News from Across the Country



February 11
New Web Site Highlights Abusive Lawsuit Stories
By now you've probably heard of the Washington, D.C. judge who sued his dry cleaners for millions of dollars over a pair of pants. Now there's a Web site that tells their story -- and many other personal stories of lawsuit abuse -- in their own words.

November 14
Judge Who Sued Over Pants Loses Job
A judge who lost a $54 million lawsuit against his dry cleaner over a pair of missing pants has lost his job, District of Columbia officials said.

November 13
Opinion Editorial: AGs Gone Wild
District Attorneys have "National Prosecution Standards." U.S. Attorneys have their own ethics manual. But what about state Attorneys General? They get to make everything up as they go, as their increasingly aggressive prosecutions are showing. The problem is laid out in a new report by the Institute for Legal Reform, an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, that deserves more publicity.

September 05
Lawyers in Iowa lawsuit against Microsoft to get $75M
A $75 million payout to the lawyers who sued Microsoft Corp. over antitrust claims in Iowa has some people in the state hopping mad.

September 04
Ohio Supreme Court paves way for referendum on tort reform law
The future of Ohio's most debated tort reform law appears to be in the hands of its citizens.

September 03
Lost luggage prompts lawsuit
A Tacoma couple and another traveler whose bags were lost on British Airways flights filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against the airline. The lawsuit charges that British Airways has lost 550,000 bags this year -- some of them permanently -- and is suffering from a "massive backlog" of misplaced luggage.

September 01
Lawyers in lawsuit get $75 million
Lawyers who sued Microsoft Corp. will receive $75 million in legal fees and expenses, or an average of about $575 an hour for each of the 117,000 hours that about 150 lawyers, paralegals and law clerks worked on the case. That average rate is well above the $300 to $400 an hour billed by top partners in Des Moines' larger law firms.

August 23
Makeover, Trial Lawyer Style (Blog)
Last year, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America decided that a few among their ranks had brought disrepute to the trial lawyers' reputation. So they decided to take a stand against the bad actors in their ranks and call for reforms to reduce outrageous lawsuits.

August 20
Pants Update: When Shaming Doesn't Work
While I was away--and many thanks to Valerie Strauss for her energetic and entertaining posts while she filled in for me--there were some developments in the Pants Suit that gave us both reason for hope and a reminder of just how petty and small man can be.

August 03
Same Trial Lawyers, New Spots (Blog)
When the Association of Trial Lawyers of America changed its name last year to the American Association for Justice, it said the impetus was to better communicate the organization's mission in the face of criticism by big business and Republicans. But anti-tort advocate Victor Schwartz, president of the American Tort Reform Association, saw it differently, analogizing it to a shark calling itself a kitten fish.