"A review of the litigation posture after an important appeals ruling is typical of any administration".
The government began a review of the litigation authority last March – undertaken by Marsh, one of the world's biggest insurance brokers – but has yet to make its findings public.
Interviews with associates of Mr. Scrushy, government officials and former employees, as well as a review of the litigation history of HealthSouth, paint a picture of an executive who ruled by top-down fear, threatened critics with reprisals and paid his loyal subordinates well.
In presenting the bill, which receives its second reading in the Commons on Wednesday, David Cameron and Kenneth Clarke made no mention of Lord Jackson's review of civil litigation costs, published in January 2010, after a two-year research period, which is strange because the second part of the bill incorporates Lord Jackson's recommendations almost in full.
In a recent review of the consumer litigation system, the commission found that credit card issuers and other companies were basing some lawsuits on incomplete or false paperwork.
Mr. Bush said, for example, that the bill "circumvents the independent medical review process in favor of litigation".
The report represents a comprehensive review of the division's litigation activity in the Bush administration.
That said, the changes Mr. Steinberg is championing — which include exempting urban projects from parking and aesthetic reviews, and speeding up the pace of litigation — are considerably short of the broader rollback of environmental reviews sought by business leaders.
Robo-signing is a term coined to describe employees' signing of litigation documents without reviewing their contents.
And today the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco made an important move in its big gay-marriage case, declining further action (called "en banc" review) of the California Proposition 8 litigation, letting stand its previous ruling in favor of those seeking the return of same-sex marriage rights in that state.
