PrairiePundit

 Texas Tribune: Legendary Texas lawyers Dick DeGuerin and Rusty Hardin will serve as lead prosecutors for the state House in the Senate impeachment trial of suspended Attorney General Ken Paxton . The two Houston-based defense attorneys, introduced at a Capitol news conference Thursday, are legal icons in their own right, having separately represented a litany of high-profile athletes, celebrities and politicians in criminal and civil investigations. “They are outstanding lawyers and lions of the Texas trial bar,” said David Coale, a Dallas-based appellate lawyer and legal commentator. “This is the legislature saying, ‘This isn’t just some case, this is an unusual, historic case.’ And if you want to make some history, you get some history book-level lawyers.” DeGuerin defended former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a Republican, against charges that he illegally funneled corporate donations to members of the Texas Legislature in 2002. DeLay was found guilty, but his convictio...

 Washington Examiner: S ometimes lawsuits are necessary to uphold the rights of a plaintiff. Sometimes, they are needed to redress serious wrongs. But as an economic activity, "more lawsuits" is just about the last thing the tax code should be encouraging or incentivizing. As usual, someone forgot to wake President Joe Biden and tell him. Trial lawyers, who have long invested in Biden and other Democrats, bought themselves a provision in the massive spending bill that Democrats moved through the House last week. Tucked deep within its pages is a huge tax break that slip-and-fall trial lawyers and their allies have been trying to force into law for more than a decade. It would allow them to write off the costs of contingency litigation — for example, expert witnesses — upfront. Currently, as with other business ventures, trial lawyers recoup their expenses by winning judgments and settlements that cover them, or else they write off the losses when they lose the case. According...

NY Times: When Does Kicking Black People Off Juries Cross a Constitutional Line? The Supreme Court will consider whether a Mississippi prosecutor’s long record of excluding black jurors amounted to unconstitutional race discrimination. Back when I was trying complex fraud cases in criminal courts I did not find black jurors prejudiced in favor of the accused.  In some cases, they were extremely strong prosecution jurors.  You always try to find any particular prejudices during the voir dire exam before the trial.  When I was working in Houston, Harris County was constantly calling me to set on a panel.  Like most of the other potential jurors, I had work to do and was not eager to set on a jury.  On the occasions when I could not escape jury duty, I found it pretty boring and also found myself critiquing the lawyers' presentation and the way they framed questions.  My guess is that the blacks going through the process felt the s...

Washington Times: Texas Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke may have “hit a wall” in terms of support, according to pollsters this week, but that hasn’t put a damper on his fundraising. Mr. O’Rourke’s bid to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. Ted Cruz reported a bumper crop of dollars Friday, setting a record for the largest fundraising quarter ever in a U.S. senate race, his campaign said. All told, Mr. O’Rourke brought in $38.1 million, according to the campaign. ... However, while Mr. O’Rourke’s campaign trumpets the fact it doesn’t take PAC money, its war chest is flush with money from various groups that have an agenda, according to the Center for Responsive Politics database. It shows Mr. O’Rourke’s top sectors for fundraising to be lawyers and their firms or groups OpenSecrets categorizes as “Democratic/liberal.” Those two sectors have accounted for more than $2.5 million in the 2018 cycle. Of the 10 biggest contributors to Mr. O’Rourke in 2018, half of them are the employees ...

Erin Hawley: If there is one lesson the left has learned well, it is that the federal courts are the place to go when the democratic process proves unsatisfactory. If Congress or the administration won’t adopt your policies, go to federal court and impose your way. But this legislation by litigation strategy is costly; it perverts the democratic process and turns our Constitution its head. Enter the plaintiff bar’s latest darling: global warming lawsuits. Instead of debating the complex issues surrounding global warming in Congress, a number of coastal (read: liberal leaning) cities have resorted to the courts. No less than eight cities allege that five American energy companies should be held liable for creating a public nuisance — the “national and international phenomenon of global warming.” These lawsuits should be dismissed immediately. Critically, it’s the EPA — not the courts — that has been tasked with overseeing our national policy regarding greenhouse gas emissions. A unan...

MSM/Washington Post: A former corporate-fraud prosecutor carried out the “most serious” example of public corruption by a U.S. Department of Justice attorney in years by stealing more than 40 whistleblower fraud cases in 2016 and trying to sell the secret information to companies under federal investigation, prosecutors said. The scheme was an attempt to woo potential clients and increase his earnings and standing in his new role as a defense lawyer for one of Washington’s most influential law firms, according to prosecutors and admissions by Jeffrey Wertkin at his sentencing Wednesday. After his arrest for one shakedown attempt, Wertkin embarked on an “obstruction binge” at his private law office to destroy additional evidence of his year-long plot and also tried to frame a former colleague at the Justice Department for the records theft, court files show. Wertkin’s sentencing hearing revealed a more extensive and calculating crime than previously was made public, showing he s...

