{"id":16911,"date":"2024-05-30T17:22:07","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T00:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/?p=16911"},"modified":"2026-01-30T14:39:48","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T21:39:48","slug":"watch-this-space-mi-ag-solicits-bids-from-law-firms-to-help-file-an-exxonknew-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/?p=16911","title":{"rendered":"[Update 10\/10\/24] Michigan Attorney General Solicits Bids from Law Firms to Help File an “ExxonKnew” Lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

[ <\/strong>Author’s update 10\/10\/24<\/span>: Per the day-earlier news from Nick Pope at <\/a><\/em>The Daily Caller, AG Nessel’s “\u2026 <\/em>office reached agreements in late September with three law firms to assist, including, including a San Francisco-based firm called Sher Edling, two<\/a>\u00a0 documents<\/a> reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation show. … The other two firms named in the agreements are DiCello Levitt and Hausfeld \u2026” As suggested in my original blog post entry below, and now confirmed, AG Nessel has chosen \u2026poorly<\/a>, particularly in light of the days-old report out of the joint U.S. Senate \/ House investigation<\/a> concerning the dark money funding situation surrounding Sher Edling’s climate litigation lawfare efforts. ]<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Why bother doing that? Why not take the easier route and plagiarize material straight out of other “ExxonKnew”-style lawsuits? Other attorneys and law firms are already doing exactly that.<\/p>\n

\u2022 the Pennsylvania Bucks County v. BP<\/em> filing is almost a word-for-word copy of City of Chicago v. BP<\/em>, as I detailed here<\/a>. The law firm that filed Bucks County<\/em>, DiCello Levitt, is noted as the assisting firm in the Chicago<\/em> filing<\/a>. which would explain the lame copy ‘n paste effort.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Chicago v. BP<\/em> – filed by a San Francisco law firm handling 18<\/strong> other current ‘boilerplate copy’ “ExxonKnew” lawsuits<\/a> containing virtually identical accusation paragraphs\/citations<\/a> – features a particular accusation paragraph and a directly related citation source copied straight from the California state Attorney General’s CA v Exxon<\/em> filing. As I illustrated here<\/a>, it was easier to drop in a translucent blue box to show where the identical wording ended. There is no public-stated credit given by CA AG Rob Bonta to the San Francisco firm. More here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022 CA v Exxon<\/em> features a particular accusation paragraph copied nearly identically<\/a> from the San Francisco law firm-handled<\/a> filing against Exxon from the New Jersey Attorney General. I showed that and more here<\/a>, including how the seemingly utterly unrelated-to-anybody-in-California Vermont v Exxon<\/em> filing contained the virtually identically worded accusation paragraph \u2026. which, as I showed<\/a> in my dissection of Vermont<\/em><\/a>, that wording was nearly identical to what was seen in the District of Columbia v Exxon<\/em> filing \u2026. which has assistance from the San Francisco law firm<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022 San Juan v. Exxon<\/em>, filed by a law firm<\/a> with no obvious connection to the one that filed<\/a> Puerto Rico v. Exxon<\/em>, is almost a word-for-word copy<\/a> of Puerto Rico<\/em>, as I detailed here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022 the Oregon County of Multnomah v Exxon<\/em> filing \u2014 3500+ miles away from Puerto Rico \u2014 has accusation paragraphs<\/a> (plural!<\/a>) that are literally identical to ones in the\u00a0 Puerto Rico<\/em> filing. More on that blunder here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hat tip to Climate Litigation Watch (CLW) for the news<\/a> of Michigan AG Dana Nessel soliciting “Requests for Proposals” from attorneys and law firms for assistance<\/a> in filing one of these idiotic anti-science, anti-intellectual lawsuits, with the goal being to actually file the thing sometime right after the beginning of August 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The hapless plaintiffs in the ongoing pile of “ExxonKnew” lawsuits, aided and abetted by their clearly inept law firm handlers<\/a> and whoever’s behind this traveling circus act<\/a> from one state \/ county \/ municipality to the next, have already handed their heads on a silver platter to the defendants. I’ve detailed that in my dissections of these lawsuits<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Given the increasing predictability of the accusation paragraphs in these being hardly more than slight rearrangements of a few words from one supposedly unrelated law office to the next, it’s pretty much a sure bet this next one out of Michigan will be nothing more than yet another clumsy copy of the others, with the odds particularly favoring the AG office selecting the proposal submitted by the San Francisco law firm.<\/p>\n

With the established track record of these lawsuits being enslaved<\/a> in some form or another to a never-published advertorial<\/a>, and to a pair<\/a> of never-implemented<\/a> (never implemented!<\/a>) ‘leaked industry memos<\/a>,’ what different result can we expect other than another blatant copy \u2019n paste filing from the Michigan AG?<\/p>\n

Barring some kind of major miracle of prosecutors coming up with actual proof that can stand up in courtroom evidentiary hearings, one more repeat of the same old circus act will once again illustrate just how massively vulnerable all of these lawsuits<\/em><\/strong> are to being thrown out of court for failing to make a prima facie<\/em> case<\/a> that any<\/em><\/strong> fossil fuel industry engaged in disinformation campaigns employing shill skeptic scientists while publishing ‘advertorials’ they knew were falsely undercutting the ‘settled science’ of man-caused global warming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[ Author’s update 10\/10\/24: Per the day-earlier news from Nick Pope at The Daily Caller, AG Nessel’s “\u2026 office reached agreements in late September with three law firms to assist, including, including a San Francisco-based firm called Sher Edling, two\u00a0 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,135],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16911"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16911"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19390,"href":"https:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16911\/revisions\/19390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gelbspanfiles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}