Saturday, August 27, 2005

California Food Police

First you couldn't eat a french fry on the D.C. subway (an unwise policy D.C. quickly retracted). Now, California's attorney general is suing french fry and potato chip makers...


California Attorney General Bill Lockyer sued nine fast-food giants yesterday, saying the law requires them to tell the public their potato chips and French fries contain a toxic chemical.


The "toxic chemical" in question, acrylamide, occurs naturally in all starchy foods when they are cooked at high heat.

Lawsuit filed over labeling potato chips and French fries

Friday, August 26, 2005

How lawyers behave when the clients aren't watching

A new "tell all" novel written by a young City of London lawyer, Fish Sunday Thinking by Alex Gilmore.


young women are ranked by the size of their breasts rather than their legal acumen...sex is a commodity designed to advance careers...a large proportion of workaholic young lawyers blow their pay packets on alcohol.


Fish Sunday ThinkingFish Sunday Thinking by Alex Gilmore

Sunday, August 21, 2005

They couldn't do it without the jurors

Texas jurors awarded $253 million in the first ever verdict against Merck & Co. in a trial involving a death linked to its painkiller, Vioxx. Aside from the outrageous size of the verdict generally, things get even screwier. The jury awarded $24 million in actual damages. The largest component of actual damages is usually lost income- right or wrong, that's the way our legal system is supposed to work. The poor fellow that died was a 59 year old produce manager at Wal-Mart. Let's be generous and say that his ticker would have lasted 30 years without the Vioxx and that he would have worked 20 of those 30 years (to age 79). Now let's assume Wal-Mart pays way more than it does, say $100,000 a year and a discount rate equal to today's federal funds rate which is historically low. (A higher rate would make future wages worth less). The lost wage portion of actual damages would be $831,660.33 with those generous assumptions.

Needless to say, Merck will appeal.

(You can use this Net Present Value calculator to check the results.)

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Pentagon lawyers

More information on how lawyers prevented intelligence sharing during the Clinton administration that could have stopped 9/11 cold in its tracks:


Shaffer said Able Danger identified Atta and three other Sept. 11 hijackers in 2000, but that military lawyers stopped the unit from sharing the information with the FBI out of concerns about the legality of gathering and sharing information on people in the U.S.

“The lawyers’ view was to leave them alone, they had the same basic rights as a U.S. citizen, a U.S. person and therefore the data was kind of left alone,” Shaffer said.

Shaffer said he and a Navy officer disagreed with that and tried to set up meetings with the FBI, but each time the idea was rejected by lawyers from the Special Operations command.

Monday, August 15, 2005

I think he may even be suing me

William Rodriguez has filed the sort of lawsuit that you normally expect to see from a pro se litigant, the sort that under normal circumstance even a lawyer wouldn't want to associate his name with. But Mr. Rodriguez managed to find representation for his RICO complaint against, well, pretty much everybody for planning, conspiring, covering up and lying about about the 9/11 attacks. The list of plaintiffs even includes such noteables as Kevin Smith, who as far as I know is a movie director and comic book writer.


32. Against the criminals who have hijacked not just four airplanes but the government of the United States, and who have virtually unlimited financial and other resources at their disposal, stands a solitary American hero — whose valor shone brightly on that day, as defendants were flown hither and yon, and skulked in “undisclosed secure locations.” Plaintiff has continued to shine in his selfless, unpaid efforts to relieve the suffering of the victims, as the defendants have launched wars and inflicted measureless suffering, to benefit themselves and their cronies. Plaintiff, in the utmost good faith, alleges that there is much evidence that this happened, or at the very least was allowed to happen, to further the defendants’ imperial aspirations and their monetary greed, and (as no one in government has done their duty to investigate, expose and prosecute these crimes) this lawsuit may be the only peaceable means to reveal the truth.


Well, not totally alone. This "hero" does have his lawyer to help him "reveal the truth".

Lawyers claim molested girl was to blame

Apparently lawyers have less moral compass than child molesters.

In a lawsuit by a 4th grade girl molested by her teacher, the school district's lawyers claimed "contributory negligence" on the part of the victim.

At his sentencing hearing, the molester said "Nothing that happened is her fault. It's all my fault." Tell that to the sharks.

Judge impedes our security

A federal judge has blocked new rules at the Department of Homeland Security designed to allow flexibility in hiring, firing and deploying employees. The rules were intended to provide the agency with authority to make decisions based on the security needs of the nation rather than civil service or union rules. The judge has decided that the right of union employees to a fat paycheck is more important than our right to life.

The Department of Homeland Security, after more than two years of work on new workplace rules, may have to scrap the plan after a federal judge questioned whether it protects union and employee rights.

The rules were scheduled to begin today but were blocked by U.S. District Judge Rosemary M. Collyer in a ruling released Friday night.

Saturday, August 13, 2005

Is this really a good idea?

Is it really a good idea to have the International Atomic Energy Agency headed up by a lawschool classmate of Saddam Hussein?


In 1961, [Hussein] entered Cairo University School of Law, but did not finish his studies there.


[Dr. Mohamed] ElBaradei earned a Bachelor's degree in Law from the University of Cairo in 1962.


ElBaradei is the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Why was this never mentioned by the media when ElBaradei was in charge of the Iraq weapons inspections? Is Cairo University law department the Middle East Skull and Bones?

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Did lawyers allow 9/11?

According to news reports, a military special operation identified 9/11 lead hijacker Mohammed Atta and 3 other members of an al Qaeda cell in 2000, but


government lawyers advised the military's Special Operations Command, which oversaw "Able Danger," not to forward the information apparently because the four were in the United States legally on visas and should not be subject to a military operation.

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Class action lawlessness

Zenophobia links to an article on the latest class action abuse.

In 2000 or 2001, Sony Pictures created the fictitious movie critic "David Manning" to push their movies to potential moviegoers. Quotes from "Manning" were included in advertising for several movies. So, some lawyers decided to get themselves a plaintiff and sue on behalf of anyone who went to one of those movies. They made themselves "$500,000 in attorneys fees". And what did they get for the moviegoers?

Under terms of the agreement, moviegoers who bought tickets to any of the four films between Aug. 3, 2000, and Oct. 31, 2001, could file a claim that could return them as much as $5 for each ticket purchased. Unclaimed portions of the settlement fund are to be earmarked for charity.


Whoohoo!!!! $5. I wonder if you have to be able to produce your 4 year old ticket stub or if this is on the honor system?

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Saddam's Lawyers

Saddam Hussein's lawyers are threatening to boycott court proceedings until the tribunal apologizes for not preventing an alleged attack on Hussein.


lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi, who attended the court appearance, insisted the allegation was true and demanded the government acknowledges it. He also insisted the Iraqi special tribunal apologise for the incident, guarantee the safety of Saddam and other former regime figures during future appearances, and punish the alleged attacker. Mr Dulaimi said Saddam's lawyers would stop attending any further proceedings "until our demands are met".


So, are they abusing the process to delay the start of the trial or are they leaving their client without representation as the court proceeds regardless of their "boycott." If it's the first and the strategy works will we see defense attorneys all over the world "boycotting" court proceedings to buy their clients more time?