Free Republic

Lawsuit reform is an issue that enjoys wide-ranging bipartisan support, with demonstrated appeal to advocates of small government and progressive government alike. All Americans have an interest in the fundamental rule of law and in the fair and justified treatment of participants in our economy. As lawsuit reform aims to pursue accurate justice, so it aims to keep the economy properly functioning. Oklahoma legislators recently voted in bipartisan majorities to reinstate more than two dozen lawsuit reforms that had previously been struck down on a technicality by the state supreme court. Alabama passed a key lawsuit reform with overwhelming majorities...

For a marketplace to function properly, a legal system must incentivize good behavior and punish bad behavior. Lawsuits exist to make the wrongly injured financially whole by the injurer. If the wrong party is required to pay for an injury, justice is not served. Likewise, if an individual is awarded a windfall of overcompensation for an injury, justice is not served. These scenarios are just as problematic as if a defendant were to not compensate the injured for an injury they legitimately caused. Lawsuit Reform for Competitive State Economies, a new report from the Task Force on Civil Justice, translates...

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) wanted to send a “message” by fining a department store almost $4 million after they failed to “report immediately” to the federal government that they were selling children’s clothing with drawstrings. Ross Stores, Inc. settled with the agency in June, agreeing to pay a $3.9 million civil penalty after they “knowingly failed to report to CPSC immediately, as required by federal law, that it sold or held for sale, about 23,000 children’s upper outerwear garments with drawstrings at the neck or waist.” The company said it settled to avoid costly litigation and denies...

Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura couldn't enumerate just how a Navy SEAL sniper's book defamed him, but he said he'd had a hard time finding work since the book came out. He also said his main complaint about it -- that the late Chris Kyle's tale that he decked Ventura for badmouthing SEALs was untrue -- left him worrying if people think he's a traitor. "Every day of my life, I walk around looking over my shoulder now, wondering who believes that and who doesn't," Ventura said in response to a question from Kyle's lawyer, John Borger.

Former FBI Director Louis Freeh will investigate possible misconduct by a lawyer involved in making payments to settle claims by people and businesses affected by the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, the judge in the spill damages case said on Tuesday.

RIVER EDGE — A Florida man filed a lawsuit today claiming he suffered serious burns from a spilled cup of hot coffee while dining at a McDonald's restaurant in Bergen County, according to a report on NorthJersey.com. The 54-year-old plaintiff is seeking an unspecified amount in compensatory and punitive damages, the report said.

Disgraced lawyer Melvyn Weiss violated his parole by drinking and driving but a federal judge isn't sending the sad sack back to jail as reported by Dana Feldman and Nate Raymond for Reuters: "Weiss, 77, reached a deal with federal prosecutors on the eve of a Friday hearing in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on whether to revoke his release following an arrest in December for driving under the influence in Boynton Beach, Florida. The agreement came after Weiss pleaded guilty to the DUI charge on April 18 in Florida and was sentenced to 12 months probation and 50...

The Association of Corporate Counsel is challenging the apparent practice by at least some plaintiffs' firms of using temporary attorneys as profit centers in class actions as reported by Daniel Fisher for Forbes. The 30,000-member trade group has filed a letter with a Manhattan federal court which must approve a $100 million fee request by trial lawyers who negotiated a $590 million settlement in a securities action against Citigroup, and contends that the high rates sought for the temporary lawyers are "beyond what a reasonable, paying client would be willing to pay." In class action lawsuits a substantial portion of...

Schools have begun ripping out swings and slides from playgrounds because they can no longer afford huge compensation payouts when children suffer minor cuts and grazes. The claims have become so common that even school trips to the seaside are being canceled in case pupils injure themselves while paddling in the sea and their parents then sue. Education authorities face big bills even if a child is hurt while defying school rules by climbing walls or trees. Lawyers all over the country are fueling the problem by offering parents no-win no-fee deals. Some firms have even set up telephone hotlines...

