Forbes says “patent trolls” will be deterred by the Supreme Court’s new ruling in the eBay case, in which “the justices ruled unanimously that federal courts must weigh several factors before barring a patent infringer from using a contested technology or business method.” (Jessica Holzer, “Supreme Court Buries Patent Trolls”, May 16)(& Lattman)(opinion, PDF).
Archive for May, 2006
18-year legal malpractice suit
Adeline Scomello of Suffolk County, N.Y. engaged five attorneys to represent her in divorce proceedings, and sued all five for legal malpractice. Now a judge has finally thrown out, with strong words as to its lack of merit, her pro se suit against lawyer #2 in the series — a suit that lasted for eighteen years. Dismissing her 329-page application for reargument, Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Arlen Spinner wrote that New York’s public policy of “unfettered access to the courts” must give way at some point. (Mark Fass, “Judge Halts Pro Se Litigant’s ‘Abusive Litigation Practices’ Against Divorce Lawyers”, New York Law Journal, May 11). (Corrected to fix typo in litigant’s name).
Profiled by flight attendant, wins $27.5 million
Left over from last month: “An economics professor from California who was arrested because a flight attendant thought she looked like a terrorist has been awarded $27.5m. In a victory for critics of racial profiling, a jury in El Paso, Texas, ordered Southwest Airlines to pay damages to Samantha Carrington for false imprisonment and malicious prosecution after she was bundled off a flight and arrested because flight attendants found her appearance suspicious.” (Salamagundi, Apr. 14; Best of the Fray; Protein Wisdom; “Finding the wrong answer” (editorial), USA Today, Apr. 14). For more links on air profiling, see our aviation page archive.
Tactical advantages of shotgun lawsuits
Why sue every physician on the patient’s chart? One reason, via KevinMD (May 6): “Plaintiffs’ lawyers love it when physicians point fingers at each other. They can just sit back and watch the doctors destroy each other.” (Berkeley Rice, “Watch out for this malpractice trap!”, Medical Economics, May 5).
UK: Great moments in human rights law
Nine Afghan asylum seekers who hijacked a plane at gunpoint to get to Britain should have been admitted to the country as genuine refugees and allowed to live and work here freely, the High Court ruled yesterday.
In a decision that astonished and dismayed MPs, the Home Office was accused of abusing its powers by failing to give the nine formal permission to enter Britain, in breach of their human rights.
(Philip Johnston, “Hijackers have a right to live in Britain”, Daily Telegraph, May 11; “Give us back our rights” (editorial), May 14).
NSA phone snooping
Here come the first of what will doubtless be many lawsuits against telephone companies: two New Jersey lawyers want $5 billion from Verizon. (Beth DeFalco, “Verizon sued for giving NSA phone records”, AP/San Jose Mercury News, May 12). Orin Kerr has more (here, here and here), while Riehl World View checks out one of the lawyers involved (May 13). Also: Heather Mac Donald, “Information Please”, Weekly Standard, May 22. P.S. And now Verizon, decrying “glaring and repeated falsehoods” in the media, “said it was not asked by the government agency to provide, nor did Verizon give out, customer phone records from any of its businesses, or any customer call data.” (David Ellis, “Verizon denies giving out phone info”, CNN Money, May 16). More: Carolyn Elefant.
“No one will be hurt if we get our diploma”
Updating our Feb. 22 report: “A judge Friday suspended California’s high school exit exam, finding it discriminatory in a ruling that could allow thousands of students who failed the test to get their diplomas anyway.” Alameda County Superior Court Judge Robert Freedman “agreed with the plaintiffs that the exam discriminates against poor students and those who are learning English. ‘There is evidence in the record that shows that students in economically challenged communities have not had an equal opportunity to learn the materials tested,’ Freedman wrote.” It would appear that from now on a high school diploma is meant to signify not a student’s actual mastery of a certain body of material, but rather the mastery he or she would have attained had the breaks of life been fairer. Employers, and all others who rely on California high school diplomas in evaluating talent, would be well advised to adjust their expectations accordingly.
“Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell said the state would immediately appeal the ruling, which he said creates ‘chaos’ for more than 1,100 high schools that are completing graduation preparations.” However, plaintiff Mayra Ibanez was gratified:
“It is hard to be poor. It is hard to grow up in a place where there is a lot of crime,” said the 18-year-old, a Mexican immigrant who attends school in the working-class San Francisco Bay area city of Richmond. “No one will be hurt if we get our diploma.”
(Juliet Williams, “Ruling Blocks Calif. High School Exit Exam”, AP/Forbes, May 12).
Blogosphere libel standards
As pointed out by commenter Scott McDonald in our earlier thread, an editor/commentator at NetworkWorld thinks Eric Goldman’s animadversions on lawyers suing Yahoo might strike those lawyers as itself cause for legal action (Paul McNamara, “More blogging off the cliff … lawyer-style”, May 12). Glenn Reynolds takes note of the controversy (May 12) and points to an SSRN paper of his own entitled, “Libel in the Blogosphere: Some Preliminary Thoughts“. Comments on the Goldman/Yahoo case: Denise Howell, Evan Schaeffer.
Emotional service dogs
The New York Times “Styles” section leads off today with a trend explored in our posts of May 5 and Jul. 12, 2005:
The increasing appearance of pets whose owners say they are needed for emotional support in restaurants — as well as on airplanes, in offices and even in health spas — goes back, according to those who train such animals, to a 2003 ruling by the Department of Transportation. It clarified policies regarding disabled passengers on airplanes, stating for the first time that animals used to aid people with emotional ailments like depression or anxiety should be given the same access and privileges as animals helping people with physical disabilities like blindness or deafness.
The following year appellate courts in New York State for the first time accepted tenants’ arguments in two cases that emotional support was a viable reason to keep a pet despite a building’s no-pets policy. Word of the cases and of the Transportation Department’s ruling spread, aided by television and the Internet. Now airlines are grappling with how to accommodate 200-pound dogs in the passenger cabin and even emotional-support goats. And businesses like restaurants not directly addressed in the airline or housing decisions face a newly empowered group of customers seeking admittance with their animals.
(Beth Landman, “Wagging the Dog, and a Finger”, May 14).
Plus: Cutting Edge of Ecstasy, dot_gimp_snark, Petulant Times, Cernovich, and Giacalone (we’re “ahead of the pundit pack” — thanks!). Orichalcum: “If I pay $200+ for a plane seat, I kinda feel I have the right not to have a goat in the seat next to me, no matter how comforting its presence is to the third person in the row.” Mark Baratelli proposes “service bottles”.
“Paraplegic Activist Leaps From Wheelchair, Runs From Police”
Laura Lee Medley was making a regular career of filing claims against various Southern California entities complaining of violations of her rights as a wheelchair user under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Placed under arrest after police sniffed fraud, Medley leaped from her chair and led authorities on a brief chase which ended with her capture:
Medley’s claims in California against San Bernardino County, South Pasadena and Long Beach included one allegation that a bus dropped her off near what she called a non-ADA compliant roadway, causing her wheelchair to topple over.
Last year, South Pasadena settled Medley’s claim for almost $7,000.
Medley is also a fugitive with arrest warrants in Arizona for forgery and California for fraud.
(AP/KCRA, May 12; Sploid). For more on dubious handicapped activism, including the California scene where serial complainants abound, see our disabled-rights page.