- Trial lawyers look for Democrats to punish. [Point of Law; Investors’ Business Daily]
- Point of Law Vioxx trial updates: California, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
- Men seeking laws freeing them from child support when DNA proves they’re not the father. Earlier: May 10 and Feb. 3, 2004. [Time]
- Latest creative defense to a murder charge: Asperger’s syndrome. [Boston Globe]
- A complicated medmal case is trumped by the sympathy factor [Cortlandt Forum via Kevin MD]
- Cost of EMTALA (Sep. 2, 2005) in LA County alone: $1.6 billion. LA Times doesn’t
mention the law by name orconsider the obvious conclusion. [LA Times] - Why the painfully obvious explanations on painfully obvious objects? [comments at Obscure Store; New York Sun; new Mike Judge movie Idiocracy]
- Lessig: stop me before I regulate again! [Hit & Run]
- Right-wingers take on Dinesh D’Souza [roundup of links at Postrel]
- The meaningless and counterproductive Democratic House bill on student loans. [Novak @ WaPo]
- Do big law firms really care about attrition? One theory. [Ivey Files]
- My girlfriend thinks I spend too much time arguing with idiots. Relatedly, Eugene Volokh responds to Anisa Abd el Fattah about the First Amendment and Jews. [Volokh]
Posts Tagged ‘New Jersey’
January 22 roundup
- “Don’t Google the lawyers.” Do judges need to be that explicit in admonishing jurors? [New Jersey Law Journal]
- Ky. lawyers bail out of hospital-infection suits [Courier-Journal, Dr. Wes, KevinMD]
- Man accused of extorting Oprah Winfrey earlier inserted himself into dispute arising from Prudential workplace-bias suit, lawyer says [Sun-Times]
- Nevada smoking ban scuppers taverns’ business, no real surprise there unless your name’s Bloomberg [Las Vegas Review-Journal]
- Panic! Another thermometer spill! (earlier, here and here) [Szwarc, and sequel]
- Write your legislator urging vote on pot decriminalization, get reported to police [Sullum]
- Heavy-handed: Calif. lawmaker proposes ban on spanking kids Saunders, Fisher]
- Think twice before driving your neighbor to the hospital: the Border Patrol just might seize your car [Tucson Citizen via Reason “Hit and Run”]
- Golf club ejectee sued for discrimination, but club says it was because of his many financial scams [Las Vegas Sun]
- Populist Dems vs. free trade: we’re all the losers [Chapman, syndicated]
- Student sues over excessive summer homework [Two years ago on Overlawyered]
January 20 roundup
- Med mal: does sorry work? [Point of Law]
- Med mal: Nelu Radonescu v. Naum Ciomu. I think the damages were too low, since the act was intentional. But it’s in Romania. [Metro UK]
- New San Francisco sick leave law helps workers at big chains (if only in the short term) and lawyers, hurts everyone else. [Point of Law]
- Vioxx medical monitoring class action to proceed. [Point of Law; Drug and Device Law Blog]
- And the next Vioxx trial in New Jersey, starting Monday. [Point of Law]
- Adware displays porn on teacher’s computer, she faces 40 years. [roundup of links at Boing Boing]
- Fraud in Ohio asbestos case plus slap on wrist for lawyer; no consequences for plaintiff. [Point of Law; Adler @ Volokh]
- Always open mail from California. [Cal Biz Lit]
- $100 million legal bill defending oneself against Spitzerism. [WSJ Law Blog]
- “It would probably be better for the nation if more of the gifted went into the sciences and fewer into the law.” [Murray @ OpinionJournal]
- Borat accepting Golden Globe: “And thank you to every American who has not sued me so far.” [Above the Law; Throwing Things]
- OJ’s book contract. [Slate]
- Contra Doonesbury, Bush administration not hiding age of Grand Canyon [The Daily Gut via Captain Spaulding; Adler @ Volokh]
- Stephen Colbert “eviscerates” Dinesh D’Souza. [Comedy Central via Evanier]
January 13 roundup
About to fly away for the Martin Luther King Day weekend; Walter will approve comments, but there may be delays. I leave you with:
- Judge Senter channels Hugo Chavez: $2.5M in punitive damages in Mississippi for noting that an uncovered storm surge was responsible for the destruction of a $225k house. [Point of Law; Insurance Coverage Blog; Chicago Trib]
