Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Posts Tagged ‘environment’

A Little Taste of Loser Pays?

My company is in the business of managing recreation sites, many of which are located in the National Forest. I deal with local Forest Service rangers all the time, and I’ll tell you they have an almost impossible job. They all joined the Forest Service because they wanted to be close to trees, but many of them find that the closest they get to trees every day is via the reams of paper they must generate in environmental impact studies and motions in lawsuits. Everything they try to do in the forest tends to be blocked legally by somebody, the most common opposition coming from environmental groups.

One federal judge may be raising the costs of filing such suits against everything….

While this is not really a true loser-pay system, and appeal bonds are fairly normal, they seldom cover the true costs of the delay and extra litigation. Apparently this bond is getting attention for being 10x larger than is typical. (Brett Wilkison, “Judge orders litigating enviros to pony up”, High Country News, Feb 6).

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Busted flush

Federal toilet-flow regulation, writes Andrew Ferguson, resulted from a successful collaboration between organized industry and environmentalists against the interests of the general public. (“Can Deregulating Toilets Revive Republicans?”, Bloomberg News, Jan. 24).

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Silver dragées (& welcome Virginia Postrel readers)

Writing in the L.A. Times Magazine, Andy Meisler profiles Napa-based environmental lawyer and former SDSer Mark Pollock and his crusade to drive silver dragées, the little confectionery balls found on some Christmas cookies and gingerbread houses, out of the California market (while garnering some nice legal fees at the expense of the bakers, food importers and others he sues). (“A Tempest on a Tea Cart”, Dec. 18). Virginia Postrel calls Pollock a petty tyrant, says his activities illustrate the need for serious litigation reform, and has some kind words for us along the way (Dec. 19; also see Reason “Hit and Run”). Jim Hu at Blogs for Industry (Dec. 20) investigates exactly how hazardous the little silver balls are and finds the apparent answer: not very hazardous, compared with many other things people choose to eat. He also points out that “dragée is pronounced dra-‘zhA and is derived from the same root as ‘dredge'”. For more on California environmental-suit bounty-hunting, see Nov. 4-5, 2002, Apr. 6, 2004 and these links.

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Noise pollution

It can consist of kids’ playing, as in this British case in which an irate neighbor called in “the environmental health” to complain about a nearby nursery school. The school has agreed to restrictions under which “games such as What’s the Time, Mr Wolf? can no longer be played outdoors.” (Stewart Payne, “Nursery children must stay inside to protect neighbour’s rights”, Daily Telegraph, Nov. 10).

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Kellen Gorman v. Crenshaw Lumber

Three years ago, when he was 2, a medical exam discovered brain lesions on Kellen Gorman. His family blames “toxic mold” for his autism (though his two siblings weren’t affected) in the house, and sued 17 defendants—including the lumberyard that supplied the wood for the house. Six weeks into trial, the case has settled for $22.6 million and, amazingly, it’s the lumberyard that’s paying the bulk of it: $13 million, or more than $200,000 for each of its sixty employees. As it was, the lumberyard had hired seventeen experts to try the case, but had ten of them (including a toxicologist and microbiolgist) excluded when they missed a court-ordered deadline for disclosure. (The Gormans’ attorney, Brian Witzer, accuses a defense attorney of trying to backdate a document, and says he has filed ethical charges.) The Gormans already have plans for their millions: “We’ll tear [the house] down and take it to a hazardous waste dump and build a really nice house,” [Dana] Gorman said. “It will cost a lot to tear down and rebuild.” (Josh Grossberg, “Manhattan Beach family wins $22.6 million suit”, Los Angeles Daily Breeze, Nov. 7; NBC-4, Nov. 4). And if housing seems a bit more expensive in California, it’s because even the raw materials suppliers must purchase insurance against the risk of multi-million-dollar junk science verdicts.

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Erin Brockovich/Harvard School of Public Health update

The CJAC has an idea for the Harvard School of Public Health: rather than make an embarrassing decision to give a “Health Award” to the facile celebrity, why not give the award to Norma Zager, the Beverly Hills Courier reporter who exposed Erin Brockovich’s quackery? (May Habib, “Brockovich Awarded SPH’s Highest Honor”, Harvard Crimson, Oct. 19; Jessica Heslam, “Lawyer group protests award for `Erin Brockovich'”, Boston Herald, Oct. 18). Earlier coverage: Oct. 6 and especially Sep. 30 and links therein.

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Errin’ on the airwaves

Tom Bray of the Detroit News weighs in on the controversy over the Harvard School of Public Health’s decision to give an award to Erin Brockovich (earlier: Sept. 30) and points out that the glamourpuss toxic-tort-chaser is making a push into TV:

She is listed as the executive producer of an upcoming NBC series titled “Class Action,” which will lionize a team of fictional plaintiff’s attorneys who specialize in class-action lawsuits.

(“Radical parody threatens environmental movement”, Oct. 2)(via Toxic Tort News).

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“Lawsuit blames oil companies for hurricane damage”

The AP reports that a “lawsuit seeks what attorneys say could be billions of dollars from a long list of oil companies for damages to wetlands that allegedly would have softened Hurricane Katrina’s blow.” Attorneys from the New Orleans firm of St. Martin & Williams are seeking class-action status on behalf of all persons and entities in Louisiana that suffered injury from Katrina’s wind and storm surge. They’re naming as defendants 11 oil and gas companies including Shell Oil, ExxonMobil, Chevron and BP Corp. whose activities they say depleted marshlands, including by building and neglecting pipeline canals. (AP/Shreveport Times, Sept. 17; “Class-action suit filed against oil companies”, BizNewOrleans.com, Sept. 15).

Meanwhile, environmental litigation over the years aimed at slowing levee and flood-control projects could come under Senate scrutiny, despite peals of protest from the Sierra Club, Sen. Chuck Schumer and others (Dan Eggen, “Senate Panel Investigating Challenges to Levees”, Washington Post, Sept. 17; Jerry Mitchell, “Senate panel investigates levee lawsuits”, Jackson Clarion-Ledger, Sept. 17). See Sept. 9, Sept. 14 (& Baseball Crank).

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