Attorney's fees in contingency cases

In William E. Weaner & Associates v. 369 West First Street the Second District was asked to reduce a fee award on the grounds that the award exceeded the amount that would have been paid to the law firm under its contingency fee agreement. It declined to do so.

Burnham v. Cleveland Clinic - Supreme Court limits prior holding restricting appellate jurisdiction

Yesterday the Supreme Court issued its decision in Burnham v. Cleveland Clinic, holding 6-1 that an order compelling the production of attorney-client privileged material is immediately appealable. This is good news. That such an order is appealable might seem obvious at first blush, but it was very much in doubt after the Court's holding last year in Smith v. Chen.

Opinions in brief

Quick summaries of five decisions released by the Supreme Court on December 7 and 8.

Hague Service Convention authorizes service by mail

The First District has weighed in on a district split regarding whether the Hague Service Convention permits service of a complaint and summons by regular mail, and finds that it does.

Third District: parking lot hole is open and obvious

Honestly, this decision is unremarkable except for its name: Howard v. Meat City, Inc. "Meat City" sounds delightful.

Brief filed: Fisher v. Doe

In October I criticized the First District's decision in Fisher v. Doe because it declined to adopt and apply the Dendrite test, which provides rules for when an anonymous speaker can be unmasked. Doe has appealed the decision to the Ohio Supreme Court, and today Tom Haren and I filed an amicus brief in support of jurisdiction, on behalf of our client Alexandria Goddard. Alex was the blogger who earned fame (or, perhaps, notoriety) in 2012 for investigating and blogging the social media posts made by students attending a party at which two Steubenville High School football players raped a teenaged girl.

Our brief can be read here. In it Tom and I urge the Court to recognize that both the Ohio and US Constitutions protect the rights to speak anonymously and remain anonymous, and that the Dendrite test is best suited to protecting those constitutional rights, while still allowing for meritorious claims to proceed. Most importantly, Dendrite requires plaintiffs to make a showing of merit before unmasking the anonymous speaker. Any rule that allows unmasking before a demonstration of the existence of a meritorious claim improperly prioritizes a common law claim (defamation) over a constitutional right (anonymity).

The plaintiff's response to the jurisdictional briefs is due in January.

Update: the Court has declined jurisdiction in the case.

Brief filed: Stewart v. Vivian

Today we filed a merits brief in the Ohio Supreme Court on behalf of the appellant in Stewart v. Vivian.  You can read the brief here. The supplement is here.