Tort Law

Vaccine Court Finds No Thimerosal-Autism LInk

A special branch of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims ruled today that the vaccine additive thimerosal is not to blame for autism. Today’s rulings in three test cases that thimerosal alone does not cause autism follow a ruling last year that thimerosal in combination with measles, mumps and rubella…

Mar 12, 2010 11:10 PM CST

Ex-Model Files $10M Suit for Comedy Film’s ‘Lascivious Use’ of Her Photo

A former model who says she was horrified to learn her photo was used as a “masturbatory prop” in the comedy Couples Retreat has sued the movie makers for $10 million. The suit by Irina Krupnik says she didn’t learn of the “lascivious use of her photo” until after the…

Mar 12, 2010 2:11 PM CST

Ex-Client Cites DLA Piper Ties to AAA, Seeks Court Hearing on Alleged Associate Flub

A former client of DLA Piper claims its allegations of an associate’s misstep shouldn’t be heard by the American Arbitration Association because of the law firm’s ties to the company. DLA Piper does an “extraordinarily large volume of business with the AAA” and several of its lawyers serve as AAA…

Mar 12, 2010 1:51 PM CST

Lawyers for 9-11 Responders Would Take One-Third Under Settlement

Rescue and cleanup workers at the destroyed World Trade Center site have reached a settlement that creates a compensation system similar to the one established for the families of the victims of the Sept. 11 attack. The settlement will be paid by an insurance company funded by the federal government…

Mar 12, 2010 1:17 PM CST

Houston PI Lawyer Threatens Suit Over Coat He Left Behind at Airport

A Houston personal injury lawyer says it’s not his fault that he left his Polo coat behind at an airport food court. William Ogletree maintains that his coat should have been collected and kept in a secure place until he returned to claim it. In a letter posted to the…

Mar 10, 2010 12:33 PM CST

Ex-Clients Sue Carlsmith for $25M, Claim Firm Sold Out Minority Owners in Hotel Deal

One of Hawaii’s oldest and best-known law firms has been sued for malpractice by former clients seeking $25 million in compensatory and punitive damages. While representing both majority and minority shareholders concerning the 2004 sale of a hotel in Saipan, the Honolulu-based Carlsmith Ball firm negotiated a deal that benefited…

Mar 6, 2010 12:05 AM CST

FBI Probing Gov’t Attorney’s Office in Embattled Maricopa County, Ariz.

After litigation against judges and efforts to search their computers by the local government attorney in embattled Maricopa County, Ariz., the FBI has now expanded an earlier probe of the county sheriff’s office to include as well the office of County Attorney Andrew Thomas. Although the FBI would neither confirm…

Mar 5, 2010 11:12 PM CST

Court OKs Cravath Role in Takeover Bid re Ex-Client; Proof of ‘Extreme’ Ethics Misstep Lacking

In a teleconference ruling today in a hard-fought case over a pending $5.1 billion corporate takeover bid, the Delaware Court of Chancery has OK’d the continuing representation of Air Products and Chemicals Inc. by Cravath Swaine & Moore. Ex-client Airgas Inc. failed to prove by clear and convincing evidence the…

Mar 5, 2010 9:42 PM CST

Burned Ex-Reed Smith Associate Back on Track for Trial After Appellate Win

An ex-associate who said her use of her dominant hand was impaired after it was burned during a Reed Smith trial training program is back in the litigation ballgame against her former employer. A trial court in 2007 had dismissed the 2003 disability discrimination case that Danielle Cesarano brought against…

Mar 4, 2010 10:31 PM CST

Sgt.‘s Suit Says ‘Messed Up’ Character in ‘Hurt Locker’ Made Him Look Bad

A journalist who was embedded with his three-man unit during the Iraq war to write an article for Playboy, wound up making him look bad, a soldier says, by reworking it into a screenplay for The Hurt Locker that falsely portrayed him as a “messed up” bomb disposal officer. In…

Mar 4, 2010 7:46 PM CST

Suit Says Woman Died While Getting ‘Lifestyle Lift’

A lawsuit claims a 49-year-old Massachusetts woman died after receiving local anesthesia during cosmetic surgery known as a “Lifestyle Lift.” Donna Ames, 49, was recently divorced and depressed when she went to the Waltham office of the Lifestyle Lift company in hopes that the surgery would make her look younger,…

Mar 4, 2010 2:54 PM CST

Lower Legal Fees in Defamation Suits Could Dull Luster of UK Libel Mecca

A plan to cut hefty “success” fees paid by losing parties to libel lawyers in Britain could help level the playing field by reducing what the Justice Secretary terms “disproportionate” legal bills. Under the proposal, which is set to take effect in April, fees could be cut as much as…

Mar 3, 2010 11:51 PM CST

As Atom Bomb Book Raises Fact-Check Issue, ‘Hurt Locker’ Writer Is Accused of Too Much Truth-Telling

Accused of including fictitious information in his book about the aftermath of the atomic bombing of Japan during World War II, Charles Pellegrino is now seeing The Last Train from Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back withdrawn from publication—although it could still potentially be the subject of a movie. Meanwhile, the…

Mar 3, 2010 3:10 AM CST

Judge OKs Gift of O.J. Simpson ‘Lucky Suit,’ But Smithsonian Turns Down Donation

Any relief that a California judge may have felt over an agreement to settle a 13-year litigation battle by donating O.J. Simpson’s lucky suit to the Smithsonian Institution was short-lived. Hard on the heels of the agreement that the donation would settle a dispute over the ownership of the tan…

Mar 2, 2010 11:30 PM CST

Mom’s Privacy Suit Over Old Hustler Pix of Murdered Daughter Gets Green Light

By refusing to hear an appeal this week by the company that publishes Hustler magazine, the U.S. Supreme Court has given a green light to a privacy lawsuit filed by the mother of former professional wrestler Chris Benoit’s murdered wife. The magazine published decades-old nude photographs of Nancy Benoit after…

Mar 2, 2010 7:51 PM CST