Litigation

Around the web, June 16

By Ted Frank

• Arlington, Virginia, taxpayers have paid a law firm $744,000 to allege that a proposed set of high-occupancy-toll lanes on I-395 is racially discriminatory—and that understates the taxpayer waste, since the defendant is the state of Virginia and the federal government, who are paying their own lawyers. [Sun Gazette (h/t M.B.)]
• Obama administration "running roughshod" over rule of law with respect to BP. [WSJ]
• Similar problems accrue from Obama administration actions in Chrysler bankruptcy. [Roe/Skeel @SSRN via Bainbridge via @walterolson]
• Can courts impose liability on a non-policymaking attorney? Miguel Estrada argues no on behalf of John Yoo before the Ninth Circuit on appeal from a bad district court decision refusing to throw out the Padilla case. [SF Chronicle; Yoo @ WSJ]
• NY state looking to raise caps on attorneys' fees in medical-malpractice litigation. [NY Post]
• Louisiana Senate passes bill to permit state AG to hire contingency-fee attorneys. Still needs to get past House and Gov. Jindal. [Legal Newsline]
• Be careful when going on vacation if you live in Seattle; police there refuse to evict trespassing squatters. [Seattle Times]
• Trial lawyer asserts that there is nothing on Point of Law addressing how to compensate mesothelioma victims (but see), misrepresents law-and-economics view on status quo, then has the chutzpah to suggest it is tort reformers who suffer from "epistemic closure." [Crede]

Full post as published by Point of Law on June 16, 2010 (boomark / email).