Summary: According to a new, comprehensive report by Lex Machina, more than half of all patent lawsuits in the US now come from patent trolls.Patent lawsuits are used as weapons in business wars between companies such as Oracle vs. Google and Apple vs. Samsung. Behind the intellectual property (IP) headlines, however, Lex Machina, a Silicon Valley startup, has found that patent troll lawsuits have increased from 24 percent of cases filed in 2007 to 56% in 2012. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a "patent troll uses patents as legal weapons, instead of actually creating any new products or coming...

A British Transport Police officer has been paid an estimated £10,000 ($15,371) compensation after falling off a chair while on London Underground premises. The award was part of nearly £5 million paid out by Transport for London over the past three years in compensation to people injured on the Tube, buses, railways, roads and pavements. The payouts were condemned as a “result of living in a compensation culture gone mad”. …

$100 million lawsuit on behalf of a student who survived.

HOUSTON (CN) - A gay couple claims in court that Continental Airlines workers humiliated them by taking a dildo from their baggage and taping it outside the bag for everyone in baggage claim to see. Christopher Bridgeman and Martin Borger sued United Continental Holdings and Continental Airlines in Harris County Court. The men say they arrived in Houston from Costa Rica, retrieved their undisturbed checked luggage and after going through Customs rechecked their bags for a flight to Norfolk, Va. "Upon arriving in Norfolk, plaintiffs exited the aircraft and went to the baggage claim area," the complaint states. "Plaintiffs' bags...

In the Obamacare decision on Thursday, the five conservative Supreme Court Justices rejected the unlimited scope of the Commerce Clause and the Necessary & Proper Clause envisioned by proponents of federal tort reform bills (especially caps on damages in medical malpractice lawsuits).

Ain’t that America! A greedy New Jersey woman is trying to cash in on a clutzy Little League catcher — claiming he intentionally beaned her in the face with a baseball during a warm-up session with his pitcher.

Loyal Consumerist readers and retail-watchers may remember the 2010 incident in which a 16-year-old took over the PA system of a New Jersey Walmart and announced, "Attention Walmart customers: all black people must leave the store." The prankster had done the same thing a few months before, and was charged with harassment and bias intimidation for each incident. Now, more than two years later, someone has filed a lawsuit against the store over the incident. He claims to have been in the store at the time of the prank, and that the incident led to "depression, anxiety, anger, loss of...

Imagine the horror of having your home or business plundered by thieves. Not a good feeling, but even harder to fathom that the bad guys who did it could end up suing you in court. State lawmakers say an existing legal loophole allows thieves to file civil lawsuits against home and business owners if they end up getting injured while intruding. But a bill working its way through the Alabama State Legislature would put an end to the practice. If approved, House Bill 46 would grant immunity to property owners from civil lawsuits by criminals in almost all circumstances. State...

The last few years have revealed an ugly underbelly to the plaintiffs’ bar, and some of the biggest trial lawyers across the country have been brought down in criminal prosecutions for their sharp practices. Bill Lerach and Mel Weiss, two legal eagles who made a fortune in bringing security fraud class actions against publicly traded companies, pleaded guilty in October 2007 and April 2008, respectively, for their roles in an alleged decades-long conspiracy pursuant to which serial plaintiffs were paid kickbacks from their court-awarded attorneys’ fees in the cases. The Milberg Weiss firm at which both men once were partners...

That $279 million no-fault insurance scam cops busted Thursday gives added value to the term “ambulance-chasing.” It also shows why New Yorkers, who indirectly foot the tab for the fraud, need serious reform from Albany. (And never mind the ambulance-chaser — er, trial-lawyer — lobbyists fighting for the status quo.) * * * [T]he crackdown casts a bright spotlight on the huge sums New Yorkers are paying unnecessarily for their auto insurance through the no-fault system. And for that, they can thank, in large part, the self-interested tort-law crowd. The fraud ring, dominated by immigrants from the former Soviet Union,...

On the campaign trail, GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum says he will push to limit payments to victims in medical malpractice lawsuits, which he blames for unnecessarily driving up health-care costs. And over the course of his two decades in politics, he repeatedly spoke in favor of capping such awards. But Santorum testified in support of his wife when she filed a medical malpractice suit in 1999 that sought $500,000, twice the cap in his 1994 legislative proposal. Karen Santorum claimed that a Fairfax chiropractor had left her with a permanent back injury that probably would result in a lifetime...