyers made out so well ($17 million) given the somewhat elusive benefits to the class of consumers? (Madison County Record, Jul. 30, and editorial, Aug. 2). Our earlier coverage of the case appeared Jan. 31.

• Significant if true: Ninth Circuit may have finally decided that judges should stop micromanaging Forest Service timber sales [Lands Council v. McNair, Adler @ Volokh]
• GMU lawprof/former Specter aide whose law review output grabbed big chunks of others’ work without attribution doesn’t belong on the federal bench, though he may have a future at Harvard Law [Liptak, NYT; WSJ law blog]
• Update on gift card class actions (earlier) filed by Madison County, Ill.’s mother-daughter team of Armettia Peach and Ashley Peach [MC Record; more background here and here]
• If you regard demand letters from attorneys as menacing and aggressive, maybe you’re one of those “lawyer-haters” with cockamamie notions of loser-pays [Greenfield, and again]
• Just wait till Public Citizen goes after those “charities” that spend more on telemarketing than they raise by it — oh, wait a minute [LA Times via Postrel]
• U.K.: nursery schools urged to report as “racist” incidents in which pre-schoolers say “yuk” about spicy foreign foods [BBC, Telegraph, Taranto; the author speaks, via Michael Winter, USA Today]
• Blawg Review #167 creatively assigns each of 50+ blog posts to its own “state”, though it took some doing to associate us with “Maryland” [Jonathan Frieden, E-Commerce Law]
• I will NOT go around saying Miami-Dade judges are being paid off… I will NOT go around saying Miami-Dade judges are being paid off… [Daily Business Review, earlier]
• “‘I’m thinking of getting disability.’ … This individual figured that [it] was tantamount to a career choice”. [physician blogger Edwin Leap]

Illinois state Rep. Jay Hoffman of Madison County, who doubles as an attorney with the Lakin Law Firm, is also said to be a big-time political fundraiser and a key link between the county’s far-famed class-action culture and the world of Illinois politics. Hoffman has long been a close and loyal advisor to now-Gov. Rod Blagojevich, something that’s no longer such a big political advantage what with the Rezko trial having badly sullied the governor’s reputation. Things got worse last month when Hoffman’s name came up during some of the most explosive testimony at that trial, though he’s been charged with no wrongdoing. And now he’s at odds with a fellow Democrat, state house Speaker Michael Madigan — himself a longtime guardian of trial lawyer interests in Springfield — following what the St. Louis Post-Dispatch describes as “the airing of a secret memo from [Madigan's] staff directing legislative candidates to call for Blagojevich’s impeachment — complete with instructions to deny that they’re getting instructions.” (AP’s version). Ed Murnane of the Illinois Civil Justice League has more at Illinois Review, as do the editorialists of the Chamber-backed Madison County Record, while Eric Zorn of the Tribune and ArchPundit speculate that Blagojevich might appoint Hoffman to Barack Obama’s seat in the U.S. Senate should his election as President leave it vacant.

• More on that New Mexico claim of “electro-sensitive” Wi-Fi allergy: quoted complainant is a longtime activist who’s written an anti-microwave book [VNUNet, USA Today "On Deadline" via ABA Journal]
• Your wisecracks belong to us: “Giant Wall of Legal Disclaimers” at Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor at Disneyland [Lileks; h/t Carter Wood]
• New at Point of Law: AAJ commissions a poll on arbitration and gets the results it wants; carbon nanotubes, tomorrow’s asbestos? California will require lawyers operating without professional liability insurance to inform clients of that fact (earlier here and here); and much more.
• Actuaries being sued for underestimating funding woes of public pension plans [NY Times via ABA Journal]
• City of Santa Monica and other defendants will pay $21 million to wrap up lawsuits from elderly driver’s 2003 rampage through downtown farmers’ market [L.A. Times; earlier]
• Sequel to Giants Stadium/Aramark dramshop case, which won a gigantic award later set aside, is fee claim by fired lawyer for plaintiff [NJLJ; Rosemarie Arnold site]
• Privacy law with an asterisk: federal law curbing access to drivers license databases has exemption that lets lawyers purchase personal data to help in litigation [Daily Business Review]
• Terror of FEMA: formaldehyde in Katrina trailers looks to emerge as mass toxic injury claim, and maybe we’ll find out fifteen years hence whether there was anything to it [AP/NOCB]
• Suit by “ABC” firm alleges that Yellow Book let other advertisers improperly sneak in with earlier alphabetical entries [Madison County Record]
• Gun law compliance, something for the little people? A tale from Chicago’s Board of Aldermen [Sun-Times, Ald. Richard Mell]
• Think twice about commissioning a mural for your building since federal law may restrain you from reclaiming the wall at a later date [four years ago on Overlawyered]

