David Lat reports (Jan. 22) that the criminal defense attorney covered in this space a few months back has a new ad in the Baton Rouge phone book that omits his former slogan, “The Thugs’ Lawyer”. It does, however, offer a new “Expungement Special Only $500 * Plus Filing Fees”.
Archive for 2008
Yogurt marketing class action
Plaintiff Trish Wiener “believes Dannon misled her, and she wants to milk it for all it’s worth”, reports the Los Angeles Times. The paper’s reporter seems almost disrespectful of this very serious legal action, which claims the bacterial cultures in Activia and DanActive yogurt aren’t really as salubrious as the ad puffery would have you believe. Most dramatic-irony-freighted quote, from a lawyer with the California firm of Coughlin Stoia, which is representing Wiener: “Companies are getting more and more aggressive in their advertising claims. They end up playing off people’s general fears and concerns.” Just to clarify, that’s a quote by a lawyer from Coughlin Stoia, and not a quote about that law firm, which is best known for until recently (in its Lerach Coughlin incarnation) being the home base of disgraced felon William Lerach. (Alana Semuels, “Yogurt maker sued for claims”, Jan. 24).
Meanwhile, Michael Krauss at Point of Law (Jan. 24) discusses the recent settlement of a class action against Bed Bath and Beyond over disputed bedding thread counts.
January 24 roundup
- Longtime Overlawyered favorite Judy Cates, of columnist-suing fame, is using large sums of her own money to outspend incumbent James Wexstten in hard-fought race for Illinois state judgeship; Democratic primary is Feb. 5 [Belleville News-Democrat, Southern Illinoisan]
- City council told: we’ll cancel your liability coverage if you throw all meetings and city records open to public [Seattle Times]
- Attorney member of Canadian Senate in spot of bother after revelation that she billed client for 30 hours in one day [Vancouver Province, edit]
- A public wiki just for Scruggsiana? After Keker’s minions swoop in to do their edits, the Mississippi attorney may wind up portrayed as the next Mother Teresa, and not the Hitchens version either [WikiScruggs]
- Same general category of point, my Wikipedia entry now suddenly describes me as “controversial”, when but a month ago I wasn’t;
- $28 to $52 million in 18 months for serving as a DoJ “corporate monitor” sounds like nice work if you can get it, and former AG Ashcroft got it without competitive bidding [Lattman, St. Pete Times edit, PolitickerNJ, NJLJ]
- The Amiable Nancy (1818), admiralty case that could prove crucial precedent in Exxon Valdez punitive appeal, has nothing to do with The Charming Betsey (1804), key precedent on international law [Anchorage Daily News; Tom Goldstein/Legal Times]
- “First do no harm… to your attorney’s case” [Cole/Dallas Morning News via KevinMD]
- Probers haven’t come up with evidence of more than middling tiger-taunting, and attorney Geragos says he’ll sue zoo’s p.r. firm for defaming his clients [KCBS; SF Chronicle; AP/USA Today]
- UK’s latest “metric martyr” is Janet Devens, facing charges for selling vegetables in pounds and ounces at London’s Ridley Road market [WSJ; earlier]
- Lawyer can maintain defamation suit over being called “ambulance chaser” interested only in “slam dunk” cases, rules Second Circuit panel [eight years ago on Overlawyered]
ABC series “Eli Stone”
The New York Times arts page (Edward Wyatt, “ABC Drama Takes on Science and Parents”, Jan. 23) gives the producers of the forthcoming ABC television series “Eli Stone” a surprisingly sound thwacking for lending credibility to theories that seek to blame autism on the vaccine preservative thimerosal. The script of the show, notes the Times, “takes several liberties that could leave viewers believing that the debate over thimerosal — which in the program’s script is given the fictional name mercuritol — is far from scientifically settled.” But, the review notes, “reams of scientific studies by the leading American health authorities have failed to establish a causal link between the preservative and autism. Since the preservative was largely removed from childhood vaccines in 2001, autism rates have not declined.”
Greg Berlanti, a creator of the series, tells the Times that the show presents both sides. If so, there is little doubt which side is presented as the “right” one. The title character of the TV show is supposed to have been a “bad” lawyer (he represented big businesses, you see) who after being struck by a spiritual crisis crossed over to redeem himself by representing the “little guy” in lawsuits. (Per the Times, “In each episode Eli Stone takes on a different cause; in other episodes sent to television reviewers for preview, he wages court battles against a pesticide maker and a priest.”) The ABC preview site, and trailer running in theaters, end with a logo in which the “o” in the character’s surname is presented as a halo. Nothing heavy-handed about that!