NY Times: Steve Mostyn, Texas Democratic Fund-Raiser, Dies at 46 Mr. Mostyn was at the center of a long effort to wrest political power from Republicans. Texas Democrats have not won a statewide office since 1994. Mostyn was among a group of trial lawyers who opposed tort reform in Texas and backed Democrat efforts to reimpose laws that hurt the growth of business in Texas and drove up the cost of healthcare.   Mostyn was in his early 20's the last time Democrats held statewide offices in Texas. Tort reform is one of the reasons Texas has enjoyed an economic boom over the last 20 years.

IBD: Trial lawyers are waging a reckless assault against American manufacturers in pursuit of a fat payday for themselves. If successful, their relentless quest will have enormous consequences for American workers, shareholders, and consumers. These legal crusaders want you to believe we can't have a strong American manufacturing base and an improved environment. Reality check: Across the board, concentrations of every single major air pollutant have dropped dramatically and will continue to do so. The U.S. has reduced more greenhouse gases (GHG) than any other nation on earth. Manufacturers have done our part, reducing GHG emissions by 10% since 2005, while our contribution to the economy grew by 19%. Manufacturers are committed to climate action and are actively crafting solutions to this complex global challenge. For these lawyers, that's not enough. They want to go farther — to blame you for imperiling our children's future. Are these lawyers doing this out of s...

NY Times: Consumer Bureau Loses Fight Over Class-Action Suits Vice President Mike Pence cast the deciding vote as Senate Republicans struck down a rule restricting arbitration clauses that would have let Americans sue banks and credit card companies. I have seen too many of these cases where the only winners were the trial lawyers where they made millions while consumers got coupons or something else of dubious worth.  I also arbitrated cases for several decades and saw awards from zero to the millions for the claimant.   Pence and Congress did the right thing.

Fuel Fix: Texas Supreme Court examines $48,000 an hour legal fee in H.L. Hunt case What I find more shocking than the fee is that the Hunt family would need to resort to a contingency fee contract with a lawyer.  The fee was actually for 50 percent of the matter in dispute if he could settle the case.  The attorney was able to do so in short order, thus the high "hourly fee." Usually, you are more likely to see contingency fee contracts in personal injury cases where the plaintiff could not afford to pay an hourly fee.

Forbes: ... ... Cabot's management chose to challenge what it saw as a double-dip filing, and the judge rewarded the company by dismissing the suit in a summary judgment. In normal corporate behavior, that would have been the end of things. But Cabot's management had, in the words of company spokesman George Stark, "grown weary of this 'sue and settle' racket" that it believes this case represents. So, rather than just let the matter drop, Cabot's management chose instead to file a counter-suit against Mr. Kemble and his lawyers. "We aren't suing a landowner," says Stark, "We're suing a big law firm." The main firm targeted by the suit is the Speer Law Firm, a Missouri-based firm headed by plaintiff attorney Charles F. Speer. The suit also includes the Pennsylvania firm of Ciarimboli, Boylan and F&C, which partnered with Speer in Mr. Kemble's filing. Cabot's complaint is self-explanatory, and reads in par...

NY Times: Financial Firms May Lose Shield Against Class-Action Suits The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is adopting a rule that would restore millions of Americans’ right to file class-action suits against banks, but lawmakers will face pressure to block it. This is a scam for trial lawyers who can file frivolous lawsuits in a class action and extort a settlement that mainly benefits them and not any customers.  Usually, the financial institution settles for the cost of defending it which means bank shareholders are being fleeced by trial lawyers. If Congress does not block this extortion attempt, it should at least require that the loser pays and if their clients can't pay the lawyers should have to do so.

NY Times: Justices Will Hear Challenges to Mandatory Employee Arbitration Deciding whether companies can use employment contracts to prohibit workers from banding together to take legal action over workplace issues. As a former corporate general counsel, I favored arbitration over trials in many cases.  The trial lawyers in many cases abuse the class action process.  They drive up the litigation cost in hopes of getting a settlement in the range of what it would cost to defend the case.  In many cases, the trial lawyers are the only ones who profit from the process.  Their clients tend to get minimal returns while the lawyers are paid handsomely. Arbitrations tend to cost less for both sides of the case.  I think the arbitrators attempt to be fair to all sides and usually bend over backward to hear both sides.

Telegraph: A controversial investigation into alleged abuses by British troops in Iraq faces being wound up after the lawyer who brought the vast majority of the cases admitted 18 professional misconduct charges. Phil Shiner was tonight called on to apologise to British troops whose lives have been ruined by years of criminal and legal inquiries stemming from his abuse claims. The disgraced human rights lawyer conceded to a disciplinary tribunal that he “must be” struck off after he repeatedly admitted acting “recklessly and without integrity”, including by paying an Iraqi fixer tens of thousands of pounds to tout for business. Politicians as well as a decorated soldier under investigation called for the Iraq Historic Allegations Team (Ihat) which has looked at more than 2,400 claims brought by Shiner, to be shut down. The Telegraph has repeatedly highlighted the plight of British troops facing criminal and civil allegations of abuse in the aftermath of Iraq and Afghanistan. ...

