Pittsburgh Legal Back Talk

Legal topics of interest to lawyers and consumers with a Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania focus.

1410 Posts and Counting

Pittsburgh Legal Newslog: Mylan, Inc. sues PG in WV Over Articles Alleging Quality Control Guidelines Were Overidden by Employees.

The Post Gazette had reported that workers were overriding QC rules in the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals. This report caused Mylan’s stock price to suffer a severe jolt. Mylan alleged in the suit the PG’s allegations were untrue and were based upon documents “misappropriated by the newspaper. Various other theories are expounded in the Complaint, which can be accessed by a link in the story.

Are Bank of America and J P Morgan Chase, et. al. Accounting to Anyone for How They Spend Billions Appropriated to Save Homeowners from Foreclosure?

I am willing to bet a month of lunches that there is no plan for adequate oversight of this activity. How could there be? What army of auditors has been mustered to do it? Don’t say federal bank examiners can do it in their spare time. They don’t have any. Not on this monumental scale.

O. Max Gardner III on Teddy Kennedy and Overcoming Our Greatest Mistakes in Life.

Gardner says that Ted Kennedy was, unlike his two brothers, a natural compromiser and deal maker. This, he believes, was the secret to his remarkable output of important legislation. Here are a portion of his remarks on Ted Kennedy’s fall and redemption.

Sorry, Lawyers.com!

Lawyers.com is a highly reputable lawyer selection web site, operated by Lexis-Nexis. That organization was unaware of the ploy until it was reported in the AVVO blog. Conrad Saam, who posted the story on AVVO, was unaware that the ads, which appeared as tweets on Twitter, did not originate from Lawyers.com. So we were all fooled.

Help Not Wanted: Message to Future Lawyers.

Actually, the top law schools are only experiencing the conditions that have prevailed for the rest of us for at least three decades. Pittsburgh is a place where there has been a surfeit of lawyers for a long time. That means that you become a lawyer because you want to practice law — not because you are guaranteed a comfortable income. If you are going to be a lawyer, you had better love it. And, you had better be prepared to exercise ingenuity to make a living.

Arbitration Exhibits, a Strategy.

Presenting exhibits in a compulsory arbitration can be a messy affair, especially if there are quite a few of them. They are lying about on the table, out of order, mixed with the other party’s exhibits and various other pieces of paper. Then, when the testimony is complete, the chairman usually tells you to take your exhibits with you. Thus, exhibits you hope they will review during deliberation are gone.

300!

Pittsburgh Legal Back Talk recently passed another milestone: 300 posts. Thanks for reading.

Quick, Call the Mad Men! Lawyer.com Publishes Ads Which Would Have Been Mildly Racey in 1963!

Well, they might have sold something in 1963, but do they sell lawyers? In 2009? Give me a break!

Flat Fees and Alternative Billing Arrangements.

Of course, flat fees are nothing new. What’s new is that Biglaw is doing it. Small firms and sole practitioners have been performing many types of services on a flat fee basis for as long as there have been lawyers and clients. Of course, this varies with the type of practice. Civil litigation is prone to turn into a war of attrition and even a solo a lawyer (who presumably doesn’t have to pay others to work on the case) could go broke trying to dodge all of the brickbats the other side can throw if the maximum fee is fixed in advance.

Hearings on Statewide Foreclosure Conciliation Legislation Are Being Held By State House Committee.

Posted by Cliff Tuttle (c) 2009 The Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported that hearings are being conducted by the Pennsylvania House Commerce Committee on HB 1042, sponsored by Rep. Michael McGeehan of Philadelphia, which would mandate Courts of Common Pleas in every County to establish conciliation programs which would attempt to resolve mortgage foreclosures before they […]

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Welcome

CLIFF TUTTLE has been a Pennsylvania lawyer for over 45 years and (inter alia) is a real estate litigator and legal writer. The posts in this blog are intended to provide general information about legal topics of interest to lawyers and consumers with a Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania focus. However, this information does not constitute legal advice and there is no lawyer-client relationship created when you read this blog. You are encouraged to leave comments but be aware that posted comments can be read by others. If you wish to contact me in privacy, please use the Contact Form located immediately below this message. I will reply promptly and in strict confidence.

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