Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Archive for 2008

Napoli Bern sues disgruntled client

Watch what you say about lawyers dept.: The high-profile mass tort firm of Napoli Bern Ripka and Associates LLP recently filed a defamation suit in Suffolk County, N.Y. against ex-client Scott Spielberg, a former cab driver who lives in Nevada.

The firm claims that Mr. Spielberg defamed the firm when he wrote to the office of the Manhattan district attorney asking prosecutors to open an investigation into what Mr. Spielberg alleges is the firm’s mishandling of earlier litigation involving the diet drug fen-phen.

The lawsuit also claims that Mr. Spielberg slandered the firm in conversations he had with a New York Times reporter, Anthony DePalma, who wrote a lengthy article about the involvement of a name partner at the firm, Paul Napoli, in the fen-phen litigation.

Yet, Mr. DePalma’s article doesn’t quote Mr. Spielberg or mention him at all. Napoli Bern is representing the vast majority of thousands of ground zero workers in their suits alleging that the city failed to protect them from toxins at the site that have caused respiratory and other illnesses. …

“They don’t want me to be able to talk to the press or law enforcement,” Mr. Spielberg said of the suit against him.

(Joseph Goldstein, “Seeking To Cut Off Criticism, Law Firm Sues Former Client”, New York Sun, Jun. 6).

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Grand Theft Auto: Class Action – The Frank Brief

Full proof that I don’t think all pro se representation is a bad thing: Following up our previous discussion of the GTA class action settlement and my objection: This morning, Friday, June 6, I filed this brief (which unlike the previous brief, I wrote myself), in opposition to the plaintiffs’ motions for court approval of the settlement and attorneys’ fees, in the Southern District of New York and served it upon counsel. With luck, I didn’t file the wrong brief.

Read On…

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New York court: proof of insurance fraud doesn’t entitle insurance companies to summary judgment

If you wonder why insurance fraud and insurance expense are so high in New York state it’s because of opinions like AA Acupuncture Service v. State Farm Mutual Insurance Company. (The fact that the plaintiff is a quack-upuncturist immediately suggests problems, no?) Civil Court Judge Arlene P. Bluth agreed that there was “uncontradicted, overwhelming circumstantial evidence” that an accident had been faked. But State Farm was still not entitled to summary judgment on the litigation of bad-faith claims by three medical providers who insisted that State Farm was liable as the insurer of the woman who claimed to have been injured in the accident. (Plaintiffs deny fraud, though apparently wasn’t able to rebut the evidence of fraud at the motion stage.)

Read On…

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Annals of zero tolerance: empty bullet casing

In Winchendon, Mass., ten-year-old Bradley Geslak brought to school an empty bullet casing he’d brought home from the town Memorial Day celebration, in which blanks were fired. Although an empty casing is, of course, empty, he was charged with a weapons offense and after his five-day suspension may be assigned a probation officer. (Gail Stanton, “Souvenir rifle shell gets 4th-grader suspended”, Worcester Telegram, May 29; “Silence on lock and load”, May 30)(via Zincavage).

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Why a law-firm partner should be careful about to whom he grants signature authority

(Update, June 6, 10:50 AM: According to a commenter, the “filing” is not actually a filing, but a doctored inside joke. Which is pretty funny.)

(Or, in the alternative, why you always check that you’ve printed the correct draft before you file.)

One strongly suspects the “signing” attorney in the defendants’ answer to the complaint in the Harris County, Texas case of Henry v. Maersk Line Limited did not actually authorize the tone of this filing (NSFW language). (A strong tip of the Overlawyered hat to long-time reader D.W.C., who once was a ground-breaking plaintiff of his own.)

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Hoist by his own petard? The case of Jack Tuckner and Lisa Brockington

Lisa Brockington hired employment-discrimination firm Tuckner, Sipser, Weinstock & Sipser to represent her in a discrimination lawsuit, and was impressed with her resulting settlement enough that she joined the firm as an office manager. But now Brockington is suing Tuckner, Sipser, Weinstock & Sipser on sexual harassment grounds, making a number of lurid accusations about the firm and about Jack Tuckner’s sexual practices (which the New York Post and Above the Law are kind enough to highlight for one’s titillation). Either the allegations are true, in which case the firm suffers from severe hypocrisy problems in addition to its legal troubles, or the allegations are false, in which case the firm wins settlements for plaintiffs who make false claims. Tuckner’s attorney, David Berlin, does indeed say the claims are false. More precisely, he says “[T]hese irrational and untrue charges are a reflection of the person bringing the charges.”  Brockington’s attorney is Louis Pechman. Tuckner regularly appears on television as a talking head on harassment law.

