Free Republic

You may have heard about the attorney who sued his dry cleaner for $67 million for losing his pants, or the movie-goer who sued over her disappointment that “Drive” wasn’t another “Fast and the Furious,” or even the various lawsuits against God. Frivolous lawsuits are a big problem in America, driving up the cost of doing business and transferring massive amounts of wealth to lawyers, too often for little in return. That problem is multiplied in class-action lawsuits, in which plaintiffs claim to act on behalf of thousands, even millions, of other non-consenting individuals. In class-action lawsuits the threat of...

A Connecticut Appellate Court recently issued an order dismissing an appeal in Gilland v. Sportsmen’s Outpost, Inc. – a Superior Court decision granting a firearm retailer’s motion to dismiss all claims against it pursuant to the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (“PLCAA”). The PLCAA was passed in 2005 with broad bipartisan support. The purpose of the act is to prevent firearms manufacturers and retailers from being held liable for crimes committed with their products. In this case, the plaintiffs, who were represented by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, sought to hold the firearms retailer liable in...

Jury awards $24M to Pa. men burned after climbing rail car Associated Press PHILADELPHIA - A federal jury awarded $24.2 million to two men who were severely burned by electrical wires when they trespassed onto railroad property and climbed atop a rail car. Jeffrey Klein and Brett Birdwell, who were 17 at the time of the accident, sued Amtrak and Norfolk Southern Corp. after being burned by a 12,500-volt electrical wire in Lancaster in August 2002. In their lawsuit, they argued that the companies should have placed warning signs alerting people to the wires, which power locomotives. After an 11-day...

About 40 percent of the medical malpractice cases filed in the United States are groundless, according to a Harvard analysis of the hotly debated issue that pits trial lawyers against doctors, with lawmakers in the middle. Many of the lawsuits analyzed contained no evidence that a medical error was committed or that the patient suffered any injury, the researchers reported. The vast majority of those dubious cases were dismissed with no payout to the patient. However, groundless lawsuits still accounted for 15 percent of the money paid out in settlements or verdicts. The study's lead researcher, David Studdert of the...

ARCADIA, Calif. -- Did your high school coach use some strong language? Attorney Michael Oddenino sued the coach of his daughter's junior varsity softball team, charging that the man called his girl a 2-year-old and frequently called other players idiots. But the lawyer has struck out. A California judge has dismissed the case against coach Don Riggio and the Arcadia Unified School District. Riggio, varsity coach Ed Andersen and the Arcadia Unified School District were named as defendants in the suit seeking $3 million for intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, negligence, a civil rights violation and sex discrimination....

Thursday September 9, 2004 9:24AM est Windham, Maine -- The Washington DC Brady Group would have you believe they won some kind of victory! The Brady Group brought this lawsuit not for the victims, but for their anti-gun agenda. The Brady Group asked for the settlement conference after reviewing all the evidence they knew they could not be successful in court and they wanted to stop paying lawyer fees. The Brady Group sent a second tier lawyer to the settlement conference with nine demands on Bushmaster regarding business practices and Bushmaster denied them all. We then gave the Brady Group...