Although many of you have seen this by now, according to ½ the blogosophere, America’s legal system is burdened by frivolous actions by large corporations. Typical of this is Budget Rent A Car System Inc. v. Consolidated Equity, No. 05-3579 (7th Cir, Nov. 4, 2005). Essentially, Consolidated filed a frivolous appeal, and then Budget Rent a Car, submitted a frivolously declaration of fees and costs under Fed. R. App. P. 38. Judge Posner, of the Law and Economics school, saw that the best way to protect society from such frivolous tactics was to deny Budget Rent a Car all relief. (He also questions the credibility of a few of Budget's assertions.) I trust that all of you that are against frivolous lawsuits will see the damage that lawsuits by Budget Rent A Car System Inc. and Consolidated Equity have caused our country and lobby Congress for strict limits on lawsuits filed by corporations by “greedy trial lawyers.” I am sure that Tom Delay and Lester Brickman condemned this but the mainstream media missed their condemnations of such frivolous actions. (I didn't have time to look at Overlawyered, but I am sure that they are anti-Budget-Rent-a-Car, because of their frivolous actions. Or maybe they side against Consolidated Equity.) Tnx Fed.Civ.Pract.Bull, and ABAeJournal.
- Budget (who filed the frivolous high and incredible statement of costs) was represented by Greenberg Traurig.
- Consolidated Equity (who filed the initial frivolous appeal) was represented by Brown, Udell & Pomerantz. (Because I am in a good mood, you will have to go on PACER to see the names of the lawyers.)
Update: After some pondering, Ted Frank has found someone to blame for Budget’s frivolous motion. Turns out, in Point-of-Law world, a large corporation wasn’t abusing the litigation process, but rather Judge Posner is an idiot and his clerks are, naive and have no idea what life is like in a large law firm. Good thing we got that cleared up. I was worried that a corporation had done something bad there for a second. ( "The Right Coast" agrees, and points out that because of her unique backing, having worked for a large law firm, she more qualified to speak on these issues than any three judges that has had responsive briefing on the issue, and reached their conclusions with no dissents -- even from Sykes, who was in private practice -- and no motions for reconsideration.) Also, Will Baude has an interesting insight about the nature of large law firms: they serve as a training ground for real lawyers.
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