Treasurer Shoffner’s Campaign Finance Woes Do Not Inspire Confidence!

Hold your head up, you silly girl, look what you've done!

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's Mike Wickline continues his fine tradition of digging into the tangled web of state Treasurer Martha Shoffner's campaign finances (subscription required). What a horrible mess they are! The latest beef on Shoffner is that she accepted a $10,000 check from New York law firm Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer LLC, which was reportedly intended to represent five separate contributions of $2,000 each from firm employees. The legality of this is a gray area, according to … [Read more...]

Weekend Reading! Report on ‘Unholy Alliance’ Between AGs, Litigation Industry

An unholy alliance

The conservative Manhattan Institute has a new report out (OK, couple weeks old, relatively new, whatever) focusing on the "unholy alliance" between state attorneys general and "the litigation industry" (private personal-injury lawyers, dubbed "Trial Lawyers, Inc." in the report title). Are AGs and trial attorneys "in bed" with each other, the report asks? Indubitably, the report answers. Oh, man, AGs and trial attorneys, you gotta keep an eye these guys!: In fact, our state attorneys … [Read more...]

Wall Street Journal Profiles Center for Class Action Fairness

Class action

There’s a great article in this morning's Wall Street Journal by Ashby Jones, and I don’t say that only because it profiles Ted Frank, the brilliant, handsome fellow who sends me a paycheck every month. It’s about the Center for Class Action Fairness LLC, the public interest legal program where I serve as senior counsel. Here's what we do. The idea behind a class action settlement is that a large group (a “class”) of people has been treated badly; the settlement is supposed to … [Read more...]