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May 9-11 -- Senate
panel nixes tobacco-fee clawback. "Senators working on
a tax bill Thursday stripped a proposal that would have forced attorneys
in a landmark tobacco lawsuit to
give $9 billion in fees back to the states they represented." Sen.
Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., had proposed requiring plaintiff's lawyers in the tobacco
affair to return to their state-government clients fees in excess of $2,500/hour
or thereabouts. "But Democrats, led by Sen. John Breaux, D-La.,
and joined by Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah and Gordon Smith of
Oregon, won a 12-8 vote to strike the language. Sen. John Kerry,
D-Mass., said that if Congress can change the terms of the tobacco settlement,
there is nothing to stop it from telling every business in America to change
the way they pay their executives." It's almost as if Sen. Kerry
doesn't realize that 1) a host of federal laws already on the books, notably
tax provisions, do purposely shape the way businesses compensate their
executives; 2) lawyers, unlike business execs, practice under professional
ethical codes which are supposed to bar them specifically from charging
excessive fees; 3) lawyers who claim to represent the government (and thus
the public) come under some of the most stringent ethical constraints of
all. ("Senate Democrats Strike Proposal to Limit Fees for Lawyers in Tobacco
Case", AP/Tampa Bay Online, May
8; Stephen Moore, "Targeting lawyers who got rich off tobacco trials",
Scripps Howard/Nando Times, May
2) (& welcome Law.com
readers). (DURABLE LINK)
May 9-11 -- Update:
"U.S. is sued for deaths of crossers". "The families of
14 illegal entrants who died crossing the desert east of Yuma in May 2001
have filed a $42 million lawsuit against the U.S. Department of the Interior."
As we reported a year ago when the
cases were at an earlier procedural stage, "The suit charges the government
with failing to authorize the placement of water stations intended for
use by unlawful visitors, though it knew smugglers of immigrants were active
in the desert area." (Michael Marizco, Arizona Daily Star (Tucson),
May
8). (DURABLE LINK)
May 8 -- "No Crueler
Tyrannies". Dorothy Rabinowitz's long-awaited book on
the mass-child-abuse accusation
frenzy of the 1980s and 1990s is now available at this
link. It collects and extends the widely acclaimed Wall Street
Journal reporting that prepared the way for the author's 2001 Pulitzer
Prize (review by Carol Iannone, Commentary, May;
C-SPAN "Booknotes" interview with Brian Lamb, May
4; Suzanne Fields, "A cruel tyranny at home", syndicated/TownHall,
Apr.
3; other reviews at Amazon
site). (DURABLE LINK)
May 8 -- More on
Edwards' law-firm donations. Washington periodical The
Hill digs deeper into the curiously uniform $2,000 contributions Sen.
John Edwards' presidential campaign got from so many receptionists,
paralegals and other low-level staffers at plaintiff's law firms.
The $2,000 donors include many employees who had not given to candidates
or even voted in the past, and others who are listed on the voting rolls
as Republicans. Many spouses and relatives of the staffers likewise
contributed the maximum. Some of the munificent staffers have recently
gone through the kind of personal financial reverses -- bankruptcy filings,
for example -- which would not seem to correlate in the natural order of
things with having a large available checkbook for political donations.
"In many instances, all the checks from a given firm arrived on the same
day -- from partners, attorneys, and other support staff." Employees
denied that their law-firm employers had signaled any willingness to reimburse
the donations, which would constitute a violation of federal law.
(Sam Dealey, "Donations to Sen. Edwards questioned", The Hill, May
7). (DURABLE LINK)
May 7 -- Mississippi
investigation heats up. Per the Times of South Mississippi
(Hattiesburg), the "net may be widening" in the FBI's previously reported
investigation of improper ties between Mississippi judges and well-known
trial lawyers (see Oct. 9-10 and 11-13,
2002). "Sources said this week as many as 25 indictments could be
issued ...While reports of the investigation have focused on the Gulf Coast,
sources said the probe now includes campaign contributions from trial lawyers
connected to Southwest Mississippi," renowned as the center of intense
litigation against pharmaceutical companies. ("Bob Pittman, "FBI widening
its investigation of campaign funding", Times of South Mississippi
(Hattiesburg), May
5. See also "Diaz's dad testifies before grand jury", Jackson
Clarion
Ledger, Apr.
