Having represented patent-holding company NTP Inc. in its lengthy and much-criticized suit against BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (Mar. 4, etc.), the 250-lawyer Washington, D.C. law firm of Wiley, Rein & Fielding is going to be pocketing a contingency fee of roughly a third of the $612.5 million settlement, or $200 million plus. That exceeds the entire 2004 revenue of WR&F, which has heretofore been better known for its Washington regulatory practice than for plaintiff’s contingency-fee work. (“NTP lawyers laughing all the way to the bank”, Mobile Magazine, Mar. 17; Ashby Jones, Wall Street Journal law blog, Mar. 17).
Archive for March, 2006
Scientology and South Park
The incident we reported on Feb. 28 has developed into quite a news story — see, for example, Andrew Sullivan, Mar. 16 and many other recent posts.
$6.5M for not promoting agoraphobic employee
Sonoma County, Calif., allowed health care caseworker George Alberigi, 52, to interview Medi-Cal clients by phone from his home, by way of accommodating his psychiatric conditions, namely panic disorder and agoraphobia (fear of public places). Then in 2001 he applied was considered for a promotion. The county turned him down on the grounds that the higher-level job The county discontinued his at-home accommodation and unilaterally transferred him to a position that required meeting clients in person. Disheartened, Alberigi went on permanent medical disability. Now a jury has awarded him $1.5 million in lost wages and $5 million in other damages including pain and suffering. The county will probably seek a new trial, according to its lawyer. “Alberigi also won attorney fees, which could add another six figures to the county’s cost, said his lawyer, Steve Murphy of San Francisco.” (“Jury awards $6.5M to panic disorder patient in job bias suit”, AP/Sacramento Bee, Mar. 16). Update May 21: judge cuts award to $2.5 million.
More: Jon Coppelman at Workers’ Comp Insider (May 24) says that contrary to our first account the promotion in question was not one that Alberigi sought, but was imposed by the county, which did not wish to continue with the at-home-interviewing accommodation. More broadly, Coppelman is far more impressed with the case’s merits than we are, finding it significant that 1) Alberigi’s psychiatric disabilities were undisputedly genuine; 2) kind things had been said about him in earlier performance evaluations. In revamping their prerequisites for caseworker jobs in a way disadvantageous to Alberigi, he writes, management “decided to shake up his narrow world and force him out of a nurturing situation” and “need to be held accountable for their actions”.
Nurse Cullen’s references, VI
The notorious killer nurse is back in the news, and Philip K. Howard recalls the background of his crimes:
During his 16-year nursing career, Cullen was able to move from one hospital to another – to 10 medical facilities in all – because fear of litigation prevented those hospitals from giving him a bad reference. …
Even the Pennsylvania Department of State, which oversees the state nursing board and had been warned about Cullen’s penchant for diverting medications, could not comment on his reputation. “Legally, we can’t speak about any information we receive that doesn’t result in disciplinary action,” a spokesman said….
America’s lawsuit culture has bred all kinds of bizarre changes to our society – warning labels on coffee cups, and doctors squandering billions in defensive medicine, to name just two. But the inability to be honest about how you feel about other people is one of the most destructive. Making judgments about people is the currency of a social interaction in a free society. Who tries hard? Who has good judgment? Who is a pleasure to deal with? And who acts in a way that makes your skin crawl?
(“When fear is deadly”, New York Sun, Mar. 14, reprinted at Common Good site). Earlier on Cullen: Aug. 10, 2005, Mar. 30, 2004, etc.
“Roe” for men?
Site disruption
Yesterday we got an Instalanche (thank you, Glenn!) the traffic from which unfortunately had the effect of crashing our server. The site was down for much of the day, as was email service to overlawyered.com and walterolson.com (if you sent us mail and we didn’t respond, please resend). While the front page was restored within a few hours, most of the rest of the site remained down until this morning. Thanks for your patience.
P.S. Welcome readers from the second Instalanche, which we’re happy to say our servers have succeeded in accommodating. Our new slogan, courtesy of Glenn: Overlawyered, the site “you should probably be visiting regularly anyway”.
“Man Hits His Own Car Then Sues Himself”
By reader acclaim, from California: “When a dump truck backed into Curtis Gokey’s car, he decided to sue the city for damages. Only thing is, he was the one driving the dump truck. But that minor detail didn’t stop Gokey, a Lodi city employee, from filing a $3,600 claim for the December accident, even after admitting the crash was his fault.” When the city rejected the claim, Gokey and his wife Rhonda refiled it under her name. (AP/Lodi News/ABCNews.com, Mar. 16).
Tactical use of workplace lawsuits
Don’t cooperate with us on one issue, and we’ll arrange for you to get sued on other issues:
More often, unions undertake confrontational campaigns to squeeze employers to agree to card checks [i.e., recognizing the union as sole bargaining representative of workers on the basis of majority sign-up, rather than a representation election]. To pressure Cintas, the giant uniform and laundry company, Unite Here has encouraged workers to bring lawsuits alleging pay violations and racial and sexual discrimination. Cintas has not given in, insisting that secret-ballot elections are fairer.
(Steven Greenhouse, “Employers Sharply Criticize Shift in Unionizing Method to Cards From Elections”, New York Times, Mar. 11).
“Serial” litigant told to pay $270K
If you drive your SUV into someone’s picture window you’ll be expected to pay for the damage, and — even in this country, at least in extreme circumstances — the same can hold true if you drive your lawsuits into them: “A federal judge has ruled that a Rochester School District teacher — who has been labeled a ‘serial’ litigant by district lawyers — must pay $270,000 in legal fees to the district and the Rochester Teachers Association. City school teacher Donald Murphy, who has been embroiled with the district in litigation for more than a decade, filed multiple frivolous actions claiming his civil rights were violated, U.S. District Judge David Larimer ruled.” (Gary Craig, “Teacher must pay $270,000”, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, Mar. 14).
Update: Judge tosses Ileto v. Glock
Huge, though not at this point surprising, victory for the firearms industry: “A new ban on lawsuits against gun makers caused a Los Angeles judge to toss out negligence claims the family of a slain mail carrier filed against Glock and a gun distributor”. An earlier decision by the Ninth Circuit to let Ileto v. Glock go forward had been considered one of the most important victories for the gun-control-through-litigation campaign, but the U.S. Congress had other ideas. (Jennifer English, “Judge tosses gun suit”, City News Service/San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Mar. 11). For our earlier coverage, see Nov. 20, Nov. 26 and Dec. 2, 2003. (& welcome Instapundit readers).