Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Posts Tagged ‘Geoffrey Fieger’

Harris v. Mt. Sinai Medical Center: Geoffrey Fieger loses

We’ve been on top of this outrage of a medical malpractice case since it was in trial—Aug. 2004, Oct. 2004, Nov. 2004, May 2006, Apr. 12—but Roger Parloff has such a comprehensive post about the Ohio Supreme Court’s 5-1 (corrected:) 6-1 decision to strike down an intermediate court’s reinstatement of a bogus $30 million verdict that we defer to him. Even the dissenter would have found Fieger’s shenanigans problematic, but would have merely reduced the award to $10 million. Still, on remand for a new trial, Justice Paul Pfeifer recommended that “it would be wise for the trial judge to deny any motion for admission pro hac vice filed on behalf of Mr. Fieger.”

NB that among the tactics condemned by the Ohio Supreme Court are the tactics that trial lawyer John Edwards used when he successfully tried a medical malpractice case—pretending to channel the baby in the womb to the jury.

Among the victorious attorneys: one of our favorite bloggers, Mark Herrmann.

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Lerach was bundler for Edwards

As Walter noted, Lerach was a bundler for Edwards; his plea agreement included an agreement by the government not prosecute illegal campaign donations. Still, while Edwards is giving back Lerach’s personal donation, he’s holding on to the rest of the $78,000 that Bill Lerach raised for him, even as Edwards criticizes Hillary Clinton for holding a fund-raiser at Jones Day (whose attorneys have given more money to Obama) and taking money from lobbyists. Edwards hasn’t given back the $125,000 Geoffrey Fieger is indicted over raising for him either.

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Federal court: Fieger can call judges Nazis

We’ve covered many of Michigan trial lawyer Geoffrey Fieger’s antics and legal troubles here on Overlawyered over the years; his most recent problems include being censured in Arizona and being criminally indicted for illegal campaign contributions.

But he may have managed to wriggle out of punishment for at least one of his shenanigans: his 1999 radio tirade in which he labelled as Nazis the judges who ruled against his client. He was sanctioned by the Michigan courts for this conduct, with the Michigan Supreme Court upholding the discipline against his first amendment challenge in Aug. 2006 (Yes, that’s seven years after the incident.)

But this week, a federal court bought Fieger’s first amendment argument, holding that the rules under which he was sanctioned were unconstitutional.

The rules say lawyers must treat everyone involved in the legal process with “courtesy and respect” and should “not engage in undignified or discourteous conduct” toward the bench.

In the decision released late Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Tarnow said “the rules are unconstitutional on their face because they are both overly broad and vague.”

If we were snide, we might note that it could say something about Fieger that he couldn’t figure out that calling someone a Nazi is not dignified or respectful. We were amused at the Court’s reasoning for why Fieger had standing to challenge these rules:

The likelihood that Plaintiff Fieger may again say something negative about a Michigan court that could subject him to further punishment under the courtesy provisions is not the attenuated situation presented in Grendell. Plaintiff Fieger is a vocal, often harsh, and at times vulgar critic of Michigan’s judiciary.

You don’t say.

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Fieger’s Arizona censure

Yet another ethical run-in for bad boy Michigan lawyer Geoffrey Fieger, aside from all the ones we’ve told you about already including his recent campaign finance indictment: the Arizona Supreme Court has censured Fieger for holding himself out on letterhead as a member of the Arizona bar, and undertaking a matter to be tried in an Arizona court, even though he was under suspension at the time. The September issue of Arizona Attorney carries the following in its “Lawyer Regulation: Sanctioned Attorneys” column:

Read On…

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Geoffrey Fieger indicted

Longtime Overlawyered favorite Geoffrey Fieger, a fixture in Michigan politics and personal injury law for many years, and his law partner Vernon (Ven) Johnson were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of unlawfully “conspiring to make more than $125,000 in illegal contributions to presidential candidate John Edwards’ 2004 campaign”. Fieger, who’s being represented by Gerry Spence, says it’s all a plot by Republicans in the U.S. Department of Justice. (Oakland Press; Detroit News, more; Detroit Free Press, more)(& Pattis).

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Updates

  • Reversing course, Rhode Island attorney general drops rape charge based on 32-year-old “repressed memory”, thus disappointing some advocates [Volokh; Jul. 10]

  • Massachusetts disciplinary panel files misconduct charges against Judge Ernest Murphy over the “bring me a check and keep quiet” surrender-Dorothy letter he sent to Boston Herald publisher during his (successful) libel suit [Ambrogi; Dec. 23, 2005, May 11, 2007, etc.]

