- Don’t: “Lawyer Disbarred for Verbal Aggression to Pay $9.8M Fine for Hiding Cash Overseas” [Weiss, ABA Journal]
- Loser-pays might help: “Dropped malpractice lawsuits cost legal system time and money” [Liz Kowalczyk, Boston Globe]
- “Kim Kardashian and the Problem With ‘Celebrity Likeness’ Lawsuits” [Atlantic Wire]
- Kim Strassel on the Franken-spun Jamie Leigh Jones case [WSJ]
- Peggy Little interviews Prof. Lester Brickman (Lawyer Barons) on new Federalist Society podcast;
- Worse than Wisconsin? “Weaponizing” recusal at the Michigan Supreme Court [Jeff Hadden, Detroit News]
- New York legislature requires warning labels for sippy cups [NYDN]
Posts Tagged ‘loser pays’
May 31 roundup
- Reforms billed as loser-pays advance in Texas, but they’re very scaled-down [WSJ, WLF and more, Legal Blog Watch, Wood/PoL, Cary Gray/Houston Chronicle, WSJ Law Blog, earlier]
- “Refutation of Toyota sudden acceleration hysteria doesn’t stop Toyota sudden acceleration litigation” [Ted at PoL]
- “Five Questions With Legal Scholar Richard Epstein” [Jamie Weinstein, Daily Caller; his views on Title IX]
- Employers glad for small favors: “Refusing to Hire Applicant Who Fails Drug Test Not an ADA Violation” [Robin Weideman, California Labor and Employment Law Blog; Ninth Circuit]
- “Study Shows Litigation Doesn’t Improve Nursing Home Safety” [Studdert et al, NEJM via Daniel Fisher]
- Risperdal? No thanks: “Mother battles Michigan over daughter’s medication” [AP]
- Personal-injury litigation plummets in Australia following enactment of state-level reforms [seven years ago on Overlawyered]
Texas Public Policy Foundation: A case for loser-pays
Loser-pays, long the law in Alaska, is stirring significant interest in Texas these days. Ryan Brennan of TPPF makes a case for the reform [PDF] and discusses some of the choices involved in structuring it.
P.S. Tracking for S.B. 13 and H.B. 274. And more on pending Texas omnibus liability reform legislation from Texans for Lawsuit Reform and its Balance Texas Courts project.
Turnabout in demon-nurse case
St. Luke’s Hospital in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley is suing a lawyer and law firm “for proceeding with cases that the attorneys [allegedly] knew were ‘baseless and lacking in evidence,'” and is also suing an expert for allegedly filing a “boilerplate” certificate of merit. The cases in question are among many filed claiming that patients were killed by notorious “Angel of Death” nurse Charles Cullen; hospitals say that while some of the suits were filed on behalf of actual Cullen victims, others piled on seeking compensation for bad outcomes that had nothing to do with the murderer. Damages for wrongful litigation are notoriously hard to win in American courts. [White Coat]
March 30 roundup
- “Woman Sues Adidas After Fall She Blames on Sticky Shoes” [Lowering the Bar]
- Texas lawmakers file loser pays proposals [SE Tex Record] Actual scope of proposals hard to discern through funhouse lens of NYT reporting [PoL] Marie Gryphon testimony on loser-pays proposals in Arkansas [Manhattan Institute, related]
- Google awarded patent on changing of logo for special days [Engadget via Coyote]
- “Civil Gideon in Deadbeat Dad Cases Would Be ‘Massive’ Change, Lawyer Tells Justices” [Weiss, ABA Journal, Legal Ethics Forum]
- Amateur-hour crash-fakers in Bronx didn’t reckon on store surveillance camera [NY Post]
- “Plaintiffs’ Lawyers in Cobell Defend $223M Fee Request” [BLT]
- Show of harm not needed: FDA kicks another 500 or so legacy drugs off market, this time in the cold-and-cough area [WaPo]
- “Wal-Mart v. Dukes: Rough Justice Without Due Process” [Andrew Trask, WLF]
February 21 roundup
- Estate of Anna Nicole Smith may sue over opera based on her life [Daily Mail via Surber, other Daily Mail]
