Incidentally, Overlawyered.com was launched Jul. 1, 1999, which makes today our sixth anniversary (or should it be birthday?).
Broadcast appearances
I’m scheduled to join a reporter and anchor in the studios of New York’s WCBS-Channel 2 this afternoon to discuss the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor; look for me sometime in the 5-to-6 p.m. slot.
More (7:30 p.m. Eastern): I’ll be on WCBS-TV again tomorrow between 9 and 10 a.m. for a second appearance. And (updated) on Monday morning I did two Texas radio phone interviews, including KTSA (San Antonio) with Steve Gehrlein, on the battle over Justice O’Connor’s seat, and KOLE (Beaumont), on the litigation explosion. P.S. on WCBS I mentioned Judge Edith Jones. It’s fun to be a mentioner!
How Stella Lost Her Groove And $35,000 Or More In A Contra Costa County Superior Court Hearing
Terry McMillan, whose affair with a man half her age was dramatized her novel “When Stella Got Her Groove Back,” might have thought her prenuptial agreement, negotiated after five months with his attorneys, protected her against gold-digging, but her now ex-husband is challenging the validity of it in a threatened bid for the millions of dollars she’s earned as a writer during their six-year marriage, and has already punished her failure to give into the extortion by submitting embarrassing court filings, which the press has been happy to publicize. (And not only is he young and good-looking, but the Diablo Valley College drop-out knows how to use terms like “Hobson’s choice” and “de minimus [sic]” in a sworn affidavit!) To add insult to injury, a judge has ordered her to pay her ex-husband’s attorney’s fees of $25,000 so he can litigate the matter against her. (Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross, “Epilogue for ‘Stella’ author: a messy divorce”, SF Chronicle, Jun. 26; Ann Gerhart, “Terry McMillan’s Epilogue to ‘Groove’ Affair”, Washington Post, Jun. 29 (via Weiner)).
LawLimits.com
A new blog from Jeffrey Lewis (also of Southern California Law Blog). Its mission: “exploring topics of malicious prosecution, abuse of process, anti-SLAPP procedures, legal malpractice and other areas around the boundaries of the practice of law”.
“Merck on trial”
Writes Larry Ribstein (Jun. 24): “It’s bad enough the corporate fraud trials are about resentment, but now guilt by resentment seems to be spreading to products liability cases.” In a Vioxx trial expected to begin next month in South Texas, according to a WSJ report, folksy plaintiff’s lawyer Mark Lanier is planning to lay on the exec-bashing with a trowel while going light on such matters as the explication of statistical significance in side-effect data. See Barbara Martinez, Lawyer Outlines Attack on Merck For Vioxx Trial”, W$J, Jun. 24. More: Point of Law, Feb. 8. Further coverage: Jul. 11, Jul. 15, Jul. 29, Aug. 19 ($253 million jury verdict).
“Welcome to the Neighborhood” off the air because of lawsuit fears
ABC had a goo-goo impulse: put on a show where three closed-minded families of bigots are exposed to a series of competing diverse families, with the winning family getting awarded a 3300-sq.ft. house in the Austin neighborhood with their new friends. “[W]ith every encounter with these families, the opinionated neighbors’ pre-conceived assumptions and prejudices are also chipped away, and they learn that, while on the outside we may appear different, deep inside we share many common bonds. The judges find themselves learning to see people, not stereotypes.” While it’s probably not a tremendous loss to our society’s future cultural heritage, the show, which was to debut July 10, was cancelled because of fears that it would prompt a lawsuit under the Fair Housing Act. (Lisa de Moraes, “ABC Faces Reality, Pulls Welcome Mat on ‘Neighborhood'”, Washington Post, Jun. 30; Google cache of memory-holed ABC show page).
