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No Butterfly Caused Katrina - Washington Times

Mississippi Resident Ned Comer is the lead plaintiff in a class action Climate Change lawsuit lawsuit winding its way through the Federal Courts. The plaintiffs are demanding major damage awards alleging that emissions from defendants' plants contributed to global warming which plaintiffs claim caused a strengthing of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 which led to the destruction of the plaintiffs' property. As previously discussed on this site, the district court rightly dismissed the case for lack of standing and because a political question - best left to the legislature - was at issue. However, a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals three member panel reinstated the case.   Read More »

FacesofLawsuitAbuse.org  

“It’s very apparent to me that this whole case isn’t about justice. It was about trying to legally extort as much money as possible.” Vytas Juskys · LT Properties · Los Angeles, CA

 The United States Chamber of Commerce has rolled out a campaign to bring to light some of the stories of people affected by lawsuit abuse. FacesOfLawsuitAbuse.org is a project of the Chamber's Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) which represents the nation's business community. The mission of the ILR and facesoflawsuitabuse.org is to make America's legal system simpler, fairer, and faster for everyone. By telling the stories of the victims of lawsuit abuse the ILR hopes to raise public awareness of the burdens these suits place on the legal system. 

Here are just a couple of examples of the stories that can be found on facesoflawsuitabuse.org:  Read More »

Don't Trespass On Me - NuisanceLaw.com

We've seen attempts to expand tort law to avoid burdens of proof in the past, but these past attempts were tied only to public nuisance. Well, get ready for the next slight of hand in the plaintiff bar's bag of tricks  - intangible trespass!

Cathy Connors, partner at the Portland, Maine law firm Pierce Atwood LLP, comments on the movement to "modernize" the tort of trespass. Traditionally, as Connors points out, in order for a trespass to have occurred "something tangible must have come onto your property - smoke, noise, light and the ilk were left to nuisance law."  Read More »

He hoped that in a time of war and common danger he might take the liberty of putting those opposite assertions into the crucible of Common Sense, consuming the Humbug, and producing the Truth.

–Charles Dickens, HouseHold Words, Vol. 12 (1856).  Read More »

 How the Plaintiffs Bar Bought the Senate – The Wall Street Journal

Onerous campaign finance laws have long served to hamper the business world’s influence on political elections while, at the same time, providing a huge advantage for trial attorneys.  In a recent Wall Street Journal Opinion piece James Copland explains that Corporations' interests have traditionally been dispersed among “a host of competing tax and regulatory concerns,” meaning that each individual company or industry has its own agenda when backing a political candidate.  The result is this: achieving substantial aggregate sums of financial backing for a single issue has been a near impossibility.  Read More »

Richard Faulk. "Clearing the Air in Copenhagen" Andrews Litigation Reporter 30.10 (2009).

As I prepared to depart for the United Nations’ climate change conference Copenhagen, starting Dec. 7, the entire process seems awash in doubt, confusion and controversy. Despite the grand hopes of many members of the international community, including many respected politicians and scientists, even the most optimistic advocates concede that it will be impossible to secure a comprehensive and binding climate change agreement. Instead, the delegates will seek a consensus that will guide the drafting and presentation of a formal treaty sometime in 2010, either in Bonn, Germany, or in Mexico City.  Read More »

In the January 28, 2010 Scientific American, Carina Storrs interviewed David Rosner, a history professor, regarding his experience as an “expert” in the Rhode Island public nuisance litigation brought by the State of Rhode Island against alleged former manufacturers of lead pigments and paints. Scientific American? Interviewing a history professor? Making comparisons to Hollywood movies? Let’s think about this a minute.
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Richard Faulk. "The Queer Case of the Quarelsome Convocation: Allies, Adversaries, Indifference and Exaggeration in Copenhagen" Andrews Litigation Reporter 30.11 (2009).

They have been at a great feast of languages, and stol’n the scraps. ...
O, they have liv’d long on the alms-basket of words.

    –William Shakespeare, ‘Love’s Labor’s Lost,’ Act 5, scene 1  Read More »

Richard Faulk. "The Insolence of Office: Exposing the Politics of Perception in Copenhagen" Andrews Litigation Reporter 30.11 (2009).  Read More »

Richard Faulk. "The First "Official" Draft of the Copenhagen Agreement: Blanks, Brackets, Chewing Gum, and Baling Wire" Andrews Litigation Reporter 30.11 (2009).  Read More »