12; Jerry Mitchell, "Judicial probe intensifying", Jackson Clarion
Ledger, May
2).
"Meanwhile," the Hattiesburg paper continues, "four trial lawyers who
have been active in lawsuits against prescription drug manufacturers are
named as defendants in a growing number of court actions in Jefferson County.
In at least four suits filed to date, trial lawyers Dennis Sweet, Shane
Langston, Richard Freese and Richard Schwartz, all of Jackson, have been
named as defendants in cases in which it is alleged that the four either
withheld settlement money from clients or failed to pay hired 'runners'
who were employed to enroll plaintiffs in cases which the lawyers filed
in several different counties in Mississippi, including Jasper County."
(May 5
article, cited above). See also Bob Pittman, "Judge asked to step aside
in trial lawyer suit", May
1; Bob Pittman, "Suit alleges lawyer used 'fake clients'", May
1. (DURABLE LINK)
May 7 -- Jury selection
in Britain. Notwithstanding the understandable outcry
over a recent case in which a British judge excluded prospective jurors
from a politically sensitive trial based on their religion, the general
rule in the English system is for jurors to be drawn from a near-universal
pool and selection to be made at random. "English lawyers are not
pestered by jury consultants: they do not exist here. We do not have
days of jury selection before a trial starts, as I have seen for myself
several times in the United States, with prospective jurors questioned
in depth and sometimes with aggression by lawyers anxious to explore possible
prejudices. Defense barristers in England used to have the right
of seven (then whittled down to three) peremptory challenges without any
need for courtroom interrogation....But Parliament abolished peremptory
challenges by the defense in 1989, and although not technically abolished,
'standing by for the Crown' [the equivalent for the prosecution] now seldom
occurs." For-cause challenges are rare as well. (Fenton Bresler,
"Picking juries -- or not", National Law Journal, Mar. 17, not online).
(DURABLE
LINK)
May 6 -- "Robber
sues clerk who shot him during holdup". Muncie, Ind.:
"A convicted robber is suing the convenience store clerk who shot him as
he fled after a holdup.
Willie Brown, 44, claimed the clerk acted 'maliciously and sadistically'
in firing five shots as Brown ran out of Zipps Deli with money from the
store's cash register." Brown, who was struck by bullets in the back
and side, pleaded guilty to robbery and was sentenced to four years in
prison. His earlier convictions included one for robbery and two for burglary.
(AP/Indianapolis Star, Apr.
18). And in Great Britain, "Government lawyers trying to keep
the Norfolk farmer Tony Martin behind bars will tell a High Court judge
tomorrow that burglars are members of the public who must be protected
from violent householders." (Robert Verkaik, "Government lawyers
say burglars 'need protection'", The Independent (UK), May
5). Plus: in Bentonville, Ark., inmate Kenneth J. Lewis II is
suing Nina Baugh for $140,000 in damages; according to affidavits, Lewis
was shot by Baugh after he attempted to burglarize her family's pawn shop
and another business. Lewis was sentenced in January to 12 years'
imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to commercial burglary and aggravated
assault (Tracy M. Neal, "Convicted burglar sues woman who shot him during
crime", Benton County Daily Record, Apr.
19). (DURABLE LINK)
May 6 -- Year's
most injudicious judges. The National Law Journal's
annual survey of misbehavior
on the bench includes jurists alleged to have slept with litigants,
offered to fix cases, set new records for rudeness, and run a Ponzi scheme
from chambers, not to mention the jurist who is said to have referred to
himself as "God". (Gail Diane Cox, "The Injudicious: Judges who crossed
the line -- or erased it", May
5). (DURABLE LINK)
May 5 -- Friends
in high places, cont'd. A bill expanding wrongful
death damages -- a top priority of the state's trial lawyer association
-- is moving quickly through the GOP-controlled New York state senate;
it happens that the "head of the Judiciary Committee and the sponsor of
the bill is big-time trial lawyer John
DeFrancisco (R-Syracuse). It's not just Democrats like Assembly Speaker
(and trial lawyer) Shelly Silver who are in the lawyer lobby's pocket."
("Lawyer leeches would bleed N.Y.C." (editorial), New York Daily News,
Apr.
