U.K.: Union defends eBay-addicted town workers

A Labour-run municipal authority in Wales has sacked nine workers after discovering that they were spending up to two hours of their workday on eBay, but “union officials said that the employer had ‘put temptation in their way’ by allowing computer access to external internet sites. They called on all large employers to install a firewall program to prevent staff from being distracted by sites such as eBay, BBC Online and those that provide gambling.” (Simon de Bruxelles, “Office staff lose their jobs after bosses catch them trading on eBay”, Times Online, Sept. 21)(via ABA Journal).

October 8 Roundup

“Disrespectful cockalorum…mordaciously sarcastic”

It would appear U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn has reached the end of his patience with attorney Mark E. Brennan, and then some. Throwing out a $1.2 million verdict obtained by Brennan against the city of Denver on a claim of age discrimination against a firefighter, Judge Blackburn condemned Brennan’s courtroom antics as “disgraceful” as well as “boorish and unprofessional”:

“In over 19 years on the bench, I have seen nothing comparable,” the judge wrote. “Such disrespectful cockalorum, grandstanding, bombast, bullying and hyperbole as Mr. Brennan exhibited throughout the trial are quite beyond my experience as a jurist, and, I fervently hope, will remain an aberration during the remainder of my time on the bench.”

(Daniel J. Chacon, “Judge points to lawyer’s antics in junking $1.2 million ruling”, Rocky Mountain News, Oct. 6). No response from Mr. Brennan is recorded yet in the news coverage assembled by Google. The dictionary, incidentally, defines “cockalorum” as “boastful talk; crowing”. P.S. Brennan’s response, as reported in the Rocky Mountain News (via ABA Journal); also more details at On Point News.

$222,000 for sharing 24 songs

Good thing copyright infringement law isn’t punitive or anything (David Kravets, “RIAA Trial Produces Playlist of the Century”, Wired News, Oct. 4; more; Recording Industry vs. The People, Oct. 5; via Sullivan). Meanwhile, from the same state, same day, comes word that a school bus driver who pleaded guilty to drinking on the job has been fined $482. (“Bus driver pleads guilty to alcohol charge”, AP/Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Aug. 5; Lileks via Reynolds). More: Declan McCullagh, “Why the RIAA should have won (though the fine was too high)”, CNet, Oct. 5.

Update: Object to a class action settlement, face a RICO suit

Updating our Jun. 22 item: Madison County, Ill. Circuit Judge Andy Matoesian has dismissed without prejudice a racketeering suit brought by class action lawyers against outside class members and lawyers who’d raised objections to the alleged inadequacy of a settlement. Attorneys Stephen Swedlow and Stephen Tillery, who’d reached a $63.8 million settlement with GlaxoSmithKline over its marketing of the drug Paxil, claimed the objections of lawyers N. Albert Bacharach, Jr. and Paul S. Rothstein and citizen Lillian Rogers were frivolous and extortionate. (Steve Gonzalez, “Matoesian dismisses suit against Paxil objectors”, Madison St. Clair Record, Sept. 7).

9/11 suits: I guess it was about the money after all

The families of 9/11 victims who refused the Feinberg fund results and demanded more through lawsuits piously reported repeatedly that it wasn’t about the money, that they just wanted to publicize the truth in their lawsuits against fellow victims such as the airlines and airports and multiple other deep pockets. Now that several cases have settled—and the plaintiffs have agreed to confidentiality clauses—Shaun Mullen and Ed Morrissey suggest that it was about the money after all.