Free Republic

Organized labor, already reeling from a potentially major financial hit thanks to a Supreme Court ruling last week that could result in millions of public-sector workers cutting off funding, could be subject to another blow from the justices: class-action suits from those workers seeking to get paid back from the unions. In a little-noticed action, the Supreme Court invalidated a ruling last week by the 7th Circuit Court denying class-action certification in a case called Riffey v. Rauner. The case involved nonunion state-subsidized Illinois home healthcare workers seeking to be repaid the funds that for years they were forced to...

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A top class-action law firm and two of its partners pleaded not guilty to charges of secretly paying more than $11 million in kickbacks to get people to take part in shareholder lawsuits. At the second of two hearings Monday, Prosecutor Douglas Axel said there is a "significant possibility" of a future superseding indictment being filed, which may add additional claims and parties. Also pleading not guilty Monday in federal court were Seymour M. Lazar, who is accused of acting as a paid plaintiff in some of the firm's cases, and Paul T. Selzer, who is...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 26 — Congress broke for Thanksgiving with a final burst of partisan recriminations over the conduct of a session that produced Medicare changes, tax cuts and hard feelings certain to spill over into the 2004 campaign. Republican leaders, who labeled Democrats obstructionists, celebrated the addition of prescription drug coverage to the Medicare insurance program as just the latest in a string of accomplishments that could improve their appeal with a range of voters. Democrats asserted that Republicans, in their drive to prove they could deliver when controlling both the House and the Senate, badly bent Congressional rules and...

<p>Hilda Bankston's only crime was filling FDA-approved drug prescriptions in Jefferson County, Miss. That's when the lawyers stepped in, smelling blood in the water.</p> <p>For nearly 30 years, through hard work and long hours, Mrs. Bankston and her late husband had earned a solid reputation for running a caring and honest pharmacy helping people by filling their prescription needs. The Bankstons were living the American Dream.</p>

WASHINGTON #150; Some legal policy analysts have long blamed abusive class-action lawsuits for endangering the economic health of America and for clogging the court system with bogus claims. But recently, some legal experts say even quot;legitimatequot; class-action suits subvert political policy-making by legislating new laws. quot;I am not saying that every class-action suit is destructive, but there is a large subset of class-action lawsuits that are very destructive to tort law in general,quot; Todd Gaziano, director of Heritage Foundation's Center for Judicial and Legal Studies, told United Press International. quot;Lawyers are not only undeniably making public policy, but also making...