• Federal judge rejects lenient plea deal for two judges in Luzerne County, Pa. judicial scandal [ABA Journal, Scott Greenfield] More: allegations of extensive abuses including “rampant case-fixing and payoffs” [Hank Grezlak and Leo Strupczewski, Legal Intelligencer] Charges of impropriety in handling defamation case handed down against Wilkes-Barre newspaper [Strupczewski, same] Improprieties in that libel case denied [ABA Journal] Should juvenile convictions by Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. be vacated? [ABA Journal]
• Law and a banana: Page-one Wall Street Journal treatment of fruit pesticide litigation fraud [yesterday’s paper, PoL] Further: Cal. Civil Justice (“trained like a parrot”, “super lawyer”), L.A. Times and more, earlier.
• “Can it be true that some Girl Scout camps FORBID climbing trees?” [Skenazy, Free Range Kids]
• Katy Perry (U.S. pop singer) vs. Katie Perry (Australian fashion designer) trademark lawsuit [Bryan Quigley, Institute for Legal Reform] Suit has now been dropped [Katie Perry website, h/t @lenejohansen]
• Emergency room blogger White Coat wraps up his malpractice-suit saga [collected posts]
• “Automated shakedown racket sends legal threats, demands cash” [BoingBoing; copyright infringement demand letters]
• More coverage of New Mexico baseball-hit-into-stands liability ruling [Hochfelder/PoL, Stossel, earlier]
• Do not anger Texas criminal defense law blogger Mark Bennett. Just don’t [Popehat]

Filed under: banana pesticide litigation fraud, baseball, copyright, Luzerne County judicial scandal, medical malpractice, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Texas, trademarks, trees