Tort Law

ACLU and BigLaw firm use ‘Orange is the New Black’ in hashtag effort to promote NY jail reform

Life in a women’s prison definitely has its downside in a popular Netflix show, Orange is the New Black. But the reality is much worse, contend advocates for prison reform. Using the show as a springboard, they have launched a social media campaign this week, at the outset of the…

Jun 11, 2014 9:25 PM CDT

Mistakenly arrested again, at court hearing in earlier mistaken-arrest case, woman plans to sue

Twice arrested within six months by a single Florida law enforcement agency, for crimes in which another individual with the same name is wanted, a Louisiana woman with no felony record is now planning to sue. In a Monday letter (PDF), attorney Andrew Bonderud says his client, Ashley Nicole Chiasson,…

Jun 11, 2014 6:10 PM CDT

Waffle House CEO sues 3 lawyers for alleged extortion during settlement effort

The CEO of Waffle House has filed a civil racketeering conspiracy lawsuit against three attorneys, accusing them of engaging in extortion during settlement negotiations in a sexual harassment matter being pursued by a former employee. CEO Joe Rogers Jr. alleges in the Cobb County, Georgia, suit that attorneys John Butters,…

Jun 11, 2014 3:50 PM CDT

Did ‘corporate speak’ and PowerPoint lead to complacency at GM?

General Motors employees were taught to be careful when writing about safety issues. A 2008 Power Point presentation had some helpful suggestions, according to a report by Jenner & Block chairman Anton Valukas on the automaker’s failure to respond to defective ignition switches. A “problem” should be described as an…

Jun 11, 2014 12:22 PM CDT

2nd Circuit OKs searchable book database, calls copying entire volumes for this purpose fair use

Copying entire books in order to create a searchable database of millions of volumes is a “quintessentially transformative use,” a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday. Siding with a group of universities sued by authors alleging infringement, the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the full-text database…

Jun 10, 2014 10:25 PM CDT

Woman sues GM over criminal conviction resulting from car crash

General Motors is facing a number of lawsuits as a result of its now-admitted problem with vehicle ignition switches. But one may be unique. A Texas woman who was convicted of negligent homicide as a result of a 2004 crash now says in a federal lawsuit filed in Tyler on…

Jun 9, 2014 10:50 PM CDT

Federal jury awards $4.7M to Yemeni-born man named Osama who was taunted and punched at work

A manager of a women’s clothing store in Brooklyn, New York, testified that a security guard was just teasing when he referred to a Yemeni-born stock clerk named Osama Saleh as “bin Laden” and a terrorist, in an apparent reference to the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on…

Jun 9, 2014 5:05 PM CDT

Famed ‘Mockingbird’ author Harper Lee settles suit against hometown museum

A federal lawsuit by the author of To Kill a Mockingbird against a museum in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama, has apparently been settled. Although terms are confidential, the case was dismissed Thursday at the request of the parties and Monroe County Heritage Museum is no longer using the title…

Jun 6, 2014 3:00 PM CDT

Woman charged in wiretap case after videotaping traffic stop wins $57K settlement

In the wake of a recent federal appeals court decision that greenlighted her civil rights suit, a New Hampshire woman has won a $57,000 settlement over a criminal case pursued against her for videotaping a friend’s 2010 traffic stop. The wiretap case against Carla Gericke wasn’t prosecuted, but she sued…

Jun 5, 2014 7:15 PM CDT

GM cites ‘pattern of incompetence,’ fires 15 including legal execs, will pay ignition-switch victims

An internal probe of General Motors found “a pattern of incompetence and neglect” but no intentional cover-up of ignition-switch issues that resulted in a massive vehicle recall this year after a decade of problems including at least 13 fatal accidents. Fifteen employees were fired as a result of the investigation…

Jun 5, 2014 3:30 PM CDT

Ex-patient sues hospital, says workers posted her medical records on Facebook shaming page

A former patient has sued the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, contending that hospital workers posted her medical records on a Facebook page after she was diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease. The unidentified plaintiff says two hospital workers were persuaded by her ex-boyfriend to release her medical records, in…

Jun 4, 2014 3:25 PM CDT

Two Texas lawyers face felony barratry case, possibly the first in their county

Two Texas lawyers have been indicted in a criminal barratry case, which may be the first ever prosecuted in Bexar County according to the district attorney’s office. Paul David Andrews, 57, turned himself in Monday and was released on $15,000 bond. Keith Gould, 52, as of Tuesday, had not yet…

Jun 4, 2014 2:45 PM CDT

Chicago sues 5 drug companies, says they pushed painkillers and drove up city’s costs

Following in the footsteps of two California counties, the city of Chicago this week filed suit against five pharmaceutical companies, contending that they drove up the city’s costs by overstating the benefits of their addictive painkillers and failing to reveal the downside of taking the drugs. It says the defendants,…

Jun 3, 2014 3:15 PM CDT

Posner tosses ‘scandalous’ settlement, says judge didn’t heed danger signs

Updated: A federal appeals court has rejected an “inequitable—even scandalous” class-action settlement, removed the lead lawyer and reinstated “defrocked” lead plaintiffs who had objected to the deal. Judge Richard Posner wrote the June 2 opinion (PDF) for a panel of the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. “Almost every…

Jun 3, 2014 1:44 PM CDT

Extreme sports are more popular than ever, prompting questions about legal liability

Last year in West Virginia, 28-year-old Avishek Sengupta was running the Tough Mudder, a grueling 10-plus-mile race littered with merciless obstacles that take participants over blazing pits of fire, through dark trenches and into pools of water laced with electrical wires that deliver 10,000 volts. When Sengupta approached the obstacle…

Jun 1, 2014 10:30 AM CDT