Can’t say I think they got a raw deal. Check out what they tried to get away with:
Pepper filed a separate suit alleging the collection agency and law firm had violated the state Unfair Trade Practices Act (UTPA) by not giving her proper notice of the lawsuit. She charged that they sent papers to a nonexistent address, misrepresented to the court that she was competent [when she was in fact mentally disabled – JL], and tried to get a default judgment against her without notifying her counsel, Alaska Legal Services.
If you’re a reporter writing a story about a big jury verdict, please don’t just describe the verdict as “a 25 million dollar verdict” and say nothing more. Please, break down the award. For example:
The $25 million dollar award included $10 million for past and future medical expenses, $10 million in pain & suffering, and the remainder for lost wages.
Without knowing how the jury awarded the money, we can’t really tell if it’s a noteworthy verdict. In most cases, if the jury finds for the plaintiff, they will give the plaintiff everything he or she asked for in past medical expenses. Often, they’ll also award whatever the plaintiff asked for in future medical expenses. The same thing goes for lost wages. The way we tell if a jury verdict is really noteworthy is if there is a large amount of punitive damages or noneconomic damages. (Noneconomic damages are often referred to as pain & suffering.)
I’m presuming there is some sort of federal shield against suing the airlines for false imprisonment. If not, in the immortal words of Harvey Birdman, “I’ll take the case!” (As soon as I’m licensed.)
WASHINGTON — The Transportation Department imposed its first penalties for runway delays Tuesday, collecting $175,000 from three airlines for leaving 47 passengers of a regional jet stranded overnight in Rochester, Minn.
….
The flight, on Aug. 8, was supposed to go from Houston to Minneapolis but was diverted to Rochester because of bad weather. Continental Express does not serve Minneapolis, but asked Mesaba for help so the passengers could have access to the restrooms and vending machines.
A Mesaba ground agent, however, said the Transportation Security Administration forbade passengers from being in the terminal while it was closed. Later, however, the agency said that the passengers could have gotten off and reboarded if they stayed in the area inside the checkpoints, and that it had the ability to recall screeners in the middle of the night if necessary.
Instead, the passengers were kept on the plane from half past midnight until 6 in the morning, despite repeated efforts by the crew.
Hyundai learned that “trial courts need not tolerate deliberate and willful discovery abuse.” Let this be a lesson to lawyers of all stripes that withholding evidence is not good for your clients.
OLYMPIA, Wash. -- The state Supreme Court on Wednesday reinstated an $8 million default judgment against Hyundai Motor Co. in a lawsuit over the backward collapse of a front seat in a 1997 crash that left a man paralyzed.
In a 7-2 ruling, the high court reversed the Court of Appeals, which had overturned a trial court's finding for Jesse Magana of Vancouver.
The justices said the South Korean automaker deliberately withheld documentation from Magana's lawyers for too long concerning other crashes in which front seats collapsed backward.
"Trial courts need not tolerate deliberate and willful discovery abuse," wrote the majority, led by Justice Richard Sanders. "This result appropriately compensates the other party, punishes Hyundai, and hopefully educates and deters others so inclined."
The thing is that even without the punitives, if Philip Morris has to pay a few thousand awards like this, there won’t be anymore Philip Morris. Er, wait. There’s still a Johns Manville. Nevermind. Still, I dream of the day when we either (a) legalize drugs that are less harmful than tobacco, or (b) ban cigarettes and quit being so hypocritical.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Florida jury on Thursday ordered cigarette maker Philip Morris USA to pay $300 million in damages to a 61-year-old ex-smoker named Cindy Naugle who is wheelchair-bound by emphysema.
The Broward Circuit Court jury assessed $56.6 million in past and future medical expenses against the company, part of Altria Group Inc, as well as $244 million in punitive damages.
Check this out: KBR is ordered to pay $3 million dollars to an employee who was raped in Iraq. KBR disagrees with the ruling, but believes it was in the best interest of the parties. WTF?
A nearly $3 million arbitration award won by a former KBR employee who said she was raped in Iraq was applauded by Houston attorneys who represented her and a Humble woman suing the military contractor for negligence.
. . . .
“KBR disagrees with the interim ruling and has filed a motion for modification of the arbitration award," said a statement from Heather Browne, KBR Inc.'s director of communications. “However, the decision validates what KBR has maintained all along; that the arbitration process is truly neutral and works in the best interest of the parties involved.”
I can honestly say that I wouldn’t be in law school if not for Randy Crownover. I’ve known this man since I was 17 years old, and to say that he influenced my decision to become an attorney would be a comical understatement. I remember a discussion we had when I was 17 or 18 years old about “the law.” He described it to me with reverence and passion that I’ve never heard from another person. I recently found out that Randy is running for Judge in the County Court at Law in Taylor County, Texas.
