Overlawyered: Chronicling The High Cost Of Our Legal System

Posts Tagged ‘Philadelphia’

Defamation-suit roundup

A hearing officer has recommended a reprimand for Boston judge and libel-suit winner Ernest B. Murphy over those “fascinatingly repellent” letters he sent to the publisher of the Boston Herald demanding a settlement of what proved a winning $2 million libel suit (Jessica Van Sack, “Public reprimand urged for Judge Murphy”, Boston Herald, Nov. 21; see Sept. 28, etc.). The operators of the Irish Pub & Inn in Atlantic City, New Jersey are suing the publishers of Philly magazine over their description of the tavern as a “dive bar”, and aren’t buying the magazine’s claim that the description was intended as complimentary. (Michael Klein, Philadelphia Inquirer “Inqlings”, Nov. 18). And a New York lower court judge has declined to order Google/Blogspot to divulge the identity of “Orthomom”, whom a Lawrence, N.Y. school board member had sought to sue on the theory that it was defamatory to have termed her a “bigot”. (Nicole Black, Nov. 18, with links to other blog coverage).

More: And Eugene Volokh (Nov. 27) posts today on a disturbing case from Canada in which a lawyer involved in the shutting down of “hate speech” websites proceeded to sue for defamation — successfully so far in the Ontario courts — over having been called (among other things) an “enemy of free speech”.

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Don’t

Another bunch of things not to do if you’re a member of the legal profession, all courtesy Law.com:

  • Don’t forge a judge’s name to a judicial order to lull your clients into thinking you’re properly pursuing their case [Laurence S. Jurman of Dix Hills, N.Y., who’s pleaded not guilty to the above allegations; NYLJ]

  • Don’t fail to inform your client in a criminal-defense trial that you yourself are facing criminal charges on charges of stalking in the same court [Steven Olitsky of Irvington, N.J., whose convicted client is arguing ineffectiveness of counsel on the grounds that the eventually-disbarred Olitsky was in no position to negotiate effectively with prosecutors; NJLJ]

  • Don’t read golf magazines during depositions or leave your client alone and unrepresented by walking out of an important deposition [Jonathan D. Herbst of Philadelphia’s Margolis Edelstein; client’s loss of $11 million defamation case led to professional liability award recently reinstated by Pa. high court; Legal Intelligencer]
Earlier entries in this series: Jun. 4, etc.

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Welcome New York Times readers

Ted has already mentioned today’s front-pager on Milberg Weiss campaign donations, which is kind enough to quote me. I was particularly glad that reporter Mike McIntire took note of some of Milberg’s connections on Capitol Hill, which tend to get less attention than its Presidential campaign donations:

Beyond campaign contributions, Milberg Weiss became deeply ingrained in the financial firmament of the Democratic Party in other ways. Members of the firm gave $500,000 toward construction of a new Democratic National Committee headquarters, and some became partners in a private investment venture with several prominent Democrats. They included former Senator Robert G. Torricelli of New Jersey, who is a fund-raiser for Mrs. Clinton, and Leonard Barrack, a Philadelphia trial lawyer who was once the national fund-raising chairman for the Democratic Party.

Along the way, as Milberg Weiss’s brass-knuckles legal strategy made it a target for Republicans advocating limits on class action suits, it usually could count on Democrats in Washington to protect its interests. After federal prosecutors indicted the firm in May 2006, four Democratic congressmen issued a joint statement, posted on Milberg Weiss’s Web site, accusing the Bush administration of persecuting lawyers who take on big businesses.

The statement, signed by Representatives Gary L. Ackerman, Carolyn McCarthy and Charles B. Rangel, all of New York, and Robert Wexler of Florida, contained several passages that appear to be lifted directly from a “class action press kit” distributed by a national trial lawyers group. All but Mr. Wexler have received campaign contributions from Milberg Weiss partners.

(Mike McIntire, “Accused Law Firm Continues Giving To Democrats”, New York Times, Oct. 18).

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October 13 roundup

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Pa. judge indicted for insurance fraud won’t run again

According to an indictment handed down by a federal grand jury, Erie, Pa.-based state appellate judge Michael T. Joyce, a ten-year Republican veteran of the bench,

received $440,000 in settlements for injuries he claimed “affected his professional and personal life in a very significant way” after an SUV rear-ended his state-leased Mercedes Benz at a traffic light in Erie.

