Overlawyered » politics

Disagree with your AG? Sue him.

Walter Olson — Fri, 04 May 2012 04:18:10 +0000

Rob McKenna, attorney general of the state of Washington, is among many state AGs who has joined in courtroom challenges to ObamaCare. Now a local “public interest” law firm, Smith & Lowney, has sued McKenna on behalf of a group of residents who disagree with that decision, saying he is breaching his duty to represent the state’s citizenry by taking a view contrary to theirs. [KOMO]

Tags: attorneys general, politics, Washington state

Disagree with your AG? Sue him. is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

April 20 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 11:19:00 +0000

Lawsuit claim: MERS mortgage system is just a racket to deprive court clerks of recording fees [Baton Rouge Advocate]
More reporting on hospital and community drug shortages [Washington Post; my post last summer]
Roger Pilon: How the “judicial activism” debate changed [Cato at Liberty]
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, spoken of as a future national political figure, has rather a lot of ties to trial lawyers [Political Desk]
Problems with DOJ e-book antitrust suit targeting Apple [Declan McCullagh]
One bogus campaign feeds into another: “ALEC Unfairly Demonized Over ‘Stand Your Ground’ Laws” [Bader, CEI "Open Market"]
New Point of Law discussion on class actions with Ted Frank and Brian Fitzpatrick;
Today’s best spam comment? “With all the thistledown floating almost on the net, it is rare to look over a locate like yours instead.”

Tags: antitrust, Apple, class actions, Louisiana, mortgages, politics, Ted Frank

April 20 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

February 24 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 05:07:47 +0000

Melissa Kite, columnist with Britain’s Spectator, writes about her low-speed car crash and its aftermath [first, second, third, fourth]
NYT’s Nocera lauds Keystone pipeline, gets called “global warming denier” [NYTimes] More about foundations’ campaign to throttle Alberta tar sands [Coyote] Regulations mandating insurance “disclosures” provide another way for climate change activists to stir the pot [Insurance and Technology]
“Cop spends weeks to trick an 18-year-old into possession and sale of a gram of pot” [Frauenfelder, BB]
Federal Circuit model order, pilot program could show way to rein in patent e-discovery [Inside Counsel, Corporate Counsel] December Congressional hearing on discovery costs [Lawyers for Civil Justice]
Trial lawyer group working with Senate campaigns in North Dakota, Nevada, Wisconsin, Hawaii [Rob Port via LNL] President of Houston Trial Lawyers Association makes U.S. Senate bid [Chron]
Panel selection: “Jury strikes matter” [Ron Miller, Maryland Injury]
Law-world summaries/Seventeen syllables long/@legal_haiku (& for a similar treatment of high court cases, check out @SupremeHaiku)

Tags: Canada, climate change, discovery, environment, global warming, Hawaii, humor, illegal drugs, jury selection, low-speed auto collisions, Nevada, North Dakota, oil industry, patent litigation, politics, Senate, United Kingdom, Wisconsin

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

Wisconsin lawyer: I won’t represent GOPers since they voted to limit fees

Walter Olson — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:32:24 +0000

“A Milwaukee lawyer who calls himself the ‘lemon law king’ is vowing to never take on a Republican client because of a new law limiting attorney fees in Wisconsin. … In a statement issued on Monday, [Vince] Megna compared Wisconsin to North Korea.” [ABA Journal]

Tags: lawyers, politics, Wisconsin

Wisconsin lawyer: I won’t represent GOPers since they voted to limit fees 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

Spare EPA’s heavy hand — they’re a swing state

Walter Olson — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 05:54:21 +0000

My newest Cato at Liberty post raises an eyebrow at some remarkably cynical calculations — who’s making them isn’t entirely clear — about a recent Obama administration backtrack on environmental initiatives (& welcome Neal Boortz readers). More: ShopFloor (Texas power plants).

Tags: Environmental Protection Agency, politics

Spare EPA’s heavy hand — they’re a swing state is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Patent Bill Viewed as Bailout for a Law Firm”

Walter Olson — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 19:32:08 +0000

Congress might provide a do-over for a drug firm that inadvertently missed filing for a patent extension by a day or two, and in so doing spare the prominent law firm WilmerHale a possible malpractice payout [Andrew Pollack, New York Times]

Tags: lawyers, patent law, politics

“Patent Bill Viewed as Bailout for a Law Firm” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Don’t tell anyone that this petition has been assigned to me”

Walter Olson — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 05:40:03 +0000

The disclosure of a Pennsylvania judge’s email to interested parties in a politically charged redistricting case may have stalled his hopes for advancement to the federal bench. [The Legal Intelligencer]

Tags: judges, Pennsylvania, politics

“Don’t tell anyone that this petition has been assigned to me” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

June 20 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 13:11:34 +0000

Politics edition:

Mother ship? White House staffers depart for Harvard Law School [Politico]
New York: “Lawmakers consider lawyer-friendly med-mal bills,” even as many key legislators moonlight at personal injury firms [Reuters]
David Brooks on explosive political potential of Fannie Mae scandal [NYTimes] After Kentucky bar panel’s vote to disbar Chesley, Ohio AG pulls him off Fannie Mae suit [Adler, Frank, Beth Musgrave/Lexington Herald-Leader]
Alabama legislature removes Jim Crow language from state constitution — but black lawmakers oppose the idea [Constitutional Daily]
AAJ lobbyist Andy Cochran works GOP turf, has convinced trial lawyers to sponsor Christian radio program [Mokhiber, "Seventh Amendment Advocate"]
Centers for Disease Control funnels grants to allies for political advocacy on favored public-health causes [Jeff Stier, Daily Caller]
Must have mistaken her for a jury: “John Edwards Sought Millions From Heiress” [ABC News] “One thing [worse than Edwards's] conduct is the government’s effort to put him in jail for it.” [Steve Chapman]

Tags: Alabama, Barack Obama, Harvard, John Edwards, litigation lobby, mortgages, New York, politics, public health, wrong right

June 20 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Senate confirms McConnell to federal judgeship

Walter Olson — Fri, 06 May 2011 05:53:41 +0000

By a mostly partisan vote of 50 to 44, the U.S. Senate confirmed Rhode Island plaintiff’s lawyer and political kingmaker Jack McConnell to a federal district judgeship. McConnell made his Motley Rice law firm, based in South Carolina, into Rhode Island’s biggest political donor during the same period that state officials were hiring him to run, on contingency fee, what it was hoped would be a hugely lucrative suit against former makers of lead paint. The Motley firm, with associated law firms, is credited with having made billions from tobacco and asbestos litigation and has recycled large sums into the campaign coffers of state attorneys general and other friendly politicians. [Daily Caller, Plains Daily (North Dakota contributions), Politico, ShopFloor] Earlier here, here, here, etc.

Tags: judicial nominations, lead paint, politics, Rhode Island

Senate confirms McConnell to federal judgeship is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system