Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, posted documents purporting to show that Toyota held onto safety documents it was supposed to turn over to opponents in litigation. Turns out the documents had been shoddily snipped, edited and mischaracterized to advance the charges against the automaker. [Christine Tierney, Detroit News via Henry Payne, NRO; more background on whistleblower controversy, The Recorder last year]
Posts Tagged ‘U.S. House of Representatives’
The “hidden trial-lawyer earmark”
“Congressman Seeks to Send Critic to Jail”
Watch what you say about Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) [Adler/Volokh, WeaselZippers, Orlando Sentinel]
“How Litigators Tried to Sneak a Pet Earmark into Health Reform”
The Progressive Policy Institute (!) criticizes a provision almost snuck into the health-care bill that would have been a windfall for trial lawyers at the expense of the rest of us. Earlier and earlier on Overlawyered, which was the first to publicize the provision.
“Congresswoman: Tort reform to be a part of final health care bill”
Or at least something traveling under that name, if Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) is right. [Legal NewsLine] More: “CBO: Tort reform would reduce deficit by $54 billion” [Ed Morrissey/Hot Air] Liability insurance premiums in Georgia fell by 18% after state capped noneconomic damages [American Medical News]
Lawsuit demands increase in size of U.S. House of Representatives
Tom Freeland at North Mississippi Commentor doesn’t think much of its prospects, though.
Waxman, Stupak demand info from health insurers
A compulsory subpoena could follow if they don’t fork over information on “compensation of highly paid employees” and “expenses stemming from any event held outside company facilities in the past 2 1/2 years”, among other topics. As AP notes, industries that vocally support, rather than oppose, health care reform aren’t targets of the investigation. More: Politico.
Now at Forbes.com: “Inside the Health Care Bill”
Forbes is just up with a new, improved version of my piece on the amazing trial lawyer bonanza that someone quietly tucked into last week’s draft of the health care bill. An earlier version of the piece ran at Overlawyered on Friday. The Forbes version takes note of the names of the House members who were pushing for and against the idea on the Ways & Means panel. Michelle Malkin gives it a recommendation here.
P.S. Some kind words, as well as a link, from Ashby Jones at the WSJ Law Blog (calling us “the granddaddy of legal blogs”). Plus: Don Surber, Charleston (W.V.) Daily Mail, Bainbridge, Wood/ShopFloor, Riehl World View, Bader/CEI “Open Market”.
“Majority of House supports bill to reverse dealer closings”
The supposed “bankruptcy” process that winds up sparing politically influential constituencies keeps rolling along: let’s hope the Senate can say “no”. [Detroit News via Salmon, Drum, Manzi (“seems only fair, as the dealers paid good money for these politicians”)]
Voting on bills without reading them
The practice seems to have been taken to an extreme in Congress with the pending “cap and trade” bill. [David Freddoso, D.C. Examiner]