A special report by the Wisconsin Club for Growth has a couple fascinating items detailing some recent email exchanges between outgoing University of Wisconsin Chancellor John Wiley and defeated Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler. 
Back in August, Chancellor Wiley authored a pernicious attack on the state’s business community, blaming […]

Two bigshot Louisiana trial lawyers will be permanently disbarred if the Louisiana Supreme Court accepts the “blistering” recommendation of the Louisiana Attorney Disciplinary Board, reports the Baton Rouge, LA Advocate.  The Board’s full recommendation, which can be found here, gives us an inside look at how personal injury law firms often operate as business-like settlement […]

Personal injury lawyers typically hire doctors to examine their clients and corroborate their injury claims, but one Pittsburgh, PA firm didn’t bother – and it may cost them more than just a lost lawsuit.  The case comes courtesy of the American Justice Partnership Foundation, which just posted another episode in its Legal Shakedowns and Scandals […]

If West Virginia’s phantom doctors aren’t bad enough, read this editorial in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal.  It seems the real doctor diagnosing many Michigan asbestos claims is even worse.  But in this case, it’s not the doctor who has disappeared, it’s the lawsuits.
As the editorial points out, Michigan is still a hot-bed for asbestos claims, […]

Businesses operating in Michigan’s struggling economy may soon face a new threat:  A legal climate that will be far more hostile to business investment and far more likely to overturn legal reforms that have protected businesses from frivolous litigation.
Brian Dickerson speculates today in the Detroit Free Press that Diane Hathaway’s upset of Michigan Supreme Court […]

The Gavel Grabbers over at Justice at Stake are giddy over the electoral success of pro-merit selection initiatives on local ballots ­ and justifiably so.  As Charlie Hall points out, voters in Greene County, MO, Johnson County, KS and two Alabama counties voted either to adopt or retain merit selection systems for choosing judges.  There’s no […]

Democratic state Supreme Court candidates – backed by the money and influence of the powerful trial lawyer lobby – scored several victories last night that could result in the rollback of important legal reform legislation and lead to a more lawsuit-friendly, anti-business environment.  The trial bar also strengthened its grip on the judicial selection process […]

In a new update of its invaluable Trial Lawyers, Inc. series, the Manhattan Institute lifts the rock on the unholy alliance between West Virginia’s Attorney General’s office and the state’s trial bar, and the devastating impact it has had on West Virginia’s economy.  Legal Newsline has a summary and the full report can be found […]

America’s tort-happy litigation system is driving away foreign investment and costing American jobs according to a new report by the U.S. Department of Commerce.  The DC Examiner’s Quin Hillyer has highlights; the full report can be found here.
Since 1950, U.S. tort costs have ballooned from $13 billion to $247 billion in constant dollars.  America now […]

Justice at Stake is out with a press release decrying the “orgy of negativity” the group believes has turned the Michigan Supreme Court campaign between Chief Justice Clifford Taylor and challenger Diane Hathaway into “the nation’s dirtiest.” (full disclosure:  my wife, Colleen, is managing Chief Justice Taylor’s campaign)  The group’s executive director, Bert Brandenburg, says […]