Tort Law

Male strippers caused emotional distress to nursing home resident, suit alleges

Bernice Youngblood slipping a dollar bill into a the waistband of a stripper hired to perform at her Long Island nursing home. Photo courtesy of Ray, Mitev & Associates. Male strippers hired to perform at a Long Island nursing home caused emotional distress to an elderly resident there, according to…

Apr 9, 2014 12:11 PM CDT

$9B in punitives awarded in Actos drug case; jurors deliberated less than two hours

The battle between plaintiffs lawyer Mark Lanier and the makers of the Actos diabetes drug isn’t over yet. Federal jurors in Louisiana awarded $9 billion in punitive damages on Monday in Lanier’s suit claiming Japanese drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical and its American marketing partner Eli Lilly & Co. concealed the cancer…

Apr 8, 2014 5:32 PM CDT

Lawyer files federal racketeering suit over ‘pay for play’ on son’s high school lacrosse team

A Texas lawyer has filed a 39-page federal lawsuit over what he describes as a federal racketeering enterprise requiring “pay for play” from those who want to be active participants in some of the state’s top high school lacrosse programs. Among those adversely affected, according to the complaint by William…

Apr 8, 2014 3:30 PM CDT

Jerk.com is accused of consumer deception; lawyers and law firms among website’s targets

A website that labeled lawyers, law firms and others as jerks is facing a deceptive-conduct lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission. The Federal Trade Commission claims in its suit that Jerk.com harvested personal information from Facebook to create more than 73 million profiles of people and businesses that were labeled…

Apr 8, 2014 12:07 PM CDT

8th Cir. axes $900K verdict because lawyer told personal law school sex-harassment story at closing

A $900,000 jury award in an employment discrimination case, including $600,000 in punitive damages, has been reversed by a federal appeals court because a lawyer for the plaintiff during closing arguments told jurors that as a law student, she was sexually harassed by a professor. The anecdote by attorney Brooke…

Apr 7, 2014 9:10 PM CDT

Defense stunned by $2.88M verdict in med-mal case over injection injury and suicide

Dr. Kimber Eubanks says the injection-site injury that Joel Burnette at first complained of, according to family and friends, wasn’t reflected in medical records and hence didn’t exist. But a Kansas jury apparently saw the situation differently, awarding his parents $2.88 million over what became a paralyzing injury that they…

Apr 7, 2014 5:45 PM CDT

White House lawyers reportedly protest selfie with Obama used for promotional purposes

White House lawyers reportedly protested to Samsung after the company promoted a baseball slugger’s selfie with President Obama. Senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer mentioned the incident on “Face the Nation” on Sunday, the Washington Post reports at Morning Mix. “We’ve had conversations with Samsung about this and expressed our concerns,” he…

Apr 7, 2014 12:32 PM CDT

How this personal injury firm is using Google Glass to get a leg up

Two personal injury lawyers at the Phoenix office of Fennemore Craig are sharing Google Glass with their clients because they believe it can help them win cases by offering a different view of the evidence. Lawyers James Goodnow and Marc Lamber have equipped several business and personal-injury clients with Google…

Apr 7, 2014 11:15 AM CDT

Could massive GM vehicle recall get bigger? Single key in ignition isn’t safe, says plaintiff lawyer

As the CEO of General Motors appeared before federal lawmakers in the nation’s capital this week amidst a massive recall of vehicles over an ignition-switch issue blamed for a number of fatal accidents, the situation continued to escalate. On Wednesday, testifying before a Senate committee, Mary Barra reiterated earlier advice…

Apr 4, 2014 5:25 PM CDT

Appeals court OKs late med-mal suit alleging ‘dead’ woman actually froze to death in hospital morgue

Reversing a trial judge’s dismissal of a medical malpractice suit on statute of limitations grounds, a California appeals court ruled Wednesday that the family of an 80-year-old woman initially had no reason to suspect she may have frozen to death in a hospital morgue after incorrectly being declared dead. Survivors…

Apr 3, 2014 10:25 PM CDT

GM hires disaster master Ken Feinberg as auto recall grows; he will look at victim compensation

Amidst a recall of some 2.6 million compact vehicles to fix a faulty ignition switch and questions about why the recall didn’t happen earlier, the CEO of General Motors told a congressional panel Tuesday that the automaker has hired attorney Kenneth Feinberg to help evaluate possible options for compensating accident…

Apr 1, 2014 11:20 PM CDT

Lawyer who pointed client in accident case to high-interest loan did nothing wrong, judge rules

Unable to work after a 2001 accident in which the Chicago commuter train she was riding hit a car at a railroad crossing, Debbie Crim eventually asked her lawyer for a loan to help with her medical bills and living expenses. Peter Vrdolyak instead referred her to Client Funding Solutions,…

Apr 1, 2014 9:50 PM CDT

Glenn Beck sued for alleged defamation over Boston Marathon ‘money man’ comments

A Saudi Arabian student injured at the Boston Marathon bombing has sued radio personality Glenn Beck for suggestions that the 20-year-old youth was the “money man” behind the attacks. The suit by Abdulrahman Alharbi says Beck labeled him as a suspect even after federal authorities found he had no connection…

Apr 1, 2014 11:55 AM CDT

Law student suit says NYC cops handcuffed him when he questioned them during a lunch break

A law student got some life lessons from two New York City police officers when he questioned them during a lunch break about why they had parked illegally while noshing at a Brooklyn food truck. Tzvi Richt says the two at first tried to discourage him from continuing to ask…

Mar 31, 2014 11:35 PM CDT

Parents of 11 students can be named as defendants in school-bullying suit, judge rules

A trial judge’s ruling earlier this month in a New Jersey school bullying case has the potential to change the legal landscape in such cases nationwide, if other jurists find it persuasive. Ordinarily, the plaintiff family in such cases sues the school district, alleging a failure to take appropriate action…

Mar 31, 2014 10:30 PM CDT