• No imprisonment for debt, except when owed to a lawyer? Texas man who didn’t pay $1,750 attorney fee jailed for 30 days [ABA Journal; Jonathan Skero]
• Exploding-bra claim against Victoria’s Secret “does not specify how the injury occurred” [Greenville, S.C. News]
• We’re all set to close on your mortgage refinance, and while we’re at it could I interest you in a class action over courier fees? [Madison County Record]
• So long we elect state court judges, they’ll never escape taint associated with need to campaign [J.D. Hull, What About Clients?]
• Milberg now argues any forfeiture of proceeds from tainted cases should be confined to its actual net profits, not gross fee revenue — would it have let off defendants it sued so easily? [Gerstein, NY Sun]
• Tom Goldstein of Akin Gump (SCOTUSblog) has a spoof “Call 1-CER-TIORARI” TV ad hawking his Supreme Court advocacy [YouTube]
• New at Point of Law: Colorado unions’ revenge initiatives; Dennis Quaid at Congressional hearing on federal pre-emption; guess why Orlando isn’t getting commuter rail; drafting docs for ER duty; court green-lights suit blaming U.S. business for South African apartheid; what we can learn from defunct causes of action; Rhode Island high court mulls lead paint suit; and Ted on Massachusetts med-mal study and on reversal of $32 million Garza v. Merck Vioxx verdict.
• Managers at Tim Horton may have been ninnies to fire worker who quieted crying child by giving out free mini-donut, but today’s law does tend to ninnyize those in authority [Cosh/National Post, Canada]
• Jonathan Rauch isn’t overjoyed at California high court marriage ruling [Independent Gay Forum; more from Kmiec, Lederman and others at Slate and from Eugene Volokh] More: Steve Chapman via Sullivan and Dale Carpenter @ Volokh.
• Road delayed at £1million expense, and then great crested newt turned out not to be there [Leicester, U.K.; Ananova]
• Why trial lawyers were pleased when Boeing moved its HQ from Seattle to Chicago [seven years ago on Overlawyered]

According to a website maintained by MediaBids, an online advertising broker, the Boston law firm of James Sokolove as of recently was offering $1,500 for every mesothelioma “lead” that publishers could bring in through print ads. The offer was apparently good whether or not the patient elected to sign up with Sokolove’s firm, and whether or not the patient had worked in an asbestos-related trade, so long as the diagnosis was a genuine one. Mesothelioma is a fatal cancer accepted by the legal system as a “signature” of asbestos exposure. (Ann Knef, “Sokolove’s ‘creative’ advertising skirts ethics rules, says professor”, Madison County Record, Feb. 14). The relevant page on MediaBids was visible within the past few days, but appears to have been taken down now. For more on how avidly lawyers seek to reach this category of patients, see Sept. 5 and Oct. 13, 2007, etc. More on Sokolove here and here.

P.S. MediaBids page GoogleCached here.

