Recent News: Plaintiff Bar
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.”
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.
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.
Obstetrics Crisis Growing In Pa.
(The Bulletin) The obstetrics crisis in Pennsylvania is growing. Last month, the maternity units at Brandywine Hospital near Coatesville, Chestnut Hill Hospital in the affluent Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia and Central Montgomery Medical Center in Lansdale, all closed.
So far, 17 maternity wards have closed in Philadelphia since 1997. According to one source, the waiting period for gynecologic care for a new patient in the five-county Southeastern Pennsylvania area is six to nine months.
Shrimp Suit Doesn’t Hold Water
(New York Post) A Manhattan attorney picked a king-sized fight over a platter of shrimp. Marc Verzani claimed box-store giant Costco was being a little fishy with its one-pound “shrimp tray with cocktail sauce,” including only 13.5 ounces of the crustaceans in a platter he bought in February, according to a class-action suit filed in Manhattan federal court.
