Alleging that the attorney appointed to administer compensation claims for the 2010 Gulf oil spill has conflicts of interests, allowed corruption of the claims process, and has otherwise mismanaged the multibillion-dollar compensation fund it established, energy giant BP yesterday filed a motion in federal court seeking his removal
Judicial HellholesAs the Supreme Court of Alabama on Friday reaffirmed its earlier, first-and-only-in-the-nation state high court embrace of an expansive theory of civil liability known as “innovator liability,” the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) condemned the 6-3 decision, saying “the court majority denies the broader and dangerous implications of this decision, but it’s as disappointing as the first”
Judicial HellholesWith emotional incitement of juries, the personal injury bar continues to draw furiously on the dwindling butt of tobacco litigation in Florida, where a preposterous and plainly unconstitutional punitive damages award of $23.6 billion — that’s billion with a “b” –was rendered July 18
UncategorizedMinnesota’s Supreme Court has laudably resisted the temptation — succumbed to by many other high courts — to expand liability under the state’s consumer protection statute with an appropriately straightforward interpretation of the law
Points of Light, UncategorizedThe California Supreme Court has appropriately held that a business does not owe a duty to its customers to obtain and make available an automated external defibrillator (AED) for use in a medical emergency
Points of LightThe West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, arguably the most arbitrary and capricious — to say nothing of ridiculous — state high court in the nation has done it again…
Judicial HellholesThe U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit tossed out a “scandalous” settlement stemming from a Pella window consumer protection class action suit that would have paid the plaintiffs’ attorneys $11 million up front, with $2 million going to the ethically-challenged lead counsel. It’s just one more example of how state Consumer Protection Acts are abused
Judicial HellholesThe latest in a long line of plaintiff-friendly asbestos judges in Madison County, Illinois, recently denied dozens of defendants’ perfectly persuasive motions for forum non conveniens in four separate cases, making it ironically clear that jurors, not judges, are asbestos defendants’ only hope for justice in this perennial Judicial Hellhole
Judicial HellholesThe U.S. Supreme Court has opted against hearing the appeal of notorious class action attorneys found liable for looting a $200 million diet drug settlement fund
Points of LightThe Mississippi Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Exxon Mobil’s motion for summary judgment after the energy giant had found itself in the jaws of litigious neighbors
Points of Light, UncategorizedThe remaining defendants in Feld Entertainment’s RICO lawsuit have settled for $15.75 million a case that stemmed from their original lawsuit that fraudulently accused Feld’s Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus of abusing its elephants. Here’s a Feld news release
UncategorizedThe Delaware Supreme Court has upheld a private company’s bylaw that shifts fees for shareholder lawsuits to the losing party
Points of LightCBS’s “60 Minutes” last evening served to further expose the inbred fraud of Gulf Coast shysters as they parasitically seek to suck free money out of BP in the wake of the 2010 oil spill off the coast of Louisiana
Judicial HellholesAfter spending millions of taxpayer dollars on a delusional national advertising campaign aimed at bringing start-up businesses to a dying state controlled by personal injury lawyers (who in their right mind would bring a business to such a state?), New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has now admitted that those lawyers dominate state politics and he is powerless to push through a popular reform bill that actually could boost redevelopment efforts
Judicial HellholesFollowing ATRA’s lead in repeatedly exposing disability-access lawsuit abuse in California and elsewhere, NPR has finally joined in with an April 23 report during its “All Things Considered” program
Judicial HellholesThe Food and Drug Administration has quietly proposed a new rule that will inevitably lead to higher prices for generic drugs, and it only consulted with personal injury lawyers before doing so
UncategorizedAt the behest of powerful personal injury law firm Weitz & Luxenberg, New York Supreme Court Justice Sherry Klein Heitler Tuesday reintroduced punitive damages to New York City’s asbestos litigation (NYCAL) with an order that will enrich those lawyers at the expense of the many who will develop asbestos-related illnesses in the future
Judicial HellholesOn Tuesday, April 8, a federal jury in Louisiana ordered Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. and Eli Lilly Co. to pay $9 billion in punitive damages in a case involving the diabetes drug, Actos, after Takeda failed to protect documents that may have supported the plaintiff’s case
UncategorizedA shamelessly foolish rock-climber and his disgraceful attorney are suing New York City taxpayers for the city’s failure to post a “No Climbing” sign near a rock sculpture and thus simultaneously tempting those who’ll foot the bill to stone them
Judicial HellholesWisconsin Governor Scott Walker earlier today signed into law AB 19, asbestos trust fund transparency legislation
Points of LightBy striking down a 2003 statutory limit on awards for pain and suffering in lawsuits against health care providers, a five justices of the Florida Supreme Court earlier this month arrogantly and dangersouly disregarded the will of more than 2.5 million Florida voters.
Judicial Hellholes