Blawgletter has never visited this building, but it looks familiar.
The New York Times and The Washington Post came out today with front-page stories on the Supreme Court's 2008 Term, which ended June 29. Both play the same music: "Roberts Court Shifts Right, Tipped by Kennedy" and "Term Saw High Court Move
Cocaine — or just stuff that looks like it?
The U.S. Supreme Court didn't decide any business cases today, but two of the appeals it did rule on bear some kinship to matters commercial.
The first involved whether general maritime law allows seamen to get punitive damages. The Court said yes. Atl. Sounding Co.
The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation has issued 24 25 Transfer Orders from its two-day session last month in Louisville, Kentucky.
District courts with "Southern" in their names triumphed, getting 10 of the 24 25 MDL matters.
By transferee district, here you go:
Northern District of California
MDL No. 2040, In re ConocoPhillips Co. Service
A different kind of aggregate.
At its annual meeting in May, the American Law Institute approved the final draft of Principles of the Law of Aggregate Litigation. The biggest fight concerned a tweak to the "aggregate-settlement" rule, which now applies in some form across the United States and the District of Columbia.
The current rule provides
Did Flowserve, um, inflate its financials?
To be successful, a securities class-action plaintiff must thread the eye of a needle made smaller and smaller over the years by judicial decree and congressional action. Those ever higher hurdles are not, however, intended to prevent viable securities actions from being brought.
Richard Marin Scrushy, before the fall.
In March 2003, HealthSouth Corporation admitted that it overstated its assets and inflated its profits. Securities fraud cases ensued. In 2006, HealthSouth and its insurers settled for $445 million. The district court okayed the deal, which not only released the settling defendants but also barred ex-CEO Richard Scrushy
The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday agreed (order list here) to decide if the federal Arbitration Act bars class arbitration unless the agreement to arbitrate allows it. As petitioners framed the issue:
In Green Tree Financial Corp. v. Bazzle, 539 U.S. 444 (2003), this Court granted certiorari to decide a question that had divided
The Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act has waxed and waned since Congress passed it, and President Richard Nixon signed it, in 1970 — at least for the treble-damages civil cases it authorizes.
Plaintiffs started suing under RICO a lot in the 1980s. District courts tried to quell them by calling for elaborate RICO "case statements". And courts
The Second Circuit today vacated an order that forced a law firm to share part of its contingent fee with other firms.
The case involved claims against the Republic of Libya for its role in the mid-air bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 on December 21, 1988. The crash near Lockerbie, Scotland, killed all 259 people on
Blawgletter today proudly welcomes as guest blawger a fellow Texan — Gerald E. Hawxhurst.
Jerry practiced law in New York and Los Angeles at Simpson Thacher and Quinn Emanuel before co-founding Baker Marquart Crone & Hawxhurst LLP in LA.
A Texan by birth/stays a Texan/anywhere on earth.
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California Court of Appeal Holds that Home State “Permission To