From his website:
In 1980, I called Abilene home and began the practice of law. The most important quality I bring to my candidacy is 29 years of legal experience in trial litigation in the courtrooms of Taylor County and across the State of Texas. There is simply no substitute to actually trying cases, year-after-year, case-after-case, to learn the law and to apply the law to the facts, thereby embedding the rules of the law into the mind, and making knowledge of the law “second nature.” This is the point at which I find myself after 29 years of handling thousands upon thousands of cases in trial courts, appeals courts, bankruptcy courts, and federal courts.
My legal experience is not limited to one branch of law. My extensive legal experience encompasses each of the five primary areas in which your Judge of County Court-at-Law No. 2 must be well anchored: civil law, juvenile law, probate law, misdemeanor law, and JP and municipal court appeals. Peoples' lives are depending on the knowledge and expertise of the judge, and learning while on the bench is not the place to start. It is extremely important to elect a judicial candidate that is experienced in the complete jurisdiction of County Court-at-Law. Your Taylor County Court-at-Law No. 2 holds concurrent jurisdiction in civil cases $100,000.00 or less, juvenile law governed by the Texas Family Code, probate cases moved from County Court, misdemeanor criminal cases, and appellate jurisdiction over Justice Courts and Municipal Courts cases as well as certain Administrative Law Review cases. I have three decades of experience necessary in all these areas of law:
Randy is as fierce an advocate for his clients as any attorney I’ve ever met. His advocacy, however, is tempered by his respect for the law. In the time I worked with him, he always knew where the ethical line was, and he always steered clear of it. Some people might call that risk-averse behavior. I call it honorable behavior befitting a man who seeks judicial office.
I have recommended Randy Crownover to my friends and my family in Texas. I would not have made that recommendation if I had any doubts about his ability, his temperance, or his talents. I have absolutely no reservation in recommending Randy to the voters of Taylor County and of Abilene, Texas. I know that the citizens of Abilene can count on Randy to fairly, impartially, and ethically administer justice if they choose to elect him to County Court at Law.
I only hope that if Randy is elected as judge, his schedule will permit him to travel to Michigan next year to attend my graduation ceremony. Because it’s no exaggeration to say that without his guidance, support, and encouragement, I wouldn’t be here.
Everyone and their illiterate brother who somehow got into law school covers Supreme Court cases. Now it looks like there will be some decent coverage of the lower appellate courts:
Welcome to the new Media Alerts on Federal Courts of Appeals Website of the ABA Standing Committee on Federal Judicial Improvements. This website is designed to provide reporters, lawyers, educators, and the public with prompt, accurate, unbiased information about newsworthy and legally significant cases pending in and decided by the Federal Courts of Appeals. Our goal is to assist the media’s efforts to provide timely and extensive reporting about federal court decisions. Use this website to find short summaries of recent opinions of public interest and noteworthy cases pending oral argument.
Yes, that “Ha Ha!” was done in a Nelson voice from The Simpsons.
The ruling concerned a mortgage held by debtor Mathew Giroux, who filed a voluntary Chapter 7 case in bankruptcy court in Massachusetts on June 27, 2008. The bankruptcy court granted the trustee's motion for summary judgment on May 21, which allowed him to treat the mortgage as a unsecured debt. Saris agreed with the bankruptcy court that Massachusetts case law holds that the state "requires strict formalities in the execution of acknowledgements."
Saris also agreed with the bankruptcy court that Massachusetts courts are likely to follow a 2004 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision, In re Biggs, which held that omitting the lender's name in an acknowledgement was not a "purposeless formality."
"Although the question of the acknowledgment's validity is a determinative issue, the Court finds the outcome in the state court to be reasonably clear," Saris wrote. Cases about the issue have also cropped up in federal courts in other jurisdictions, said the trustee's lawyer, Jeffrey J. Cymrot of Boston-based Sassoon & Cymrott. Cymrot said he's also working on a similar pending case.
"It's largely due to pushing mortgages through the system," Cymrot said. "I don't think it's rare." The case shows that sloppy execution of mortgage documents has consequences in bankruptcy cases, Cymrot said.
This humors me greatly since financial companies make us go through so many hoops for their convenience. It’s nice to see that we can still force them to do things right.
Dear Trial Lawyers: I still haven’t seen you guys take this ball and run with it. Quit being arrogant, avaricious, and ignorant and start exploiting the enemy’s biggest weakness.
