I have a guest post at Above the Law analyzing Obama’s tax plan and showing that it will dramatically raise taxes for young lawyers. Whether that is a bug or a feature is in the eye of the beholder.
Archive for February, 2008
Blogs I wish I read more frequently: Patent Troll Tracker
Just as I was about to say I needed to revise my top-ten blog list to include the excellent anony-blogger Patent Troll-Tracker, I learned from today’s Recorder and WSJ that he has revealed himself as Rick Frenkel, Cisco IP attorney.
When I started the blog, I did so mainly out of frustration. I was shocked to learn that a huge portion of the tech industry’s patent disputes were with companies that were shells, with little cash and assets other than patents and a desire to litigate, and did not make and had never made any products. Yet when I would search the Internet for information about these putative licensors, I could find nothing. I was frustrated by the lack of information, and also by the vast array of anti-patent-reform bloggers out there, without a voice supporting what I did believe and still believe is meaningful reform.
(For the record, I liked the blog even before they praised me.) Plaintiffs’ attorney Ray Niro had put a bounty on the identity of the Troll Tracker, who had been critical of Niro’s tactics (as have Walter and I). Frenkel is considering shutting down his blog now that he is out of the closet; one hopes someone else picks up the torch, because he was performing a valuable service, to the extent that I had limited my blogging about it because he had the subject-area covered so well.
I missed the debate in November among Dennis Crouch, Michael Smith, and Frenkel on whether the Eastern District of Texas is “waning” as a magnet jurisdiction for patent plaintiffs (May 2006, Dec. 2005, Jan. 2005), or I might have made reference to it in my latest Liability Outlook on patent reform. Frenkel seems to have the best of that debate, and follows up:
Let’s highlight one really outstanding statistic from November: The number of defendants sued in the Eastern District of Texas in November 2007: 244. The number of defendants sued in Los Angeles, San Francisco/Silicon Valley, New York City, Chicago, Delaware, and New Jersey combined in November 2007: 162.
Patent lawyers often seem to be of a different stripe than other lawyers, and there is a similar patent-law-blogging community largely separate from the other law-bloggers. The commenters go mad at Crouch’s blog over the Frenkel revelation because Cisco is a strong patent reform supporter. Elsewhere: IPBiz; TechDailyDose; NetworkWorld; 271Blog; Mises Blog; and the anti-reform Patent Prospector.
Outsourcing, With a Kicker
In the state of Mississippi during the last 5 years, 27 law firms have been retained by Mississippi Attorney General James Hood to purse state lawsuits on contingency. Those firms have collectively donated more than a half-million dollars to Hood in the last two election cycles. Apparently, the legislature is troubled by this combination of for-profit motivation and campaign fundraising, and has passed a bill to pursue competitive bidding before signing contracts of more than $500,000 with private lawyers. It also requires a review board to examine contracts, and it limits contingency fees to $1 million.
Hood isn’t pleased — and the WSJ has his number:
Should state Attorneys General be able to outsource their legal work to for-profit tort lawyers, who then funnel a share of their winnings back to the AGs? That’s become a sleazy practice in many states, and it is finally coming under scrutiny — notably in Mississippi, home of Dickie Scruggs, Attorney General Jim Hood, and other legal pillars…
This kind of quid pro quo is legal in Mississippi and most other states. However, if this kind of sweetheart arrangement existed between a public official and business interests, you can bet Mr. Hood would be screaming about corruption. . . . A decision to prosecute is an awesome power, and it ought to be motivated by evidence and the law, not by the profit motives of private tort lawyers and the campaign needs of an ambitious Attorney General.”
That leaves a mark.
FDA overwarning
One of the justifications for FDA preemption is the fear of overwarning; warning overload can be counterproductive, causing people to ignore important warnings. Thus, failure-to-warn litigation impedes safety. See “Requirements on Content and Format of Labeling for Human Prescription Drug and Biological Products,” 71 Fed. Reg. 3922 (Jan. 24, 2006); Larkin v. Pfizer, Inc., 153 S.W.3d 758, 764 (Ky. 2004).
