Lawyers turn legal screws on Bill Gates & Co.

Five more class action lawsuits were filed against Microsoft Tuesday, bringing the week’s total to seven, including three federal and four state cases. All seek compensation for business users and consumers who have allegedly been overcharged for Windows 95 and Windows 98 software. The rash of lawsuits is adding to speculation that Microsoft may decide that settling the government’s antitrust lawsuit is the best way out of a situation that is rapidly developing into legal quicksand that could end up swallowing Microsoft’s assets.

A pair of lawsuits filed in the state of Ohio on Tuesday copy the California cases filed Monday. Along with three other cases filed in ew York, Alabama and Louisiana the past week, the lawsuits come on the heels of the ruling by Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson that Microsoft is a monopoly and has been abuses its monopoly power. One of the two Ohio cases was filed by Stanley Chesley, a prominent attorney who has previously led legal battles against cigarette makers, breast implant manufacturers and other large industries. Chesley said his lawsuit may be consolidated with similar suits filed against Microsoft this past week in California, Alabama and Louisiana.

The damages sought from Microsoft are huge. ''We have estimates that consumers have been collectively overcharged $10 billion by Microsoft," said Chesley. Under U.S. antitrust law, Microsoft would be forced to pay three times any damages awarded to any plaintiffs. Analysts said several dozen class action lawsuits could result from the monopoly ruling. Such avalanche of legal problem would make a settlement with the government a far less painful dilemma and most analysts expect the talk between Microsoft lawyers and government attorneys to get into high gear in the coming three weeks.

Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan said Microsoft will fight the call action cases and that it has plenty of legal and financial resources to fight the suits. ‘It's unfortunate that plaintiffs' attorneys have decided to file baseless lawsuits. We believe our actions have been pro-competitive and fully legal.''

As more of these lawsuits are filed, you have to assume that Microsoft will look for some way to try to prevent the trial from going to conclusion,'' said Richard Thomas Delamarter, an expert on corporate monopolies who teaches antitrust history and technology at Yale University. Meanwhile Jackson last week urged lawyers for both sides in the federal antitrust case to respond promptly to his proposal that appellate Judge Richard Posner, a noted antitrust scholar and advocate of free- market economics, help both sides find common ground for a settlement. "I would hope that you would all accede to it. It is voluntary. I am not going to order it, but I think it would be a very useful thing to do," Jackson told both parties in a closed-door session. Both sides readily accepted Posner is the chief judge of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. "He is not going to waste a whole lot of time if it looks from the outset that a settlement is not promising,'' Jackson said and added that he will be willing to delay his verdict if Posner thinks that more time is needed for a settlement.

Microsoft chief lawyer John Warden, said he wanted to consult with his client but that he would recommend that Microsoft enter mediation. Posner "is one of the smartest guys alive,'' Warden remarked. Government lawyer David Boies said he would accept the mediation with the qualification that "I just have never thought through the issue of how you mediate some issues that rais sort of law enforcement and the kind of public policy issues that we have here.''