News in Brief

Philadelphia – Former Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Bernard J. Avellino died last Monday at the age of 63. Avellino suffered a fatal seizure at his Ocean City, .J., home.

“We are all saddened at his premature death,” Philadelphia Common Pleas Court President Judge Alex Bonavitacola said.

Judge Avellino earned both his undergraduate and law degrees from Villanova University. He was a former Democratic ward leader for southwest Philadelphia and an 18-year veteran of the common pleas court.

During that time, Bonavitacola said, Judge Avellino devised a number of novel approaches for dealing with pre-trial issues as well as class-action suits. The methods Judge Avellino implemented for discovery proceedings served to streamline the process and reduce pre-trial disputes between parties.

“His innovative ideas will be missed,” Bonavitacola said.

But his tenure on the bench was not without controversy.

In March of 1997, the Supreme Court suspended Judge Avellino without pay and ordered him to file weekly reports on his caseload after he went on strike to protest an assignment by Administrative Judge John Herron. Herron had assigned Judge Avellino to preside over non-jury trials in minor criminal cases – a task Judge Avellino felt was beneath his seniority.

The result of Judge Avellino’s week-long work stoppage was a rebuke from the state Supreme Court accusing Judge Avellino of undermining “the public perception of the judiciary.” Judge Avellino then filed a civil rights suit claiming Herron’s assignment had actually been a “retaliatory demotion” stemming from political differences between the two men.

The Judicial Conduct Board charged him with 30 counts of misconduct stemming from his 1997 strike. But Judge Avellino offered to dismiss his civil rights suit and expressed his desire to retire from the bench. The charges were withdrawn, and Judge Avellino retired on July 5, 1998.

Judge Avellino is survived by his wife Ora Mae and daughter Lauren.

Internet Marketing Push in Class Action

Pittsburgh – The click of a computer mouse is now enough to join a multimillion-dollar lawsuit.

Lawyers put marketing into overdrive following an announcement late last month that Rent-Way Inc., an Erie-based chain that is the nation’s second-largest renter of appliances and furniture, found fake entries in its books.

The first bid for clients for class-action securities lawsuits hit the Internet Wire, a clearinghouse for business news, just 99 minutes after Rent-Way admitted on Oct. 30 that falsehoods its employees uncovered might reduce this year’s earnings by $25 million.

A dozen other law firms followed in the next week, including an announcement by Barrack Rodos & Bacine of Philadelphia. The firm Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach of New York directs interested parties to an Internet site where they can read a lawsuit and “retain Milberg Weiss” with a computer click.

Another firm – Pomerantz Haudek Block Grossman & Gross of New York – put on its site a picture of a ticking clock and a warning that shareholders might lose rights if they wait.

“Justice delayed is justice denied,” it says.

Rent-Way’s announcement caused the price of its stock to fall from $24.43 3/4 per share to $4.75 on a scary Halloween for the company and its investors. The stock was trading at $5 last Wednesday, down 50 cents on the New York Stock Exchange.

The chain – which has 1,100 stores in 41 states – has suspended a financial executive, Matthew Marini. Its president, Jeffrey Conway, has given up his duties during an investigation by auditors hired by Rent-Way.

Pittsburgh attorney Alfred Yates said last week that there is a 60-day deadline after filing lawsuits to get class-action clients, so lawyers use the news releases to find them.

A judge in Pittsburgh or Erie is expected to assign the case to the biggest shareholder or, less likely, designate a group of investors. Either outcome spurs attorneys to hustle for work, according to a Boston law school professor.

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