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, [...]
Perdue v. Kenny A. Keeps On Punishing Class Action Lawyers
I complained back when the Supreme Court's Perdue v. Kenny A. opinion first came out more than a year ago, knocking down attorney's fees awarded to a set of extraordinary children's rights lawyers: It’s no stretch to say those lawyers single-handedly reformed the foster care system in metropolitan Atlanta. And they did that by spending their own money and putting in their own time, with no guarantee they would recoup any of their out-of-pocket costs, much less get paid a fee for their services. Had they been paid by the hour as they went along, their services would have been ... Continue Reading
Philosophy Explains How Legal Ethics Turn Lawyers Into Liars
I am a fan of the American court system. There is no natural law requiring people to resolve their differences by asking third parties to represent them and advocate on their behalf in front of impartial decision-makers. The folks in classical Athens and Rome thought it was a good idea, the Europeans rediscovered the practice in the Middle Ages, and the adversarial system of law has been consistently practiced by England, and then America, ever since. Since the classical time, there have always been restrictions on lawyers intended to keep them honest. Most of those "restrictions" have amounted to nothing ... Continue Reading
The Potential Upside for Class Action Plaintiffs In The Dukes v. Wal-Mart Certiorari
At Blawgletter: The U.S. Supreme Court today granted review of a Ninth Circuit ruling that allowed a class of California women to pursue sex discrimination claims against Walmart. Of course, if you're reading this legal blog, you probably already knew that. So let's dive a bit deeper, per Blawgletter: The Court both limited and expanded review. Walmart's petition presented two questions, only the first of which the Court will address: I. Whether claims for monetary relief can be certified under Federal Rule of Civil Procedures 23(b)(2) -- which by its terms is limited to injunctive or corresponding declaratory relief -- ... Continue Reading
Chevron Allowed To Depose Plaintiff’s Counsel In Ecuador Toxic Tort Litigation
At The American Lawyer: A federal judge in Manhattan has taken the extraordinary step of granting Chevron's motion to depose a counsel for its adversaries in the massive toxic tort litigation over oil contamination in Lago Agrio, Ecuador. ... Kaplan based his ruling on evidence Chevron produced from outtakes of the documentary "Crude," which chronicles the Lago Agrio case. He called the outtakes "extraordinarily revealing." "The outtakes contain substantial evidence that Donziger and others were involved in ex parte contacts with the court to obtain appointment of the expert; met secretly with the supposedly neutral and impartial expert prior to ... Continue Reading
Sheet Metal Workers v. GlaxoSmithKline: How To Use State Consumer Fraud Laws To Bring Indirect Purchaser Antitrust Class Actions
[UPDATE: Drug and Device Law goes Jersey Shore on me and "creates a situation," as they say. I replied in the comments there, although my comment seems to disappear at times. Perhaps their commenting/moderating software is as frustrating and difficult as mine. I've cut and pasted my comment below the fold here.] I've discussed the problems with the Illinois Brick decision before. In short, since "indirect purchasers" cannot bring federal antitrust claims — even if they were injured by antitrust violations — "indirect purchasers" like third-party payors and retailers have to resort to state law. It is not uncommon to see lawsuits ... Continue Reading
Ready, Fire, Aim: A Lesson In Bad Legal Writing From The Lowe’s Drywall Class Action Settlement Kerfuffle
The internet has not been pleased with the proposed settlement reached between Lowe's — which denies ever selling any tainted Chinese drywall — and the plaintiff's attorneys in a Georgia state court class action. There's two problems with the proposed settlement, which has not yet been approved by a judge. First, the settlement is a dreaded coupon settlement (i.e., a settlement in which the plaintiffs get only coupons or vouchers to buy more stuff from the defendant), one that will use particularly unreliable notice procedures for letting potential class members know about the settlement. For more, see ProPublica and the ... Continue Reading
Ford Takes The Lead In Assaulting Consumers And Small Businesses Via The National Chamber Litigation Center
The Blog of the Legal Times reported yesterday: David Leitch, the general counsel of Ford Motor Co., is the new chairman of the board of directors of the National Chamber Litigation Center. Leitch succeeds James Comey, who until recently was senior vice president and general counsel of Lockheed Martin Corp. And what is "the National Chamber Litigation Center," you ask? It's the litigation arm of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, one of the most loathsome enterprises in the nation: I asked [U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Tom] Donohue what, exactly, the Chamber does. “Two fundamental things,” he replied. “We’re advocates. ... Continue Reading
Receipt Manufacturers Knew For Years Bisphenol-A (BPA) Was Leeching Onto Consumer’s Hands
Hindsight is 20–20, or so defense lawyers like to say when their clients are caught poisoning thousands, sometimes millions, of people. Such will almost certainly be the case once the class-action litigation over BPA finally heats up. The latest product to be found guilty of leeching the toxic pseudo-hormone into unknowing customers is ordinary point-of-sale receipts: Cash register and other receipts may expose consumers to substantial amounts of bisphenol A, a hormone-mimicking chemical that has been linked with a host of potential health risks, according to a trio of recent studies. ... On July 28, Warner and his colleagues at ... Continue Reading
Why Can’t Copyright Trolls Be Compelled Into Agency Hearings Or Arbitration?
[Update: I somehow missed Ron Coleman's earlier take on the article, but it's required reading if you're interested in the subject. Coleman and Walter Olson both seem on board with, as Olson words it, "steering rights owners into agency complaints or arbitration as an alternative, or at least precondition, to court action."] Via Kevin Drum, Wired's Threat Level has a profile of Steve Gibson, CEO of Righthaven, a company which has applied the much maligned — but often quite lucrative — "patent troll" model to copyright litigation on behalf of publishers: Borrowing a page from patent trolls, the CEO of fledgling Las ... Continue Reading
Kenneth Feinberg Should Disclose More About His Compensation For Administering The BP Fund
Kenneth Feinberg, whose pro bono publico work in the 9/11 Compensation Fund was widely lauded, is back again administering the $20 billion BP Compensation Fund and is in the middle of a publicity tour on the Gulf of Mexico. C-SPAN just posted a video of him discussing the Fund and his work on it this morning. Unlike with the 9/11 Fund, though, this time Feinberg is getting paid, and that raises a few questions. Nobody questions Feinberg's integrity, but the whole point of having a nation of law, not men, is to make everyone accountable to that law, and Professor ... Continue Reading
