Overlawyered » whistleblowers

Is that a whistle in your pocket?

Walter Olson — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:00:27 +0000

Or are you just glad to sue me? “A New Jersey appeals court … overturned a $3.6 million whistleblower award to a Wachovia worker who claimed he was fired for revealing corporate fraud rather than for passing around revealing photographs.” [Michael Booth, New Jersey Law Journal]

Tags: New Jersey, whistleblowers

Is that a whistle in your pocket? is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Judge Slaps Motley Rice With Fees Over ‘Frivolous’ Lawsuit”

Walter Olson — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 12:47:50 +0000

“A federal judge in Indiana ordered lawyers including the prominent firm of Motley Rice to pay ITT Educational Services almost $400,000 in legal fees for pursuing a ‘frivolous’ lawsuit the judge said was ‘based on a completely false story.’” In line with the reluctance of American judges to award Rule 11 sanctions, the judge awarded only a small fraction of the defendant’s actual outlay in attorney’s fees, which ran into many millions. Motley Rice is a chief beneficiary of the ongoing income stream of the tobacco litigation fees, which return $500 million a year to an assortment of plaintiff’s firms. [Dan Fisher, Forbes]

Tags: colleges and universities, Motley Rice, sanctions, whistleblowers

“Judge Slaps Motley Rice With Fees Over ‘Frivolous’ Lawsuit” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

It was the dirty carpeting

Walter Olson — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 16:05:01 +0000

A fired Florida TV anchorman claims whistleblowing retaliation [Fort Myers News-Press]

Tags: broadcasters, Florida, OSHA, whistleblowers

It was the dirty carpeting is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

November 16 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 05:19:06 +0000

Sure, let’s subvert sound mortgage accounting in the name of energy efficiency. What could go wrong? [Mark Calabria, Kevin Funnell]
California: fireworks shows are “development” and coastal commission can ban ‘em [Laer Pearce, Daily Caller]
Trial lawyers’ lobbyist: I got Cuomo to bash Chevron in Ecuador case [John Schwartz, NYT]
Politics of intimidation: “jobs bill” advocates occupy office of Sen. Minority Leader McConnell (R-Ky.) [ABC News] Union protesters invade Sotheby’s during big auction [NYObserver] “Occupy Denver protesters try to storm conference of conservative bloggers” [Denver Post] “What’s the matter with Oakland?” [Megan McArdle] Post-’08 downturn, not wealth of the few, at root of economic woes [Steve Chapman] “Bohm-Bawerk forget to include [Ms. Katchpole] in his commentaries on sundry theories of interest.” [Tyler Cowen]
New breakthroughs in abundant energy aren’t welcome to some [NYT "Room for Debate"] Is GOP wrong to make EPA an issue? [Michael Barone]
After extracting $450,000 settlement, employee admits falsifying whistleblower evidence in oil filter antitrust case; class action suits continue [Bloomberg, Abby Schachter/NYPost via PoL]
Least surprising Washington-DC-datelined story of year: “Medical malpractice reform efforts stalled” [Politico]

Tags: Andrew Cuomo, antitrust, California, Chevron, environment, labor unions, mortgages, whistleblowers

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

November 11 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 11:56:20 +0000

Manhattan Institute’s “Trial Lawyers Inc.” series looks at cozy relations between state attorneys general and plaintiff’s bar [report, related featured discussion, Copland, Examiner] Report comes down hard on Ohio’s Richard Cordray, nominee to head CFPB [Copland, Gorodetski/PoL] Judge tosses Cordray suit against credit rating agencies [O'Brien/LNL, Krauss/American Thinker] Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller denounces report [IowaPolitics.com]
“The Tort of Internet Mobbing Is Perfect For Suing The Internet” [Popehat]
Canada faces challenge to hate speech law [Arthur Bright, Citizen Media Law] Do not put a frog down Her Majesty’s back at the county fair [Lowering the Bar]
“Markopolos eyes a fortune from BNY whistleblowing” [Felix Salmon] “Bounty hunters in Korea” and closer to home [Alex Tabarrok] “Developments in Whistleblower Laws: Advantage Whistleblower” [Larry Wood & Richard William Diaz, Federalist Society "Engage"]
As third party liability for crime anecdotes go, the case of Bonilla v. Motel 6 is on the lurid side [Point of Law]
Prospect of cyberwar: official U.S. response is commando lawyering [Stewart Baker, Foreign Policy]
Why it’s hard to stimulate manufacturing through product liability reform in one state [Rick Esenberg]

Tags: attorneys general, free speech in Canada, Iowa, Manhattan Institute, Ohio, product liability, third party liability for crime, whistleblowers

November 11 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

June 2 roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 14:17:02 +0000

“Italian Seismologists Charged With Manslaughter for Not Predicting 2009 Quake” [Fox, earlier]
“With context in place, it appears the WHO isn’t saying cell phones are dangerous” [BoingBoing, Atlantic Wire, Orac]
Wrongful convictions and how they happen — new book “Convicting the Innocent” by Brandon Garrett [Jeff Rosen, NY Times]
SEC to Dodd-Frank whistleblowers: no need to go through company’s internal complaint route [D&O Diary, WSJ Law Blog]
“British Press Laws Facing Twitter Challenge” [AW]
Despite legislated damages cap, jackpot awards continue in Mississippi [Jackson Clarion-Ledger] More problems with that $322 million Mississippi asbestosis verdict [PoL, earlier]
Golf club erects large net to comply with legal demands to prevent escape of errant balls, is promptly sued by neighbors who consider net too ugly [five years ago on Overlawyered]

Tags: cellphones, Italy, Mississippi, prosecution, Twitter, whistleblowers

June 2 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Ceci n’est pas une whistle

Walter Olson — Wed, 11 May 2011 05:02:08 +0000

Imagine how puzzling it must be to be an employee of the city of Montreal: the city “has set up a whistleblower hotline to encourage you to expose wrongdoings by colleagues but has also created an explicit policy forbidding you to blow the whistle and is threatening severe penalties if you do.” [Montreal Gazette]

Tags: Canada, whistleblowers

Ceci n’est pas une whistle is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

January 12 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 12:09:03 +0000

Merger objections: “First Comes the Deal Announcement, Then Comes the Lawsuit” [WSJ Law Blog]
Harvey Silverglate on campus “anti-bullying” bill [Forbes]
Anna Nicole Smith case could empower bankruptcy judges, encourage forum-shoppers [Michael J. Wade, Examiner]
“Family Business Wins Same Lawsuit Twice, Now Faces It For the Third Time” [Mike LePage, U.S. Chamber ILR]
“I’ll Never File Another Asbestos Case in Texas” [Oliver]
Financial whistleblowing rules a potential “gold mine”? [WSJ Law Blog, Wood/PoL, Robert Shattuck on SEC comment process]
“Device lag at the FDA” [Tabarrok]
Cheyenne-Arapahoe tribes file land claim that includes city of Denver, but they’ll trade it for casino rights [five years ago on Overlawyered]