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, [...]
Why Mark Zuckerberg Won’t Sue For Defamation Over The Facebook Movie
[UPDATE: We've learned a bit more about what happened in the real life dispute, as I blogged about here, and the NYTimes has taken a stab at whether Zuckerberg could sue for defamation, concluding the answer is "maybe." UPDATE II: Six months after my post, long after The Social Network has been released to widespread acclaim, there's still been no lawsuit. Zuckerberg just went on Saturday Night Live to jokingly "confront" the actor who played him in The Social Network. Told you so!] Some time ago, I heard that this fall was the release of The Social Network, a movie based on the founding ... Continue Reading
The Wikileaks Arrest, Bernie Madoff, and Misconceptions of Justice
Trial lawyers traffic in justice. When the American Trial Lawyers Association decided that decades of insurance industry funded propaganda attacking "trial lawyers" had paid off, they changed their name to the American Association for Justice. (Frankly, I would have preferred they changed their name to The Justice League of America, but I suppose that would create trademark issues.) Even when we're not making justice (or injustice, depending on your perspective), we're talking about it. Two weeks ago I contributed to a debate at The Jury Expert over the ethics of using David Ball's and Don Keenan's Reptile to persuade juries. It's ... Continue Reading
The “Most Reversed Circuit” and The Lost Perfect Game
Via How Appealing and Volokh Conspiracy, the Daily Journal reports: The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, often categorized as too liberal and out of sync with the more conservative U.S. Supreme Court, faces some unusual competition this term for its crown as the most reversed circuit. Earlier this week, the justices reversed the Cincinnati, Ohio-based 6th Circuit for the seventh time in seven cases (including one summary reversal), meaning a 100 percent reversal rate for the term. Of those, five, including the summary reversal, were habeas corpus cases in which the appellate court had granted relief to ... Continue Reading
Why I Don’t Mind Elena Kagan’s Lack Of Practical Experience
If you're reading this blog, you already know that President Obama nominated his Solicitor General, Elena Kagan, to replace Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court. SCOTUSBlog of course has all the details about Kagan. Eric Turkewitz raises the nagging questions that a lot of trial lawyers have: Did Kagen appear in the trenches, battling for the little guy against powerful interests? And here is what I found from Goldstein’s 9750 Words on Elena Kagan: Upon completing her clerkship, in 1988, Kagan went to work as an associate at Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C. That was it, out ... Continue Reading
Sen. Specter: Supreme Court Needs More Transparency
In The National Law Journal: Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., took to the floor of the Senate on Monday to talk about the vacancy on the Supreme Court, and while he was at it, one of his favorite Supreme Court topics: camera access. "I believe Congress has the authority, should it choose to do so, to direct the Supreme Court to permit its proceedings to be televised," Specter said. ... "If the public had access to what was going on in the Supreme Court," Specter said, "it seems to me there would be a clamor to have more openness, more transparency, ... Continue Reading
A Mountain Dew, A Body In The Trunk, and The Wacky World Of Probable Cause and Qualified Immunity
Sometimes, a police officer's hunch is right: Columbia [Missouri] Police Officer Jessica McNabb pulled over then-19-year-old Daniel Sanders at Stadium Boulevard and Audubon Drive for running a red light and failing to use his headlights at night. Sanders didn't have a license. He asked for an attorney almost immediately. After a search of the trunk, McNabb found the body of Sanders' mother beneath a tire — next to a new shovel with the price tag still on it. Sometimes not: Jordan Miles, who is black, thought his life was in jeopardy when three white men jumped out of a car ... Continue Reading
Citizens United v. FEC: The Supreme Court Invalidates A Law That Doesn’t Exist
[UPDATE: The WSJ Law Blog rounds up reactions by the parties, while SCOTUSBlog rounds up reactions from the media and bloggers.] [UPDATE II: For a peek behind the corporate curtain, see the memo that Republican election lawyer Benjamin L. Ginsberg (of Patton Boggs) is circulating. I think he's going too far in his conclusions; as much as he and his clients would like corporations' electioneering to drown out candidates' and parties' own communications, the disclosure requirements — which were upheld by the Court 8-1 — put a significant damper on that, since the money can still be traced to some extent, and since voters can ... Continue Reading
Always Draft Angry Briefs. Never File Them.
Last spring, in How To Write Your Brief So That The Judge Will Hate You, I profiled a sarcastic and dismissive brief — filed by attorneys for West Publishing no less, in a case against a law professor — and concluded: An opening brief filled with sarcasm will perturb a judge doing his or her best to reserve judgment until they've heard both sides just as much as an opening statement filled with indignity will repulse a jury doing their best to be fair and impartial until they've heard all of the evidence. As Bruce Merenstein posted on The Legal ... Continue Reading
Investigation By Former Judge Implicates Destruction Of Evidence In World Bank / D.C. Protests Case
Years ago, Jonathan Turley, professor at George Washington University Law School, found himself unable to decide whether he wanted to be a professor or a litigator, so he cloned himself to be able to do both. I am only half-joking; even after factoring in big firm co-counsel (including associates, paralegals, assistants, et cetera), being lead counsel on major litigation is no joke, particularly if you're up against a well-funded opponent who not only defends the rightness of their conduct, but who conceals and destroys the truth lying at the heart of the case. Take, for example, Rayming Chang et al. ... Continue Reading
Ex Parte Blogging, Part II: The Supreme Court Should Circulate Draft Opinions For Public Review
Following up on yesterday's post about "ex parte blogging," i.e. the possibility that the Supreme Court might see a newspaper editorial, article or blog post about a pending case, let's consider the supposed worst-case scenario, in which a Justice sees an editorial, article or blog post which has an effect on their interpretation of the case. So what? The Student Note that started the discussion at Balkinzation and Prawfsblog based its analysis on the Kennedy v. Louisiana fiasco, in which a military-justice blogger revealed a significant error in the Supreme Court's opinion, resulting in new briefing and a modification to ... Continue Reading
