Tort Law

Judge dubious about effort to seek new trial in Michael Jackson case due to confusing jury forms

Although a final ruling has not yet been made, a California judge was dubious during a Friday hearing about efforts to seek a new trial in the wrongful death case brought by Michael Jackson’s estate. Confusing jury instructions tainted the verdict in favor of a concert promoter who paid the…

Jan 3, 2014 10:20 PM CST

Girl gets $32M settlement in med-mal case over quadruple limb amputations

A $32 million settlement in a malpractice case against the University of Chicago Medical Center last year will allow an 11-year-old who had both arms and both legs amputated to live for the first time in a fully handicapped-accessible home; pay a personal assistant for the rest of her life;…

Jan 3, 2014 8:40 PM CST

Internet car companies offer convenience, but lawyers see caution signs

Want to get a car ride just by pressing an app icon? New businesses like Lyft, Uber and Sidecar match drivers and passengers via smartphone technology. They claim they can get vehicles to your door in minutes. Unlike taxicabs and limousines, the companies don’t see themselves as common carriers, and…

Jan 1, 2014 10:00 AM CST

Google Glass brings out the technophobes—and the lawyers

Waiting for its arrival has some gadget geeks in a high-tech tizzy. The anticipation is practically unbearable—sort of like when you were a kid and you ordered those naughty (you hoped) X-ray specs out of the back of a magazine. But while this new “latest thing” is an order-of-magnitude advancement…

Jan 1, 2014 7:30 AM CST

Unhappy with $128K award in family farm case, couple sues prominent lawyer and wins $1.1M

Originally, a Maine couple blamed an agricultural conglomerate for the loss of a potato seed farm that had been in their family for generations. But, following a 10-year legal battle against Agway Inc., Vaughn and Mary Sleeper refocused their legal attack on a new target–their former lawyer and his firm.…

Dec 31, 2013 4:15 PM CST

Death of pet dog mistaken for wolf reveals loophole in state poaching law

When a hunter kills game out of season, there’s a legal price to pay for poaching. But there’s no comparable law applicable to the accidental shooting of pets, Montana authorities told a man whose brown and white dog was mistaken for a wolf and shot to death by a hunter…

Dec 30, 2013 5:15 PM CST

Need a court’s OK to settle? That means terms may be public, 7th Circuit judge says

When a judge must rule on the terms of a settlement, those settlement terms become public, a federal appellate opinion suggests. In a Dec. 26 opinion (PDF), Judge Richard Posner of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejects two requests to seal settlements that came before him during a…

Dec 30, 2013 4:30 PM CST

Family sues security company, alleges guards at hospital sent dying man home in cab

A lawsuit filed against a security company asserts that its guards at a North Carolina hospital put an “uncooperative” patient in a taxi, where he died on the way home. Deborah Washington, the dead man’s mother, accuses the guards of negligence, wrongful death and negligent infliction of emotional distress, Courthouse…

Dec 19, 2013 10:55 PM CST

Psychic Love Spell Center stole my money, lawyer alleges in lawsuit

A Houston fortune teller failed to detect a lawsuit in her future, filed by a lawyer who says the money he turned over for cleansing was never returned. Bankruptcy and family-law lawyer Michael Busby Jr. says he gave fortune teller Melena Thorn $2,700 in a box for cleansing, but now…

Dec 19, 2013 1:05 PM CST

BP accuses lawyer of representing phantom clients in oil spill

BP is accusing a Texas lawyer of “brazen fraud” in his representation of thousands of Gulf oil spill clients who turned out to be “phantoms.” In a lawsuit (PDF) filed on Tuesday, BP says Mikal Watts claimed to represent more than 40,000 deckhands, representing nearly 80 percent of the projected…

Dec 18, 2013 1:48 PM CST

Former White House lawyer ordered to pay $28.6M in beating of wife

Connecticut jurors deliberated for only 90 minutes on Tuesday before finding former White House lawyer John Michael Farren liable for $28.6 million in the severe beating of his wife. Farren’s wife, Mary Margaret Farren, had testified her husband attacked her in their master bedroom two days after she served him…

Dec 18, 2013 1:08 PM CST

Calif. again tops ‘judicial hellholes’ list

For the second year in a row, California tops the American Tort Reform Foundation’s “Judicial Hellholes” list. The Golden State took top honors for the “welcoming stance” its courts take toward consumer class actions and its “rampant lawsuits” targeting small businesses over disability access claims, Forbes reports. The list (PDF),…

Dec 17, 2013 9:00 PM CST

Law firm’s exclusive bus-advertising contracts don’t appear to violate antitrust law, judge rules

A federal judge has tossed antitrust claims against a Pennsylvania law firm that had exclusive contracts for law-firm advertising on buses, on a popular radio station at rush hour, and at the Wells Fargo Center sports arena. U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe ruled on Friday, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. The…

Dec 17, 2013 4:07 PM CST

Jilted husband blames attorney-owned website in alienation-of-affection suit

An attorney-owned website that helps married individuals seek out possible affair partners is one of the defendants in a North Carolina alienation-of-affection suit. Plaintiff Robert Schindler says his wife of 13 years left him for another man she met on the Ashley Madison website. Schindler seeks damages from the man,…

Dec 13, 2013 7:02 PM CST

Four Michael Jackson wrongful-death jurors were ‘stunned’ by impact of verdict form

Lawyers for the family of Michael Jackson are submitting affidavits by four disillusioned jurors in a bid for a new trial in their unsuccessful wrongful-death case against the pop star’s concert promoter. The jurors described their reactions as “stunned,” “upset” and “shocked” when they learned their answer to a question…

Dec 13, 2013 1:46 PM CST