Justice was served this week in a case involving the D.C. Metro Transit Agency and a Metro rider who had fraudulently sued the agency in a slip and fall case for $15,000 — in part to cover $4,500 in alleged chiropractor bills. But his con was caught on videotape, and he now faces criminal charges
Judicial HellholesThe Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this morning published American Tort Reform Association president Tiger Joyce’s op-ed, holding up the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act as a means to discourage plaintiffs’ lawyers from promulgating fraudulent lawsuits
UncategorizedWith a bipartisan vote of 23-10, a good-government bill requiring transparency in the state’s hiring of outside counsel on a contingency fee basis cleared its final hurdle in Wisconsin’s Senate yesterday and will soon be singed into law by Gov. Scott Walker
Points of LightGov. Jerry Brown signed into law this past weekend a reform that will serve to rein in an element of California’s infamously shameless personal injury bar that had been using a well-intentioned health and environmental initiative to extort money from small business owners
Points of LightTo its credit, a Los Angeles civil jury yesterday unanimously found for the defense in a much watched lawsuit by the mother of the late King of Pop, Michael Jackson
Points of LightA federal judge in West Virginia has ordered two Pittsburgh-based personal injury lawyers and a discredited radiologist to pay triple damages, or roughly $1.3 million, in a landmark case that found them liable for concocting fraudulent asbestos lawsuits
Points of LightOklahoma lawmakers completed a brief but intense special session yesterday by approving 23 separate bills aimed at deterring frivolous lawsuits and making Oklahoma a more business-friendly state
Points of LightThe divorced parents of a 15-year-old Connecticut girl are suing a Massachusetts summer camp, alleging that nearly $700,000 worth of emotional distress was inflicted when their daughter was expelled after engaging in what the camp’s director deemed provocative sexual behavior with a fellow camper
UncategorizedLeading bio-tech companies have created a new website to help counteract the disinformation and propaganda that various crackpot activists, the uncompetitive organic food industry and certain shameless elements of the plaintiffs’ bar have conspired to foment in recent years
UncategorizedNebraska has become the second state, joining Vermont, to crack down on so-called “patent trolls” with state consumer protection laws as officials work to thwart alleged shakedowns of productive companies by the parasitic trolls
Points of LightNew York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s 2012 income report includes some $350,000-$450,000 from Weitz & Luxenberg, a giant personal injury law firm based in New York City
Judicial HellholesMore bad news this week for residents of California, America’s reigning #1 Judicial Hellhole, in the form of another troubling account of the impact that the state’s runaway litigation has on citizens’ wallets and pocketbooks
Judicial HellholesThe American Tort Reform Association today welcomed a much anticipated Maryland high court decision that upheld, with a 5-2 majority, the doctrine of “contributory negligence,” which has been a settled part of state law for more than 165 years and prevents someone at fault for his own injuries from collecting damages in a lawsuit
Points of LightTom Stebbins, Executive Director of the Lawsuit Reform Alliance of New York (LRANY) sat down for an interview with Time
Judicial HellholesWinning an automatic Points of Light citation in the upcoming edition of ATRA’s annual Judicial Hellholes report (due out in
Judicial Hellholes, Points of LightIn stark contrast to a U.S. Supreme Court decision on the same day upholding an arbitration agreement, Florida’s notoriously trial lawyer-friendly high court yesterday overturned a lower court and threw out such an agreement freely entered into by a hernia patient and his surgeon
Judicial HellholesThe U.S. Supreme Court ruled that plaintiffs’ lawyers may not use confidential DMV records to troll for clients. Plaintiffs’ lawyers may not “acquire highly restricted personal information from state DMV records to send bulk solicitations without express consent from the targeted recipients.”
Judicial HellholesUpdating the pay-to-play action that Nevada’s attorney general is running with some out-of-state plaintiffs’ lawyers, Wall Street Journal editorial writers today urge the state’s high court to end it
Judicial HellholesA letter to the editor published in today’s Wall Street Journal highlights problems with a pending bill that would effectively eliminate the statute of limitations for sexual abuse lawsuits in New Jersey.
Judicial HellholesMichigan-based small business advocate Charles Owens’ Detroit News op-ed yesterday is a must-read for anyone concerned about the growing wave of meritless litigation stemming from the well-intentioned and largely effective Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
UncategorizedReacting to news that the Oklahoma Supreme Court has, by a vote of 7-2, struck down a comprehensive package of civil justice reforms enacted by overwhelming majorities of elected lawmakers and the governor in 2009, the American Tort Reform Association today criticized the court majority for “disrespecting both the legislators’ hard-won compromises and the will of voters who had endorsed the judgment of those legislators.”
Judicial Hellholes