At National Review Online, our Manhattan Institute colleague Jim Copland contrasts Hollywood’s oddly heroic image of the trial lawyer with the often socially destructive reality, citing the blame-shifting for profit exemplified in the Ninth Circuit’s recent Ileto v. Glock case (gun manufacturer, as opposed to criminal, gets sued over racist’s murder spree). (“Fiction to Fact”, Nov. 26) And the Weekly Standard, discussing the same case in its “Scrapbook” feature (Dec. 1, last item, “Shooting Blanks” — currently subscribers only) cites this commentary by Ted Frank on “the excellent website Overlawyered.com”. The Standard’s editorialists also point out that despite the plaintiffs’ elaborately spun theories of negligent distribution, the Glock in the case “was originally sold to a police department. … [In future,] manufacturers like Glock will presumably want to be wary about the kind of police departments they sell their firearms to.”

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