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ARCHIVE -- MAY 2003 (III)
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May 30-June 1 --
"Judge Allows Lawyer to Add Shell Oil as Nightclub Fire Defendant".
Rhode Island: "Attorney Ronald Resmini, who sued for damages in federal
court last month, said he added Shell Oil and its affiliate, Motiva Enterprises
LLC, to his lawsuit because The Station nightclub owners distributed tickets
to their club from a Shell gas station they owned. 'They were giving away
free tickets if you bought so much merchandise,' Resmini said." Lawyers'
quest for deep pockets has already resulted in the naming of brewer Anheuser-Busch
and the town of West Warwick, among other defendants. (AP/MSNBC/7
News Boston, May 29). (DURABLE LINK)
May 30-June 1 --
"Diet Drug Litigation Leads to Fat Fees". "A federal judge
in Philadelphia has awarded interim fees of more than $150 million to 83
plaintiffs' law firms for their work in the massive fen-phen diet drug
litigation that led to a $3.75 billion class action settlement. The interim
fees are just a fraction of what the plaintiffs' lawyers could ultimately
earn, since it covers only work up to June 30, 2001. In their fee petition,
the lawyers asked for $567 million." (Shannon P. Duffy, The Legal Intelligencer,
May
21)(see
Sept. 27-29, 2002, and
links from there). And, reports Texas Lawyer: "A group of
Houston plaintiffs' lawyers who were major players in fen-phen litigation
in the late 1990s are now jumping into the ephedra arena and plan to use
many of the tactics they learned in fen-phen suits in the new litigation."
Ephedra, an herbal remedy, promotes weight loss and energy but can have
serious side effects. (Kelly Pedone, "Lessons Learned in Fen-Phen
Suits Factor Into Ephedra Cases", Texas Lawyer, Apr.
15)(see Sept. 10, 2001). (DURABLE
LINK)
May 30-June 1 --
"Buchanan & Press". Viewers who tuned into the popular
MSNBC debate
show last night (Thurs.) saw our editor debate former ATLA president
Barry Nace on the merits of Common Good's "early offers" proposals for
limiting lawyers' contingency fees (see May 29) A
full transcript is likely at some point to be posted here.
(DURABLE LINK)
May 29 -- Hold
the gravy? Common
Good, the reform organization headed by author Philip Howard, has launched
a new campaign to limit the fees plaintiff's lawyers can charge in cases
that settle promptly. "The proposal would require plaintiffs' attorneys
to submit a notice of a planned lawsuit to defendants in contingency fee
cases. If a settlement offer is made and accepted within 60 days of the
notice, the attorney must charge an hourly rate that cannot exceed 10 percent
of the settlement amount." (Elizabeth Neff, "Plan Would Cap Contingency
Fees", Salt Lake Tribune, May
25). Petitions to this effect have been filed in recent weeks
by lawyers working pro bono in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado,
Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah
and Virginia. (Daniel Wise, "Attorney Fees in Personal Injury Cases
Targeted", New York Law Journal, May
8; Adam Liptak, "In 13 States, a Push to Limit Lawyers' Fees", New
York Times, May
26). (DURABLE LINK)
May 29 -- Decorating
for reconciliation. Okay, for a change, here's a vignette
that made us think maybe there's hope for the profession: "Though hardly
sentimental in the courtroom, Ms. Gold-Bikin [divorce
attorney Lynne Z. Gold-Bikin of Philadelphia's Wolf, Block, Schorr &
Solis-Cohen LLP] says she often urges settlement and, even, reconciliation....
