Tort reformers have been turning up all over the internet recently. We took the liberty of rounding up some of the standouts. You may recognize a few friends of Project Lawsuit Abuse in there. Here are some of the newsmakers from around the country.

Have Law Degree, Will Sue Law School

Paula Henry’s story is an important reminder of how lawsuit abuse creates not only economic burdens but emotional ones as well. In 1995, Henry lost her husband to murder. Thankfully, her husband’s killer is now behind bars, serving a 31 year sentence.

Unfortunately, this convict has found another way to hurt Henry – he’s suing her from jail, claiming she caused him “emotional distress” and violated his privacy rights.

Even though this lawsuit is entirely outrageous, it still impacts Henry. She’ll have to pay attorney’s fees, and the suit is a painful reminder of a terrible event.

As regular Project Lawsuit Abuse readers know, lawsuit lending is a practice in which companies offer loans to individuals in the midst of a lawsuit. Typically, people take lawsuit loans to fund immediate needs, such as medical bills and funerals, while waiting for settlement money. Unfortunately, many lawsuit lenders charge outrageously high interest rates, meaning that people frequently end up with more debt than they initially had.

Some entrepreneurs have expanded the concept of lawsuit lending, taking it to a whole new level. Big time investors are now putting their money behind big time lawsuits, with the hopes of making millions.

Our courts are intended to make people whole. When someone has a serious injury that occurred due to someone else’s negligence, then they should receive appropriate and reasonable compensation.

Unfortunately, we hear time and time again about folks who are using our courts to play the lawsuit lottery. These people are not trying to gain justice – they’re trying to get rich.

A recent story from West Virginia exemplifies this abuse quite well. In 2009, Erica Tamburin incurred injuries in the parking lot of a Cabela’s Wholesale store when another car reportedly hit her truck. Tamburin sued, claiming injuries to her “head, neck, shoulders, back, chest, arms, legs, body chemistry and psyche,” as well as annoyance, inconvenience, pain and anguish.

Tort reformers have been turning up all over the internet recently. We took the liberty of rounding up some of the standouts. You may recognize a few friends of Project Lawsuit Abuse in there. Here are some of the newsmakers from around the country.

Do We Need to Have a Serious Discussion about Medical Malpractice?

Ambulance chasing. You’ve probably heard of it – it occurs when personal injury lawyers, seeking new business, decide to visit hospital beds, make unsolicited calls or even show up at funeral homes following the accidental death of a loved one.

Ambulance chasing, or “barratry,” as it’s known in technical language, is clearly morally reprehensible. Attorneys who practice it prey upon people when they are most emotionally vulnerable. Respectable lawyers know that plaintiffs with real concerns will seek out representation on their own; attorneys who make unsolicited visits to injured people are simply attempting to exploit the system for profit.

Recently, a judge rebuked two New York lawyers for disingenuous tactics in filing disability lawsuits. The lawyers, apparently, had been filing scores of lawsuits, claiming that local businesses violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and recruiting plaintiffs only after the fact. Their plaintiffs, of course, hardly received any monetary damages, while they received hefty legal fees.

One example of how these lawyers misbehaved - they accused a Subway restaurant of having a bathroom that was inaccessible to wheelchairs. In reality, however, the Subway didn’t have a bathroom at all!

Ridiculous lawsuit alert! In April 2011, a 24 year old man name Joseph Pignatiello attended a punk show in Pittsburgh. Apparently, he wasn’t aware that punk shows tend to involve violent mosh pits. He claims that other concertgoers pulled him into the pit, threw him around, and caused him to break his knee and sprain his shoulder.

Now, Mr. Pignatiello is suing the venue owners, the band playing that night, and a production company, saying that they "failed to prevent aggressive, intoxicated, drugged and/or otherwise impaired individuals from forming a mosh pit."

Tort reformers have been turning up all over the internet recently. We took the liberty of rounding up some of the standouts. You may recognize a few friends of Project Lawsuit Abuse in there. Here are some of the newsmakers from around the country.

Let's end predatory lending to plaintiffs

As we told you last December, California is the nation’s number one Judicial Hellhole. You might wonder – what factors make California’s legal climate so bad? Well, a lot.

For one, trial lawyers have been exploiting California’s Proposition 65, which requires cancer warning labels to be posted at businesses. If signs aren’t properly posted, opportunist lawyers demand out of court settlements without giving business owners a chance to comply. Similarly, California trial lawyers have abused the Americans with Disabilities Act, suing businesses for extremely minor violations.