Kalifornia Karma Hits Charlie Sheen Back with $20 Million Lawsuit
California karma and a disgruntled would-be reality show producer have turned the tables on Charlie with a $20 million lawsuit of their own
Judicial HellholesPersonal Injury Lawyers Prevail on ‘Phantom Damages’ in Colorado
To the credit of some Colorado lawmakers, legislation to eliminate “phantom damages” easily passed in the House, 37-27, earlier this year. But, at the expense of auto and health care insurance premium payers, trial lawyers have just managed to kill the bill in a Senate committee
Judicial HellholesQ1 Updates on Once and Future ‘Judicial Hellholes’
As the first quarter of 2011 draws to a close, it’s an appropriate time to update both some bad news and good news from once and future Judicial Hellholes
Judicial HellholesATRA Renews Call for Congressional Hearings on Trial Lawyer Malfeasance
Evidence of costly trial-lawyer malfeasance has continued to mount with, among other items, the discovery in West Virginia that fraudulent chest X-rays were the catalyst for asbestos cases, runaway auto-accident fraud in South Florida and documentary film outtakes in which brazen plans to manipulate and intimidate a judge are openly discussed
Judicial HellholesMcLean County Poised To Become Illinois’ Latest ‘Judicial Hellhole’
The biased handling of a pernicious new wave of asbestos lawsuits has McLean County poised to join Illinois’ notorious list of Judicial Hellholes
Judicial HellholesADA Racketeers Still on a Roll in California
Despite what were supposed to be small business-friendly reforms to California law two years ago, the pernicious wheelchair lawsuit industry there rolls on, destroying beloved community businesses and jobs
Judicial HellholesCharlie Sheen’s Crazy California Lawsuit
As home to more crazy lawsuits than practically any other state, California is the perfect place for conspiracy theorist and self-proclaimed “winner” Charlie Sheen to sue/blame former employers for his precipitous fall from grace
Judicial HellholesVegas’s Jackpot Verdict of the Century Appealed
The defendants, who last year came out on the the losing side of an obscene and insane half-billion dollar jackpot verdict in Clark County, Nevada (currently ranked as the #6 Judicial Hellhole) have appealed their case to the Nevada Supreme Court.
Judicial Hellholes‘Sue Jersey’ and ‘Sue York,’ Hellholes Together
As reported by the New York Daily News, a New Jersey woman who tried to perpetrate a coupon con on a department store has conspired with a personal injury lawyer relative of hers in Queens, N.Y., to gin up a class action because, she alleges, she’s owed 80 cents.
Judicial HellholesATRA, NY Ally Take Aim at Gov. Cuomo’s Proposal for More Lawsuits
Tucked in among various belt-tightening job cuts and agency consolidations in the governor’s budget is the proposed creation of a new Department of Financial Regulation, controlled by a governor-appointed superintendent with ominously broad powers to promulgate new regulations and level lawsuits relating to banking, insurance and consumer protection.
Judicial HellholesWill Trial Lawyers, Convened In Miami, Stand Against ‘PIP’ Fraud?
With Florida struggling to contain a costly epidemic of insurance fraud, personal injury lawyers convening in Miami this week should be asked what steps they’re willing to take to help reduce such fraud
Judicial HellholesNew York Lawmakers Too Cozy with ‘Slip-and-Fall Racketeers’
In a weekend opinion piece in the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, ATRA director of communications Darren McKinney said New York lawmakers must choose between honest, hardworking businessmen and women, or the parasitic slip-and-fall racketeers who are bleeding the state’s economy dry
Judicial HellholesAlabama’s Tort King Heads to the Border
Jere Beasley, Alabama’s infamous class-action impresario and would-be Dickie Scruggs, has headed for the border. Alleging that his own law firm’s “independent” testing indicates that Taco Bell’s beef tacos include only 35% beef, Beasley is suing the fast-food chain in – you guessed it – California, the nation’s best place to have a meritless consumer class-action certified and taken seriously by a kooky judge
Judicial HellholesScrews Loosened for California Consumer Lawsuits
It’s precisely the type of lawsuit that gave California a reputation for consumer lawsuit abuse. Lawyers sued the lock manufacturer, Kwikset for deceptive advertising because products, labeled as “Made in the U.S.A.,” included components, such as screws, produced overseas. In a dissent Justice Ming W. Chin, joined by Justice Carol A. Corrigan, recognized that “[t]his cannot be what the electorate intended” in voting for a measure intended to reduce frivolous lawsuits.
Judicial HellholesMayor Bloomberg Asks NY State Bar to Support Tort Reform (Good Luck with That, Mr. Mayor)
As doctors and businesses, fearing meritless lawsuits, continue to leave the hellholish environs of New York state, Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York City (aka “Sue York”), is urging members of the state bar association to please, please, please support reasonable tort reform measures, according to the New York Law Journal
Judicial HellholesLitigious Dennis a Menace to Jobs, the Economy
Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich has filed a $150,000 lawsuit against the cafeteria in the U.S. House of Representatives, claiming an unpitted olive in a sandwich wrap caused “serious and permanent dental and oral injuries,” even though C-SPAN video shows him five days later looking and talking normal
Judicial HellholesLawsuit Loan Industry Lobbies for Legalization in ‘Hellholes’ and Beyond
Taking aim at lawsuit loan industry lobbyists and investors now pushing to have their pernicious and parasitic racket legalized in several states, which, in some cases, are home to Judicial Hellholes, ATRA scored a hit with a letter to the editor published in the New York Times
Judicial HellholesOne California Trial Lawyer to Be Held Accountable, Many More to Go
At least one Los Angeles-area personal injury lawyer will be held accountable for abusing the civil justice system and contributing to California’s well-deserved reputation among the nation’s worst Judicial Hellholes
Judicial HellholesSouth Florida’s Personal Injury Lawyers Drive Insurance Scams While Auto Premiums Soar
As many of the ambulance-chasers driving this latest wave of phony-injury insurance scams submit bills for 26-hour days, meetings with the dead, or meetings that otherwise never took place, regulators say “the filing of [such] lawsuits is out of control”
Judicial HellholesTerrible Verdicts Can Have Terrible Consequences
With “Drug Shortages: A Deadly Problem with No End in Sight,“ online news source Daily Finance reports that Teva, the drug maker unjustly targeted by a half-billion dollar Judicial Hellholes verdict last summer in Clark County, Nevada, has ceased production of its safe and effective sedative propofol
Judicial Hellholes‘Dishonorable’ St. Louis Coupon Settlement Challenged
The shameless class-action coupon settlement approved by a plaintiff-friendly St. Louis judge last year and cited among Dishonorable Mentions in the latest Judicial Hellholes report is being appealed. Crusading lawyer Ted Frank, of the Center for Class Action Fairness, has filed
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