Coupons for free marriage-counseling sessions are set out on the coffee
table. ... 'I'm a divorce lawyer who believes in marriage. So I started
collecting old wedding photos and licenses. Then I found that if I put
them up around the office, clients would have to walk past them and, hopefully,
think twice about what they were about to do. There are plenty of marriages
we're never going to save. But there are a lot we can work on. Many people
who come here shouldn't be getting divorced. They're just stuck, and I
hope this makes them reconsider.'" (Nancy D. Holt, "The rite of matrimony",
CareerJournal.com (WSJ), May
15; also appeared in Wall Street Journal, May 14, as the "Workspaces"
column). (DURABLE LINK)
May 28 -- Vitamin
class action: some questions for the lawyers. Last month
"appeal court justices in San Francisco did something unusual: They mailed
out a letter asking lawyers in a massive vitamin price-fixing class
action to explain a few things. Why, the 1st District Court of
Appeal wanted to know, are so many law firms involved? How did the number
of coordinated cases grow by 12 in one six-month period? How many out-of-state
law firms are involved? Which of the defendants previously entered guilty
or no contest pleas to criminal charges?" At least fifty class action law
firms nationwide are hoping to split a $16 million fee pot, but Oakland,
Calif. attorney Larry Schonbrun, the nation's best-known objector to class
actions, says there's "no reason why much fewer law firms could not have
handled this case". And: "This is a money machine. It's feeding at the
trough." (Mike McKee, "Enriching the Record", The Recorder, May
27). (DURABLE LINK)
May 28 -- "Sex,
God and Greed". Forbes on the priest scandals and
the associated "litigation gold rush" which could leave the Roman Catholic
Church facing $5 billion in payouts. "The lawyers who are winning
settlements from Catholic dioceses are already casting about for the next
targets: schools, government agencies, day care centers, police departments,
Indian reservations, Hollywood. ... The lawyers are lobbying states to
lift the statute of limitations on sex
abuse cases, letting them dredge up complaints that date back decades."
(Daniel Lyons, Forbes, Jun.
9). Sidebars: "Battle
of the Shrinks" (role of recovered memory in some cases); "Heavenly
Cash" (questionable claims). Our editor weighed
in a couple of years ago on the practice of lifting statutes of limitation.
(DURABLE
LINK)
May 27 -- "State
is suing ex-dry cleaners". California Attorney General
Lockyer is suing retired owners of Mom-and-Pop dry cleaners in the town
of Chico under the federal Superfund
law, accusing them of pouring dry-cleaning chemicals down their drains
decades ago. "Bob and Inez Heidinger -- he's 87, has Alzheimer's
disease and is blind in one eye; she's 83, has bone marrow cancer and needs
shoulder surgery" -- are being sued for $1.5 million on charges (which
they deny) of disposing of PCE in such a manner between 1952 and 1974,
when they sold the business. Also being sued is "Paul Tullius, a
57-year-old retired Air Force pilot, and his wife, Vicki, who own a warehouse
that last housed a dry cleaner in 1972 -- 16 years before they bought the
building without knowing its entire history." "This is the most draconian
law you could ever imagine," says Tullius. "...Can you imagine what that
does to your life? I'm sort of thinking this isn't the country I thought
it was." (Gary Delsohn, Sacramento Bee, Apr.
28). (DURABLE LINK)
May 27 -- Courtroom assault
on drugmakers. A week or two ago the New York Times
somewhat belatedly discovered that trial lawyers have ginned up a large
amount of well-organized litigation against pharmaceutical
makers over alleged side effects. (Alex Berenson, "Giant drug
firms may face lawsuits", New York Times/Oakland Tribune,
May
18). Some reactions: Derek Lowe ("Because That's Where the Money
Is", Corante, May
16), Ernie the Attorney (May
18), MedPundit (May
19), MedRants (May
19), William Murchison ("Lawyers Who Make You Sick", syndicated/TownHall,
May
20) (the last of these via SickofLawsuits.org,
a new health-focused site associated with the Citizens Against Lawsuit
Abuse tort reform groups). (DURABLE
LINK)
May 24-26 -- "'Trial
Lawyers Get Spanked'". Our editor had an op-ed Friday
in the Wall Street Journal celebrating the Florida appeals court's
striking down of the absurd $145 billion class action verdict in the Engle
tobacco case. (Walter Olson, WSJ/ OpinionJournal.com, May
23). Other columns on the decision include Jacob Sullum, "Appealing
Price", syndicated/Reason.com, May
23, on the appeals bond issue; and George Will, "The States' Tobacco
Dilemma", syndicated/Washington Post, May
23, on the hypocrisy of state governments. (DURABLE
LINK)
May 24-26 -- Hitting
the jack-potty. "A city worker has hit the jack-potty.
