In The News

  Fees Would Be In Addition to $746 Settlement Fund Payout.      As reported on NALFA’s Attorney Fee Blog, the National Football League (NFL) may pay as much as $112.5 million in attorney fees to class counsel in the proposed NFL concussion settlement although any fee/expense award will not come out of the $746 million

       An ABA Journal on-line article reports that law school enrollments are down 11% from last year and 24% down from 2010. About two-thirds of ABA-accredited law schools (135) experienced declines in first-year enrollments this year as compared to Fall 2012. Hendrie Hall, Yale Law School, 1900 – 1915.  Library of Congress.

  Suits Against Food Manufacturers and Suits Championing Disability Access Are Two Top Causes.      The American Tort Reform Foundation has just come out recently with its 2013-2014 List of “Judicial Hellholes,” based on its perception of abusive or questionable tort litigation.  The ATRF has rallied a coalition of generally conservative members under the rubric

     Photo:  Wikipedia.  Author: Abhijit Tembhekar. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.      Apple, Inc. hired two law firms, and paid them $62 million, in well-publicized patent litigation against Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and two Samsung affiliates, with Apple winning its case to the tune of around $930 million in damages. Now, in a request to

  OCWD Tally of Legal Costs/Fees Versus Settlements.      In Teri Sforza’s December 8, 2013 article in The Orange County Register, she reports that the Orange County Water District, which was sued businesses over alleged drinking water contamination throughout the last decade, has collected about $30 million in settlements. Where did the money go? Ms.

  “Patent Trolls” Legislation Passes House.      As reported by a December 6, 2013 article in The Orange County Register, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Innovation Act having restrictions against “patent trolls,” patent assertion entitles who do not manufacture inventions but sue putative defendant infringer targets. Among other things, the bill modifies the

  Accuses SEC of Telling “Lie After Lie.”      In a recent Washington Post article, Mark Cuban–owner of the Dallas Mavericks, owner of Landmark Theaters, and a regular on the “Shark Tank” TV show–won a jury trial against the SEC, which had claimed Mr. Cuban ordered the sale of his holdings in Mamma.com after he

       Quite a bit of press and public fallout has happened so as to result in Costa Mayor Jim Righeimer and Councilman Steve Mensinger suing the Costa Mesa Police Officers’ Association, its former law firm Lackie, Dammeier, McGill & Ethir, and private investigator Chris Lanzillo in August 2013 after Mr. Lanzillo followed Mr. Righeimer