Instead of making investments that would create 75 jobs, Max & Erma’s Restaurants is spending half of its profits on Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. The company will go private to avoid the regulatory hassle, but that limits the company’s access to the capital markets—and everyday investors’ access to opportunity. (John Berlau and Anastasia Uglova, “Sarbanes-Oxley ‘reform’ harming economy”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Nov. 13). And Larry Ribstein sees SOx behind Georgia-Pacific’s decision to go private.
Archive for 2005
“People Over Profits”: ATLA Astroturf lobbying over vaccines
The trial lawyers’ lobby has a new technique for pressing its opposition to proposals that would reduce or eliminate liability for drug companies to manufacture vaccines.
Run a Google or Yahoo search for “bird flu” or “avian flu” and a sponsored link will pop up, leading to ads by a group called People Over Profits — which is actually a unit of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. They bear such headlines as “Bird Flu and Viagra: What do they have in common?” and “President Bush and Bird Flu: What Bush is not telling you.” (The group also purchased the search term “Rafael Palmeiro,” not because he has anything to do with the issue but because the ballplayer gets Googled a lot in the steroids controversy.)
Now even Web searchers aren’t safe from lobbying! And since sponsors can monitor the traffic, says ATLA spokeswoman Chris Mather, “you can change your message during the day if it’s not working.”
(Howard Kurtz, “CIA Article Sidebar: A Story of Deja Vu”, Washington Post, Nov. 14). Of course, it’s more important for trial lawyers to have lawsuit opportunities than for manufacturers to be able to make vaccines. More: Apr. 11, Oct. 19, 2004, Dec. 24, 2003.
“How to demonize a judge in twelve steps”
“…Never ever ever ever ever mention that the job of a lower judge is to apply the decisions of higher courts. Treat his opinions as if they represented his personal views of what the law should be.” David Nieporent’s (Jumping to Conclusions) commentary on judicial nomination fights is reprinted at Point of Law.
“We’re all victims”
Columnist John Leo’s annual survey of the year in victimization (U.S. News, Nov. 21).
“Man glued to toilet seat sticks to story”
“A man who sued Home Depot claiming that a prank left him glued to a restroom toilet seat has passed a lie detector test, a newspaper reported.” After Bob Dougherty made headlines with his allegations that employees of the home improvement chain failed to respond to his calls for help, “Ron Trzepacz, former director of operations in Nederland, where Dougherty lives, said that Dougherty claimed in 2004 that he was glued to a toilet seat in the town’s visitor center but pulled himself free.” However, Dougherty said he knew nothing of Trzepacz or of such an incident and offered to take the polygraph test, which was arranged by a local television station. (AP/CNN, Nov. 11). Amid the numerous puzzling aspects of the case, one aspect is reassuringly familiar, namely that it’s Not About the Money (see Nov. 7, etc.) “It’s not about the money. I want my health back. I want to be back to normal,’ Dougherty said. ‘I want to make sure this doesn’t happen to anybody ever, ever again.'” His lawsuit asks $3 million for pain, humiliation and other losses. (AP/CNN, “Man glued to toilet may have history”, Nov. 8). Possibly the most groanworthy headline, of several candidates, was the Dallas Morning News’s: “Toilet allegation: Was it stunt No. 2?” (Nov. 8).
Jahkema “Princess” Hansen
Fourteen-year-old Jahkema “Princess” Hansen was dating 28-year-old murder suspect Marquette Ward. Police detectives visited Hansen to see if she had any information about the murder over a PCP-laced marijuana cigarette, which she allegedly witnessed. She told them she didn’t, and then (according to prosecutors) went to Ward and asked for compensation for keeping quiet. The night after the interview, a friend of Ward’s, Franklin Thompson, allegedly stormed Hansen’s DC townhouse and shot her dead, execution-style. (Ward and Thompson have plead not guilty to the two murders, and go to trial in March.)
But what makes this sordid story one for Overlawyered was the reaction of Hansen’s mother, Judyann Hansen, who, through her attorney, Donald Rosendorf, sued the Washington, DC, police department, blaming them for Hansen’s death. “Any time a police officer sets foot in that neighborhood, it gets around and it gets around fast,” Rosendorf said. Thus, he argued, the mere fact of the interview created a legal duty to provide special protection for Hansen. A D.C. Superior Court judge has disagreed, and dismissed the suit. (Henri E. Cauvin, “D.C. Police Not Liable in Witness’s Death, Judge Rules”, Washington Post, Nov. 10). A Marc Fisher column in the WaPo in February painted a more sympathetic portrait of the Hansen family (which included two adult sons serving time for crack-dealing), which led to a Charlotte Allen fisking.
By the numbers
“At last count, Congress Assembled contains two physicists, two chemists, two biologists, one geologist, 234 lawyers and an astronaut. This puts the lawyers within striking distance of an absolute majority in the 538-member Congress.” (Russell Seitz, “Congressional Math”, Wall Street Journal, Nov. 11)(sub-only).
“For Online Parents’ Group, a Legal Scare”
When “a recent question about a preschool prompted a mother and shop owner to recount a bad business encounter with the school’s director, the husband of the school’s director threatened to sue the board’s moderators for defamation.” As “Mr. [Edward B.] Safran’s threats of a lawsuit continued, the moderators were scared into shutting down the message group’s entire archives this month.” (Mokoto Rich, New York Times, Nov. 13).
Federalist Society convention, D.C.
I’m off to the Federalist Society’s annual Lawyers Convention in Washington, D.C. and expect to be back posting on Sunday.
N.Y.: Hotel safety standards for sharehouses?
“In a decision that could have ripple effects across Long Island’s East End summer playground, a Suffolk Supreme Court justice hearing a swimming pool accident case has ruled that a sharehouse owner may be held to the same liability standards as the owner of a hotel, motel or inn.” After Flavio Fornaro injured himself diving, his lawyers argued that the owner of the house in Quogue should have mounted decals on the swimming pool to indicate relative depths, a step that might be standard for a hotel or motel pool but which is not expected of homeowners. A judge ruled that the claim could go to trial. “The decision could create a whole host of new and previously unanticipated duties for both rental property owners and others who have pay-to-attend events at their homes.” One Riverhead attorney wondered whether the hiring of lifeguards might be required, and a realtor called the decision “quite disturbing”, with its implication that prudent private owners might need to mimic the safety precautions of commercial establishments: “You can’t take a person’s residence and make it a Starbucks.” (Andrew Harris, “Sharehouse Owners Held to Public Accommodations Standards in Pool Accident Case”, New York Law Journal, Nov. 2).