Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Archive for 2006

Stupid class action of the day

Says a California appellate court: “[O]ffering discount admission prices to ‘baby-boomers’ to attend a musical about that generation does not involve an arbitrary class-based generalization protected by the [Unruh Civil Rights] Act.” Pizarro v. Lamb’s Players Theatre, 2006 WL 163612 (Cal.App. 4 Dist. Jan. 24, 2006). Tim Sandefur comments that the court was reassured that

“Providing discounted theater admissions to ‘baby-boomers’ to attend a musical about that generation does not perpetuate any irrational stereotypes.” Well, perhaps not, but reading decisions like this perpetuate irrational stereotypes about non-Boomers and their bloodsucking lawyers.

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Grand Theft Auto update

We told you about the first civil lawsuit Jul. 27 after predicting it Jul. 16. By popular demand, we note that the LA District Attorney, Rocky Delgadillo, has jumped on the bandwagon, presumably for publicity for his campaign for state attorney general against Jerry Brown. Of course, lawsuits like this aren’t the way to persuade people that he’s any more serious a candidate than Governor Moonbeam, though it doesn’t hurt when not a single mainstream media outlet questions the legitimacy of the suit. Brian Doherty of Hit & Run comments. Lawsuits like this are an effective means of censorship: if politically unpopular speech can be bankrupted with a thousand paper cuts of trumped-up “consumer protection” suits, it will be as chilling as any libel action.

(Full disclosure: Delgadillo and I both worked at different times for O’Melveny & Meyers LLP, where Warren Christopher was Delgadillo’s mentor and once pointed me the right direction to the men’s room.)

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Busted flush

Federal toilet-flow regulation, writes Andrew Ferguson, resulted from a successful collaboration between organized industry and environmentalists against the interests of the general public. (“Can Deregulating Toilets Revive Republicans?”, Bloomberg News, Jan. 24).

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Mass amnesia at bus trial

Hey, remember that ludicrous lawsuit about a bus crash we wrote about last month where the passengers collected $17.5 million from the bus manufacturer on a trumped-up design-defect theory after swearing that they hadn’t sued the bankrupt bus charter company (Dec. 1)? Turns out there may be some perjury involved, and a federal bankruptcy judge is none-too-pleased at the attempted double-dip. (Tommy Witherspoon, “Bankruptcy judge outraged over bus crash testimonies”, Waco Tribune-Herald, Jan. 14 (via Prince)).

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Frey grilled

James Frey admitted on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show that The Smoking Gun’s investigation into his book was “pretty accurate.” (Howard Kurtz, “Oprah Winfrey Says She is ‘Deeply Sorry'”, Washington Post, Jan. 26; Gawker liveblog). Which leaves us wondering whether anyone is going to apologize for the nastygram that lawyer Marty Singer sent to The Smoking Gun seeking to intimidate them out of publishing the story.

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Madison County judge without a docket

In Madison County, Illinois, all of the circuit judges have been elected to the bench with the significant help of the plaintiffs’ bar, often going straight from a career at a plaintiffs’ firm (and then later retiring to a plaintiffs’ firm). Except one: Judge Don Weber was appointed to replace a retired judge in October 2005, and won’t stand for election until November.

Illinois law permits a party to move once as a matter of right for substitution of a different judge, and plaintiffs in at least thirty-five cases have done so in Weber’s case. “All the stars of the plaintiff’s bar – the Lakin Law Firm, SimmonsCooper, Stephen Tillery and Rex Carr – have joined the substitution blitz.” The Madison County Record quotes Jack Joseph of Chicago, a member of the civil practice committee of the Chicago Bar Association, as finding the practice “unfair to Judge Weber without giving him a chance to see if he is going to violate his oath in some way.” (Steve Korris, “Weber’s caseload yanked by plaintiff’s attorneys”, Jan. 25). But one might be suspicious that the true fear motivating the motions to substitute other judges is that Weber will uphold his oath.

Update: Belleville News-Democrat counts 53 plaintiffs and two defendants who’ve asked for substitution.

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I’m interviewed…

…at the blog of speechwriter and ghostwriter Jane Genova, who for the past two months has been liveblogging the Providence retrial of Rhode Island’s lawsuit against former manufacturers of lead paint. Among topics we touch on in the interview: the role of media hype and TV cameras in big trials today; problems with jury selection, and the treatment of jurors generally; two reasons I hope Rhode Island loses its lead paint case; and the case for patience on liability reform. (Jan. 25).

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Canadian high court to rule on social-host liability

“The Supreme Court of Canada heard arguments [last] Wednesday about a case that will decide if hosts are responsible for the behaviour of their alcohol-consuming guests. The issue stems from a 1999 New Year’s Eve drunk driving accident caused by Desmond Desormeaux, who left a house party near Ottawa after consuming 12 beers.” A victim in the subsequent crash “has been seeking compensation from Desormeaux’s hosts, Julie Zimmerman and Dwight Courrier, for letting him drive home drunk.” The Ontario courts have thus far ruled against her case. (CTV, Jan. 19). See Sept. 12, 2002. Many but not all American states have embraced social-host alcohol liability, and the topic has also stirred controversy in Australia, where the high court of the largest state, New South Wales, rejected the principle recently (Feb. 23, 2005).

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A Million Little Plaintiffs III

Another class action over the James Frey affair; this one, in Seattle, seeks, inter alia, recovery for “lost time” spent reading the book, prompting the Bookslut blog to reconsider its opposition to tort reform. It is the third class action filed; an underpublicized class action was filed in California on the 13th, and we reported on the more prominent Illinois class action on Jan. 17. Of course, if “lost time” is actionable, everything is, and we might as well turn over the keys to the country to ATLA. Earlier: Jan. 12. Recommended reading: Michael Greve, Harm-Less Lawsuits?

Update: Eric Goldman has a copy of the complaint and more detail.

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