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On Monday afternoon the victim-rights lawyer Gloria Allred took the stage with a fourth woman named Sharon Bialek alleging that pizza mogul Herman Cain sexually harassed her ten years ago while he was CEO of the National Restaurant Association. She is reportedly the first such woman to publicly come forward. Allred’s long and impressive career has included representation of Scary Spice and various alleged Tiger Woods mistresses, and attacking the late Michael Jackson for child endangerment. Given the import of the moment, this seems like the right time for a roundup of some of her more important victories rooting out...

Anyone who has met me knows I'm totally like, no fan of 26-year-old woman Meghan McCain. I found her latest threat to sue Erick Erickson at RedState.com for "illegally using her byline" on Leon Wolf's "Totally Meghan McCain" parody columns absolutely hilarious. Even better, McCain claimed the parodies, which were poorly written on purpose, could be confused with her real columns at The Daily Best. The buxom blogette tweeted: Sexist? Really? Here is part of the parody post that triggered McCain's lawsuit threat: Firstly in the first place, some people had a question about my very obvious statement, “I don’t...

Delaware Superior Court Judge Peggy L. Ableman ordered two opposing lawyers in asbestos litigation to attend a mandatory civility course over the Labor Day weekend. A letter addressed to attorneys Loreta P. Rufo and David W. deBruin suggested they needed a refresher course in civility. In the Sept. 1 letter, which was posted in Abovethelaw.com, Ableman wrote, "In view of the recent correspondence regarding the Anderson and Morgan trials, the Court has decided that it is necessary to ...

US Preparing To Sue Banks For Billions Over Misrepresenting Safety Of Mortgage Securities Zeke Miller Sep. 1, 2011, 10:37 PM The New York Times scoops that the federal government is preparing to file suit against a dozen major banks in the coming days for their roles in 2008 financial crisis. The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is alleging that the banks misrepresented the quality of mortgages bundled together as securities — billing subprime loans as secure investments. Among the banks set to be slapped with lawsuits according to the Times are: Bank of America,...

A man who has filed well over a hundred lawsuits against local small-business owners says he's an advocate for the disabled. His critics say what he does is harassment and extortion. James Farkus Cohan says he's disabled with end-stage emphysema. He sues small businesses, claiming those businesses are violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Cohan has filed at least 161 lawsuits... Eyewitness News caught up with Cohan after his daily hike up a steep hill near his Sun Valley home. He was hiking without a wheelchair, walker or oxygen tank.

PHILADELPHIA - It seems the Eagles aren't the only team in town ready for some NFL action. The lawyers of Anapol, Schwartz, Weiss, Cohan, Feldman and Smalley have taken on the National Football League in federal court. Seven former professional football players -- among them former Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jim McMahon and Philadelphia Eagles lineman Gerry Feehery -- retained the Philadelphia law firm, alleging the NFL failed ...

(CBS/AP) PHILADELPHIA - Six former players and one current player have sued the NFL in Philadelphia over the league's handling of concussion-related injuries, the first potential class-action lawsuit of its kind. The players accuse the league of training players to hit with their heads, failing to properly treat them for concussions and trying to conceal for decades any links between football and brain injuries. The plaintiffs include two-time Super Bowl champion Jim McMahon, who has said he played through five concussions but now frequently walks around "in a daze" and forgets why he entered a room. The suit accuses the...

The unique way Texas regulates air pollution from refineries, chemical plants and other major industries is no more — for now. The EPA said Tuesday all 136 industrial plants with state-issued permits that do not meet federal Clean Air Act requirements have agreed to apply for new ones. The announcement comes one year after the federal agency rejected Texas' use of so-called flexible permits. But the dispute is not over, because state officials and at least 10 industry groups are challenging the EPA's actions in federal court. Gov. Rick Perry and other Texas officials have said the EPA was threatening...

A special congressional election Tuesday in Southern California gave Republicans a surprising opening to seize a House seat in a Democratic stronghold and send a powerful message nationally going into 2012. Democrats hold a commanding 18-point registration edge in the district where Barack Obama notched a 31-point win in 2008, but the likelihood of a meager turnout, combined with widespread voter anxiety over the economy, could make for a tight finish. Republican businessman Craig Huey has been attacking President Obama relentlessly, arguing the nation needs deep cuts in tax, debt and spending to drive job growth. Democrat Janice Hahn has...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry is able to boast about job growth under his watch, noting that over 265,000 jobs, or nearly 37 percent of the jobs created nationwide since the summer of 2009, have been created in the Lone Star state. He credits this growth to a few simple conditions: low taxes, a regulatory climate that is fair and predictable, and a legal system that limits frivolous lawsuits. According to the Wall Street Journal, nearly one-fourth of the 70 companies that left California this year relocated to Texas. When new or relocating companies and investors survey the landscape and consider...

