Maryland Lawyer Blog

The Wall Street Journal Law Blog has a post about chemical and plastics giant Celanese legal malpractice lawsuit against one of it former law firms, claiming that discovery mistakes led to a $107 million settlement, which the company otherwise did not need to make but for the legal malpractice of the law firm. Kaye Scholer had represented Celanese from 2002 to 2006 a MDL brought by customers alleging the price-fixing of polyester fibers.

Celanese fired Kaye Scholer in 2006 and hired Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman. Now these same lawyers are filing a lawsuit against Celanese. Sneak preview to one of Kaye Scholer’s defenses to the legal malpractice action: you morons never should have settled the frivolous lawsuit in the first place. Don’t be surprised if lawyers at Kasowitz are served with deposition notices to explain why they settled the case and what recommendations they gave to Celanese.

What gets lost in the notions of tort reform and lawsuit abuse is that a quick glance at the largest verdicts in this country show that most are business to business lawsuits.

I never particularly enjoyed George Carlin’s humor. But he had a great line that applies to big business: “Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?” (Let's face it, we all do this a little bit.) Insurance companies and big business adopt a derivative of this logic: When you sue me, you are abusing the system; when I sue you, I’m seeking justice.

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The Winter 2008 edition of the Maryland Trial Lawyers Associations’ journal the Trial Reporter was dedicated to “Family Law & the Child.” I never read it because the universe of my family law knowledge comes from Arnie Becker on L.A. Law and I would largely like to keep in that way. But stumbling on it last night, I found a quick article on courthouse technology from our friend John Cord at Janet, Jenner & Suggs who makes a list of all of the courthouses in Maryland where camera capable cell phones are prohibited: Cecil County, Harford County, Howard County, Prince George’s County, Queen Anne’s County, Somerset County, Washington County, Wicomico County, and Worchester County. Carroll County and Kent prohibit any type of cell phone. The inhumanity!

I think I walked in the Prince George’s County Courthouse in Upper Marlboro about five times when I got my first camera phone before I got the idea. Never a fun walk back to the car.

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The big news of the day is the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision overturning the Washington, D.C. gun ban.

Justice Scalia wrote the majority opinion overturning the D.C. handgun ban. His opinion acknowledged that the right to own and carry a gun is not absolute and states do have the right to enact reasonable restrictions on handguns. So while the NRA folks are celebrating, I’m not sure this is an opinion that is going to drastically change the current environment in Washington, D.C. or around the country. But, still, this is a meaningful win for gun owner rights activists because states are going to have a lot less latitude to put in blanket restrictions like the Washington, D.C. gun ban.

(I think the other big winner in all of this is Barack Obama because a loss today certainly would have mobilized the right against Obama in the fall. So for all personal injury victims who don't get shot, this is probably a win for them too, particularly because those are injured as the result of a medical device. Congress is showing interest in a bill to overturn Medtronics v. Riegel, a recent Supreme Court opinion that found that many medical device claims are preempted by FDA approval. Many believe Barack Obama would support such a bill.)

I just glanced at the opinion for about ten minutes. Justice Antonin Scalia said that an individual right to bear arms is supported by the “historical narrative" both before and after the adoption of the Second Amendment. Justice Scalia spends a great deal of time talking about English and colonial history and how language was used over 200 years ago. He neglected to mention that the nature and power of handguns have changed a little bit in since then. But I’m glad ancient history was the basis for the Supreme Court's ruling as opposed to, you know, the real consequences for all of us today.

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Posted In: Criminal Law , Maryland Legal News

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The Baltimore Sun reports that Baltimore injury attorney Peter Angelos has pledged a $5 million matching grant for a new law school at the University of Baltimore. The gift is the largest in the history of the University of Baltimore topping his last big gift.

The Baltimore Sun ticked off a partial list of prominent University of Baltimore Law School alumni including former Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr., Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger, former Vice President Spiro T. Agnew (let’s ignore that little conviction), Katie Curran O'Malley, and Kendel Ehrlich.( For inexplicable reasons, I was not listed.) Incredibly, about a third of Maryland judges and elected state's attorneys are University of Baltimore law school alumni.

Peter Angelos’ reputation has taken a beating from Baltimore lawyers in recent years not for anything he has done as a lawyer but because of the close relationship the Baltimore Orioles have had with 4th place under his ownership. But give him credit for stepping up for UB. Between Angelos’ generosity and the work of new law school dean Philip J. Closius, who I think really knows how to build the reputation and statute of a law school, the University of Baltimore may be able to take it to the next level and beyond.