• Remember those class actions against tech manufacturers for allegedly misstating the capacity of hard drives? Another one just settled, with buyers in for coupons and discounts, lawyers for $1.78 million [The Register, Cho v. Seagate Technologies settlement website]
• Watch what you say about lawyers, cont’d: Erie, Pa. paper thus far has fended off libel suit by Pittsburgh attorney over coverage of his run-ins with authorities over client treatment [Post-Gazette via Ambrogi]
• New at Point of Law: suicide risk of anticonvulsants?; Ohio AG Dann rebuked on foreclosure activism; simultaneous asbestosis and silicosis happens all the time at some law firms; Bush nominates an ATLA/AAJ member to a federal judgeship; and much more.
• Has a prominent investor with close ties to President Bush set up shop as an East Texas patent troll? [Troll Tracker, The Recorder]
• Embattled Tom Lakin and Lakin Law Firm, once high on the Madison County heap, fight to overturn $3.7 million legal-malpractice judgment [MC Record]
• Brent Coon suing former colleagues at Beaumont’s Provost Umphrey over division of billions in tobacco-fee booty [Texas Lawyer]
• UK judge criticizes “barking mad” human rights rules after prisoner refuses to leave his “comfy” jail cell to attend hearing [Times Online, Telegraph]
• “Six years after Enron, executives face greater risks—but investors are no safer.” [Gelinas/City Journal]
• United Farm Workers union threatens to sue over unflattering coverage [two years ago on Overlawyered]

(Updating and bumping Feb. 4 post about to roll off bottom of page because of new comment activity)

• Judge Fallon denied the motion of Florida plaintiffs to expedite a hearing on their inclusion into a settlement when they did not even bring suit (Jan. 30). Merck and the PSC are required to respond Feb. 15, and the hearing will be Feb. 21, where one can expect the motion to be denied.
• At Point of Law, I comment on the recent grand jury investigation into Merck marketing of Vioxx.

Update, Feb. 8: separately, Merck yesterday settles for $650 million different Medicaid fraud allegations over the marketing of Vioxx and other drugs. The qui tam relator will get a jackpot award of $68 million. [WaPo; DOJ; Merck] The pricing theories at the center of these lawsuits—which hold Merck liable for purportedly charging too little—definitely deserve longer discussion another time.

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Judy Cates, known to readers of this site for her role in the controversial Publishers Clearing House class action settlement and thereafter for suing a columnist who wrote critically about the pact, yesterday narrowly lost (in the Democratic primary) her bid for a judgeship in southern Illinois. Cates is a former head of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association. (Ann Knef, “Wexstten defeats Cates”, Madison County Record, Feb. 5; earlier). Bill McClellan, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist sued by Cates and her brother Steven Katz, has written another amusing column on the topic (”For potential Judge Judy, millions have been served”, Feb. 1).

An extraordinary number of consumers asked to be excluded from the class action settlement over Sears kitchen stoves that are allegedly too prone to tip when an opened oven door is leaned on. With humor quaint, the Chamber-backed Madison County Record reports on the reaction of class action lawyer Stephen Tillery:

At a Jan. 15 settlement hearing, Tillery interpreted the widespread rejection as a sign that he drafted a successful class notice.

“People read their mail,” he told Circuit Judge Barbara Crowder. “There was no problem with notice.”

(Steve Korris, “Consumer groups ‘ecstatic’ over Sears settlement, despite opt out of 4,896 stove owners”, Madison County Record, Jan. 24).

Plaintiff’s attorneys are slated to pocket $17 million in fees, which Tillery describes as modest compared to “the fund of monies made available to the class” by the troubled retailer, which he estimates at $500 million. “Made available” is of course a term of art, and it is anyone’s guess as to how many class members will actually take the time and trouble to file for refunds of up to $100 on old stoves. Inevitably, however, last year’s Sears wheel alignment class settlement comes to mind (see May 17 and Jul. 31, 2007). In that settlement the lawyers projected that consumers would redeem millions of dollars in coupons (and used that as the basis for their fee calculations), but the actual sum redeemed turned out to be $2,402.

(Re-posted from Point of Law.)

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According to the U.S. Chamber-affiliated Madison County Record, if lawyers are successful in pursuing an Illinois class action against mortgage broker Amerifirst over the meal-interrupting telephonic intrusions, “the lawyers would have to notify each and every aggrieved member of the class with an unsolicited phone call of their own.” (”Our View: All in the Family”, Oct. 28; Ann Knef, “Class plaintiff’s attorney-husband is TCPA specialist”, Oct. 24; “Lakin files class action against mortgage lender over pre-recorded messages”, Oct. 22).