- Public Citizen calls medical malpractice crisis a “hoax.” Are they right? [Point of Law]
- Mass torts and multiple misjoinders. [Point of Law; Drug and Device Law Blog]
- Sasha Baron Cohen isn’t exactly sympathetic to the Borat litigation plaintiffs. [LA Times]
- “High-profile trial looms large for controversial class-action leader” [DC Examiner]
- Still more on warning labels. [Mass Tort Litigation Blog]
- New Jersey Dem wants voting rights for idiots. No, really. [CNN/Reuters]
- I found this tale of a Supreme Court argument poignant [WSJ Law Blog]
- Harris County courthouse “rocket docket”: delay people with lengthy metal-detector lines, then throw them in jail when they’re late for court. [Kirkendall]
- Different kind of rocket PSA: Don’t explode fireworks in your hand. [GruntDoc; Unbounded Medicine (gory)]
Patent troll, meet Rule 11
Just sending out batches of letters claiming infringement and demanding money may no longer be a workable business plan:
Based in the British Virgin Islands, Eon-Net is run by an evangelical minister-cum-inventor, who holds several patents (including one on a device for collecting “canine waste”). In March 2005 the company filed a patent suit in New Jersey against Flagstar, a $16 billion savings bank based in Michigan. The bank was one of 32 companies sued separately by Eon-Net for infringing a patent that, the company claims, covers technology that allows online shoppers to enter information into Web sites and have it transferred to the Web retailer’s computer. Eon-Net, which also has pending litigation against JetBlue Airways and Liz Claiborne Inc., had successfully extracted settlement money from ING Bank and Sony Corp. over the same patent.
Eon-Net’s enforcement method involved filing a complaint followed by a letter offering a settlement ranging from $25,000 to $75,000.
Flagstar decided to fight the suit, and its attorney, Melissa Baily of Quinn Emanuel, noticed that Eon-Net’s lawyers “had used nearly identical complaints and demand letters in all 32 suits,” suggesting a lack of careful advance investigation. Although Rule 11 sanctions are especially hard to obtain in the Ninth Circuit, Western District of Washington Judge Marsha Pechman agreed that the suit was both baseless and made without reasonable inquiry and, after ruling in favor of Flagstar on summary judgment in the case itself, ordered Eon-Net and its attorney, Jean-Marc Zimmerman, to pay the bank’s defense costs, estimated at more than $100,000. (Xenia P. Kobylarz, “Patent Trolls Put on Notice Over Generic Infringement Letters”, IP Law & Business, Dec. 14).
Sarokin defends Kreimer decision
Former federal Judge H. Lee Sarokin, now a blogger, defends his decision in the Kreimer case (Mar. 17, 2005; Feb. 25):
I concede that I have made some mistakes (what judge hasn’t), had some reversals and wish I could revise some decisions, BUT no matter how many times they say that I ruled that a “smelly, homeless” man could annoy and drive patrons out of the Morristown library and harass women, it won’t be true. I declared a regulation invalid on the grounds that it was too vague and broad in giving librarians the discretion to oust or forever bar patrons. I never made any ruling about the individual involved or his conduct. It was a decision on the law not on the facts.
This is a dodge: Sarokin ruled that the library could not have a blanket rule excluding members of the public for poor personal hygiene, because such a rule would be too vague. So Sarokin did rule that it was impermissible for a library to bar someone for being so smelly as to be a nuisance. Also unmentioned is that Sarokin was wrong on the law, to boot: the Third Circuit eventually overturned Sarokin’s decision:
While the district court was probably correct that the rule may disproportionately affect the homeless who have limited access to bathing facilities, this fact is irrelevant to a facial challenge and further would not justify permitting a would-be patron, with hygiene so offensive that it constitutes a nuisance, to force other patrons to leave the Library, or to inhibit Library employees from performing their duties.