Likewise, the administration's affinity for dealing with front-line corporate players subtly tilts the playing field. Other business associations – notably the CEO-heavy Business Roundtable– weigh in on many of the same issues as the chamber. But Ivan Seidenberg, the roundtable chairman, is also the CEO of Verizon. And when John Castellani, the roundtable president, shows up at the White House, he brings CEOs who head the group's individual issues committees.
"We probably learn more from the Business Roundtable, because the people who come in are wearing two hats, whereas mostly the chamber comes in with Tom Donohue and the appropriate staff person as opposed to their members," Jarrett said.
When Donohue talks of lobbying, he speaks of the constitutionally protected right to petition the government for redress of grievances. The Obama administration, however, casts lobbying as emblematic of a dysfunctional Washington culture that profits "special interests" at the expense of "the people."
Up until last month, state marshals made heavy use of a small room in the Department of Motor Vehicles in Wethersfield when they phoned the Law Enforcement Communications office for people’s last known addresses.
Marshals, and the lawyers they serve papers for, needed to have fresh addresses to make legal service on defendants in civil cases, and to properly execute domestic restraining orders.
But in an Oct. 2 letter to the State Marshal Commission in Hartford, DMV Commissioner Robert M. Ward announced that his agency “will no longer be providing telephone access to the State Marshals for department information.”
The letter stated that marshals would have to send in a written form and a $20 fee to check defendants’ last known addresses. Ward suggested that marshals obtain addresses through commercial Internet databases “such as Choice Point and R.L. Polk services.”
At least if you’re a Republican. I got this in an email from the AAJ:
We defeated the motion to recommit, [the healthcare bill passed by the house] thanks to many champions of the civil justice system like Congressman Bruce Braley, and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer , who stood up to these baseless remarks, even though some of their colleagues taunted Bruce with chants of "trial lawyer, trial lawyer..." Bruce was incredible; we are all in his debt.
If I were Braley, I would have said something like, “You’re goddamned right I’m a trial lawyer! I fight for the rights of average everyday Americans every day of my life. I’m not some bootlicking corporate sock puppet who takes his orders from a group of amoral moneymen who have run our economy into the ground!” Then I’d have started shouting “Sock puppet! Sock puppet!” And that’s why I’m not in the House of Representatives.
Yeah, I’m late on this one. But it’s still worth bringing up. Clearly, GPA and LSAT scores don’t determine your intelligence, your fitness to practice, or your worth as a human being:
Updated: The law firm Sidley Austin has rescinded an employment offer to a Harvard law graduate who has turned himself in to police for allegedly setting fire to a Sept. 11 memorial in Manhattan.
The suspect, 26-year-old Brian Schroeder, is a 2009 graduate of Harvard Law School, the Harvard Law Record reports. He was a 2008 summer associate at Sidley Austin; a permanent offer of employment has been rescinded, Sidley Austin partner Bill Conlon told the ABA Journal.
Schroeder turned himself in for the blaze at the Memorial Park chapel housing the remains of unidentified Sept. 11 victims on Saturday evening, according to the New York Post and the New York Times. The remains were unharmed, but mementos such as photos and flowers were either damaged or stolen. Sources told the Post that the Saturday morning fire may have been set as part of a drunken dare.
On a related note, wouldn’t you hate to be on trial in NYC for trying to burn down a 9/11 memorial? If I were a judge, I’d seriously consider granting a change of venue motion… then deny it because anyone this stupid gets whatever the jury gives him.
A group of law schools will help expand an online U.S. Supreme Court database so that it reaches back to the court's first recorded decision in 1792.
The schools received an $874,000 National Science Foundation grant in September to begin the four-year project, which will add 19,675 cases to a database that now extends from the Court's 1953 term through 2008, said Lee Epstein, a professor at Northwestern University School of Law. The group will post 4,400 cases by next summer and add more in installments each year, she said.
If so, I foresee a lot of money being spent by both sides to retain local counsel…
Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) -- AstraZeneca Plc may face as many 6,000 trials of lawsuits claiming its antipsychotic drug Seroquel causes diabetes after a judge said she will recommend sending the cases back to their home courts.
U.S. District Judge Anne Conway in Orlando, Florida, who is overseeing pre-trial proceedings in federal Seroquel litigation, said yesterday she’ll urge a panel of judges to return all of the cases to courts across the U.S. for possible trials.
For those of you who think that trial lawyers don’t do anything but line their own pockets, consider the fact that trial lawyers are behind many if not most of these cases:
"It's no secret that health care fraud is a top priority of the Civil Division of the Department of Justice and the administration," Assistant Attorney General Tony West, head of the Civil Division, told reporters Thursday. West said $1.6 billion represents cases that involve health care fraud recovery.
