The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit yesterday vacated certification and directed the trial court to dismiss with prejudice the latest “empty suit” class action wherein class members suffered no real injury and wasted precious court resources merely to register their dissatisfaction with a product
Points of LightTwice last month the plaintiff-friendly Florida Supreme Court gave personal injury lawyers new incentives to keep the state’s tobacco litigation chain smokin’
Judicial HellholesCalifornia employers have taken a kick to the keister once again and will now be forced to let employees sit on theirs. (And some economists wonder why productivity growth has stalled.)
Judicial HellholesWith an apparent desire to ensure in perpetuity Florida’s status as a perennial Judicial Hellhole, three locally based class action law firms have donated $1 million to the University of Miami School of Law to fund an annual forum on complex mass torts and multidistrict litigation
Judicial HellholesThe U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit last week overruled a lower court’s perfectly sound dismissal with prejudice of a food labeling class action against Chobani yogurt
Judicial HellholesThe U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez, wherein the majority held that a defendant’s mere offer to pay an individual plaintiff’s full claim for damages is not enough to prevent that plaintiff from leading a class-action, appears to be having an immediate impact on litigation strategy
Points of LightMedical device maker Boston Scientific Corp. this week successfully blocked — at least for the time being — a proposed class action that alleges it had smuggled cheap counterfeit material to use in its pelvic mesh products
Points of LightIn litigation first reported here two years ago, defendant Goya Foods is fighting back against a serial plaintiff and her bogus, no-injury claim that seeks to exploit California’s Prop 65 labeling requirements
Judicial HellholesOn Thursday, October 30th, an Ohio jury delivered a “trick” of their own to frighteningly mischievous class action plaintiffs lawyers who have been running around scaring up unfounded complaints against the washing machine manufacturer, Whirlpool Corp. After a three week trial, the jury found in favor of Whirlpool – that the company’s front loading washing machines did not suffer from a design flaw, leading to mold accumulation.
Judicial Hellholes, Points of LightThe U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit tossed out a “scandalous” settlement stemming from a Pella window consumer protection class action suit that would have paid the plaintiffs’ attorneys $11 million up front, with $2 million going to the ethically-challenged lead counsel. It’s just one more example of how state Consumer Protection Acts are abused
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 HellholesIt’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, UncategorizedIn recent years, it has become routine for plaintiffs’ law firms to announce investigations of mergers or acquisitions within hours of such an announcement. Lawsuits challenging such deals are filed, on average, within two weeks. Two recent developments may damper the plaintiffs’ bar’s enthusiasm for such lawsuits.
Points of LightThe U.S. Supreme Court yesterday delivered good news for those of us nauseated by self-serving promulgators of meritless class actions, and the high court is considering whether to hear still another important appeal that could further rein in class action abuse
Points of LightCalifornia’s leading journal for legal news has published a worthwhile story about the growing wave of preposterous consumer class actions that target the packaging and marketing of various food and beverage products, and which have found a welcoming embrace in the arms of judges comprising the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
Judicial HellholesThe federal District Court for the Northern District of California, known increasingly for its plaintiff-friendly embrace of preposterous food and beverage consumer class actions, is where apparently alcohol-obsessed litigants have filed a new, multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Anheuser-Busch, alleging that the actual alcohol content of various beers is marginally lower than labels indicate
Judicial HellholesJoining cookie-cutter lawsuits in California, a new nationwide class action filed in Minnesota names two plaintiffs — one from New York, the other from New Jersey — to represent millions of presumptive imbeciles who want our courts to believe they are incapable of reading and understanding federally mandated nutrition labels on boxes of granola bars
UncategorizedWith the record Tobacco Settlement in the books, opportunistic plaintiffs’ attorneys are now looking for their next big payday and it seems they have their target set on food manufacturers. More than a dozen lawyers who took on the tobacco companies have filed 25 cases aginst industry players like ConAgra Foods, PepsiCo, Heinz, General Mills and Chobani.
Judicial HellholesThis week, a wave of frivolous employment wage disputes has swept across the country. In just the last year roughly 7,000 lawsuits have been filed in federal court. Lawsuits alleging wage and hour violations have risen 400 percent over the last 11 years.
Judicial HellholesOn June 1, 2012, a California Judge stood up to parasitic trial lawyers and ruled that CVS does not have to provide chairs for its cashiers. The decision ended a ridiculous class action lawsuit filed in 2009 by Nykeya Kilby, a former lazy CVS cashier in Chula Vista, California.
Points of LightATRA keeps the heat on California’s plaintiff-friendly, anti-business courts with another letter to the editor in today’s Wall Street Journal
Judicial Hellholes