Alas, this decision on the injunction came too late: taxpayers had already shelled out $230,000 to Kreimer in a settlement of the pending damages claims, having already been held liable by Sarokin. See Kreimer v. Bureau of Police for the Town of Morristown, 765 F. Supp. 181 (D.N.J. 1991), rev’d 958 F.2d 1242 (3d Cir. 1992).
Because we all love wacky pro se suits: Ward v. Arm & Hammer
Via the District of New Jersey, please find attached the order dismissing the case in Ward v. Arm & Hammer [sic], 341 F.Supp.2d 499 (2004): no, a baking soda manufacturer has no legal duty to warn users that using baking soda to cook crack cocaine is illegal. (See David Lat’s blog for the complaint.)
We can still find something to complain about, though: the district court has the power under 28 U.S.C. § 1915 to dismiss the case sua sponte as frivolous, which this case was in even the most narrow and technical senses of the word, or even just to dismiss the case for failure to state a claim without waiting for briefing. Church & Dwight Co., the makers of Arm & Hammer, was forced to retain Morgan, Lewis & Bockius to file multiple briefs in the federal court at not inconsiderable expense to rid itself of this nuisance suit.
More on product liability, including many successful cases not much less wacky than this one, on our product liability page.
Update: The post originally protested the granting of in forma pauperis status; David Giacalone correctly points out in the comments that IFP status is automatic without a showing of bad faith, and that my complaint was with the failure of the court to exercise its sua sponte powers to dismiss. I’ve corrected the post accordingly.
Punting the medical-malpractice problem
New Jersey’s “solution”: a $75/year tax on doctors and lawyers to subsidize malpractice insurance for the highest-risk professionals. Attorneys are unhappy, but the courts aren’t intervening. (“Industry Insider: Jersey’s top court won’t hear lawyers group’s $75 fee appeal”, Star-Ledger, Nov. 10 (via Kevin MD)).
November 7 roundup
- My informal debate with Professor Silver over the effect of reform on physician supply continues. [Point of Law; Silver]
- If you’ve been intrigued by Professor E. Volokh’s idea of medical self-defense (and thus payment for organs) as a constitutional right, he’ll be discussing it with Richard Epstein and Jeffrey Rosen at AEI. [Volokh; Harvard Law Review @ SSRN; AEI]
- Peter Wallison on how over-regulation and over-litigation is killing American competitiveness in the capital markets. [Wall Street Journal @ AEI]
- Press coverage is finally starting to break through in the Milberg Weiss scandal with a lengthy Fortune profile. [Point of Law]
- Economists and scholars file Supreme Court amicus brief calling for federal preemption of state “anti-predatory lending laws” in important Watters v. Wachovia case. [Zywicki @ Volokh; CEI]
- One-sided coverage by the New York Times on the issue of web accessibility for the blind. Earlier: Oct. 27; Feb. 8. [New York Times]
- Deep Pocket Files update: MADD tries to intervene in stadium vendor case where appellate court tossed $105 million verdict because of unfair trial. See Aug. 4 and links therein. [New Jersey Law Journal]
- Lawsuit: my dead father’s baseball card mischaracterizes his nickname. [Lattman]
- Lawsuit: I have legal right to the letter W. [Times Record News via Bashman]
- Samuel Abady and Harvey Silverglate on libel tourism. [Boston Globe via Bashman]
- Another roundup of Justice Robert Thomas libel lawsuit stories. [Bashman]
- $15M Minnesota verdict blaming a delayed delivery for cerebral palsy, despite evidence it was caused by an unrelated infection. [Pioneer Press]
Teenager accused of possessing painkillers…
…so prosecutors in Morris County, N.J. seized his family’s three cars. “Neither of the parents were aware of their teenage son’s prescription painkiller use, nor were any of the cars registered in his name. The family currently has no means to get to work or transportation. Gerald Trapp Sr. is a Bloomfield police officer.” The youngster, Gerald Trapp Jr., 19, accepted a diversion program for first-time offenders in lieu of trial but did not admit any wrongdoing. (Peggy Wright, “Prosecutor wants to keep 11 seized cars”, Oct 27; TheNewspaper.com, Oct. 28)(via Nobody’s Business, Oct. 28).