Joyce claimed the accident made him unable to play golf, scuba dive or exercise. He also claimed the injuries prevented him from pursuing higher judicial office, according to the indictment.

The judge complained of constant neck and back pain, headaches, difficulty sleeping, anxiety and short-term memory loss, according to the indictment. He claimed he was in such pain from May to July 2002 that he could not play a round of golf or hold a cup of coffee in his right hand, the indictment said.

During the same period Joyce made these claims, he played several rounds of golf in Jamaica, Florida, New York and Pennsylvania, went scuba diving in Jamaica and renewed his diving instructor’s certificate, prosecutors said.

The indictment also alleges Joyce used some of the settlement money to buy a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, a share in a single-engine Cessna airplane, property in Millcreek Township, Pa., and to pay down a personal line of credit.

(Peter Hall and Asher Hawkins, “Federal Indictment Looms Over Pa. Superior Court Judge’s Retention Race”, Legal Intelligencer, Aug. 17).

At first Joyce vowed to hold onto his seat, but after a public outcry, and a quick move by the state supreme court to suspend him from his duties pending resolution of the charges, he agreed not to stand for re-election in November. (“Indicted Superior Court Judge” (editorial), Philadelphia Inquirer, Aug. 22; Paula Reed Ward, “Indicted judge won’t seek retention”, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Aug. 21; “The Joyce indictment: A matter of integrity”, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Aug. 21).

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Killer Quakers

Hierarchical government a pain? Separation of powers getting you down? Not a problem! Not if you’d rather be in Philadelphia:

Two Philadelphia City Council members plan to file suit against the state House and Senate Wednesday for preventing the city from passing more restrictive gun laws.

Council members Donna Reed Miller and Darrell Clarke called the city’s surging homicide rate in part a “state-created danger.”

Lawmakers have tied the city’s hands by not giving it the authority to limit gun purchases to one a month and require lost or stolen guns to be reported, according to Miller.

I’m sure the city does feel bad that it can’t pass more laws to make it feel good about the fact that its residents have turned America’s first capital into a shooting gallery… mm, like its present capital. But that is the fool’s perspective; for see how the state is even described — in its role in actually arrogating to itself the right to set policies for, er, the state — not as a sort accessory to crime, or, switching to civil liablity, a but-for cause or even a proximate cause. No, homicide in Brotherlovopolis are a “state-created danger”! Only a sage who merits a seat on the Philadelphia City Council can see these murders committed by carbon-based entities in Philadelphia for what they are: The product of passive, robotic mayhem-slaves of the blood-lusting Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, doing its cynically William Penn-garbed bidding and killing! Killing! Killing!

Quaker State indeed.

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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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Tax-fee class action: claimants get $75K, lawyers $538K

H.A. Berkheimer Inc., a tax-collection agency that collects revenue for hundreds of school districts and municipalities, assessed collection fees against delinquent taxpayers in addition to interest and penalties. A class-action suit challenged the fees as improper and in the resulting proposed settlement Berkheimer is slated to pay $75,700 to aggrieved customers — most of whom did not file for the $48.50 refunds — while “lawyers with Bernard M. Gross of Philadelphia would be entitled to about $538,000”. Most of a previous $2 million settlement pot will revert to Berkheimer if a judge approves the deal, while 25 percent will go to two charities, Mercer Museum’s capital campaign and the Network of Victim Assistance of Bucks County. (Jenna Portnoy, “Deal would settle case for tax collection agency”, PhillyBurbs.com, May 23).

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“Negligent failure to legislate”

We often discuss regulation-via-litigation, but usually there’s at least a little bit of metaphor in that phrase. But apparently some people might be taking it entirely too literally. Eugene Volokh points us to this story in the Philadelphia Daily News, in which a City Councilman named Darrell Clarke has come up with a new strategy to pass gun-control laws, despite the fact that the state legislature won’t allow him to do so:

What’s different is that he says Council also is preparing to file a legal complaint related to the Legislature’s inaction.

[…]

Asked how Council can move forward on the bills without a state enabling law, Clarke said, “We think that with our complaint, we will show in our theory that the state has been negligent in terms of enacting good-sense legislation. We think we have a compelling case.”

Indeed, why bother with state legislatures at all? Just let lawyers decide what laws would be “reasonable,” and then get courts to pass those laws.

(Think of all the time and money we could save by abolishing elections.)

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