Yesterday I was a guest on WIBA talk radio’s “Upfront with Vicki McKenna“. And tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. Central Time I’ll be a guest on Wisconsin Public Radio to discuss lawsuits against soft drink makers (links on that subject here and here)(last week’s Wisconsin radio).
Posts Tagged ‘Wisconsin’
Milwaukee radio tomorrow
Tomorrow morning at 7:05 Central Time, I’m scheduled to join “Early Spin” on Milwaukee’s WISN to discuss lawsuits blaming Coke and Pepsi for marketing to kids (see Feb. 7, etc.).
Wisconsin ADA suits, cont’d
The Appleton Post-Crescent has now completed publishing its investigation of the Ms. Wheelchair America pageant, including the pageant’s apparent role in client recruitment strategies for the Florida-based law firm of Schwartz Zweben & Associates (see “Behind a pageant, busy lawyers”, Jul. 21). The overall series roundup can be found here; among the more topical stories in the series are “Law firm’s ties to pageant”, Jul. 16 (firm filed 54 lawsuits on behalf of Jaclyn Kratzer, Ms. Wheelchair Pennsylvania 2003, and 37 lawsuits on behalf of Jeri Wasco, coordinator of the Ms. Wheelchair Washington D.C. pageant); J.E. Espino, “Businesses settle suits out of court”, Jul. 17, and Ed Lowe, “Local lawsuits trigger debate over ADA compliance”, Jul. 24 (quotes me on the question of whether serial complainants were just really unlucky or went out in search of reasons to sue).
Wisc. high court opens paint-suit floodgates
After getting thrown out of court pretty much everywhere else, trial lawyers suing companies that long ago manufactured lead paints and pigments may have finally achieved their long-sought breakthrough. They are indebted for this benefaction to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, within days of the same court’s baldly activist decision (PoL Jul. 14) to strike down the state legislature’s limits on medical malpractice awards. By a 4-2 margin, the court agreed to apply the theory of market-share liability — widely rejected by courts except in the context of suits over the drug diethylstilbestrol (DES) — to hold liable any and all companies which made paints and pigments sold in Wisconsin, regardless of whether a plaintiff claiming injury can demonstrate whose product he or she was exposed to. The court did not apply any statute of limitations and impatiently brushed aside defendants’ objections that the conduct being sued over took place more than a century ago — the houses in which the teenage plaintiff had been exposed to lead paint were built in 1900 and 1905 — and was lawful according to the standards of that time. “It will be nearly impossible for paint companies to defend themselves or, frankly, for plaintiffs to lose” under the newly announced standard, predicts dissenting justice David Prosser. If he’s right, expect a gold rush by client-chasing lawyers in Wisconsin. (J.R. Ross, “Court Allows Teen to Sue Lead Paint Pigment Makers for Injuries”, AP/Law.com, Jul. 18). For more on paint litigation, see this set of links, Dec. 15, 2003, Jul. 2, 2005, etc.
Behind a pageant, busy lawyers
Representatives of the Hollywood, Fla.-based law firm of Schwartz Zweben & Associates have played a substantial role behind the scenes in helping organize, promote and support the Ms. Wheelchair America pageant and some of its state affiliates. And lawyers with the firm have filed more than 200 lawsuits in at least seven states and the District of Columbia on behalf of at least 13 pageant participants, “including state and national titleholders, state coordinators and pageant judges”. Among them: more than two dozen filed in Wisconsin’s Fox Valley since December on behalf of local coordinator Gina Hackel. In March, Janeal Lee of Appleton was stripped by pageant authorities of her title as Ms. Wheelchair Wisconsin; she believes it is because she was critical of the pageant’s role in lawsuit-promotion, although pageant coordinators deny that and say she broke a rule against being photographed out of her wheelchair.
Schwartz Zweben “also conducts seminars instructing contestants on pursuing their legal rights under the disabilities act. Lee remembered a lawyer flying in to give the Wisconsin contestants such a talk at the January pageant in Green Bay.” “The people that are the lawyers, I really like them. We got along,” said Lisa Wartchow, Lee’s 2003 predecessor as Ms. Wheelchair Wisconsin. “But I got the feeling they were there specifically to see if any of us … could bring them to our town and find cases for them.”
To verify Hackel’s claims of ADA violations in the Fox Valley, the law firm retained Ms. Wheelchair Florida 2002 Colleen Macort as a consultant, and she visited the businesses last fall, Zweben said.
Macort, who was named as a plaintiff in 63 ADA accessibility lawsuits filed in Florida by the firm over the past three years, also helped prepare the Wisconsin pageant won by Lee.