- Maryland Department of Environment: yep, we put tracking devices on Eastern Shore watermen’s boats [Red Maryland]
- Trial lawyers’ federal contributions went 97% to Dems last cycle [Freddoso, Examiner]
- $6.5 million for family abuse: unusual sovereign-exposure law costs Washington taxpayers again [PoL]
- Canadian court: no, we can’t and won’t waive loser-pays for needy litigants who lose cases [Erik Magraken]
- CPSC considers mandating “SawStop” technology [Crede, background]
- Gun groups alarmed over ATF pick [Chicago Tribune]
- Jury blames hit-run death on wheelchair curb cut [four years ago on Overlawyered]
Texas governor: let’s move toward loser-pays
Right now Alaska is the only one of the fifty states with a serious loser-pays rule. If Texas adopted anything similar, the idea would get a massive boost nationally. [Gov. Rick Perry press release; Bob Dorigo Jones; Orange County Register; William Weaver, Indianapolis Star]
December 28 roundup
- Making the rounds: letter on NFL stationery telling off lawyer over nastygram [DeadSpin, language]
- Suburban Detroit man faces possible 5-year sentence for reading wife’s email [Free Press, Volokh]
- U.K.: Scout Association found liable for injury sustained in scramble-in-the-dark game [Andrew Hough, Telegraph via Lenore Skenazy]
- Florida appeals court orders environmental groups to compensate taxpayers for unfounded complaint [Ryan Houck, TampaBayOnline]
- “Fix It Yourself Garage” self-service auto repair shop hopes it’s beaten the liability curse [McClatchy; Charlotte, N.C.]
- Much more from Peter Schweizer and Lee Stranahan at Big Government on dubious Pigford farmer settlement (“attempting to farm;” recruiting and “brokering” claims; FBI said to be interested; problems within USDA?; lawyer says Pigford clients often got away with faulty claims; earlier);
- “Faux concern for judicial ethics” [Jonathan Adler, Volokh, on Constitutional Accountability Center campaign against judges’ seminars]
- Founder of much-loved musical parody series thanks real-life artists whose works are being spoofed: “Without their reluctance toward lawsuits there would certainly be no Forbidden Broadway.” [six years ago on Overlawyered]
December 20 roundup
- Texas Gov. Rick Perry may urge the state to take a step toward loser-pays [NJLRA]
- “FCC push to regulate news draws fire” [The Hill]
- Could litigation on behalf of Madoff victims get more than all their money back? [Salmon, more, NYT, Above the Law]
- “Chevron Says Documents Show Ecuador Plaintiffs Worked With Government” [Dan Fisher/Forbes, more]
- Organized trial lawyers expect to fare less well in next Congress, but prospects for actual liability reform remain slender [Joseph Weber/Wash. Times, Matthew Boyle/Daily Caller]
- Mount Laurel rulings in New Jersey (towns given quotas to build low-income housing) described as “libertarian”, I express doubts [Hills, Prawfsblawg]
- Criminal law’s revolving door: “prosecutors turn up the fire and then sell extinguishers” [Ribstein, TotM]
- The wages of unconstitutionality: a Utah attorney’s curious fee niche [five years ago on Overlawyered]
“RuneScape devs refuse to cave in to patent trolls”
A UK game developer spent “tens of millions” successfully resisting a broad patent claim over online multiplayer gaming. [BoingBoing, GamaSutra]
“It is exceedingly unfortunate that the U.S. legal system can force a company with a sole presence in Cambridge, UK to incur a seven-digit expense and waste over a year of management time on a case with absolutely no merit,” [said company CEO Mark Gerhard] in a statement. “This anomaly, which could easily break smaller studios, doesn’t happen in the UK since you can pursue frivolous litigants for the costs of such claims,” he added.