With an op-ed in today’s edition of Politico, Congressman Don Young of Alaska describes a troubling arrangement between the Environmental Protection Agency and various environmental groups as “perhaps the most devious way in which agencies make sweeping policy changes, while keeping Congress and the American people in the dark”
UncategorizedIn a desperate effort to marshal political forces against reform of Wisconsin’s infamously lawyer-friendly “lemon law,” self-proclaimed “Lemon Law King” Vince Megna has reportedly sent a letter to auto dealerships in the state, proclaiming they’ll become the targets of newly fashioned federal lawsuits if state law makes it harder for him to go after manufacturers
UncategorizedSays Applying Brakes to Runaway Lawyers Good for Consumers, Auto Industry . FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Darren McKinney (202)
Judicial Hellholes, Points of LightA 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 LightAn investigative report by a New Orleans television station has turned up the heat on Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell and his so-called “Buddy System,” wherein his big campaign contributors not so coincidentally get the lion’s share of no-bid contracts for litigation work on behalf of the state
Judicial HellholesThe 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 LightA recent decision by Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court shows how disturbingly far consumer protection laws have been stretched and contorted beyond their intended purpose by plaintiffs’ lawyers and some courts
Judicial HellholesA newly released annual survey of the nation’s CEOs confirms that California, currently ranked as the #1 Judicial Hellhole, not coincidentally ranks as the worst state in which to do business, as well
Judicial HellholesAs 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 LightIn 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 LightThe 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 LightApparently tired of living in the shadow of Las Vegas, Nevada, jackpot justice capital of the Mountain West, little Las Vegas, New Mexico, in rural San Miguel County, has now become notorious for forum shopping as it vies for Judicial Hellholes status in its own right
Judicial HellholesA spokesman for the American Tort Reform Association today pointed out the fact that the national trial lawyers association and a personal-injury law firm known for aggressive advertising are both listing the same Washington, D.C., office address as theirs
UncategorizedNevada’s leading newspaper has condemned the latest absurd verdict and half-billion dollar award for punitive damages in a string of deep pocket-targeting cases that has helped make Clark County courts look more and more like Las Vegas casinos
Judicial HellholesIn an op-ed published today by the State Journal in West Virginia, ATRA president Tiger Joyce offered support for the state’s new attorney general, Patrick Morrisey, and his proposed transparency policies aimed at providing the public with more information about the hiring of outside counsel
Judicial HellholesPicking up where the latest Judicial Hellholes report left off, the Wall Street Journal this week editorialized about the consolidation game that asbestos kingpin Peter Angelos is trying to play in Baltimore
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, UncategorizedATRA considers a recent ABA Journal story about constitutional challenges to statutory liability limits to be “largely fair,” but believes “it’s slightly weighted toward the view of plaintiffs’ lawyers and could lead a general reader to incorrect assumptions
UncategorizedThe 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 LightIn 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. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit this week threw a hard fastball under the chin of plaintiffs’ lawyers from the firm of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP for their habit of making allegations they couldn’t prove and possibly knew to be false
Judicial Hellholes