The Appleton paper (which is kind enough to quote me as part of its coverage) promises a four-part investigation, of which this is Part 1. (Ed Lowe and J.E. Espino, “Pageant, law firm closely linked”, Appleton Post-Crescent, Jul. 17). For more on mass filings of suits under the Americans with Disabilities Act and parallel state and local statutes, see Mar. 18, May 31 and many other entries on our disabled-rights page.
Med-mal at Point of Law
At our sister site, Jim Copland has posted a critique of a new advocacy paper from the misnamed Center for Justice and Democracy purporting to find that medical malpractice insurers rake in money far faster than they pay it out; he finds that the report is careful to count the (rising) revenues of insurers moving into the med-mal market, but entirely omits to count the payouts/losses of major insurers that have been departing the market. Convenient, that! Martin Grace has further thoughts on the same report, and also comments on evidence that liability issues are causing physicians to relocate.
And more: Ted Frank reports on the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s just-announced and “baldly activist” decision striking down caps on non-economic damages, and also on recent claims that anesthesiologists’ success in reducing injury rates somehow refutes the need for liability reform. And I’ve posted items on lawyers’ turning down $500K cases as too small; “patients’-rights” front groups; do lawyers get better care when they are patients, or worse?; and M.D.s’ apologies.
Update: Judge dismisses “happy hour” antitrust case
Last year, after taverns in Madison, Wisconsin bowed to pressure from official programs discouraging youth drinking and agreed to end “happy hour” discounts in the university town, a law firm from Minneapolis swooped down to file an antitrust suit demanding millions for the offense of having colluded to charge higher prices (see Mar. 29, 2004). Now, however, Circuit Judge Angela B. Bartell has dismissed the suit on summary judgment, finding that the bar owners had acted against their will under regulatory constraint. An alderman who represents the downtown area where most of the bars are located “said bar owners had racked up more than $250,000 in legal fees defending themselves”; given our lack of a loser-pays rule, they have no expectation that either attorney Steven Uhr or the three students on whose behalf he filed the action will chip in to defray any of those outlays. (Ryan J. Foley, “Judge: Bars didn’t fix price of drinks”, AP/Capital Times, Apr. 8; Megan Costello, “Judge dismisses drink special suit”, Badger Herald, Apr. 8).
Cow-pie bingo scratched
Among the latest recreational activities to fall afoul of liability fears: the cow-pie bingo event at Westby, Wisconsin’s Syttende Mai Festival, an annual celebration of Norwegian folk heritage (pictures). Last year, it seems, a Holstein named Baby managed to escape the designated containment, and although nobody was hurt some kids were scared, causing the organizers to reconsider the whole venture. “In cow pie bingo, a large area is marked as a grid with up to 500 squares, and gamblers bet $2 a square (six for $10) on where Baby will deposit a fresh meadow muffin.” (George Hesselberg, “Hopping Holstein shuts down cow pie bingo”, Wisconsin State Journal, Apr. 24).
“Judge throws out lawsuit over summer homework”
Another widely noted pro se suit comes to grief: Wisconsin judge Richard J. Sankovitz has thrown out the lawsuit filed by 17-year-old Peer Larson and his father arguing that mandatory summer homework should not have been assigned in the honors math class Larson wanted to take (see Jan. 21). “Had the Larsons done a bit more homework, they would have discovered that the people of our state granted to the Legislature … the power to establish school boards and the state superintendent and to confer upon them the powers and duties the Legislature saw fit,” wrote the judge in his order (PDF, courtesy Courthouse News). (AP/Janesville, Wis. Gazette, Mar. 9).
Updates: Heikkinen v. Archdiocese of Milwaukee; Drypen
Roundup of fallout from the Heikkinen $17 million verdict. Sam Heldman writes me to defend the decision and express concern that I did not adequately convey that the jury found that Morse was acting on behalf of the church; I think that’s inherent in the jury’s verdict and my use of the term respondeat superior, but now readers have that explicit statement. A follow-up newspaper article quotes: “‘The purpose of the [Legion of Mary], and no one really disputed this, was that it was to assist the clergy in the work of the clergy,’ said Don Prachthauser, Heikkinen’s attorney.” (But isn’t that common goal true for any religiously-oriented volunteer organization?) Philip Howard and the jury forewoman are also interviewed about the size of the damages award for an elderly man. And a Baptist notes that the hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church makes it especially susceptible to deep-pocket searches. (Derrick Nunnally, “$17 million verdict has many concerned”, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Feb. 23). Jon Coppelman explores the ramifications for workers’ compensation; Professor Martin Grace comments. There are still post-trial motions and an appeal to be had, and settlement negotiations are likely.
Also, I’ve updated our Feb. 22 post on Drypen v. Oakland County and its $4 million settlement with a couple of more recent press accounts that have previously unreported details about the defense’s side of the story.