Report: Courts need to reform civil lawsuit system

By DAN ELLIOTT Associated Press Writer

DENVER (AP) - Trial lawyers and a judicial think tank are suggesting major changes in the way courts hear civil suits, saying current rules allow attorneys to drag out disputes by demanding irrelevant and hard-to-find data.

The current rules for "discovery" - the sharing of information ahead of a trial - in civil suits are antiquated and too broad, according to a report Tuesday by an American College of Trial Lawyers task force and the Denver-based Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System.

They suggest that federal and state courts restrict discovery to the specifics of a case and limit how much data attorneys can request after the first round of information sharing.

The report said current federal discovery rules were for the most part written in the 1930s and didn't anticipate the volume of documents generated by photocopiers, computers and e-mail systems. Retrieving data stored electronically, such as old e-mails, is particularly difficult, they said.

The rules drag out cases for years and have driven legal costs so high that people are forced to settle even if they have a good case, the experts said.

"In too many cases, economics rather than merits are driving whether it's tried or settled, and that's not justice," said attorney E. Osbourne Aycsue Jr., former president of the trial lawyers group, based in Irvine, Calif.

Read the rest of the report here.

Court tells pop star to pay up

From City News Service:

LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Two months after Costco was ordered to pay $420,000 to an employee who was retaliated against for complaining of mistreatment because he is gay and HIV-positive, the warehouse store was ordered today to pay an even larger amount in attorneys' fees.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Maureen Duffy-Lewis directed Costco to pay lawyer Leo J. Terrell $471,240, plus another $39,540 in costs. Terrell was entitled to attorneys' fees because the case involved discrimination.

On Dec. 3, a jury found that Terrell's client, Juan I. Valera, endured a hostile work environment at the Inglewood warehouse. The jury, which did not include any gay members, rejected his claims of sexual orientation discrimination, that Costco failed to provide accommodations for his needs and that the company acted with malice.

"I'm happy with getting all my fees,'' Terrell said outside court. Terrell said he is still trying to get Valera, who remains on leave from Costco, reinstated by the company to his old position as photo manager and may have to file another lawsuit on his behalf to do so.

"He's unemployed and has no health insurance, and that's a death sentence for someone who has HIV,'' Terrell said.

 

The Orange County Register has the story about James Kubeck, who spent two months in a hospital after wiping out on his motorcycle on a blind Pacific Coast Highway curve. He's suing CalTrans.

A Hawthorne couple claimed Hawthorne police officers use brutal tactics while answering a loud noise complaint. Anthony Goodrow said officers broke his jaw and didn't give him proper medical treatment while his then girlfriend, Karla Goodrow, maintains she was falsely arrested.

We'll have a full report later on dailybreeze.com and in The Daily Breeze.

In 2003, Sara Plowden claimed Torrance officers pulled her over for a traffic stop and physically accosted her, all because she was black. She sued, claiming civil rights violations, and a federal court jury has ruled against her. Here's today's story.

While her attorney, Thomas Beck, could not be reached for comment today on this story, he previously said that evidence of police abuse in his client's case are bolstered by evidence produced in other lawsuits against the department, including a $6.5 million settlement the city paid to the family of a 19-year-old San Pedro girl who was killed in a 1984 crash with an off-duty sergeant.

Beck, a Los Alamitos attorney, is well-known to local police agencies. He's represented numerous people in excessive force and civil rights lawsuits against departments that include Hermosa Beach, Inglewood, Lynwood and Los Angeles.

The ACLU of Southern California plans to sue U.S. officials today, claiming the government has a U.S. citizen, a former Hawthorne resident, detained and is violating a whole host of his rights by keeping him there without charges being filed. Here's the whole story.

A lot of the details for this report came from ACLU documents, which included sworn affidavits from Naji Hamdan's associates and family. In them, they also talk about the plight of Muslim Americans in the wake of 9/11, and how interrogation and surveillance have become a part of the norm. You can read them for yourself, here:

Hamdan Habeas.pdf <---- The complaint expected to be filed today.

Hamdan exh 3-7.pdf <---- The first set of exhibits.

Hamdan exh 13-19.pdf <---- The second set of exhibits, which contains a lot of background information on the United Arab Emirates and its foreign relations, human rights history and economics, as well as information about terrorism and 9/11.

A lawsuit that will seek class-action status was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, claiming DirecTV hides contract term committments and wrongly charges a early termination fees of up to $480.

See the full Andrews Publications report here.

By NATE JENKINS
Associated Press Writer

                                                  In the ongoing legal and public saga between officer Todd Lewitt and the Hermosa Beach Police Department, Lewitt scored another victory today with the city deciding Lewitt won the latest round and deciding to reinstate him to the force, effective this coming Monday. Hermosa Beach's attorney, Michael Capizzi (the former Orange County District Attorney), said the latest round was about a legal issue, which was decided.

It's a long tale that basically began when the seven-year veteran became outspoken about the force and city officials, took some heat for giving an allegedly drunk city manager a ride home instead of arresting him and was named in several excessive force lawsuits. In November 2005, he was terminated after being accused of trying to sneak a gun past security at John Wayne Airport. He claims he was fired in retaliation for all the other stuff. A County Civil Service Commission found he didn't do anything wrong, and ordered him reinstated.

When he returned to work last year, he was ordered to undergo a medical background check. When he refused, the city sued.

In September 2005, Lewitt had this to say about the department: "I've been a pain in their butt," he said. "They know it and I know it. They've come at me with dozens of internal investigations. I've fought each and every one of those and won. They hate my guts. They hate me and I hate them. It's no secret."

His attorney, Corey Glave, says his client excited to return to the department ... who he plans to sue for civil rights violations. 

Look for a full story later in the Daily Breeze and on dailybreeze.com