Tort Law

Juries Award $103M in Punitives in Two Prempro Cases

Philadelphia juries have awarded two breast-cancer victims $103 million in punitive damages in two separate cases against Pfizer Inc. involving the marketing of the hormone replacement drug Prempro. Jurors had heard testimony that Wyeth, the maker of Premarin and Prempro, paid consultants to write medical journal articles to play down…

Nov 24, 2009 4:44 PM CST

Fighting for Marquee Law Firm Tenant, Landlord Sues Officials Over Incentives

A Chicago landlord is suing St. Louis and Missouri officials over a major law firm tenant that is allegedly being lured to another building with illegal taxpayer-funded incentives. Among the benefits that Lewis Rice & Fingersh expects to get from the move to One City Centre is $300,000 forgivable loan,…

Nov 23, 2009 11:31 PM CST

Appeals Court OKs $5M in Punitives for Victim of Phone Hoax Strip Search

A Kentucky appeals court cut from $1 million to $400,000 a punitive damages award to a McDonald’s manager who was fired and charged with a crime after she says she was duped into pressuring a young worker to comply with instructions from a prank caller to submit to a strip…

Nov 23, 2009 7:55 PM CST

Defendant Argues Law Firm’s YouTube Video Amounted to Defamation

A company accused in a class action lawsuit of selling a dietary supplement that doesn’t live up to its memory claims has turned the tables on the plaintiffs’ firm, claiming its lawyers gave interviews and posted a YouTube video with defamatory statements. On Friday, the class action defendant, Brain Research…

Nov 23, 2009 3:34 PM CST

Katrina Ruling Could Open Floodgates to Suits, But Will It Survive?

A ruling blaming the federal government for flooding in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina could lead to a flood of lawsuits and affect funding for a coastal restoration project. Last week a federal judge ruled the Army Corps of Engineers was negligent in maintaining a navigation channel, leading to the…

Nov 23, 2009 2:51 PM CST

Model Who Married Doorman Sues Swanky NYC Coop

Love hasn’t been entirely a bed of roses for a wealthy young woman who has been called the Heidi Klum of foot models and her new husband—a former doorman in her swanky New York City co-op building. Jealous of the 30-something pair, some fellow residents of the upscale Upper East…

Nov 20, 2009 11:02 PM CST

Ohio AG: Major Credit Agencies ‘Sold Out’ in Toxic Mortgage Mess

As federal elected officials and administrators mull potential regulatory reform to rein in lenders accused of causing a mortgage meltdown nationwide, the attorney general of Ohio has stepped into the breach and filed a federal lawsuit against the three largest credit rating agencies, Reuters reports. They created a financial crisis,…

Nov 20, 2009 9:35 PM CST

Jury Says Philip Morris Must Pay $300M to Longtime Smoker

A jury in South Florida says Philip Morris USA must pay $300 million, including $244 million in punitive damages, to a 25-year Benson & Hedges smoker who argued that the cigarette company committed fraud by concealing the dangers of smoking from her. Lawyers for Lucinda “Cindy” Naugle, who is a…

Nov 20, 2009 9:15 PM CST

Family of Living Man Declared Dead Seeks to Sue Medical Examiner

Declared dead by a paramedic after an auto accident almost five years ago, Larry Green was zipped into a body bag and refrigerated before a medical examiner for Franklin County, N.C., noticed signs of life. Although he survived, the 34-year-old Green is bedridden and needs 24-hour care in a nursing…

Nov 19, 2009 6:43 PM CST

Bentley Photos Are Props in Willie Gary’s High School Motivational Speech

Trial lawyer Willie Gary didn’t have to warn students at a Florida high school that they could end up living in a van down by the river in a motivational speech he gave on Wednesday. Students showed their enthusiasm before Gary even began his speech, Jacksonville.com reports. A marching band…

Nov 19, 2009 4:33 PM CST

Ex-Lawyer Took Fifth, Couldn’t Defend $2.4M Civil Case, Now Gets New Trial

A California judge abused his discretion by effectively denying a tax attorney who took the Fifth during discovery in a civil case brought by a former client the opportunity to present any defense at trial. Hence, the state Court of Appeals threw out a jury verdict against the former attorney,…

Nov 18, 2009 8:25 PM CST

Chevron Sues Plaintiffs Lawyer for $4M, Alleges Malicious Prosecution

After making headlines several months ago by posting a video on YouTube to bolster its defense of an Ecuador-based environmental mass tort case, Chevron is again trying an unusual litigation tactic in a closely related case. The company has sued a plaintiffs attorney for $4 million in federal court in…

Nov 17, 2009 10:51 PM CST

Judge Nixes ‘Hackintosher’ Bid to Put Mac OS X in Cloned Computers

Apple won a legal battle over the use of its operating system Friday, when a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Psystar violated copyright law by selling its own cloned computers with Mac OS X. The clone-maker got around Apple’s restrictions on using the operating system in non-Macintosh machines…

Nov 16, 2009 7:28 PM CST

Universal Settles Newspapers’ Complaints Over Fake Alien Abduction News

A marketing ploy by Universal Pictures has backfired, with the studio agreeing to pay $22,500 for creating fake news reports about alien abductions attributed to seven real media organizations in Alaska. Universal created the online articles to promote its alien-abduction movie, The Fourth Kind, according to the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner…

Nov 13, 2009 2:23 PM CST

Indicted Pa. Jurists Now a Case for Reduced Judicial Immunity

Since 1872, the U.S. Supreme Court has held the line on judicial immunity, essentially ruling that jurists should be protected from civil litigation over their decisions on the bench no matter how wrong they might be. But a pair of former Pennsylvania judges facing federal corruption charges in the so-called…

Nov 12, 2009 9:00 PM CST