Further evidence comes from a CNNMoney.com report (Aaron Smith, “Consumers tune out FDA warnings”, Feb. 25) suggesting that the FDA’s post-Vioxx caution has already caused the agency to be at the point of diminishing returns, as it is averaging 50% more safety alerts a year for 2005-2007 than it did in 2004, the year Vioxx was withdrawn from the market.
I discussed overwarning in other contexts on Overlawyered in Sep. 2006.
Judge Sues Sniper, Defense Lawyer “Mystified”
A family court judge who was shot in his chambers by a man whose bitter divorce he was handling has sued the gunman, seeking damages totaling more than $100,000.
…Mack’s civil lawyer, Mark Wray, said the suit “mystified” him. Mack has long since lost the fortune he earned from the pawn shop, and his client’s 9-year-old daughter is getting the last of it, Wray said.
Mystified, is he? Maybe it has something to do with the conspirators.
(News Observer Feb. 23)
Guestblogger this week
With a deadline looming for me, I expect to be posting less this week. Fortunately Peter Morin, who’s guestblogged here before, has agreed to step in to fill the gap. Check out Peter’s regular site, WaveMaker.
Whistle While You Work
The “National Whistleblower Center” wants folks to send a message to their congresspeople protesting the lack of whistleblower provision in the new Consumer Product Safety Commission reform bill (S.2045):
“The CPSC reform bill needs to provide vital protections for honest employees who report safety violations–such as toxins in toothpaste and poisonous lead in our children’s toys. Without these protections, whistleblowers may not come forward to report dangers of products until it is too late.”
(Whistleblower Blog)
What will those damn Democrats do next!?
Clarification: In my haste to produce some content before I got too busy this morning, it seems that I failed to project my usual degree of irony and sarcasm on this particular post — and in all candor, I did not check archives to see what OL had published before. The Whistleblower Center action alert that the Whistleblower Blog links to reports that “The House version of the CPSC reform bill does not include whistleblower protections,” and exhorts supporters to “Take Action Today! It is crucial that you contact your representative and let him/her know that you expect them to support American workers and families – NOT the interests of big business.”
Now that I have had time to check Thomas, it appears that there is no House version of the bill after all, and therefore the “action alert” is (characteristically?) deceptive.
Correction: (I’ll get this one right if it kills me) — Ted corrects me that a House version did in fact pass the House in December.
Overheard at (of all places) a Texas chatboard:
Assuming you are a litigator, tort reform has crippled plaintiff’s practice. Hanging out your own shingle is more difficult than ever before. Unless you have an established reputation, you’ll find very little business “coming in the door.” You’ll need to market yourself extensively. If you can survive and thrive, all the power to you.
(Infirmation.com )
Sounds like progress to me.
No preferred Lies
Elaine Joyce is a highly competitive female amateur golfer who wants to play with the guys. But she was barred from playing with her father in a Men’s Member-Member tournament. This has left her “ostracized, marginalized, humiliated, embarrassed and denounced,” according to her federal lawsuit.
But wait:
Joyce said she began to feel hostility after she filed the state discrimination complaint in July. One Saturday, after a match-play club championship, she walked into the clubhouse after the first round.
“There were 20 to 25 guys in there,” she said. “And as soon I walked in the door, everything stopped. Silence. ‘There she is. That’s the woman. That’s the problem.’ Stupid stuff like that.”
Joyce compared the experience to her fight to play with the Forty Thieves. After the town acted in that case, it took 18 months for her to be admitted as a member. Joyce said some members of the group were appalled and let her know it. One said he would play only if she played naked. Others walked off the course when paired with her. Some refused to speak to her during rounds.
(NYT, Feb. 19)
I’d prefer to play with a single digit lady than a 20+ old guy. But can I still tell my off-color jokes?
9/11 dust
Ramon Gilsanz, a structural engineer with a small office in Manhattan, showed up at the World Trade Center site to pitch in after the disaster; like many others, he started as a volunteer and found his role evolving into a subcontractor at the city’s request. Now, like about 130 other structural engineers, he is named in many of 8,000 lawsuits filed by the Paul Napoli firm and others over dust exposure to various bystanders. He and another structural engineer said they worked alongside the other rescue and cleanup workers and were never assigned responsibility for air quality. (Jim Dwyer, “For Engineer, a Cloud of Litigation After 9/11”, New York Times, Feb. 23).