An inmate filing pro se gets certiorari, then follows through with a unanimous nine-Justice SCOTUS win, Thomas, J., correcting the Third Circuit. Credit Justice Alito? [Max Kennerly]
Archive for March, 2013
Echo-mill diagnostic skills, on contingency
A Florida cardiologist has been sentenced to six years in federal prison and ordered to pay $4.5 million in restitution after serving to review the echocardiograms of more than 1,100 prospective claimants on a fen-phen settlement trust fund; many of the claimants he diagnosed were not in fact ill. “The physician was also to be compensated $1,500 for each claimant who qualified for benefits when that person’s claim was paid, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, which prosecuted the case.” At trial, he testified “that his medical reports had been forged by the mass tort lawyer who had hired him on a contingency fee basis, the record states.” As I observed in The Litigation Explosion, medicine, like law, is a profession in which the prohibition of contingency or success fees developed early, in large part because it was expected that such fees would work to the benefit of dishonest practice. [Penn Record]
Class action against NYC’s Met Museum
The cultural institution doesn’t make clear enough to visitors that its admission donation is only recommended, according to the lawyers [NY Daily News]
How not to cover the disabled-treaty fight
New from me at Cato: in covering the U.N. disabled-rights treaty, the Boston Globe bids to earn back its old nickname of “The Glib.” Earlier on the treaty here, here, etc.
Comcast Corp. v. Behrend
As I noted in this morning’s roundup, the Supreme Court spoke on Wednesday about class certification in an antitrust case from Philadelphia. Although a rather narrow and technical ruling it was not devoid of interest, or so I argue in a new post at Cato at Liberty.
Class action roundup
- On 5-4 ideological lines, Supreme Court rules against class certification in Comcast v. Behrend [decision PDF, Philadelphia Inquirer, PoL, Michael Schearer/Law in Plain English, earlier]
- American Express v. Italian Colors: will SCOTUS further restrict class actions via arbitration? [Daniel Fisher/Forbes and more, Michael Greve, Ted Frank debates Myriam Gilles, Ted at IBD and his earlier paper]
- Win for Ted Frank: 3rd Circuit vacates baby products class action pact that gave lawyers $14M, clients $3M [PoL, more, Fisher] If settlement symptoms persist: Ted objects in Bayer class action [CCAF]
- “Will ‘Sea Change’ in Florida Class Action Standards Unleash Flood of Suits?” [Frank Cruz-Alvarez, WLF]
- N.D. Calif. hears so many food marketing class actions some have nicknamed it the “Food Court” [Vanessa Blum, The Recorder]
- “What’s Next For The Class Action Plaintiffs’ Bar? Getting Deputized By State Attorneys General” [Kevin Ranlett]
- “Ninth Circuit Decision and Dissenters Cry Out for SCOTUS Review on Cy Pres in Settlements” [WLF]
“O’s doctor becomes defense target in Angelos asbestos case”
“The Orioles’ team doctor, William H. Goldiner, tended to orange-clad ballplayers at the same time as he diagnosed thousands of blue-collar workers with asbestos-related illnesses whose cases were taken up by prominent lawyer and team owner Peter G. Angelos.” [Baltimore Sun, earlier]
Star-Ledger: “N.J. is missing the basics on bullying”
Newark Star-Ledger editorial:
There’s a big difference between a normal kid who teases a fellow fourth-grader and a bona fide bully who does real harm.
But you wouldn’t know it from our state’s anti-bullying law. In the burst of indignation after Tyler Clementi’s suicide three years ago, we were determined to do something about bullying.
And we drafted a sloppy statute…. it’s ensnaring way too many kids.
[h/t Neal McCluskey]
Man stranded on “It’s a Small World” wins $8,000 from Disney
“A disabled man was awarded $8,000 by Disneyland after the It’s A Small World ride broke, stranding him for 30 minutes while the theme song played on a loop.” [Georgia Daily News]
P.S. “What’s the award if I can’t stop humming the song?” [@ClayNickel]
Talking used cribs
“I had to [explain she] could not find a second-hand crib because the CPSC basically outlawed” them [CPSC commissioner Nancy Nord, earlier here, here]