Toxic Avengers– by Dorothy Pomeranz at Forbes

Posted: 10/15/2001  browse the blog archive

Excerpted from the full article at Forbes:

Clever moneymaking scheme: Visit any doctor or dentist in California. If you don't see signs warning you that the physician is using potentially harmful chemicals as defined by the state's Proposition 65 (e.g., mercury fillings), haul him into court and demand $2,500 for each day he didn't post the warnings. You get 25% of the loot, the state 75%.

Just such a case was filed by Morse Mehrban, a Los Angeles lawyer who has made Prop. 65 litigation into an art form. Just since the beginning of last year Mehrban has filed 65 lawsuits against everyone from 7-Eleven to Bausch & Lomb for misdeeds as heinous as selling artificial fire logs and key-copying machines.

"I am a bounty hunter, but that's exactly what the law allows," brags Mehrban, attired in a T shirt, running pants and sneakers. Mehrban's Web site trolls for plaintiffs, informing them that they simply have to bring him examples of businesses that expose "at least one person" to some 800 chemicals deemed dangerous by the law.  link to source