Litigation

Around the web, December 9

By Ted Frank

• Toyota isn't going to be able to win its sudden acceleration litigation at the motion-to-dismiss phase. [NLJ] This means the case proceeds to tens of millions of dollars worth of discovery as plaintiffs search for documents that they can take out of context to "prove" an otherwise nonexistent problem.
• Brooklyn lawsuit: because they offer keyless ignition, it's Toyota's fault that 79-year-old plaintiff forgot to turn off his car and died of carbon monoxide poisoning. [NYDN via ABAJ] It's almost as if Toyota should require a surcharge for elderly drivers.
• It doesn't necessarily mean much legally if a wealthy criminal defendant appeals a criminal conviction—the cost-benefit analysis is to seek every level of appellate review possible—but Conrad Black might have a point in his en banc petition objecting to the Seventh Circuit's "harmless error" analysis. [Bashman link roundup; Earlier at POL] (Update: see now Elwood @ Volokh.)
• More tapes the Ecuador plaintiffs don't want you to see in the Chevron case. [Am Law Daily]
• One of the collateral tragedies of Richard Nagareda's death is that he was one of the few law professors willing to take a common-sense stand on Twombly and Iqbal. Compare the nonsense from Arthur Miller.
• Fisherman on the Gulf Coast are doing pretty well under the BP compensation scheme. [FrumForum]
• Speaking of the Gulf Coast, the opinion is unpublished, but the Fifth Circuit got around to affirming the rejection of a class certification in Katrina litigation against insurers. [Jackson]
• A new blog on originalism.
• It's behind a subscription wall, but the story is titled "Legal Activist Ted Frank Cries Conflict of Interest, Forces O'Melveny and Grant & Eisenhofer to Modify Apple Securities Class Action Deal." [Litigation Daily ($)]

Full post as published by Point of Law on December 09, 2010 (boomark / email).