When a fully clothed, apparently suicidal man walked into the San Francisco Bay from Shoreline Drive, in Alamdea County, all the would-be rescuers could do was watch. For about an hour. Why their boots stayed dry is a matter of debate Wednesday, the day after 57-year-old Raymond Zack was pronounced dead at an Alameda County hospital. The water's depth and temperature may have played a role. As did budget cuts. The Alameda Fire Department's water rescue program was discontinued in 2009 because of budget cuts. "(The) Alameda Fire Department does not currently have, and is not certified, in land-based water...

The regulatory aims of the EPA to curb CO2 emissions; the continued push for carbon cap and trade legislation; and, the ongoing attempts by the international body politic to arrive at an operating framework to address climate change, all of these are now joined by our children’s efforts to get the judiciary to act to protect the planet. Well, maybe not your child or mine, but some youths throughout the country are now plaintiffs in various lawfare battles intended to obtain from the courts what climate change activists cannot seem to accomplish through the legislative and regulatory processes. Alec Loorz...

The state Supreme Court breathed new life Thursday into lawsuits by seriously ill ex-smokers, ruling that a former cigarette addict can seek damages from tobacco companies for her cancer despite having failed to sue for earlier smoking-related illnesses... The California Supreme Court removed one obstacle to tobacco suits by ruling in 2007 that the two-year deadline started running when former smokers learned that they were ill, and not merely that they were addicted...

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski on Wednesday offered a strong defense of his agency’s new Internet traffic regulations, telling skeptical Republican lawmakers that existing laws were not strong enough to police the large firms that operate the Web’s infrastructure.. “In my view, while critically important, antitrust laws alone would not adequately preserve the freedom and openness of the Internet,” the FCC chief told a House Judiciary subcommittee on the hot-button issue of “net neutrality.”

In a long-sought move, the University of Miami won a legislative victory on Wednesday when Florida lawmakers agreed to extend state lawsuit protection to university doctors working in public hospitals. Gov. Rick Scott will likely sign the bill into law. Scott is also expected to sign another lawsuit-limitation bill that passed Wednesday that changes the way people can sue automobile makers. The vote to give “sovereign immunity” to UM has been years in the making. The state protects government hospital employees, residents and interns — including those at Miami’s Jackson Health System — from major medical malpractice judgments. But UM...

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) -- A group of attorneys using children and young adults as plaintiffs plans to file legal actions in every state and the District of Columbia on Wednesday in an effort to force government intervention on climate change. The courtroom ploy is backed by high-profile activists looking for a legal soft spot to advance a cause that has stumbled in the face of stiff congressional opposition and a skeptical U.S. Supreme Court. The goal is to have the atmosphere declared for the first time as a "public trust" deserving special protection. That's a concept previously used to clean...

Last Tuesday, a man by the name of Chip Thoma filed a lawsuit against Governor Palin over an alleged “traffic conspiracy.” Yes, you read that right… If you’re thinking this sounds like some sort of ridiculous frivolous complaint, you would be correct. Mr. Thoma isn’t new to Governor Palin, nor is he new to filing frivolous claims against Alaskan Governors. However, you wouldn’t know much about this case if you got all of your news from the Associated Press. Becky Bohrer, the AP writer who covered the story, not only posted her story with an embarrassing grammatical error, but she...

Not content to pack off millions of miscreants, impoverished or labor-averse citizens to the welcoming, welfare bestowing arms of the United States government, Mexican President Felipe Calderon has decided to hold Americans responsible for his nation’s crime rate as well. On November 2nd, 2010, Calderon retained the New York law firm of Reid, Collins and Tsai to sue American gun manufacturers and dealers for the reputed massive influx of weapons into the otherwise zephyr-swept, Shangri La of Mexico. “We seized more than 90,000 weapons…I am talking like 50,000 assault weapons, AR 15 machine guns, more than 8,000 grenades and almost...

The following is adapted from a speech delivered on February 16, 2011, at a Hillsdale College National Leadership Seminar in Phoenix, Arizona. TO BEGIN, consider one of the most important measures of property, the kilogram. It’s a measure of mass or, for non-scientific purposes, weight. According to the papers last week, a global scramble is under way to define this most basic unit after it was discovered that the standard kilogram—a cylinder of platinum and iridium that is maintained by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures—has been losing mass. You may think that this is impossible. Of all the...

The Republican-led House of Representatives is fighting back against big-money plaintiffs’ attorneys who use campaign cash to control congressional Democrats. A provision in the budget continuing resolution would forbid government from spending funds to implement a new Consumer Product Safety Commission program. On March 11, the CPSC is set to launch a new online database publishing thousands of outside complaints about allegedly unsafe products. These attacks would be publicized before any investigation and without independent evidence that complaints are legitimate. It’s an open invitation for competitors or interest groups to destroy a product’s reputation - and sales - without proof....