New Orleans: brawl between class action lawyers

And not a figurative brawl either: “fisticuffs broke out between attorneys Madro Bandaries and J. Robert Ates, who were pushing rival class-action suits about the late handling of insurance claims …[lead attorney Wiley] Beevers and Bandaries have traded hostile rhetoric in recent weeks as they try to gain advantage for their rival class-action suits against Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp., which could produce $5 million in spoils for the victorious legal team.” (Rebecca Mowbray, “Brawl erupts between two lawyers at civil court”, New Orleans Times-Picayune, Dec. 16).

Claim: access to cable Playboy Channel caused pain, anguish

Marc Randazza (Dec. 12; source link he cites is NSFW):

A Rhode Island family filed a lawsuit in Kent Superior Court claiming that Verizon Communications caused “great pain, anxiety, nervousness and mental anguish,” by providing access to the Playboy Channel. Plaintiffs Robert Bourne, Denise Roy and daughters Elice Roy and Danielle Bourne are seeking compensation for “current and future medical bills.”

December 16 roundup

  • “The Boston Public Health Commission has just banned the sale of all tobacco products at colleges. Not high schools. Colleges.” [Saletan, Slate]
  • Sometimes the case caption seems to tell a little story all by itself [Lorraine Hodges v. Mt. Zion Temple d/b/a Zero Gravity Skatepark Oakland County, Mich., 12/1/2008 08-096435 NI Chabot (Pontiac), slip-fall on snow and ice]
  • Consumer complaint site Ripoff Report is magnet for lawsuits [Citizen Media Law, Eric Goldman and again]
  • EEOC hearing on English-in-the-workplace issues [Clegg, NRO “Corner”]
  • Wiretapper Anthony Pellicano, helpful gnome behind the scenes for many powerful Hollywood lawyers, sentenced to 15 years behind bars [CNN, Patterico]
  • “Hungary’s Constitutional Court says it has annulled a law giving rights to domestic partners because it would diminish the importance of marriage”; now just watch how many folks on both sides flip their opinion of judicial activism [AP/WHEC]
  • No teaser rates for you! Harvard’s Elizabeth Warren wants new law empowering federal government to order withdrawal of “too-risky” consumer credit products [Consumer Law & Policy]
  • Major new study of defensive medicine, conservatively estimated to waste $1.4 billion in Massachusetts alone [KevinMD, Boston Globe; Massachusetts Medical Society]

Alimony deal said wife couldn’t “cohabit”

And the husband is going to hold her to the letter of that, even though Patricia Craissati’s “cohabitation” is with a cellmate at the prison where she’s serving time for a DUI accident. A dissenting judge called it an “absurd result”. (Susan Spencer-Wendel, “Ex-wife’s alimony cut off because she has cellmate”, Palm Beach Post, Dec. 10).

Manhattan Institute, City Journal now on Twitter

The Manhattan Institute, with which I’m associated as senior fellow, is now on Twitter , as is its superlative policy magazine, City Journal, for which I’ve often written. Follow both today! Just as a reminder, you can also follow me here (mix of legal, business, journalistic and other content), as well as feeds for all my blogs (Point of Law, Overlawyered, etc.). (Cross-posted, slightly altered, from Point of Law).

Elton John loses Guardian libel case

Another indication that British courts may be steering defamation law away from its highly pro-plaintiff posture of the past: “In a groundbreaking libel decision, the judge said that ‘irony’ and ‘teasing’ do not amount to defamation.” The entertainer Elton John had sued over a spoof “diary” that depicted his involvement in a major AIDS charity as insincere and self-serving.

“It’s significant,” said media law expert Mark Stephens of the ruling. “What [Mr. Justice] Tugendhat has done is move us closer to the US system where you can’t get damages for satire and humour, except in the most exceptional cases.”

(Duncan Campbell, The Guardian, Dec. 13).

Altria v Good affirmed 5-4

The Supreme Court rejected (h/t Beck/Herrmann) tobacco companies’ argument that the FTC’s use of the Cambridge Filter Method standard of measuring tar and nicotine impliedly preempted lawsuits against the tobacco companies for advertising their cigarettes using data from the Cambridge Filter Method standard of measuring tar and nicotine.  The fact that the federal government disavowed preemption lends another data point in support of Professor Catherine Sharkey’s argument that the Court tends to defer to the Solicitor General’s position on preemption disputes.  Justice Thomas’s dissent, which would undo the unworkable Cipollone plurality, appears to me to be the stronger argument, but it didn’t carry the Kennedy Five.

The fact pattern is the subject of numerous multi-billion dollar lawsuits against tobacco companies alleging that their sales of light cigarettes are fraudulent.  The light-cigarette consumer fraud litigation still suffers from constitutional flaws relating to due process in aggregate litigation, but these remain to be resolved.

Langston’s leniency letters

The lawyer defending disgraced Mississippi plaintiff’s lawyer Joey Langston asked that the hundreds of letters pleading for leniency in his sentencing be kept off limits to the general public — seems they were too personal in tone. Nonetheless, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal has a list of the letter-senders, a group more local in flavor than the cadre of national big-namers who wrote letters on behalf of Master of the Universe and judge-briber Dickie Scruggs. One of the nearly 340 letters was from Langston’s “longtime friend and business partner”, U.S. Rep. Travis Childers, who wrote, “I only wish that every town and county in America had someone like Joey Langston.” (Patsy R. Brumfield, “Hundreds of Langston letters asked for leniency”, NEMDJ, Dec. 11; YallPolitics, Dec. 10). “Langston faces up to three years in prison after he pleaded guilty to conspiring to influence a circuit judge to help resolve a legal-fees lawsuit against then-Oxford attorney Richard “Dickie” Scruggs.” (related, same day). Because he has cooperated with prosecutors, Langston is expected to be given a reduced sentence; some of his supporters, including Rep. Childers, asked that he be let off with probation.