Cedrick Makara, 55, scored a $3 million jury verdict last week because
he hurt his thumb trying to get out of the john of a Manhattan building
where he works." The building's manager and owner are on the hook.
The stall in question "had a missing doorknob. [Attorney Sheryl] Menkes
said Makara reached his hand through a hole where the knob should have
been and pulled the door toward him just as someone entering the bathroom
pushed the door in," causing him to injure tendons in his thumb and miss
six months of work as a city claims examiner. (Helen Peterson, "He's flush
after $3M potty suit", New York Daily News, May
21). More: Boots and Sabers comments on the case (May
25). (DURABLE LINK)
May 22-23 -- Court
overturns $145 billion Engle award. Not to say
"we told you so" about yesterday's Florida appellate decision reversing
the tobacco-suit atrocity, but, well, we did tell you so back
in 1999: "The smart money is betting last week's Miami anti-tobacco
jury verdict will be overturned on the issue of class certification --
whether every sick Florida smoker should have been swept into a class suing
cigarette makers despite vast differences among individuals on such issues
as why they decided to smoke or quit." We had more to say about the
case, also in the Wall Street Journal, a year later (July
18, 2000), as well as on
this site. The latest decision is on FindLaw
in PDF format and a very fine decision it is indeed -- if this keeps
up, the Florida courts may start getting their reputation back (Manuel
Roig-Franzia, "$145 Billion Award in Tobacco Case Voided", Washington Post,
May
21). (DURABLE LINK)
May 22-23 -- Must
be why the show has so many fans. Received recently from
the publicity department at St. Martin's Press, publisher of our editor's
latest book: "The
Rule of Lawyers by Walter Olson will be a prop in the show, Sex
and the City! It will be a prop in Miranda's apt. thoughout the
season. The pilot airs early June." (DURABLE
LINK)
May 21 -- Update:
McMahon's mold claim worth $7 mil. "Entertainer Ed McMahon
reaped a $7 million settlement from several companies he sued for allowing
toxic mold to overrun his Los
Angeles home and kill his beloved dog, a national mold litigation magazine
reported". ("McMahon Gets $7 Mln in Toxic Mold Lawsuit - Report", Yahoo/Reuters,
May
7)(see Apr. 25, 2002). Addendum:
blogger Stu Greene writes, "I wonder if the Prize
Patrol delivered one of those oversized novelty checks with balloons
tied to it." (May
21) (DURABLE LINK)
May 21 -- Auto-lease
liability: deeper into crisis. Honda has become the latest
automaker to announce that it will stop leasing new cars to buyers in New
York, Connecticut and Rhode Island (see Mar.
12-14, 2003, Aug. 26, 2002).
The problem is 1920s-era "vicarious liability" laws in those three states,
fiercely guarded by the trial lawyer lobby, which expose leasing and rental
car companies to unlimited personal injury claims when their customers
get into accidents. Honda's pullout follows withdrawals this spring
by GM and Ford as well as by J.P. Morgan Chase, a major provider of auto
financing in the Northeast. ("Industry report: Honda to stop leasing
in 3 states", Detroit Free Press, May
20 (scroll down); "American Honda Finance Corp. to Suspend All Leasing
In Three States", PR Newswire, May 19; "Auto lease fleece" (editorial),
New York Daily News, Apr.
22 (scroll down); SaveLeasing.com;
"Ford Blames Liability Law for Decision to Stop Leasing Cars in NY", Insurance
Journal, Apr.
7; Zubin Jelveh, "Leasing Companies Exit Left and Right", Newsday,
May
4). "More than $1.5 billion in such claims are pending in New York,
said Elaine Litwer, legislative coordinator for the National Vehicle Leasing
Association.... [Proponents of easing the law] received a big boost last
month when the 75,000-member New York State Bar Association split from
the trial lawyers and said the vicarious liability law was never meant
to apply to leases and supported changes." (Barbara Woller, "GMAC leaves
New York's auto leasing market", Journal News (Gannett, Westchester
County), May
1; John Caher, "State Bar, Trial Lawyers Part Ways on Tort Reform",
New York Law Journal, Apr.
8). More: Jun.
9, 2003; Sept.
5, 2004. (DURABLE LINK)
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