Recent News
FFCJ | Forbes.com Spotlights FFCJ’s Legal Liability Toolkit Tutorials
Without waiting for legislation to end lawsuit abuses‚ FFCJ is helping business and nonprofits to avoid mistakes that attract lawsuits. Each of the five free online Legal Liability Toolkit Tutorials use 20 scenario to familiarize users with liability principles and legal requirements. The tutorials were prepared and reviewed by experienced trial lawyers.
Staten Island mom settles suit with Little League and coaches over knee injury
(Staten Island Advance) A bad slide that injured a young Staten Island player five years ago will cost Little League Baseball Incorporated and the New Springville Little League $125,000. Jean Gonzalez of Meiers Corners has agreed to settle a lawsuit in which she alleged her son Martin Gonzalez, then 12, tore up his right knee in a New Springville Little League game because he wasn’t taught how to properly slide.
American Tort Reform Foundation Releases 2009 Hellholes Report
WASHINGTON, D.C., December 15, 2009 – The American Tort Reform Foundation today released its annual Judicial Hellholes® report, naming some of the nation’s “most unfair civil court jurisdictions,” including first-time “Hellholes” New York City and the appellate courts of New Mexico, which join perennials South Florida, West Virginia, Cook County, Illinois, and Atlantic County, New Jersey.
Graham, Chambliss Address Medical Malpractice with ‘Loser Pays’ Reform
WASHINGTON – United States Senators Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia) today introduced ‘Loser Pays’ legislation to decrease the number of frivolous lawsuits that increase the cost of medical care.
“Reform of medical malpractice is one of the key, missing ingredients from the health care reform proposals being debated in Congress,” said Senator Graham “A ‘Loser Pays’ system is one of the best devices available to prevent frivolous lawsuits from costing all of us. When both parties in a lawsuit are subject to financial penalty, people think longer and harder about bringing a questionable case forward. Most western nations already have a ‘Loser Pays’ rule, and it is time our own country adopts this concept.”
Court Upholds $250k cap for Lawsuit Damages Against Cities
COLUMBUS — In a ruling that could benefit city treasuries in Dayton and other cities, the Ohio Supreme Court has upheld a law placing a $250,000 cap on non-economic damages an injured party may recover from a city.
The court’s 5-2 ruling, issued Thursday, Oct. 1, stemmed from a June 11, 2002, incident during a Cleveland Indians’ game at what was then Jacobs Field. The decision reverses an appeals court ruling on the cap.
The decision upheld part of Ohio’s “sovereign immunity” law adopted as part of tort reform. It says that except in wrongful death cases, the cap for non-economic damages against a city is $250,000 even if a jury awards more.
Activists Sue Texas to Restrict Greenhouse Gases
DALLAS (AP)—Environmental activists sued the Texas environmental agency Tuesday in an effort to force the state to regulate greenhouse gases, asking that coal-fired power plant projects be halted until that happens.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality issues air pollution permits that set limits on toxic releases, but the agency says there is no need to regulate carbon dioxide. Texas emits more greenhouse gases, made up mostly of CO2 emissions, than any other state.
The lawsuit by Public Citizen—which describes itself as a consumer advocacy organization—calls for greenhouse gas limits to be imposed as part of the permitting process, based on a 2007 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that classified carbon dioxide as an air pollutant under the Clean Air Act.
Pension Pay-to-Play: Law Firms Gave Controllers Big Bucks, Then Got $518M in Fees From State Fund
ALBANY - Lawyers representing the state pension fund in class-action suits have raked in $518.7million in fees over the past 10 years, records show.
The hefty payouts, contingent on winning, are the main reason securities law firms have donated big bucks to state controllers over the years, critics contend.
“There is a problem with pay-to-play,” Columbia Law School Prof. John Coffee said. “The plaintiff law firms know that to be considered to be on the list of eligible firms, they have to ante up.”
New Report Boosts Backers of Lawsuit Reform
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Limiting medical malpractice lawsuits could save the U.S. government $54 billion over a decade, congressional budget analysts said on Friday in a report that could boost a Republican push to include lawsuit reform in President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul.
Capping awards for non-economic and punitive damages along with other reforms would reduce doctors’ malpractice insurance premiums and defensive medicine practices for government health programs, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said in a letter to Republican Senator Orrin Hatch.
Whocanisue.com Aggressively Seeks Plantiffs
Have you been bitten by a vicious dog? Been the victim of a surgical mishap? A sexual assault on a cruise ship? There’s a lawyer waiting for your call.
Boca Raton, Fla.-based whocanisue.com has scores of billboards and bus-shelter signs showing a lawyer slipping on a banana peel. The service matches Web site visitors with lawyers in a quick-and-easy form that takes just minutes to complete.
Dean says no tort reform because trial lawyers too intimidating
A moment of clarity from Howard Dean, courtesy of CNS News, who took this video at the town-hall forum of Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA). When an angry constituent wondered why a supposedly comprehensive “reform” of the health-care system doesn’t include tort reform to lower costs of malpractice insurance and reduce defensive medicine, Dean responds as “a doctor and a politician.” Apparently, neither has the courage to face the trial-lawyer lobby.
FFCJ Launches “Let’s Be Fair” Commentary Series
Let’s Be Fair is a weekly series of 60-second Commentaries featuring Bob Dorigo Jones, bestselling author and founder of the Wacky Warning Label Contest. Click here to see a current list of episodes!
In the spirit of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense wake-up call to our forefathers, FFCJ is producing 60-second weekly national radio commentaries called “Let’s Be Fair,” featuring Bob Dorigo Jones. Bob achieved national name recognition as the creator of the hugely popular Wacky Warning Label Contest.
FFCJ Releases Exclusive “Role of the Courts” Video
To stimulate public discussion about the importance for state court decisions to adhere to the principle of the “rule of law”, FFCJ has produced a short video program that will be aired as regular programming starting this month on PBS. PBS expects a minimum of 3 million viewers to watch it! “The Role of the Courts” will also be available for more than 38 million subscribers on cable starting in January.
“The Role of the Courts” features two retired state Supreme Court Justices—Harold See of Alabama (top left) and Cliff Taylor of Michigan (below left). See and Taylor briefly discuss how the judicial system was framed by the U.S. Constitution.
Global Warming: Here Come the Lawyers
In what is becoming an ambitious legal war on oil, electric power, auto, and other companies whose emissions are linked to global warming, lawyers are leaving no stone unturned. At least 16 cases, drawing on a variety of legal strategies, are pending in federal or state court. “This boomlet in global warming litigation represents frustration with the White House’s and Congress’ failure to come to grips with the issue,” says John Echeverria, executive director of Georgetown University’s Environmental Law & Policy Institute. “So the courts, for better or worse, are taking the lead.”
Trial Lawyers Seek Returns on Contributions
In February, just two months before he became a Democrat, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania made a passionate plea for a special tax break for plaintiffs’ trial lawyers. His bill, S 437, would allow trial lawyers to deduct immediately on their taxes up-front expenses they incur when investing in contingency lawsuits.
The tax break is reportedly worth $1.6 billion to trial lawyers. If Specter’s amendment passes, this single provision would more than repay the legal industry for its roughly $762 million in political contributions to Democrats over the last two decades.
Wacky Warning Labels 2009 Winners Announced
2009 Winners of the Wacky Warning Label Contest have been announced! Now in its 12th year, the internationally known contest is sponsored by the Foundation for Fair Civil Justice. Millions of people around the world are reading stories or watching television news reports about the contest and laugh at how silly the warning labels are. Watch a 2 minute video with this year’s winner, and read more about America’s out-of-whack system of civil justice.
