Florida Nursing Home Bill Advances
A Florida Senate bill aimed at keeping passive nursing home investors out of the cross-hairs of personal inuury lawyers has passed out of committee on an 8-1 bipartisan vote this week
Points of LightAnother State AG’s Pay-to-Play Racket Takes a Hit
A Nevada judge this week ordered state Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto to pay the legal and discovery costs of a mortgage processing provider she and a private-sector class-action law firm from Washington, D.C., had unsuccessfully sued for fraud
Judicial Hellholes, Points of LightLouisiana’s Buddy System Suffers a Loss: State High Court Overturns $331M Judgment
Louisiana’s Supreme Court this week landed a solid blow against the state’s notorious “Buddy System,” wherein state Attorney General James “Buddy” Caldwell hires his friends among the personal injury bar to sue deep-pocket corporate defendants on behalf of the state so they can collect big fees and, in turn, generously contribute to his next political campaign.
Judicial Hellholes, Points of LightFederal Judge Calls out Rampant Fraud in Asbestos Claims
In an important ruling last Friday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge George Hodges in North Carolina reduced an asbestos defendant’s liability by 90 percent, down to $125 million from $1.4 billion, finding that the larger amount had been based on fraudulent claims by scheming plaintiffs’ lawyers and their clients
Points of LightNew York’s High Court Properly Rejects Longtime Smokers’ Claims for ‘Medical Monitoring’
Not all news coming out of Judicial Hellholes is bad news, and a decision by the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, rejecting an equitable medical monitoring claim is very good news
Judicial Hellholes, Points of LightBipartisan Senate Vote Sends Transparency Bill to Wisconsin’s Governor
With 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 LightCalifornia Takes Rare Step to Rein in Personal Injury Lawyers
Gov. 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 LightL.A. Jury Tells Parasitic Jackson Clan to ‘Beat It’
To 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 LightJudge Orders Asbestos Fraudsters to Pay Triple Damages in Landmark RICO Case
A 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 Legislators Act Quickly to Restore Tort Reforms Struck Down Earlier by Activist High Court
Oklahoma 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 LightNebraska Joins Vermont in Overdue Crackdown on Patent ‘Trolls’
Nebraska 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 LightATRA Lauds Maryland High Court Decision Upholding ‘Contributory Negligence’ Doctrine
The 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 LightColorado High Court to Trial Courts: Discovery Must Be Reasonably Limited
Winning an automatic Points of Light citation in the upcoming edition of ATRA’s annual Judicial Hellholes report (due out in
Judicial Hellholes, Points of LightATRA Urges Reform of Wisconsin’s ‘Outlier’ Lemon Law
Says Applying Brakes to Runaway Lawyers Good for Consumers, Auto Industry . FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Darren McKinney (202)
Judicial Hellholes, Points of LightReformers Score Wins over Lawsuit Lenders in Colorado, Oklahoma
A unanimous Colorado Court of Appeals yesterday ruled against lawsuit lenders seeking to evade the state’s consumer lending laws, and Oklahoma legislators sent a bill to the governor that will subject such lenders to the Uniform Consumer Credit Code
Points of LightAlabama Passes Important Transparency Bill, Limits State’s Hiring of Outside Counsel
The American Tort Reform Association applauds Alabama lawmakers for final passage of legislation that will bring “good-government transparency to the state’s hiring of private sector attorneys on a contingency fee basis”
Points of LightVideo Speaks to Character of Wisconsin’s ‘Lemon Law King’ Now Fighting Reform
As reform legislation offered today in Wisconsin’s Assembly promises to close loopholes in the state’s outlier “lemon law” — loopholes that have been infamously exploited by unscrupulous lawyers there — a new video speaks to the character of one of those lawyers
Judicial Hellholes, Points of LightNJ High Court Raises Bar for ‘Expert’ Testimony
In a decision that should reduce the number of meritless medical liability lawsuits filed in the Garden State, a unanimous New Jersey Supreme Court yesterday ruled that doctors called as expert witnesses on plaintiffs’ behalf must hold the same credentials as defendant physicians
Points of LightIdaho Justices Ban ‘Vexatious Litigant’
The Idaho Supreme Court yesterday unanimously upheld a lower court’s decison to declare Holli Lundahl Telford a “vexatious litigant” under a new law aimed at neutralizing those who repeatedly file frivolous lawsuits
Points of LightPunishing Lawyers, Plaintiffs and Witnesses Who Conspire and Lie to Defraud Our Courts
It’s long overdue, but a nascent movement to hold accountable and punish those who pursue fraudulent lawsuits at the expense of taxpayers, consumers and jobseekers may finally be materializing
Points of Light, UncategorizedMissouri Coalition Backs Bill, Amendment To Undo Bad High Court Decision
The Missouri State Medical Association has launched a new website to boost the efforts of the Missouri Tort Reform Coalition, an alliance of medical groups and tort reform advocates supporting both legislation and a proposed state constitutional amendment to reverse a 2012 Missouri Supreme Court decision that struck down a reasonable statutory limit on awards for noneconomic damages in medical malpractice lawsuits
Points of Light