West said Justice is using the "full panoply" of tools to combat health care fraud both on the civil and criminal front. Last week, West and Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, who leads the Criminal Division, said the department is stepping up Foreign Corrupt Practice Act enforcement against the pharmaceutical industry.
Also consider that the fact that $1.6 billion dollars were recovered from the healthcare industry means a lot of doctors and insurers are ripping off the taxpayers.
Personally, I’m all for judges holding lawyers in contempt when they show disrespect for the Court. Otherwise, those who play by the rules suffer.
It may not be a good time for Georgia practitioners to try the patience of Matthew Simmons, the chief judge of Clayton County Superior Court.
Within two business days he has jailed two lawyers for contempt in unrelated cases, according to a Daily Report article reprinted in New York Lawyer (reg. req.).
I just saw that 54% of Americans support medical malpractice “reform” as a way to lower healthcare costs. Trial lawyers need to start spending money to spread the following messages:
If a doctor orders a test he or she feels isn’t medically necessary, that doctor is breaking the law.
Many doctors who run these unnecessary tests receive compensation for these tests. For example, some doctors own shares in lab companies. Every test the doctor orders puts money in the doctor’s pocket. Do you think that the real reason those doctors order unnecessary tests is because they’re afraid of being sued?
Many doctors also own equipment such as MRI machines. These machines are very expensive, and only get paid off if the doctor uses the equipment to run tests. Do you think that a doctor who is facing a large monthly bill for his MRI machine is likely to run unnecessary tests out of fear of being sued, or out of fear of not making the payments?
Some hospitals illegally hire doctors because they know that hiring them will lead to more business for them. Here’s how it goes: Doctor Smith sends 50% of his patients to hospital A, and 50% to hospital B. Hospital A offers the doctor a job with a big salary increase with the understood expectation that the doctor will start sending more patients to hospital A. This sort of thing is illegal, but common. Point out all the qui tam lawsuits over it.
The only way – THE ONLY WAY – we’re going to win this battle is by talking about crooked doctors. Yes, it’s important to point out all the medical errors out there, but that’s not enough because (a) some people don’t care about others, and (b) some people still think that lawyers make too much money. Point out how doctors, HMO’s, and insurers game the system and make A TON OF MONEY by doing illegal and unethical things.
Point out how Tenet healthcare – JUST ONE COMPANY – had to pay the government $900 million dollars because of its conduct.
Work with healthcare lawyers to explain what the corrupt practices in the healthcare industries are, and how much those cost American taxpayers.
Medical malpractice lawsuits cost taxpayers mostly indirectly. Healthcare fraud cost us directly. It’s complete and utter bullshit to say that we need to figure out how to stop medmal lawsuits, but not figure out a way to stop doctors from upcoding and other overbilling practices.
Get your act together and start pushing the right messages, or med mal lawsuits will be thrown under the bus to pass healthcare reform. Mark my words.
I think today is the day I officially became old, because I read this and thought “what the hell is wrong with kids today?”
A Buffalo Grove teen was having fun, fun, fun until his parents took his video game system away.
So the unhappy 15-year-old dialed 911 around 12:50 p.m. Sunday to complain to police about his parents confiscating his Microsoft Xbox 360 as punishment.
Get this – grown adults were wearing ribbons to show their membership in an “I Hate Teena Club,” with Teena being a coworker. What kind of childish asses start “I hate so-and-so” clubs at work?
A New York appeals court has upheld the dismissal of a county worker who helped organize an on-the-job "club," dubbed the "I Hate Teena Club," to show her disdain for a co-worker.
The 4-0 Appellate Division, 3rd Department, panel found that a hearing officer reasonably concluded that Penny Sindoni had created a "hostile, intimidating, disruptive" and "uncomfortable" work environment by showing animosity for co-worker Christeenia Cargill.
My legal experience is not limited to one branch of law. My extensive legal experience encompasses each of the five primary areas in which your Judge of County Court-at-Law No. 2 must be well anchored: civil law, juvenile law, probate law, misdemeanor law, and JP and municipal court appeals. Peoples' lives are depending on the knowledge and expertise of the judge, and learning while on the bench is not the place to start. It is extremely important to elect a judicial candidate that is experienced in the complete jurisdiction of County Court-at-Law. Your Taylor County Court-at-Law No. 2 holds concurrent jurisdiction in civil cases $100,000.00 or less, juvenile law governed by the Texas Family Code, probate cases moved from County Court, misdemeanor criminal cases, and appellate jurisdiction over Justice Courts and Municipal Courts cases as well as certain Administrative Law Review cases. I have three decades of experience necessary in all these areas of law: