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Archive for 2006
Milberg’s comments chorus
Peter Lattman throws open the question (Jun. 13) whether indicted Milberg Weiss should be kept on in lead counsel in class actions. The fun arrives with comments #4 through #15, entered in quick succession under twelve different names between 11:12 a.m. and 11:19, more than one per minute, each of which defends Milberg and deplores the indictment in tones that are, well, you might say, curiously consistent with one another. An employee comment-swarm? A prankster? Pure coincidence? If it was an instance of Astroturf commenting, it certainly could have been done more skillfully.
Daryl Hannah and squatting
Ilya Somin notes an aspect of the Daryl Hannah squatting that the media has ignored. By protesting and suing over the revocation of an “urban garden” by a landowner that let the community use the land gratis for fifteen years, Hannah and her compatriots ensure that future landowners won’t dare allow urban gardens in the first place to avoid future litigation expenses if they try to close them down. (LA Times columnist Steve Lopez has some acid comments about the hypocrisy of the limousine liberals involved.) I noted a similar paradox about heritage commissions last year on Point of Law.
KFC sued over fattening menu
“KFC may be finger-lickin’ good, but a consumer group is suing the chain over the kind of fat used to fry the food. Dr. Arthur Hoyte, a retired physician from Rockville, Md., and the Center for Science in the Public Interest, want a judge to order Kentucky Fried Chicken to use other types of cooking oils or make sure customers know about trans fat content immediately before they make a purchase.” (“Colonel Sanders Under Attack for Trans Fat Content”, AP/WTOP, Jun. 13). For more on food suits, see our Eat, Drink and Be Merry page; for more on the nanny-maniac CSPI and its coercive designs on our menu choices, see Jan. 20 and Feb. 7, 2006; Feb. 25, 2005; and Sept. 19, 2003.
More: Peter Lattman notes (Jun. 14) that “According to the story on the suit in today’s New York Times, fast-food chains began using trans fats in the 1980s after nutrition groups demanded that the chains stop frying in beef tallow and palm oils. Nowadays, trans fats are considered more harmful than saturated fat.” Plus Jonathan Adler and commenters, Jacob Sullum.
In Finland…
…they do things very differently than we do in the U.S. when it comes to civil litigation. (But then every other country does things very differently than we do.) Ilkka Kokkarinen (Sixteen Volts) says kind things about The Excuse Factory — thanks (Jun. 9).
“New Year’s Eve party from Hell”
On TuckerMax.com, anonymous participants used harsh language in deriding a holiday party thrown by a Philadelphia-based publicity firm. Its operator sued for defamation, and U.S. District Judge Stewart Dalzell ruled that under federal law a blogger cannot be held legally liable as the “publisher” of anonymous comments. And no, this does not mean that participants in our comments section should from now on assume that anything goes. (Shannon P. Duffy, “Judge: Bloggers Entitled to Immunity Under Communications Act”, Legal Intelligencer, Jun. 2).
Lott v. Levitt V
Steven Levitt and his publisher Harper Collins filed straightforward motions to dismiss Count 1 and Count 2 of Lott’s complaint, pdf files of which are available on Overlawyered. (Please don’t deep-link.) Elsewhere, Jon Weiner and John Lott battle in the LA Times op-ed pages.
Update: Jim Lindgren analyzes the case.
It’s only fair, the GOP had Enron
“The embattled securities class-action law firm Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman received some political backing last week with the release of a statement signed by four Democrats from the House of Representatives condemning last month’s indictment in Los Angeles of the firm on criminal charges. … The statement was signed by three representatives from New York — Charles Rangel, Carolyn McCarthy and Gary Ackerman — and Robert Wexler from Florida. One of the founders of the law firm, Melvyn Weiss, is a high-profile fund-raiser for the Democratic Party.” (Julie Creswell, New York Times/Wilmington (N.C.) Star-News, Jun. 12).
TheLawyer.com, based in the United Kingdom, fumbles the story badly by reporting that Milberg “has picked up a powerful ally in the shape of the US Congress”. (Joanne Harris, “US Congress slams Milberg Weiss indictment”, Jun. 13, note the equally erroneous headline). In fact, the four representatives who signed the letter are hardly typical members even of the Democratic caucus in the House, let alone of the Congress as a whole (which, someone should tell TheLawyer.com, is controlled by Republicans). See, for example, Jeremy Pelofsky, “Democrats returning money to two Milberg lawyers”, Reuters, Jun. 9 (Democratic National Committee, perhaps wiser than Reps. Rangel, McCarthy et al., seek to distance themselves from firm by returning some of its donations, a step already taken by New York’s Eliot Spitzer). More: Prof. Bainbridge, Jun. 12.
“Don’t let lawsuits turn you off sunscreen”
By reader acclaim: foiled robber sues store employees
“A man who was beaten by employees of a store he was trying to rob is now suing.” Dana Buckman “pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery and was sentenced to 18 years in prison as a repeat violent felon” after police say he pulled a semi-automatic pistol and demanded cash from workers at an AutoZone in Rochester last July. Instead, “employees Eli Crespo and Jerry Vega beat him with a pipe and held Buckman at bay with his own gun. …Now Buckman is suing the auto parts store and the two employees who beat him, claiming they committed assault and battery and intentionally inflicted emotional distress.” (“Man who tried to rob store sues for ’emotional distress'”, AP/WAVY, Jun. 12; Michael Zeigler, “Foiled robber claims he’s the victim”, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, Jun. 10).