Read On…

Florida Bar recommends disbarment for Jack Thompson

Overlawyered will have a little less to write about when the Florida Supreme Court implements the recommendation from the Florida Bar. The Daily Business Review (via Above the Law) has full coverage, including audio of the hearing; in the comments to the DBR story, Thompson is once again promising law enforcement will come to his rescue. Jack Thompson, of course, was a regular subject of Overlawyered coverage; click on the tag to remember his greatest hits.

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Ignatius on trial bar scandals; New Yorker on Scruggs

“At its worst, the system is close to legalized extortion. … It would be nice if the class-action lawyers reformed themselves, but if not, someone should file a lawsuit.” But op-ed columnist David Ignatius regards Melvyn Weiss and Dickie Scruggs as “good guys” gone wrong and says what occasioned their downfall “was a system in which the money just got too big”. This suggests their practices were more honest and aboveboard at an earlier stage in their careers when the stakes were smaller, but Ignatius does not offer evidence for this view, and I wonder whether he has any (“Reining In the Kings of Tort”, Washington Post, Jun. 5).

Relatedly, the New Yorker published a big article last month on the Scruggs scandal by correspondent Peter Boyer. (“The Bribe”, May 19, abstract; PDF at WSJ law blog). David Rossmiller, unsurpassed chronicler of that scandal, does an excellent job explaining why the article is, not wrong, exactly, but disappointing (May 27).

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June 5 roundup

  • “I believe it’s frivolous; I believe it’s ridiculous, and I believe it’s asinine”: Little Rock police union votes lopsidedly not to join federal “don/doff” wage-hour lawsuit asking pay for time spent on uniform changes [Arkansas Democrat Gazette courtesy U.S. Chamber]
  • Must-read Roger Parloff piece on furor over law professors’ selling of ethics opinions [Fortune; background links @ PoL]
  • Too rough on judge-bribing Mississippi lawyers? Like Rep. Conyers at House Judiciary, but maybe not for same reasons, we welcome renewed attention to Paul Minor case [Clarion-Ledger]
  • American Airlines backs off its plan to put Logan skycaps on salary-only following loss in tip litigation [Boston Globe; earlier]
  • U.K.: Infamous Yorkshire Ripper makes legal bid for freedom, civil liberties lawyer says his human rights have been breached [Independent]
  • In long-running campaign to overturn Feres immunity for Army docs, latest claim is that military knowingly withholds needed therapy so as to return soldiers to front faster [New York Rep. Maurice Hinchey on CBS; a different view from Happy Hospitalist via KevinMD]
  • Profs. Alan Dershowitz and Robert Blakey hired to back claim that Russian government can invoke U.S. RICO law in its own courts to sue Bank of New York for $22 billion [WSJ law blog, earlier @ PoL]
  • Minnesota Supreme Court declines to ban spanking by parents [Star-Tribune, Pioneer Press]
  • Following that very odd $112 million award (knocked down from $1 billion) to Louisiana family in Exxon v. Grefer, it’s the oil firm’s turn to offer payouts to local neighbors suffering common ailments [Times-Picayune, UPI]
  • AG Jerry Brown “has been suing, or threatening to sue, just about anyone who doesn’t immediately adhere” to his vision of building California cities up rather than out [Dan Walters/syndicated]
  • Virginia high school principal ruled entitled to disability for his compulsion to sexually harass women [eight years ago on Overlawyered]

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Tracy Barker v. Ali Mokhtare

For those interested in an update on the Tracy Barker case, where litigation lobby activists falsely stated that an arbitration agreement prevented her from getting civil justice in the case of her alleged sexual assault, Barker’s suit against her alleged assaulter Ali Mokhtare proceeds before Judge Leonie M. Brinkema in the Eastern District of Virginia, case no. 1:07-cv-01231-LMB-BRP. Mokhtare denies the allegations. Barker appears to have fired Todd Kelly or vice versa. Discovery closed April 17. After discovery closed, Barker moved to amend her complaint a second time to add new allegations; Mokhtare moved to substitute the United States in his stead; the US rejected Mokhtare’s request and opposed the motion, arguing that he was not acting in the scope of employment. Judge Brinkema rejected both motions. Mokhtare is appealing the US’s decision to the Fourth Circuit (No. 08-1560).

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