- “Court Vacates $99,000 Fee to Counsel for Plaintiff Who Won $650” [NJLJ]
- Libel-suit target: “Author Simon Singh Puts Up a Fight in the War on Science” [Wired]
- No, they weren’t “worst”: RIP injury lawyer who hyped “10 Worst Toys” list each Christmas [WSJ Law Blog]
- New credit card regulations squeeze small business [John Berlau letter in Washington Post]
- District attorney’s case intake desk should screen out many unjust prosecutions, but often doesn’t [Greenfield]
- AGs’ campaign to drive sex pros off Craigslist has failure built in [William Saletan, Slate; LNL; Declan McCullagh]
- “Nursing Home Company Settles $677 Million Lawsuit for $50 Million” [AP]
- “Judge accused of sexual harassment once helped women sue” [Orlando Sentinel]
Posts Tagged ‘attorneys’ fees’
“Ohio Lawyer Suspended for Billing More than 24 Hours in a Day”
It’s a story we’ve encountered before; in this case the taxpayers of Lucas County (Ohio) got to pick up the lawyer’s bill for representing poor clients. She’ll be suspended for a year. [Legal Profession Blog via ABA Journal] Carolyn Elefant at MyShingle isn’t buying one suggestion that the episode should be blamed on inadequate training in law practice management.
July 8 roundup
- Federal preemption of state law: compare and contrast illegal-immigration control with auto and drug design [Ted and Carter at PoL; upcoming (Jul. 21) Cato panel discussion in DC]
- Authorities in Scotland let Lockerbie bomber off on doctor’s note. How’d that work out? [Bainbridge]
- Pay for your rescue: “French tourists may be billed if high-risk trips go wrong” [Guardian]
- Must revoke honorific California-state-rock status of serpentine! It contains asbestos! [L.A. Times “Booster Shots” via Amy Alkon]
- “Zero tolerance for bullying” — nice slogan, but think before endorsing [Helene Guldberg, Daily Mail via Skenazy]
- “The New Black Panther Case: A Conservative Dissent” [Abigail Thernstrom, NRO; earlier]
- $113,800 in damages in pregnancy-bias suit against Lucasfilm, but demand for attorney’s fees could reach $1.2 million [SF Chronicle]
- Trial lawyers fear being cut out of BP TransOcean pie [WSJ Law Blog, Bainbridge, Calif. Civil Justice]
Mean-girl YouTube video
The New York Times tells of a Beverly Hills, Calif. student who
videotaped friends at a cafe, egging them on as they laughed and made mean-spirited, sexual comments about another eighth-grade girl, C. C., calling her “ugly,” “spoiled,” a “brat” and a “slut.” J. C. posted the video on YouTube. The next day, the school suspended her for two days.
Now, before clicking the link, guess who collected the resulting $107,150.80. Right. Ken at Popehat thinks the judge decided the case in favor of the right party, more or less, which doesn’t keep the right party from also being a deplorably wrong party (strong language, invective, etc.)
And then went back to “access to justice” chatter
Lawyers in a class action seek a high appeal bond to insulate their fee award. [CCAF]
$60 for an 8-word courtesy email
A small businesswoman in New York asks for a bit of legal help in dealing with a sublease, and sets herself up for an unpleasant surprise: “How Do Lawyers Get Away With This Stuff?” [Jennifer Walzer, NY Times “You’re the Boss” via Balasubramani]
“We are in grave danger of becoming over-lawyered and under-represented”
Says U.K. Justice Secretary Jack Straw [Times Online] The context is a dust-up over high fees paid to appointed defense counsel: “Ten QCs were paid more than £500,000, with the highest on £928,000.”
Attorney’s fee spin cycle
Judge Posner caustically dispatches a fee request following the failure of a putative class action over alleged defects in Sears’ Kenmore clothes dryers [AmLaw]
CCAF amicus brief in fen-phen fees case
Overlawyered readers are well aware of the sorry history of the fen-phen litigation; those that aren’t are advised to check out Professor Lester Brickman’s summary.
In April 2008, the Diet Drugs MDL district court awarded $567 million the class counsel in that case, basing the award in part on representations by class counsel about future class recovery. A year later, a plaintiff’s attorney requested the court reopen the question of the fee award because the class counsel had exaggerated those estimates. The district court refused, holding that the one-year delay in bringing the Rule 60(b) motion was not a “reasonable time.” There has been an appeal to the Third Circuit, and, today, the Center for Class Action Fairness filed an amicus brief in support of the appeal that itself provides a short overview of the history of the fen-phen MDL. Many thanks to Chris Arfaa for his generous help in filing the brief.
“Judge chops lawyer fees by $1M”
A North Carolina Business Court judge has cut a proposed fee award in an investor class action arising from the Wells Fargo/Wachovia merger “because he thought lawyers had charged too much per hour and spent too much time working on the case.” [Triangle Business Journal]