Assembly Panel Mulls Frivolous Lawsuit Bill
Firm Offers Signing Bonuses Of $50,000 to Recruit IP Attorneys With Electrical Engineering Degrees
LAW
by Rene’e Beasley Jones, Staff Writer
Sponsors expect a bill designed to curb the number of California’s frivolous lawsuits to make its way to the Assembly Judiciary Committee.
Assembly Bill 1884 seeks reforms to the state’s unfair competition law, which was written to stop competition indirectly harming consumers. The Civil Justice Association of California, a nonprofit group that lobbies civil liability issues, sponsored Assembly Bill 1884.
Amendments to the unfair competition law made it so lax that companies have been bombarded with outrageous lawsuits.
Here are a few examples, according to the Civil Justice Association.
– Although no customer claimed deception, someone slapped software companies with $1 million lawsuits because their packaging was too large for computer discs.
– Someone brought a lawsuit against a toy maker and stores because ads touted a child’s oven could make goodies in less than 10 minutes. The problem: The company failed to allow time for mixing the snack.
– A squirt gun manufacturer fell victim to a suit because a lawyer claimed the toy couldn’t shoot as far as promised.
The bill working through the Assembly now has four parts. The person filing a lawsuit must demonstrate actual injury; defendants have 90 days to correct problems in order to avoid a lawsuit; no more than one action may be brought against a defendant for the same conduct; the bill attempts to limit discovery to the case at hand.
The Civil Justice Association has sponsored legislation three times, hoping to reform the unfair competition law.
Assemblymen Juan Vargas and Howard Wayne, both San Diego Democrats, sit on the Assembly Judiciary Committee.
The bill, which was scheduled to be heard on April 23, was postponed. No new date has been set.
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Intellectual Bonuses: Fish & Richardson P.C. of San Diego is offering sign-on bonuses of $50,000 and higher to recruit intellectual property attorneys who have earned electrical engineering degrees.
They will work in the firm’s patent practice.
“While other firms are shrinking or freezing associates’ salaries, we are aggressively looking to hire the most outstanding attorneys we can find,” said Peter Devlin, the law firm’s president.
Fish & Richardson employs 86 attorneys in eight offices nationally who hold electrical engineering degrees. But because of innovations involving computers and semiconductors, the caseload remains more than they can handle. Devlin said the firm has turned away clients.
Last year, Fish & Richardson obtained nearly 1,400 patents for clients and filed more than 4,000 new applications.
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Paralegal Approval: Cuyamaca College in El Cajon earned American Bar Association approval for its paralegal program.
Paralegal Studies Coordinator Mary Sessom expects the program’s enrollment to climb.
“It facilitates our students’ entry into the job market as more and more employers are looking for employees from ABA-approved schools,” she said.
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New Office: Pillsbury Winthrop LLP of San Diego recently added an office in Carmel Valley.
The firm’s new office is at 11682 El Camino Real, Suite 200. Twenty-five intellectual property attorneys, 14 partners and 11 associates relocated to the new office.
The firm’s business litigators remain in the Downtown San Diego office.
The deadline for the next law column is May 10. Beasley Jones can be reached at (858) 277-6359, Ext. 109, or via e-mail at
rbeasley@sdbj.com.
