Tort Law

NYC Bar Warns of Ethics Traps in Litigation Financing

The New York City Bar Association is warning lawyers about possible ethics problems when their clients finance litigation through third-party lenders. Loans can be a valuable way to finance a legal claim, but lawyers need to be aware of the pitfalls, the ethics opinion says. The New York Law Journal…

Jun 16, 2011 12:52 PM CDT

Tech-Support Worker Sues NY Law Firm, Says It Gave Comp Time Instead Paying OT, Violating FLSA

A technical support worker has sued a Manhattan law firm concerning its claimed compensation policy, contending that he and others doing the job got extra time off rather than overtime pay when they worked more than a 40-hour week. The lawsuit filed against Schulte Roth & Zabel in federal court…

Jun 15, 2011 11:02 PM CDT

Detroit Seeks $10M from Ex-Partner of Venable, Says She Didn’t Do Job Due to Relationship with Mayor

An ongoing dispute over $10 million paid by the city of Detroit to a former partner of Venable and Saul Ewing who served as independent police monitor for more than five years has now moved to federal court. The city has also upped the ante against attorney Sheryl Robinson Wood…

Jun 15, 2011 10:40 PM CDT

Arbitrator Controls $100M Dispute Over Hit Charlie Sheen TV Show; Will Ruling Cut Likely Settlement?

Actor Charlie Sheen may have to arbitrate his $100 million contract dispute with Warner Bros. Television over being axed as the star of Two and a Half Men, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled today. Under a clause in Sheen’s contract for television’s No. 1 comedy, ruled Los Angeles…

Jun 15, 2011 9:19 PM CDT

Ky. Bar Recommends Disbarment for Mass Tort Lawyer Stan Chesley

The Kentucky Bar Association Board of Governors is recommending that famous mass tort lawyer Stanley Chesley be disbarred for his role in a $200 million fen-phen settlement that ended with prison sentences for two other lawyers. Chesley had charged $20 million to help settle the case for the plaintiffs’ lawyers,…

Jun 15, 2011 4:02 PM CDT

Lawyer’s Motion Objects to Opponent’s Use of Possessives

A Missouri lawyer is taking aim at his opponent’s legal drafting skills in a motion that criticizes the “long-winded” allegations and use of apostrophes. Springfield lawyer Richard Crites represents a probation officer accused in a civil suit of harassing and humiliating a former teacher who pleaded guilty to statutory rape…

Jun 15, 2011 12:55 PM CDT

7th Circuit Judge Blisters Lawyer for ‘Grotesque’ Damages Argument

Renowned federal appeals court judge Judge Richard Posner clearly wasn’t favorably impressed by a damages case brought by an alleged serial spammer seeking compensation for being put on an anti-spam organization’s blacklist. Calling the arguments advanced by attorney Joseph Kish and his client, e360, in the 7th U.S. Circuit Court…

Jun 15, 2011 2:13 AM CDT

Ex Rothstein Lawyer Pleads Guilty, Allegedly Wrote Letter re Name Partner’s $1.2B ‘Investment’ Scam

A former law partner of convicted Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein pleaded guilty today to wire fraud conspiracy in federal court in West Palm Beach. Prosecutors said Howard Kusnick, 59, wrote a letter claiming to have settled a client’s case favorably when in fact there not only was no such settlement…

Jun 14, 2011 10:44 PM CDT

Suit Seeks Return of Legal Fees in Win Allegedly Obtained Through Judicial Bribery

Family members of an emergency medical technician who died in a Texas helicopter crash allege in a lawsuit that they are entitled to a refund of $5.2 million in legal fees because they obtained favorable rulings in the wrongful death suit through their lawyers’ payment of bribes. The suit was…

Jun 14, 2011 6:59 PM CDT

Judge OKs $5M Jury Award re Bryan Cave Arbitration Advice; with Interest, It Could Top $10M

A state-court judge in New York has OK’d a $5 million jury awarded against Bryan Cave and a retired former lawyer in a malpractice case. With pre-verdict interest, which Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Barbara Jaffe also OK’d, the total amount of the judgment could top $10 million, the New York…

Jun 13, 2011 8:56 PM CDT

NJ Bar Official Denies He Head-Butted a Convention Vendor

Did a New Jersey bar official head-butt a convention vendor? Or did the vendor physically menace the bar official? Those allegations are at the center of dueling municipal court complaints filed by the two men that are scheduled for trial on July 28, the New Jersey Law Journal reports. The…

Jun 13, 2011 11:24 AM CDT

Cert Petition Seeks to Hold Corporations Accountable Under Alien Tort Law

A pending cert petition asks the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that corporations can be sued for human rights abuses under the Alien Tort Statute. SCOTUSblog says the petition “raises what may be the hottest international law issue now affecting business firms.” The New York City-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court…

Jun 13, 2011 10:30 AM CDT

Plaintiff Wins $95M in Sexual Harassment Case; Aaron’s Vows to Appeal, Blames Runaway Jury

In what may be a record-breaking award to a single plaintiff in a sexual harassment case, a federal jury in East St. Louis, Ill., yesterday awarded $95 million to a former employee of Aaron’s Inc. Of that amount, $15 million was compensatory and $80 million was punitive damages. The plaintiff…

Jun 9, 2011 10:19 PM CDT

Ex-Client Files RICO Class Action, Says PI Firm Made Usurious Loans to 200 Vioxx Plaintiffs

A former client has filed a federal civil racketeering class action against a Georgia personal injury firm, contending that it cheated up to 200 or more plaintiffs in Vioxx litigation by misleading them into taking out usurious loans against an expected settlement. At the time, the Eichholz Law Firm knew…

Jun 9, 2011 5:43 PM CDT

Law Firm Not Liable for Purchasing Competitor’s Name as Keyword to Drive Traffic to Own Website

Once upon a time, when bus benches and the yellow pages offered some of the only ways to promote a personal injury firm effectively, competitors tried to crowd each other out or dominate the space with the biggest ad. It wasn’t unheard-of to put a billboard up right next to…

Jun 9, 2011 3:07 AM CDT