GJEL Blog » Legal News

I’m pretty fascinated by the negative stereotype of lawyers that dominates television, films, and everyday conversation. In June I wrote about a misleading Washington Times editorial which claimed that lawyers were “jumping over themselves to cash in” on BP lawsuits, and claimed, without providing facts, that attorneys would overcharge their clients. This week, the New York Times joined team lawyer basher, penning an editorial on the importance of oil spill victims getting a fair day in trial. But, the editorial predicts, “we probably cannot expect the lawyers to act responsibly. We do expect better of the politicians.”

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Time and time again, plaintiffs trying to get what they deserve from negligent companies run into an unexpected obstacle. Not the team of lawyers hired to defend giant corporations or or judges with financial interests in such companies, but those who degrade legitimate claims by launching law suits based on imaginary or staged car accidents. Sadly, the National Insurance Crime Bureau reports that questionable insurance claims were up 14 percent in the first half of 2010 compared to the same period the year before.

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The benefits of the internet are too numerous to count. The web has made information easily searchable, revolutionized the news industry, and boosted access to entertainment. But one of the unintended consequences of the online communities created by the Internet is the nasty remarks hastily employed by public and anonymous bloggers and commenters alike. It turns out that under the law, those comments can be considered more than a nuisance; they can be punishable by law.

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The Consumer Attorneys of California have created a video detailing just what the world would be like without lawyers. Sure, we’ve become an over lawyered society to a certain extent. But lawyers provide far more good than harm, and continue to fight for “the little guy” against corporations who have the resources to get legislation and public opinion on their side. Click through for the video.

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As cell phones continue to become more advanced, enabling users to send text messages, emails, and even photographs from behind the wheel, the dangers of distracted driving have become more pronounced. The ‘epidemic’ has been cited as the cause of more than 500,000 accidents each year and is called the number one killer of teenagers. This week, New York City joined criticism of the dangerous practice with a report detailing distracted driving’s somber impact on pedestrians. Check out our state-by-state interactive map to see your state’s driving laws and how they compare to the rest of the country.

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In a major win for plaintiffs, the multidistrict litigation for wrongful death and economic damages victims of the BP oil spill will take place in New Orleans, Louisiana. Oil companies like BP and Transocean hoped the panel would send the lawsuits to Houston, Texas, the nation’s capital for oil interests, but plaintiffs kept pulling for New Orleans, which the MDL panel called the “geographic and psychological center of gravity” for the oil spill in its four-page opinion.

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Pending lawsuits against Toyota are likely to result in compensation for victims of the company’s unintended acceleration problems that eventually led to the recall of more than eight million vehicles worldwide. But for some, like Koua Fong Lee, the lawsuits will have a much more pronounced impact, potentially leading to the acquittal of innocent drivers originally considered guilty of vehicular manslaughter.

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Though the leak at BP’s infamous off shore oil rig Deepwater Horizon appears to be contained, class action lawsuits against the company and its affiliates are heating up and could put the companies on the hook for tens of billions of dollars. That process begins Thursday at an Idaho hearing to decide which judges will reside over the cases, and where they will take place.

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It has been a big year for class action lawsuits. Most recently, thousands of Toyota drivers have sued the Japanese auto giant for injuries and loss of investment resulting from unintended acceleration, and victims of the BP Gulf oil spill disaster are lining up to take on the British oil conglomerate in court. Both of those budding class action battles pale in comparison to the legal storm about to engulf WalMart, which is being sued for gender discrimination by more than a million women in potentially the largest class action suit ever. To put this in perspective, we decided to round up a list of other massive class action titans over the past two decades.

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Many Oakland residents were disappointed last night by the conviction of former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle on involuntary manslaughter charges. Some who thought Mehserle should have been convicted of second degree murder or voluntary manslaughter for shooting an unarmed, handcuffed man in the head in January 2009 took the streets to protest, mostly peacefully, some otherwise. While the city awaits word on Mehserle’s August sentencing hearing, Grant’s family will continue to pursue wrongful death lawsuits against BART.

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