10-year-old’s hockey demotion
…results in courtroom commotion in Mississauga, Ont., Canada. (“Boy, 10, sues hockey association over demotion”, CBC News, Jun. 19; “Hockey lawsuit put off until fall”, Mississauga News, Jun. 24). Brendan Butrimas allegedly got booted from the Applewood Hockey Association because of conflicts between his father and officials. His family says the C$10,000 suit is — had you guessed? — Not About The Money. “It’s not a money grab. This is a case to protect the rights of children,” said attorney Harry Kopyto, the family’s legal agent. (“Boy sues over fight between his father and hockey league”, CP/Globe and Mail, Jun. 19). (Corrected Nov. 27 to specify standing of family’s legal agent; a reader writes in to say that Kopyto was disbarred by Ontario legal authorities but “is allowed to appear as an agent/paralegal in Small Claims Court”.)
Trauma reality-TV show
The reality TV show “Trauma: Life in the ER” was filmed at 35 hospitals in 23 states over a five-year period. Now lawyers are pursuing would-be class actions against the New York Times’ television subsidiary, Discovery Communications, and various hospitals claiming that the privacy consent given by patients and family members was defective or obtained under false pretenses. Despite protests from defendants that the issue of validity of consent is intrinsically one that requires case-by-case determination, a New Jersey judge has certified a class action for lawsuits within that state. The judge estimated that the number of potential class members nationwide might reach into the hundreds of thousands. (Charles Toutant, “Hospital Patients Filmed for Reality TV Certified as Plaintiff Class”, New Jersey Law Journal, Jun. 20). Florida Masochist notes (Jun. 24) that a plaintiff’s lawyer suing in Orlando, per the Sentinel coverage, “said the lawsuit doesn’t question the right to broadcast the material, but the filming and production process”. (Pedro Ruz Gutierrez, “Patients sue over TV appearances”, Orlando Sentinel, Jun. 24). That sounds puzzling: if the persons suing aren’t objecting to the broadcast of the material, how seriously were they injured by the alleged affront to their privacy?
Brain wave monitor
Opinions vary among physicians as to the likely usefulness of a new device which indicates whether a patient is awake or asleep during surgery. One thing is certain, however: hospitals’ decisions on whether or not to adopt the new technology will be strongly influenced by the aim of avoiding litigation, as distinct from the device’s perceived medical merits. (Daniel Fisher, “Defensive Medicine”, Forbes, Apr. 25).
2nd Circuit dismisses Cayuga land claim
In a fairly stunning ruling with far-reaching significance for Indian land claims in the Northeast, a panel of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has thrown out the Cayuga tribe’s lawsuit against New York State and local landowners over possession of 64,000 upstate acres, including the $248 million that a trial court judge had earlier determined was owed to the tribe in damages (see Jun. 24-25, 2002). The majority in the 2-1 opinion, led by Judge Jose Cabranes, relied on the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent opinion in City of Sherrill v. Oneida, which disallowed a tribe’s efforts to assert reservation sovereignty over tracts of land it had added piecemeal through purchase to its previous holdings. According to the majority opinion, the Sherrill ruling revitalizes the equitable defense of laches, or undue delay, which many observers had assumed was unavailable to defendants in the Indian land claim suits. In a dissent, Judge Janet Hall agreed that ejectment of current homeowners was now barred by the Supreme Court’s evolving jurisprudence but argued that claims for cash damages should be allowed to go forward.
Should the ruling be upheld following the inevitable petitions for en banc reconsideration, Supreme Court certiorari, etc., it could spell doom for most and perhaps all efforts to revive long-defunct Indian land claims, which have for decades now inflicted injustice and disruption on innocent landowners and others. For our extensive coverage of the issue, see Jun. 27 (Shinnecocks’ Hamptons suit) and many links from there. (Diana Louise Carter, “Judges throw out Cayugas’ land claim”, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, Jun. 29; Scott Rapp, “Judges To Indians: You’re Too Late To Reclaim Land”, Syracuse Post-Standard, Jun. 29; Jim Adams, “Second Circuit throws out New York state land claim”, Indian Country Today, Jun. 28; William Kates, “Appeals Court Tosses $248M Award to Tribe”, AP/Washington Post, Jun. 28). More: New York Law Journal (& welcome Howard Bashman readers). Update Apr. 14, 2006: U.S. Justice Department petitions for certiorari.