“Leaders of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, aware of their negative image, made a deliberate decision to stay out of public view on a controversial ballot measure to cap lawsuit damages. … ‘This program that has been put together relies on non-lawyers bringing the message to the public. To make this program work we must vow to not communicate with the public media or in a public forum at all regarding the amendment election. NO LAWYERS — NO EXCEPTIONS,'” read an email describing a TTLA strategy meeting. Willie Chapman. spokesman for the trial lawyer group, “said the TTLA has known for a long time that many people believe trial lawyers have an economic self-interest in battles over lawsuit damages. ‘We know it’s best to have messengers like consumers, clients who have had cases, law professors and legal scholars,’ Chapman said.” “The memo outlines a secret plan to disguise management of the campaign against passage of Proposition 12,” charged Rossanna Salazar, spokeswoman for Yes on 12. (Janet Elliott, Houston Chronicle, Sept. 4). (& welcome Dean Esmay readers; one of the commenters there notes that someone may have forgotten to tell the members of the TTLA that they weren’t supposed to take an identifiable role in fighting the proposition, since a Yellow Pages check on the names of letter-writers blasting the measure in a San Antonio paper reveals a plenitude of them listed under “Attorneys at Law”).
Archive for 2003
Valued Senate employee
Baseball Crank (Aug. 27) links to a pro se employment lawsuit conducted in memorably abusive fashion (PDF) by an employee of the U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms, which was finally thrown out of court Aug. 22 after years of litigation. And he wonders: how much of this sort of thing do federal managers have to deal with? We must part company from him, however, on his view that disabled-rights law, harassment law and the like are somehow brainstorms of the Democratic Party — all were crucially advanced by Republican presidents and judges, notably the senior Bush who was said to view the ADA as his proudest domestic achievement.
Class Action Fairness Act on ABC
Though the “20/20” web page is featuring Macaulay Culkin’s new role as “a cross-dressing, gay, sociopathic killer,” the ABC program will also have a John Stossel segment on Friday, September 5, on “magnet county” state courts and on S. 274, the Class Action Fairness Act of 2003. The bill would expand federal jurisdiction over class actions, limiting the ability of plaintiffs to file multiple class actions in multiple state courts in hopes of finding a court willing to certify a nationwide class. Earlier discussion: June 25 and here (scroll to “Madison County”). Addendum: transcript of Stossel show is here.
McDonald’s case dismissed
Pelman v. McDonald’s, the original fast-food case (see July 25, 2002), has been dismissed, this time with prejudice. An earlier version of the complaint was dismissed with leave to file an amended version. (Jan. 23). (Reuters, Sep. 4). (via How Appealing) Update: Case reinstated, if only temporarily.
Texas’s Proposition 12
An intense campaign is under way in Texas over Proposition 12, which would amend the state constitution so as to give the Legislature authority to set limits on non-economic damages awarded to plaintiffs in civil lawsuits (vast assemblage of news links via Google News). It is being enthusiastically backed by the state’s medical community: YesOn12.org; Texas Medical Association; Texas Association of Family Physicians. Opposition: Save Texas Courts, TexansAgainstProp12.com, Texas Trial Lawyers Association. Opponents of the measure claim to fear the influence of “Big Money”, but — such a surprise! — have heavily out-fund-raised and out-spent the proposition’s supporters, with at least five law firms kicking in $250,000 each to the Save Texas Courts group (Houston Chronicle, Jul. 17, reprinted at National Constitution Center).
Curmudgeonly Clerk has a thorough roundup (Aug. 26), including the sentiments of major newspapers (the elite ones tend to be opposed, as usual) and weblog pointers. Kill As Few Patients As Possible (Sept. 2) and RangelMD (Aug. 20) also comment.
Remarkably, some opponents of the proposition have now carried out a sort of broad-daylight identity theft against the state’s best-known tort reform organization, Texans for Lawsuit Reform. Observing the domain name TexansforLawsuitReform.com up for grabs, they registered it as their own and put up a site exactly mimicking the actual TLR’s graphics and logo but then filling the rest of the page with boilerplate propaganda against the measure. The Austin Chronicle has more on the story (Lee Nichols, “Naked City”, Aug. 29). Kill as Few also comments (Sept. 4).
Addendum: BeldarBlog (Aug. 28) has an excellent analysis of the division-of-powers angle of Proposition 12 (should tort law remain exclusively the province of judge-made law, or is it legitimate for lawmakers to help shape its course?).
W. Va.’s judge-advocate?
High on the list of upcoming showdowns between the Chamber of Commerce and organized trial lawyerdom is the race for control of the West Virginia Supreme Court, which is considered to tip pro-plaintiff at present by a slender margin. Incumbent Justice Warren McGraw drew particular ire from the state’s business community when he “authored a 1999 decision that allows people who claim exposure to toxic chemicals to win huge sums of money for a lifetime of medical testing — without ever having to prove that they are sick.” “In a fund-raising letter sent out this spring, Wheeling lawyer Bob Fitzsimmons wrote, ‘Justice Warren McGraw has consistently advocated for the injured persons of our state.'” (Toby Coleman, “McGraw ahead in race, poll says”, Charleston Daily Mail, Aug. 28)(via Brian Peterson, who also (Aug. 28) wonders about that “advocated”). Update May 13: McGraw holds off challenge.
He led them out with silver and gold
Since the latest bizarre reparations-suit project seems to be a favorite among our readers, we suppose we can’t pass it by: “Nabil Hilmi, dean of the law school at Egypt’s University of Al-Zaqaziq, is suing ‘all the Jews of the world’ for stealing ‘from the Pharaonic Egyptians gold, jewelry, cooking utensils, silver ornaments, clothing, and more, leaving Egypt in the middle of the night with all this wealth, which today is priceless,’ according to the Cairo newspaper Al-Ahram Al-Arabi (translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute).” (Ted Olsen, “The World’s Most Outrageous Biblical Lawsuit”, Christianity Today weblog, Sept. 2; MEMRI Special Dispatch #556). More commentary: Judith Weiss, Kesher Talk, Aug. 22; Mona Charen, “Sue the Jews”, TownHall, Sept. 2; Rabbi Avi Shafran, “A truly historic lawsuit”, Jewish World Review, Sept. 3.
Excerpts from The Excuse Factory online
Speaking of our editor’s books, we notice that Amazon.com has recently posted some 49 sample pages’ worth of our editor’s 1997 book on employment law, The Excuse Factory (Free Press), on its page for the book. This means that some portions of the book can now be read in online form for the first time, which we hope will serve as an inducement for many of you to want to buy a copy of the whole thing. The book is still highly relevant for anyone wishing to make sense of the legal mess we’ve made of hiring and firing in this country.
Rule of Lawyers reviewed
Bruce Fein reviews our editor’s latest book for the Washington Times (“Faulting the lawyers for our ills?”, Aug. 31)
Welcome new contributor Ted Frank
We are delighted to welcome Ted Frank as an ongoing contributor to Overlawyered.com. As he put it when he dropped by for a guestblogging stint in July (scroll down to Jul. 8 and earlier dates), he’s a former clerk for Judge Frank Easterbrook of the Seventh Circuit who now practices law with a major firm (O’Melveny & Myers) in Washington, D.C. on behalf of clients dealing with some of the sorts of lawsuits chronicled in this space.
Needless to say, Ted and I will not always agree and should not be seen as speaking for each other. He’ll soon have his own email address at overlawyered.com perfect for readers who want to send him leads or react to posts. Please join in welcoming Ted aboard.