  • California jury rejects tippling speeder’s lawsuit against landowner, automaker, town, etc. in the case we headlined “Shouldn’t Have Put Its Berm Where He Wanted To Skid” [Dec. 24, 2005; Douglas Domel v. DaimlerChrysler Corp., City of Santa Clarita, and Does 1 to 50, inclusive (PC030045Y), L.A. Superior Court, L.A. Daily Journal, no free link]

  • Nominal damages only against German teens accused of scaring ostrich into impotence [UPI/ScienceDaily; Mar. 6]

  • Dubious bill authorizing lawsuits against OPEC may be headed to President’s desk [W$J/CattleNetwork; Jun. 8]

  • Jury convicts press baron Conrad Black on four counts, acquits on nine [Telegraph; Kirkendall, Bainbridge, Ribstein; Mar. 19, Jun. 5]

  • Michigan Supreme Court reinstates reprimand against Geoffrey Fieger over abusive language [NLJ; Jul. 3, Aug. 2, 2006, etc.]

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July 3 roundup

  • Represented by repeat Overlawyered mentionees Cellino & Barnes/The Barnes Firm, this injured upstate New Yorker got a settlement of $35,000 which worked out after expenses to — are you ready? — $6.60 [Buffalo News]

  • Not yet a laughingstock: AMA backs off idea of labeling video-game addiction [Wired News, L.A.Times/CinciPost, HealthDay/WilmNJ]

  • Restaurant critics fear losing their physical anonymity, which means a Bala Cynwyd eatery has a sword to hold over the Philadelphia Inquirer reviewer it’s suing [PhilaWeekly] (More: AP/CNN)

  • Dad of the year? Father who didn’t have much contact with 30-year-old son during his life shows up to claim half his $2.9 million 9/11 compensation award [NYDN, NYLJ, PDF brief courtesy Taranto/WSJ]

  • Fie on goodness: Geoffrey Fieger engages Harvard’s Dershowitz to try to quash federal grand jury probe, and he’s still battling Michigan judges too [DetNews]

  • In suburban D.C. middle school, high-fiving could mean detention under no-touching rule [Washington Post, AP/CNN]

  • Law firm whistleblowers? Ex-employees allege billing fraud in tobacco suit by high-flying Kansas City, Mo. trial lawyer [Legal NewsLine]

  • U.K. government panel bans egg ad as not encouraging healthy eating [Times Online, Guardian, Telegraph]

  • Lawprof is keen on expanding tort law to open door for more suits against schools over kids’ bullying [Childs]

  • 1,001 ways to self-publicize: one is to become a “trial groupie” [Elefant]

  • Guess what? This site just turned eight years old [isn’t it cool]

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Mark A. McLeod v. Mt. Sinai Medical Center briefing

We’ve previously reported on this case and the underlying Hollins v. Jordan $30 million trial verdict (in 2004 on Nov. 20, Oct. 11, and Aug. 31) blaming an obstetrician and hospital for microcephaly in a four-pound, five-ounce birth. The case is scheduled to be heard by the Ohio Supreme Court May 23, and the more recent briefing is on line; the Dr. Jordan merits brief is especially interesting. Of note, and not previously mentioned:

  • Plaintiffs attorney Geoffrey Fieger has already twice asked the entire Ohio Supreme Court to recuse itself.

  • Plaintiffs are seeking $50 million in prejudgment interest.

  • The claim that the caesarean was delayed is entirely bogus; plaintiffs’ experts deliberately confused the “emergency” (i.e., non-scheduled) caesarean with a “crash” caesarean.

  • Plaintiffs sandbagged the damages claim by claiming before trial they would only seek $4 million, and then changing the estimates on the stand by making hypothetical assumptions not supported by any expert evidence.

  • Fieger’s opening argument regularly made references to evidence excluded in limine.

  • Fieger had an anesthesiologist opine on neurological matters.

  • Fieger’s prejudicial conduct at trial, including race-, religion-, and class-baiting, has to be read to be believed. How there wasn’t a mistrial or a revocation of pro hac vice status is jaw-dropping.

  • Counsel of record for two of the co-defendants is Drug and Device Law co-blogger Mark Herrmann.

Again, the lengthy dissent in the appellate court is worth reading.

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Fieger files: $30M medical malpractice verdict tossed in South Carolina

Geoffrey Fieger (May 5, 2006; Mar. 24, 2005; Mar. 13, 2005; Aug. 31, 2004; etc.) got some favorable rulings in a South Carolina medical malpractice case. Fieger claims that the hospital fatally overdosed the plaintiff’s dead husband; the hospital argues that, as an autopsy showed, he died of a rare heart condition. Because the hospital only had copies of the original records, and not the original records themselves, Fieger persuaded the judge to instruct the jury that the defendant hospital had engaged in a cover-up and that the jury could draw an adverse inference; moreover, the jury wasn’t told about a side-deal Fieger cut with a co-defendant that apparently resulted in that defendant making only a token defense at trial in exchange for a limitation of damages, a sequence that a non-settling co-defendant doctor protested futilely as Fieger directed his closing argument at her, calling her a killer and a liar. Fieger asked for $55 million including punitives, the jury returned $30 million in “compensatory” damages but the judge threw the whole verdict out as obviously the product of passion or prejudice. Fieger says he looks forward to retrying the case. The case was brought before South Carolina capped malpractice awards. (John Monk, “$30 million verdict overturned”, The State, Mar. 9; John Monk, “$30 Million awarded in death of physician”, The State, Aug. 12).

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