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Class-action lawyers have a tough job. While many think of themselves as self-appointed attorneys general, deputized to ferret out fraud and punish evildoers, they still have to comply with all these archaic requirements of the law.Like a case needs to have a plaintiff. And that plaintiff has to have a claim. And it’s a good idea for the plaintiff to bring the claim to the lawyer, and not the other way around. (Bill Lerach and Mel Weiss, two of the leading lights of the securities class action bar, went to jail for getting that one wrong.)A federal judge in New Jersey recently rejected a proposed class action on behalf of everybody in New Jersey who purchased “All Natural†Arizona beverages without realizing they contained possibly less-than-natural high fructose corn syrup. The problem was attorneys Daniel Lapinski and Philip A. Tortoreti of Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer (“synonymous with law firm excellence,†says their website) and Michael D. Halbfish recruited a plaintiff who had trouble keeping her story straight about when she actually purchased the offending drink.As reported first on the Mass Tort Defense blog, plaintiff Lauren Cole repeatedly stated she bought the drink on March 30, 2008, in writing and in depositions. Then Arizona’s lawyers uncovered a client agreement with Halbfish dated Aug. 9, 2007. Whoops! Those pesky legal rules require plaintiffs to tell the truth about when they bought something. The fact that she’d hired an attorney (OK, that’s a legal fiction, too; perhaps it’s more accurate to say an attorney hired her) months before she said she bought the drink, with the specific plan of suing Arizona over its labeling, can make some judges angry. ...