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After three years of study, the Circuit Court of Anne Arundel County in Annapolis, Maryland said that its e-filing system is not yet ready for prime time.

While e-filing is certainly a regular part of the federal court system now, I think Anne Arundel County is following a national trend that we may not be quite ready for e-filing on a local level.

For another example, see the Illinois Trial Practice Weblog’s post titled “Filing Online in Illinois: Not Quite Ready for Primetime.”

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Is Chief Justice John Roberts cooler than you think? In his dissenting opinion in Sprint Communications v. APCC Services, a case involving the standing to bring suit of collection agencies that were assigned rights - Judge Roberts writes: “The absence of any right to the substantive recovery means that the respondents cannot benefit from the judgment they seek and thus lose Article III standing. ‘When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose.’ Bob Dylan, Like a Rolling Stone, on Highway 61 Revisited (Columbia Records 1965).

A great segue for that bit of pop culture or was it a little forced? I vote “a little forced.” But I’m grateful for the effort.

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The Maryland Daily Record reports that Anne Arundel County District Court Judge Robert C. Wilcox apologized on Friday for saying earlier this month that he did not trust the victim in an assault case because she had sex with the defendant 10 days after the accident.

There must be a part of this story that is missing. Isn’t it relevant if you sleep you’re your attacker 10 days after you claim they assaulted you? I’m not saying it would necessarily mandate a defense verdict in every case. It depends on all the facts. We know that some victims of domestic violence return to their abusers many times before leaving them for good. In this case what if Judge Wilcox made the right call and this behavior was a deciding factor in his ruling?

I hate the overuse of the phrase “politically correct” which is never used in a way that is meant to be complimentary. I believe more often than not being politically correct requires us to be a little extra sensitive to each other. This can’t be a bad thing. But if Judge Wilcox cannot give an honest ruling based on the facts and instead has to use code words to describe how he found as he did, transparent administration of justice is going to lose a step.

* * * * * * * * * *

Since writing this post, I found an article on Hometown Annapolis that provides more details. Apparently, prosecutors alleged the Defendant and the alleged victim who had been living together had an argument at the home where the Defendant allegedly assaulted his girlfriend on February 3, 2008. She reported the alleged assault to the Anne Arundel County police and sought and received a protective order. Four days after receiving the protective order, she visited him at his hotel room and had sex with him.

In finding for the Defendant, Judge Wilcox, who sits in Glen Burnie and Annapolis, said, "It seems to me if I'm afraid of someone, I don't go sleep with them. I stay away from them... It isn't different. It will never be different [from bystander assaults]. And I resent people when they say, 'But you don't understand domestic law, your honor.' I understand that. I understand that when human beings are afraid they act afraid."

I understand that some women stay in abusive situations and that does not make the abuser's conduct any less illegal. But this woman sought this guy out in a hotel room. That does not sound like "I'm trapped and I can't get out" or something else? Does this fact alone require a defense verdict? Of course not. But could it be an important factor to consider when deciding whether someone is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

The only thing I would change from my original post now that I see the quote is that I do disagree with Judge Wilcox when he says that there is not a difference between domestic assaults and other assaults. I think there is a difference and I think there is far less of a loss of credibility from friendly interaction between the abuser and the victim in a domestic abuse case for all the obvious reasons.

For more on this story, click here.

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In June’s Anne Arundel County Barrister, a newsletter for the Anne Arundel County Bar Association, the president’s message from Saul McCormick highlights his lawyer/hero of the month, an African-American lawyer named Anthony Griffin. A volunteer lawyer for the ACLU, Mr. Griffin defended “grand dragon” of the Texas Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, Michael Lowe, back in 1993 when the government subpoenaed Lowe to provide Ku Klux Klan membership lists. Griffin won the case before the Texas Supreme Court.

The article quotes Griffin saying, “If I don’t stand up and defend the Klan’s right to free speech, my right to free speech will be gone.”

Respectfully, I disagree. People’s rights are being violated all over this country. Why choose to offer free representation to someone who represents an organization you find repugnant? I agree that a judge has to make the right call and follow the law and the Constitution. But as a private citizen with a rooting interest, I’m rooting again the Klan and I wouldn’t lift a finger to help them even if I thought their First Amendment rights were being violated at $500 an hour, much less pro bono.

