A cartoon from Barnett’s Notes.
The Sixth Circuit considered a case today that illustrates a trial lawyer indulging her dislike of opposing counsel.
Anna Mayday sued the Saginaw Public Library after she lost her job in the genealogy and history division. She alleged age discrimination and violation of the Family and Medical Leave Act.
Objector Koehler wanted two bites.
May a lead class plaintiff object to a class action settlement as inadequate, lose, and later sue class counsel for getting an inadequate settlement? Unsurprisingly, the Eighth Circuit today held that he may not, concluding that the district court’s approval of the settlement as fair, adequate, and reasonable precluded the
See the transcript of the oral argument this morning in Credit Suisse First Boston (USA), LLC v. Billing, No. 05-1157 (U.S.) here.
Blawgletter has now read the transcript and offers these impressions:
The U.S. Supreme Court today narrowed the circumstances in which a private citizen may pursue a qui tam case under the False Claims Act. The relator, James Stone, alleged in his original complaint that defects in a piping system resulted in insolid "pondcrete" blocks, in which Stone’s employer, Rockwell, stored radioactive sludge for the federal
Blawgletter read this morning in the WSJ an op-ed item that totes up the annual costs of "excessive" tort litigation, arriving at an estimate of $865.37 billion. Blawgletter also studied the Pacific Research Institute paper that explains the authors’ methodology. Blawgletter’s inescapable conclusion? That tort lawsuits produce only human misery and homicide.
How, you may
Remember that Blawgletter said we’d post transcripts for the oral arguments in the business cases that the U.S. Supreme Court hears this week? Here goes the first one — in Leegin Creative Leather Products, Inc. v. PSKS, Inc., No. 06-480, an antitrust case involving resale price maintenance.
Barry Barnett
A decision today by the Federal Circuit may encourage patent holders to sue for infringement first and discuss settlement later. In SanDisk Corp. v. STMicroelectronics, Inc., 05-1300 (Fed. Cir. Mar. 26, 2007), the court reversed dismissal of SanDisk’s declaratory judgment lawsuit for lack of a "case or controversy" between SanDisk and STMicroelectronics over infringement
The U.S. Supreme Court today agreed to review the underpinnings of the Fifth Circuit’s 2-1 decision last week to decertify a class of Enron shareholders. In Stoneridge Investment Partners, LLS v. Scientific-Atlanta, Inc., No. 06-43 (U.S. Mar. 26, 2007) (order granting cert. here), the Court will consider whether the Eighth Circuit erred in
Do you know any lawyers who’ll do whatever their clients tell them to do? Or, worse, whatever they think their clients want them to do? Who leap whenever clients say jump — and out of habit pirouette even when they don’t hear their masters’ voice?
Blawgletter hopes you don’t know any like that. Blawgletter also
As you will recall, earlier this month a federal jury in Alexandria, Virginia, found that Vonage’s internet telephone service infringes Verizon patent claims and awarded Verizon $58 million plus future royalties. Yesterday, the trial judge said he would issue a permanent injunction against further infringement but would wait two weeks so he can consider
