The Ninth Circuit today affirmed dismissal of an antitrust case for failure to allege an actionable conspiracy under the pleading requirements of Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 127 S. Ct. 1955 (2007). Parallel conduct, without more, doesn’t cut the Twombly mustard. Kendall v. Visa U.S.A., Inc., No. 05-16549 (9th Cir. Mar. 7, 2008).
Class Actions
Ninth Circuit Enforces Law Firm’s Promise to Pay Co-Counsel
By Barry Barnett on
The Ninth Circuit today upheld summary judgment against Law Firm A for shortchanging Law Firm B on the latter’s share of a $10.1 million contingent fee. Brown & Bain, P.A. v. John M. O’Quinn, No. 06-15931 (9th Cir. Mar. 6, 2008).
The losing outfit (Firm A) engaged Firm B to help handle an environmental…
Principles of the Law of Aggregate Litigation: Vioxx
By Barry Barnett on
The Restatement-producing American Law Institute has churned out a Tentative Draft of two key chapters in a path-breaking document — Principles of the Law of Aggregate Litigation. ALI members will consider whether to approve the Tentative Draft at the annual meeting in May of this year. Blawgletter has the honor of serving on…
The First Thing We Do, Let’s Kill All the Lawsuits
By Barry Barnett on
Shakespeare’s Dick the Butcher, in Henry VI, proposed to kill all the lawyers as a first step toward revolution.
President George W. Bush today insisted that Congress immunize telecommunications companies for invading Americans’ privacy via illegal wiretaps. Or else he’ll veto legislation for legal wiretapping going forward.
The rationale for the retroactivity angle? That the…
Etiquette for Negotiating Class Lawyers’ Fees
By Barry Barnett on
Class actions get a bad rap from people who compare big fees that lawyers earn with small payments that class members receive. Blawgletter hasn’t much patience with the argument. It makes the wrong comparison. The fees should bear a reasonable proportion to the benefits the lawyers secured for the class, not with what a single…
Tort Reform and the Right to Jury Trial (Update)
By Barry Barnett on
Update: See Blawgletter’s Face of Red.
The WSJ Law Blog reports this afternoon a $280 million verdict in a securities class action against the Apollo Group, which owns the near-ubiquitous University of Phoenix. The plaintiffs charged Apollo with suppressing a Department of Education report that criticized Phoenix’s, er, aggressive student-recruiting techniques, which…
“Trial Only” Class Counsel?
By Barry Barnett on
A little while ago, Blawgletter asked Should Class Action Plaintiffs Designate "Trial Only" Counsel? Today we got an answer.
Steve Foster commented:
Well, I’m a little late in starting a discourse, but here goes:
Disclosure: I’m a plaintiff’s lawyer.
It seems to me that the number one job of a defense lawyer is to
…
Chocolate Class Cases Commence
By Barry Barnett on
According to a local news report, direct purchasers of chocolate from Hershey, Mars, Cadbury Schweppes, and Nestle have started filing price-fixing cases and pleading for class action treatment.
Venue. Two of the cases are pending in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, federal court — just down the road from the Hershey headquarters in, uh, Hershey, Pennsylvania. …
Should Class Action Plaintiffs Designate “Trial-Only Counsel”?
By Barry Barnett on
Some prominent defense lawyers recently suggested that plaintiffs should hire "trial-only counsel" in class actions. The trial-only counsel would have little, if any, pretrial involvement and no obligation except to try the case.
The defense lawyers believed that lining up genuine trial counsel for plaintiffs would add significant value to the class claims. The trial-only…