Watts Up With That: A federal judge in Texas has ordered the attorney general of Massachusetts to appear for deposition next month in a lawsuit Exxon Mobil Corp. filed as part of an attempt to block investigations into what the company knew about climate change. U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade ruled yesterday that Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey (D) and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (D) should appear in Dallas on Dec. 13. The judge will enter a second order regarding Schneiderman’s deposition after he files an answer in the case. Kinkeade issued the order one day after a telephone status conference with the parties. It marks the latest victory for the oil giant in an escalating legal and political battle that has come under scrutiny by Republicans on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, fossil fuel industry advocates and environmental groups. Healey and Schneiderman have both been investigating for months whether the Exxon violated secu...

Fox News: The Craigslist ads read: “STOP TRUMP – up to $1500/week. Hiring immediately! Call Today Start tomorrow! $15-$18 hourly rate + bonus + overtime up to 77 hours per week!” They were placed by a Planned Parenthood affiliate in major cities like Boston, Denver, Columbus, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh right before the election to defeat the candidacy of Donald Trump. However, most of them are still active on Craigslist, fueling questions about whether the group is now among those feeding the post-election anti-Trump protests across the country. Many of the ads have Planned Parenthood Action, a PAC, emblazoned across the top and all of them list phone numbers belonging to the Community Outreach Group , a for-profit organization formed by Planned Parenthood as “a vendor of large-scale advocacy.” Protesting is among the tasks listed on its website. MoveOn.org and others already have been linked to the demonstrations. Protesters have been out on the streets since Wednesday and have be...

Chris Horner: On Oct. 13, a federal court in Ft. Worth, Texas ruled that Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey is subject to legal “discovery” by ExxonMobil. This turns the tables on the Attorney General (AG), who had demanded the company’s records as part of an investigation into whether public statements about climate change and related policies rise to the level of lawbreaking. Key to this ruling was Healey’s words and deeds as part of a “climate change and energy coalition” of state Attorneys General. The court is considering whether to enjoin (block) Healey’s subpoena previously issued for decades of Exxon’s records. After this win ExxonMobil promptly sought to also enjoin New York AG Eric Schneiderman’s similar pursuit. The court cited public records obtained by myself and the Energy & Environment Legal Institute (E&E Legal) from one of Healey’s coalition partners. Since then, we have obtained many more records, affirming the court’s “concern” that this coalit...

NY Times: In a Divorce, Who Gets Custody of Electronic Data? The Lawyers When a couple split up, their data — emails, texts, social media profiles and more — become fair game. When it comes to data, it is easy enough to duplicate it if it is relevant to both. I am reminded of a somewhat acrimonious divorce in Houston of a wealthy couple where the property settlement agreement took years.  It finally came down to who would get the Irish crystal and neither would agree to the other having it.  At this point, the divorce lawyers were ready for the thing to be over with so they went together and bought a new set of crystal to settle the matter.

Telegraph: British soldiers will never again face a legal witch hunt, Theresa May will pledge as she says that European human rights laws will no longer apply on the battlefield. In a joint announcement with Sir Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, the Prime Minister will say that UK troops will be protected from the “industry of vexatious claims that has pursued those who served in previous conflicts”. Mrs May and Sir Michael will say that in future conflicts Britain will opt out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), protecting our frontline forces from “spurious” legal claims. Their intervention is a major victory for soldiers, MPs and senior military figures who have fought against the hounding of troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan over allegations that date back as long ago as 2003. The Daily Telegraph has repeatedly highlighted the plight of British troops facing criminal and civil allegations of abuse in the aftermath of Iraq and Afghanistan. Th...

AP/Star-Tribune: Texas lawyer Mikal Watts and six other people each had plenty of opportunity to know they had a fake client list and were pursuing bogus claims after 2010's Gulf of Mexico oil spill, prosecutors told Mississippi jurors Wednesday in closing arguments. Watts himself and lawyers for the six others though said the government had failed to prove criminal intent to defraud, blaming fellow defendants or saying the government was misconstruing innocent actions. U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr. handed the case to jurors Wednesday, telling them to decide 66 felony counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, identity theft and aggravated identity theft. It's one of the biggest fraud cases to result from the 2010 BP PLC oil spill, featuring a list of more than 40,000 clients that included dead people and a dog whose name was apparently lifted from a phone book. Prosecutors said most of those clients never agreed to be represented by Watts, and that at some p...