I’m a trial lawyer for injured people and businesses at The Beasley Firm. Founded in 1958, we have recovered over $2 billion for our clients through hundreds of verdicts and settlements in excess of $1 million. We’re listed in Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers in America, U.S. News’s Top Lawyers, [...]
Google’s New Antitrust Liability With Search Plus Your World And The Chrome SEO Penalty
[UPDATE: Just a few days after I wrote this post based on the Chrome issue, Google released their biggest change in a decade, the "Search Plus Your World" feature that directly integrates results from Google properties like Google+ and Picasa into standard Google search results. That change — a mixing of search with Google verticals, or church and state, so to speak — raises the antitrust stakes considerably. Twitter has already raised alarms. The antitrust analysis for "Search Plus Your World" is the same as for the Chrome SEO penalty, because it would also be alleged to be 'exclusionary conduct.' ... Continue Reading
Do Paterno And Spanier Have Golden Parachutes At Penn State?
The Sandusky child molestation scandal at Penn State continues to be the biggest legal news in Pennsylvania. One lawsuit against Penn State and the Second Mile has already been filed, presumably because the victim was either nearing, or had already passed, the statute of limitations. A civil lawsuit can be filed at any point after a criminal act, though in that case the civil litigation is usually put on hold until the criminal case is finished. I've already discussed most of the issues in the cases that could be filed by sexual abuse survivors in my previous post, linked above, ... Continue Reading
NFL Lockout Injunction Reversal: Using Labor Law Against Employees
Big news in the sporting and antitrust litigation worlds — which overlap considerably — on Friday when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (which hears all appeals in federal cases filed in the states between North Dakota, Minnesota, Arkansas, and Nebraska), reversed a preliminary injunction imposed by the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota prohibiting the NFL owners from imposing a “lockout” on players. The order is posted here; when I reference Opinion and Bye Dissent below, I'm referring to that PDF. Two judges, Colloton and Benton (both appointed by George W. Bush — hold that ... Continue Reading
More Selective Statutory Interpretation By The United States Supreme Court
One of the nice things about the being a Justice of the United States Supreme Court is that you never have to explain yourself. You don't have to ask questions at oral argument. You don't have to read the briefs filed by the parties, not really, because you can interpret the facts stated and arguments raised however you want. You certainly don't have to be consistent across your own opinions. In one case, you can make an argument inconsistent with the argument you made in another case. Few people will notice and, worse, fewer will care, because caring about the ... Continue Reading
Preventing Investment Fraud, From New World Silver To Goldman Sachs
Although the big financial meltdown began around 2007, financial fraud lawsuits are still all the rage among trial lawyers these days. It usually takes a couple months for an investor to realize they’ve been swindled by a bank and a couple years for the lawsuits to be investigated, filed, litigated, and then sent to trial. I’ve written before here that banks have only minimal fiduciary duties to depositors, but they do have some duties to their clients. Chief among those duties: the bank can’t steal from its own clients. Yet, it happens, and happens a lot. Sometimes the banks just ... Continue Reading
The HuffingtonPost Bloggers Class Action Lawsuit Won’t Go Anywhere
Writing has always been a tough business, one dependent upon unorthodox forms of compensation. Charles Dickens' novels used to come with advertisements for alpaca umbrellas and quack medical treatments. One of Toni Morrison's books was loaded with ads for cigarettes, the New York Times just put up an expensive but easily avoided paywall. Which brings us to the Huffington Post, long despised by other writers who resented its obsession with search engine optimization and by SEO professionals who resented its success in repackaging other's content. But nobody hated the Huffington Post as much as its own bloggers, the folks who generated a ton of its content ... Continue Reading
Good Lawyers (And Doctors) Aren’t Cheap Because They Can’t Do Piecemeal Work
Fred Wilson, the always inspiring venture capitalist, posted yesterday A Challenge To Startup Lawyers: We closed an investment recently. It was a seed round. Our firm priced the round and we were joined by a number of small VCs and a few well known angels. We agreed to close on a standard set of "light preferred" documents without negotiation. There was no investor counsel on the transaction. We just signed the standard documents which were tweaked to reflect the round size, share price, and board provision in the term sheet. The legal fees for this transaction were $17,000. I talked ... Continue Reading
Deposition Rope-A-Dope: The Oldest Trick Of Uncooperative Witnesses
The Wall Street Journal Law Blog points us to a typical deposition transcript out of Cleveland about a copy machine: Plaintiffs’ lawyer: During your tenure in the computer department at the Recorder’s office, has the Recorder’s office had photocopying machines? Deponent’s Lawyer: Objection. PL: Any photocopying machine? Deponent: When you say “photocopying machine,” what do you mean? PL: Let me be — let me make sure I understand your question. You don’t have an understanding of what a photocopying machine is? D: No. I want to make sure that I answer your question correctly. . . . D: When you say “photocopying ... Continue Reading
Third Party Litigation Funding CLE Hosted By The Pennsylvania Bar Institute
You know what’s cool? Apparently a billion dollars isn’t cool, according to Sean Parker, no matter what Justin Timberlake in The Social Network might have to say about it. But what is cool is third-party litigation financing. Don’t believe me? Binyamin Appelbaum at the NYTimes and the Center for Public Integrity did a whole series on it called “Betting on Justice,” (here’s the same piece at the CPI) with a Room for Debate piece on it called “Investing in Someone Else’s Lawsuit.” The American Bar Association, nudged by the series, has set up a working group to examine the issue. ... Continue Reading
17P & Makena: Exploiting Premature Birth For Billions In Profit
See updates below relating to the fallout from this debacle, including March of Dimes' scrambling to explain themselves and several medical organizations coming out against the pricing structure. If you have a strong opinion on this subject, write to your representatives in Congress, to President Obama (or the FDA), to the March of Dimes, and to KV Pharmaceuticals. If you'd like to share this page, use the "Share" button to the right or cut and paste this link: http://bit.ly/h1zPbu Important even later update: In addition to all the updates described below, on March 30 the FDA announced: In order to support access ... Continue Reading
