Overlawyered » shotgun defendant selection

Hard times for “DIAL L-A-W-Y-E-R-S” founder

Walter Olson — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 05:55:43 +0000

Longtime Twin Cities attorney John Murrin lost money in a dodgy business deal, and started out by pressing what critics agree were some meritorious complaints arising from it. But courts began to look askance as he added more and more actions, pleadings and (nearly four dozen) defendants. Now a sanctions order has resulted in a bankruptcy proceeding. ["Lawyer's tactics leave him bankrupt," Minneapolis Star-Tribune].

Tags: Minnesota, sanctions, shotgun defendant selection

“After TwIqbal, defendants don’t have to take scattershot pleading lying down”

Walter Olson — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 14:29:38 +0000

The Supreme Court’s admirable Twombly and Iqbal precedents give a federal district court the means to turn back a shotgun lawsuit against a horde of undifferentiated defendants [McFarland v. APP Pharmaceuticals LLC, slip op., 2011 WL 2413797 (W.D. Wash. June 13, 2011) via Beck, Drug and Device Law]. Quoting the court:

[A]lleging that 93 defendants all manufactured, distributed, and/or sold all of the products that caused all of plaintiff’s injuries is not plausible. In addition, plaintiff’s allegations are internally inconsistent. The complaint alleges that “each” of the defendants manufactured the heparin that caused her injuries, but also alleges that each of the 93 defendants “separately manufactured, marketed, distributed, wholesaled, and/or sold” heparin. The inconsistencies between those allegations, which are not pled in the alternative, further highlight the implausibility of plaintiff’s allegations.

James Beck writes, “Basically, the plaintiffs in McFarland didn’t want to do even the most basic spadework of identifying the correct defendants before bringing suit, so they threw in the kitchen sink in the hope that the defendants would end up having to spend the time and effort to figure things out.” After Twombly and Iqbal, that’s become a less effective legal tactic — one of many reasons to resist the Litigation Lobby drive to get Congress to overturn the two pleading decisions.

Tags: pharmaceuticals, pleading, shotgun defendant selection

“Polar Bear Plunge” blamed for non-participant’s death, 19 sued

Walter Olson — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 05:11:19 +0000

By reader acclaim: the family of a Pennsylvania woman who attended — but did not participate in — a New Jersey “Polar Bear Plunge” charity event has sued the event sponsors and many others. Tracy Hottenstein was last seen alive around 2:15 a.m. on the night of drinking after the festivities, and was later discovered in the bay having, per Cape May County authorities, “died accidentally from hypothermia and acute intoxication.” In addition to the event sponsors, the suit names “the owners of two bars she was at on the night she died and the couple who invited her to dinner at their home that evening. Also named is the hospital where she died and the doctor who pronounced her dead, as well as the Sea Isle City Police Department and individual officers who — the suit claims — did not allow rescue workers to perform lifesaving treatment for hypothermia after they discovered Hottenstein had no pulse.” [AP/NJ.com]

Tags: alcohol, New Jersey, personal responsibility, recreation, shotgun defendant selection

August 12 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 12:41:44 +0000

“Father demands $7.5 million because school officials read daughter’s text message” [KDAF via CALA Houston]
How many different defendants can injured spectator sue in Shea Stadium broken-bat case? [Melprophet]
Prominent trial lawyer Russell Budd of Baron & Budd hosts Obama at Texas fundraiser [PoL]
DNA be damned: when actual nonpaternity doesn’t suffice to get out from under a child support order [Alkon, more]
“Sean Coffey, a plaintiffs’ lawyer-turned-candidate for New York Attorney General, made more than $150,000 in state-level campaign contributions nationwide over 10 years.” [WSJ Law Blog] “Days before announcing a shareholder lawsuit against Bank of America, state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli accepted $14,000 in campaign donations from a law firm hired to help litigate the case.” [WSJ]
Big new RAND Corp. study on asbestos bankruptcy trusts may spur reform [Lloyd Dixon, Geoffrey McGovern & Amy Coombe, PDF, via Hartley, more, Daniel Fisher/Forbes, background here and here] Update: Stier.
Public contingency suits? Of course the elected officials are in control (wink, wink) [The Recorder via Cal Civil Justice]
Copyright enforcement mill appears to have copied its competitor’s website [TechDirt via Eric Goldman]

Tags: asbestos, bankruptcy, Barack Obama, baseball, baseball bats, child support, contingent fee, copyright, Fred Baron, New York, politics, privacy, schools, shotgun defendant selection

March 2 roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:12:51 +0000

“Trial Lawyers vs. Toyota” [Holman Jenkins, Jr./WSJ] Rep. Towns’s hearing didn’t even pretend to be other than showcase for trial bar [Wood, PoL; Henry Payne coverage in National Review here, here, here, and here] And make way for the inevitable investor suits [Daily Breeze]
“Obama open to curbing medical malpractice suits” [AP/WaPo] Related: The Hill; advice from Newsweek’s Evan Thomas [Jim Pinkerton]
Why doesn’t the Securities and Exchange Commission hire finance people? “They’re overlawyered. They’re poisoned by lawyers.” [Harry Markopolos interviewed by Deborah Solomon, N.Y. Times]
“Plaintiffs Lawyer’s ‘Reptile’ Strategy Bites Back” [Fulton County Daily Report] Plus: Max Kennerly wonders why it was admitted into evidence;
“Facebook plus divorce equals flammable situation” [Tampa Bay Online]
Officials get wined, dined and more: “Paying public pensions to sue” [Forbes]
Parents sue many defendants in Colorado ice cream shop crash [Denver Post]
Called for jury duty yesterday, and Tweeting the results: arts critic/biographer Terry Teachout and conservative writer Michelle Malkin.