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Marcy J.K. Tiffany, the wife of 9th Circuit chief judge Alex Kozinski, writes a defense of her husband in the Patterico Pontifications Blog. (Click here for background on the Judge Kozinski story.) Her defense comes from two angles: (1) attacking the accuser and, (2) a line I liked: "The fact is, Alex is not into porn - he is into funny – and sometimes funny has a sexual character." She probably also believes that Tiger Woods is not playing golf to win, he just enjoys the game and a good walk with friends.

She seems like a nice, articulate woman put in an awful situation by Judge Kozinksi. But try as she might, you can't bundle up this package up and call it humor. I find a lot of things funny. But - and I know I keep going back to this - I find it inconceivable to find humor in a photo that appears to be a child giving oral sex to a Catholic priest.

The accuser that Ms. Tiffany attacks, Cyrus Sanai, defended himself in a Maryland Lawyer Blog comment this weekend. I have not looked into the allegations against him. Honestly, they ring true based on my limited understanding of the facts but who knows. And who cares? Mr. Sanai is just some random lawyer. Alex Kozinski is the Chief Judge of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, arguably the 10th most important judge in the country. This is why we are talking about Alex Kozinski and not Cyrus Sanai.

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The Patterico Pontifications Blog has a post today about Judge Alex Kozinski, the Chief Judge for the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Kozinski has been a prolific and relatively public conservative judge. I remember thinking it was pretty cool when I heard that he closed one important opinion with the line: "The parties are advised to chill."

Anyway, apparently Judge Kozinski had gone Eliot Spitzer on us. He has website filled with a lot of pornographic images, photos of transsexuals, naked women on all fours painted to look like cows, people fooling around with barn yard animals, and lots of other images that I really don’t feel like describing. Let’s just say the guy is twisted and leave it at that.

To this, I say creepy but who really cares? But he also had a picture on his website of what looks like a child giving oral sex to a priest. The Patterico Pontifications Blog provides a picture that I would have done just fine without seeing.

How many different ways is this sick and twisted? As a father of three children and a Catholic, it would be really hard to come up with a more offensive image.

No one is going to impeach him but should this guy really be a chief judge of a federal circuit court? If I get a vote, I vote no.

To read Judge Kozinski's wife's defense of his website, click here.

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Above the Law has a funny blog post about two versions of a meeting between Justice Scalia and Sarah Jessica Parker, two names that do not typically go hand-in-hand.

Justice Scalia certainly seems to be front and center these days in the public eye. Still, most people - most lawyers even - would not know John Paul Stevens if he walked in the door with a "John Paul Stevens" written across his shirt (to steal a phase from Tony Kornheiser). For better or worse, I expect this will change over time and Supreme Court justices will become more public figures.

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Journal of the American Medical Association reports on a study suggesting that doctors may want to prescribe stroke victims antidepressants right away. Researchers in Iowa gave low doses of the SSRI antidepressant Lexapro to stroke patients. The patients on the drug were 4.5 times less likely to develop depression than patients given a placebo.

If this study is replicated, the results are astonishing given the rather limited efficacy of SSRIs generally. Similar findings may lead to the use of the much maligned SSRI antidepressants despite the criticism of recent years. Almost a quarter of a million Americans develop depression within two years after having a stroke. As is often the case, depression impacts outcome: stroke patients with depression recover less quickly and are more likely to die.
SSRIs, such as Prozac, Lexapro, Cipralex, Esertia, and Zoloft, have a lot of troubling side effects. While it took almost a decade for the labeling to reflect the risks, SSRIs cause an increased risk of suicidal thoughts and actions. The New England Journal of Medicine and other medical journals have also reported that some SSRI antidepressants are linked to an increased risk of persistent pulmonary hypertension (PPHN) in children whose mothers used SSRIs after the 20th week of gestation. SSRIs have also been linked to heart, cranial, lung and abdominal defects. If all of that is not enough, extreme reactions have also been reported in patients when they stop taking some SSRIs.

Does this mean that SSRIs should not be on the market? If this Lexapro study is any indication, the answer is that there are some cases where the side effects of these SSRIs may be worth the risk. The problem is that SSRIs have been billed to general practitioners as a cure all panacea with no side effects for anyone with symptoms of depression. But, unfortunately, there is no such drug and the prescription of antidepressants should be done with more care and consideration to the risks as well as the benefits of these drugs.

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