Maybe next season Stone can sue on behalf of a client claiming that overhead power line emissions triggered recovered memories of autoimmune damage from her breast implants.
P.S. Orac at Respectful Insolence, no surprise, is on the warpath: “It’s times like these that I wish the Hollywood writers’ strike had really and truly shut down production of new dramas completely.” Other reactions: Autism Vox, Richard’s Asperger’s Blog, and various others rounded up by Liz Ditz.
Enron cert denial
My op-ed on the Supreme Court’s denial of cert in the Enron class action is in today’s New York Sun.
Freakonomics on unintended consequences
Dubner and Levitt’s three examples of unintended consequences (Jan. 20) include two that will be familiar to longtime readers of this site: the way the Americans with Disabilities Act can harm disabled persons by convincing service providers and employers that it could prove legally onerous to take them on as customers or employees; and the way environmental law can backfire to encourage landowners to take a chainsaw to habitats suitable for endangered species. More: Bruce MacEwen.
Paid too much for your house?
Sue your real estate agent (David Streitfeld, “Feeling Misled on Home Price, Buyers Are Suing Their Agent”, New York Times, Jan. 22; Gryphon @ PoL). Related: Vikas Bajaj, “If Everyone’s Finger-Pointing, Who’s to Blame?”, Jan. 22 (mortgage and housing-finance litigation).
Sam Zell’s Tribune Company employee handbook
The blogosphere is abuzz with the new employee handbook for the Tribune Company (parent of the LA Times and Chicago Tribune), written by a layperson in plain English with verve and humor. [LA Times, Jan. 17; Lattman] “I’m amazed and amused at what lawyers get businesspeople to do,” the author, Randy Michaels, the CEO for interactive and broadcasting, said about his efforts. Not to worry: the lawyers are ready to punish Tribune for that transgression. Bruce Nye also worries from the defense side.
No one suggests: Gee, if the litigation environment makes it impossible to have a short, plain, jocular, common-sense employee handbook, maybe there is something wrong with the litigation environment rather than the handbook? Or: why can’t employees choose to work in an environment governed by a less stodgy handbook that is intended to promote a better workplace rather than by the cookie-cutter rules imposed by federal and state bureaucracies that require $500/hour employment attorneys to navigate safely?
(Update: Daniel Schwartz comments.)
January 22 roundup
- “Woman who ‘lost count after drinking 14 vodkas’ awarded £7,000 over New Year fall from bridge” [The Scotsman]
- Bar committee recommends disbarment for Beverly Hills lawyer who “played the courts like a bully in a child’s game of dodgeball” [Blogonaut (with response by attorney) via ABA Journal]
- Shot and paralyzed in parking lot of South Florida strip club, cared for back home in Tunisia, Sami Barrak is now $26 million richer by way of his negligent-security suit [Sun-Sentinel] Earlier Florida negligent-security here, here, and here.
- Canadian government orders airlines to stop charging the severely obese the price of a second seat [Winnipeg Free Press; earlier]
- Study of head-injury victims in Spain finds “nearly half of the people who go to court feign psycho-cognitive disorders with the objective of profiting from this in some way.” [Science Daily]
- Federal judge vacates $1.75 million verdict, questions reliability of expert testimony in Nebraska recovered-memory sex abuse case [Lincoln Journal-Star, AP/Sioux City Journal]
- Confess your thoughts, citizen: Ezra Levant on his interrogation by official panel in Canada for publishing Mohammed cartoons [Globe & Mail; earlier]
- Class-action lawyers continue to hop on glitches with Xbox Live, Halo 3 and related Microsoft gaming systems [Ars Technica, News.com; earlier here and here]
- Bay Area proposal to ban much burning of wood in fireplaces and stoves (Nov. 30, etc.) draws strong reactions both ways [SF Chronicle]
- Harder to get into Ringling Bros.’s Clown College than law school, says man who attended both [six years ago on Overlawyered]
32,000 federal employees…
…now purchase privately provided insurance from an outfit called Wright & Co. against being sued individually over their actions on the job. The number stood at 17,000 as of 9/11, but has nearly doubled since then as legally sensitive federal law enforcement initiatives — and lawsuits filed in response to those initiatives — have expanded. The coverage is at best partial, and does not necessarily protect against ruinous legal expenses in more serious or protracted cases. (Scott Shane, “In Legal Cases, C.I.A. Officers Turn to Insurer”, New York Times, Jan. 20).