When plaintiff attorneys were trying to get a Madison County judge to approve a settlement in a class-action lawsuit against the maker of Paxil, they touted that the company would have to pay up to $63.8 million.

How much did consumers actually get? The parties aren’t saying — and they’ll never have to.

According to the settlement, any money that didn’t get claimed by consumers goes back to GlaxoSmithKline, the maker of Paxil, which is used to treat depression. And the attorneys for both sides, as well as the company that was hired to handle consumers’ claims, are not required [to] give the court a report on how many people made claims or how much money was actually paid to them.

But one payout is certain: The plaintiff attorneys got $16.5 million.

So-called reversionary settlements, where unclaimed money goes back to the defendant, give companies a particular incentive to collaborate in crafting payout schemes that end up reaching few consumers. According to the article, settlements of that sort are especially common in the famous class-action jurisdiction of Madison County, Ill. (Brian Brueggemann, Belleville (Ill.) News-Democrat, Oct. 21).

• Lawyer for Mothers Against Drunk Driving: better not call yourself Mothers Against Anything Else without our say-so [Phoenix New Times]
• Ohio insurer agrees to refund $51 million in premiums, but it’s a mutual, so money’s more or less moving from customers’ left to right pockets — except for a big chunk payable to charity, and $16 million to you-know-who [Business First of Columbus; Grange Mutual Casualty]
• Sources say Judge Pearson, of pants suit fame, isn’t getting reappointed to his D.C. administrative law judge post [WaPo]
• Between tighter safety rules and rising liability costs, more British towns are having to do without Christmas light displays [Telegraph]
• So strong are the incentives to settle class-action securities suits that only four have been tried to a verdict in past twelve years [WSJ law blog]. More: D&O Diary.
• It’s so cute when a family’s small kids all max out at exactly the same $2,300 donation to a candidate, like when they dress in matching outfits or something [WaPo via Althouse]
• Idea of SueEasy.com website for potential injury plaintiffs [Oct. 19] deemed “incredibly stupid” [Turkewitz]
• New at Point of Law: med-mal reports from Texas and Colorado; Lynne-Stewart-at-Hofstra wrap-up (more); immune to reason on vaccines; turning tax informants into bounty-hunters?; and much more;
• $800,000 race-bias suit filed after restaurant declines to provide free extra lemons with water [Madison County Record]
• Settling disabled-rights suit, biggest card banking network agrees to install voice-guidance systems on 30,000 ATMs to assist blind customers [NFB]
• Think twice before publishing “ratings” of Pennsylvania judges [six years ago on Overlawyered]

• SueEasy.com is new website that will take in complaints from potential plaintiffs and relay them (OK, sell them, actually) to lawyers [TechCrunch]
• 6-year-old girl in Park Slope, Brooklyn, faces $300 fine for drawing pictures with sidewalk chalk [Brooklyn Paper]
• 30-year-old presents at ER with chest pain. Better order up the works, right? [Shadowfax first and second posts; more on emergency rooms/care here, here, here, etc.]
• More on donor bundling, lawyers and candidate John Edwards [WSJ sub-only, yesterday; Edwards-critical site]
• Monsanto, criticized for aggressive lawsuit campaign against farmers over its patented seeds, loses a patent case against four seed companies [BLT; Liptak/NYT 2003; critics of company]
• A corpse is a corpse, of course, of course/And no one can sue for a corpse, of course: more on that class action that keeps going with dead guy as named client [Madison County Record; earlier]
• While mom is taking bath in motel room her two young daughters somehow manage to change the channel to pr0n; jury awards mom $85,000 [L.A. Times]
• Another case history in how you can buy yourself a world of trouble when you try to fire your contingent-fee lawyer [Texas Lawyer (Law Offices of Windle Turley v. Robert L. French et al.)]
• Hey, you’re pretty good yourself [Marty Schwimmer, Trademark Blog]; just one link can give such a thrill [Cal Blog of Appeal]
• Tuck it in and turn out the light? Court won’t reopen Pooh heirs’ long-running suit against Disney [Reuters/NYT; earlier]
• Texas couple ordered to pay $57,000 for campaign ads criticizing judge [eight years ago on Overlawyered]