18)(more
on bill, Business Council of New York State)(see Dec.
13-15, 2002, Oct. 4, 2000).
And in Kansas, "Gov. Kathleen Sebelius used her first veto to reject a
bill designed to promote rural tourism. Specifically, the bill would shield
from lawsuits farmers and ranchers who, for a fee, let people watch and
take part in some farm activities. ... The strongest opposition to the
bill came from the Kansas Trial Lawyers Association, which employed Sebelius
as executive director before her election to the House in 1986." (Steve
Painter, "Sebelius vetoes farmer liability shield", Wichita Eagle,
Apr.
16). While with the KTLA Sebelius "worked closely with the Legislature
as a lobbyist" (bio)
and then went on to attract widespread notice as her state's insurance
commissioner before running for governor. (DURABLE
LINK)
May 5 -- Prospering
despite reform. Some observers thought the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 law "was aimed at putting [class
action firm] Milberg Weiss
-- and especially partner William Lerach, the lawyer many corporate executives
love to hate -- out of business. ... Instead, according to a new study
by Stanford Law School's Securities Class Action Clearinghouse and Cornerstone
Research, Milberg Weiss is doing better than ever." (Tamara Loomis, "Milberg
Weiss Stronger Than Ever Despite Reform Act", New York Law Journal,
Apr.
24). An analysis for the Cato Institute by Adam S. Pritchard
of the University of Michigan Law School concludes that the law has, as
intended, worked to raise the average quality of securities suits and weed
out those with least merit. ("Should Congress Repeal Securities Class Action
Reform?", Cato Policy Analysis, Feb. 27 (executive
summary, full text
in PDF format)). (DURABLE LINK)
May 3-4 -- "Streets
Strewn With Glass, Gold". Don't miss this profile of D.C.'s
subculture of "accident investigators" who solicit
participants in car crashes to file lawsuits, often bombarding their phones
with evening and early-morning calls for days. "The lawyer who introduced
him to the business was killed by a car while standing on an exit ramp,
apparently talking with accident victims, ["personal injury specialist"
Warren] Johnson says." (Libby Copeland, Washington Post, May
1). (DURABLE LINK)
May 3-4 -- By reader
acclaim: "Student sues over top title". "A Moorestown
[N.J.] High School senior, contending that the district superintendent
is engineering new rules that would force her to share the title of valedictorian
with another student, sued school
officials yesterday. Blair L. Hornstine, 18, who aspires to be a
lawyer, asked a federal judge to prevent the school from declaring valedictorian
anyone other than the student with the highest GPA." (John Shiffman,
Philadelphia Inquirer, May
2; Tanya Barrientos, "Student's lawsuit shows lack of class", May
3). Update May 13: Hornstine wins
suit (DURABLE LINK)
May 1-2 -- It ain't
heavy to him, he's my brother. In September, according
to the National Law Journal's "Verdicts and Settlements" column
(Oct. 7, 2002, not online) a Texas jury awarded $134,000 to Jennifer Grobe,
an employee of the Granite & Iron
Store in Fredericksburg. "According to Grobe, she suffered two herniated
lumbar discs when she lifted one of two 100- to 125-pound granite tables
that the store's owners had left in the entrance". Why Grobe's claim
went to a jury in the form of a lawsuit, rather than to the workers' comp
system, is not clear from the context.
The bit in the NLJ's report that drew our attention was the following:
Grobe's suit alleged that her employer was negligent "for placing the tables
in the entrance and for failing to comply with store policy by not having
two male employees available." Perhaps we're missing something, but
wouldn't the employer have faced likely liability exposure if it had
enforced a policy of "having two male employees available" to handle heavy
deliveries? As any self-respecting sex-discrimination litigator would
point out, such a policy closes off some work opportunities to women and
trades on impermissible (no matter how generally accurate) stereotypes
of men as wielding greater upper-body strength. (DURABLE
LINK)
May 1-2 -- Those
litigious Americans. "An ad for Dutch brewer Heineken
NV depicts lawsuit-happy Americans suing each other over spilled beer...The
idea is that Heineken is so good it makes Americans abandon their litigious
natures." (Erin White, "National Lampoon: U.K. Ads Satirize American Demeanor",
Wall
Street Journal, Apr.
28, online subscribers only). (DURABLE
LINK)
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