A selection of the need-to-know civil justice news for the week of November 26 – December 2.

 

Rising Slack Fill Lawsuits Test Function Of Packaging

Mike Helenthal | Legal News Line

Is at a matter of “more is less” or “what you see is what you get?” Slack fill lawsuits are on the rise, as any online user can see after typing the phrase into any search engine.

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Meet The N.J. Lawyer Who Is His Own Lead Plaintiff In 100 Consumer Class Actions

Alison Frankel | Reuters

For a smart man, New Jersey lawyer Harold Hoffman makes a lot of bad purchases. Since 2011, Hoffman has been duped repeatedly by supposedly deceptive labels or other misleading features of products he has bought. Or, at least, that is what Hoffman has alleged in dozens of consumer fraud class actions filed between 2011 and 2014 in New Jersey Superior Court, naming an array of defendants from Target, Whole Foods and Time Warner to small-timers like Joint Juice and Paradise Herbs. In no fewer than 100 cases, according to a list compiled by one of Hoffman’s targets, Hoffman has appeared as both lead plaintiff and lead counsel. His barrage of class actions has become so notorious that a New York litigation boutique ran a blog post in September 2015 entitled, “Have you been sued by Harold Hoffman?”

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Law Firm Is Ordered To Pay Nearly $27K For Suit Over Bad Online Reviews

Debra Cassens Weiss | ABA Journal

A Texas judge has tossed a suit filed by a law firm over bad online reviews and ordered it to pay nearly $27,000 in attorney fees as a sanction for bringing the legal action.

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