Tags: Bernard Madoff, Colorado, divorce, Facebook, Georgia, medical malpractice, securities litigation, shotgun defendant selection, Toyota, Twitter

Buys house near SFO, sues many parties over jet noise

Walter Olson — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:47:37 +0000

California: “Stanley Hilton, 60, of Hillsborough, said in unique court papers that his wife of 13 years divorced him and took their young triplets with her last year because of ‘around-the-clock’ jet noise at SFO. …Hilton last week sued (PDF) SFO, Hillsborough, the counties of San Mateo and San Francisco, dozens of airlines and jet manufacturers, and the real estate agents and couple that sold him his home on Darrell Road for $1.475 million in April 2003.” Hilton, who is representing himself pro se, “is a former civil litigation attorney with a law degree from Duke University and was an active member of the State Bar of California for most of the past three decades, records show. However, the Bar said courts deemed Hilton ineligible to practice law in August.” [San Mateo County Times, SF Chronicle "The Scavenger", Lowering the Bar.]

Tags: airlines, aviation, pro se, San Francisco, shotgun defendant selection

October 22 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:13:54 +0000

Unsafe at any read: new Ralph Nader novel panned by Chris Hayes, Washington editor of The Nation [Barnes and Noble Review via Suderman, Reason]
Microsoft says “most, if not all” customer data from T-Mobile Sidekick smartphones has been recovered, but class action lawyers say they’re undeterred [Seattle P-I]
Sue them all and sort things out later? Lawsuit over Air France Airbus crash off coast of Brazil names long list of aerospace suppliers as defendants [Reuters]
“No cash for this clunker”: opposition mounts to proposal for Massachusetts public law school [Boston Herald editorial via Legal Blog Watch, earlier link roundup at Point of Law]
Ralph Lauren experiences Streisand Effect over skinny-model nastygram [Althouse, earlier]
High-profile L.A. plaintiff’s lawyer Walter Lack speaks under questioning about role in Nicaraguan banana-worker suit against Dole [Recorder, earlier, background] And: “Dole on a Roll: Court Declines to Enforce $97M Judgment” [WSJ Law Blog, Bloomberg]
Miller-Jenkins lesbian custody case, much meddled in by conservative religious groups, recalls the ways divorced dads get cut out of their kids’ lives [Glenn Sacks/Ned Holstein via Amy Alkon, background]
Daniel Kalder speculates on why the New York Times editorially “purred with approval” of the new FTC blogger regulations in such an “impressively superficial” way [Guardian Books Blog]. More on FTC’s semi-backtracking on the controversy: Media Bistro “Galleycat”, Publisher’s Weekly, Galleysmith. And having been hoping for ages to get a link some day from blogging legend Jason Kottke, this one will go in the souvenir file [Kottke.org]

Tags: aviation, banana pesticide litigation fraud, cellphones, child custody, class actions, FTC endorsement rules, Microsoft, Miller-Jenkins case, Ralph Nader, shotgun defendant selection, Streisand effect

Sue ‘em all, cont’d: crash outside deli

Walter Olson — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:44:59 +0000

“A woman hit by a Danish tourist driving a rental SUV outside the Olema Deli has filed a lawsuit against the Dane, the delicatessen and Dollar Rent a Car.” [Gary Klien, "Woman files lawsuit in Olema bench mishap", Marin Independent Journal, Calif.]

Tags: deep pocket, shotgun defendant selection

Associations sued in cheerleader death

Walter Olson — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:23:54 +0000

Medford, Mass.: 14-year-old Ashley Burns was performing an airborne role in a cheerleading routine when she fell and fatally ruptured her spleen. Now her mother is suing the gym where it happened, two accrediting organizations (the U.S. All Star Federation for Cheer and Dance Teams, and the American Association of Cheerleading Coaches and Administrators) and other defendants. (Donna Goodison, “Mom files lawsuit in cheerleader’s ’05 death”, Boston Herald, Oct. 21).

Tags: cheerleading, Massachusetts, shotgun defendant selection, sports

Bogus Olympic ticket scam

Walter Olson — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 02:09:09 +0000

The (genuine) International Olympic Committee and other defendants should be made to pay, according to Texas-based class-action lawyer, Jim Moriarty, who wants “millions of dollars” for 400 victims worldwide. “The lawyer alleges the IOC was aware beijingticketing.com was operating with trademarked Olympic symbols emblazoned on the site,” but failed to act speedily enough or effectively in getting the impostor site shut down. (”Olympic ticket scam: class action”, Sydney Morning Herald, Sept. 23).

Tags: Australia, class actions, shotgun defendant selection, sports, trademarks

Overlawyered » shotgun defendant selection

Hard times for “DIAL L-A-W-Y-E-R-S” founder

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“After TwIqbal, defendants don’t have to take scattershot pleading lying down”

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