Tort Law

Court: Deputy AG Should Blame Herself, Not Ranch Owners, for Horse Fall

A deputy attorney general who sued the owners of a ranch after she fell from a galloping horse and broke her hip won’t be able to pursue her lawsuit. A California appeals court said in a ruling yesterday that lawyer Ellyn Levinson of Oakland has only herself to blame for…

Aug 27, 2009 6:14 PM CDT

Ex-Judge Who Filed $54M ‘Pants Suit’ Appeals Dismissal of Job-Loss Claim

The now-former Washington, D.C., administrative law judge who made international headlines after he filed a $54 million lawsuit against his dry cleaner over a missing pair of trousers is back in court again. Roy Pearson Jr., who also lost the so-called pants suit case, plans to ask the U.S. Court…

Aug 27, 2009 5:09 PM CDT

Paralegal Headed to Law School Takes $125K Job Instead, Is Fired and Sues

Thomas DeVore had a job with a title company, and his career was on the upswing. He was about to begin pursuing a law degree at Washburn University School of Law and had a job lined up as a paralegal, too, to help cover his costs there. But the southern…

Aug 26, 2009 4:51 PM CDT

Mother-in-Law Sues Over Comedian’s Jokes

To Ruth Zafrin, her comedian daughter-in-law’s jokes are no laughing matter. Zafrin has sued comedian Sunda Croonquist, alleging her jokes are defamatory because they make Zafrin out to be a racist, according to stories in the New Jersey Law Journal, the Associated Press and the New York Post. Other plaintiffs…

Aug 26, 2009 3:22 PM CDT

10th Cir. Nixes Novell Win in Unix Case, Puts $1B IBM Copyright Claim on Track for Trial

A trial judge’s grant of summary judgment for defendant Novell in a key portion of a dispute over the ownership of the Unix code was overturned yesterday by a federal appeals court, putting it and a related $1 billion copyright dispute between the plaintiff and IBM back on track for…

Aug 25, 2009 9:03 PM CDT

Accused of Acting as ‘De Facto G-Man,’ Lawyer Says Ex-Client Is in Dreamland

Attorney David Blythewood was supposed to be defending Nassau County Legislator Roger Corbin in a criminal tax evasion case. But “Mr. Bythewood’s representation of Roger Corbin throughout the entirety of this case has been so far beneath the standard of effective assistance of counsel as to render Mr. Bythewood a…

Aug 25, 2009 7:14 PM CDT

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon to Portray Morgan Lewis Lawyers

Two partners from Morgan, Lewis & Bockius who managed to win an acquittal on retrial for their death row client racked up another success this month in a related ruling by a federal appeals court. Touchstone Pictures has signed a deal to produce a movie on the case, according to…

Aug 25, 2009 6:11 PM CDT

Major Canada Firm Must Produce Pay Info in Hard-Fought Sex Bias Case

One of Canada’s biggest law firms must soon produce a treasure trove of information about its salaries, billing rates and performance reviews, among other confidential information. What is believed to be an unprecedented court order against McCarthy Tétrault requires the disclosure by Sept. 7, in response to a former associate’s…

Aug 25, 2009 5:12 PM CDT

Trial Starts for PI Lawyer Accused of Paying Bribes for Settlement

A Houston personal injury lawyer listened to opening statements Monday in his kickback trial for paying $3 million to two Hartford Insurance Co. managers and treating them to new cars and a vacation. Prosecutors maintain lawyer Warren Todd Hoeffner bribed the former Hartford employees to obtain a $34 million settlement…

Aug 25, 2009 12:11 PM CDT

Outed Over Online Rants, Blogger Threatens to Sue Google for IDing Her

After someone started ranting online against Liskula Cohen, the model complained of defamation and managed to get a court order requiring Google to identify the once-anonymous blogger. Allegedly, the individual who had described the 37-year-old on a Blogger site as a “skank” and a “psychotic, lying whore,” as well as…

Aug 24, 2009 10:50 PM CDT

Paralegal Guilty in Fake-Libel-Suit Scam That Briefly Won $3M

A credulous paralegal is facing a potential two-and-a-half-year federal prison term after apparently being duped by a convicted child molester into participating in a bizarre alleged civil litigation scheme. Its claimed purpose was to “coerce or fool” the now-adult victim of the molestation into recanting, via a faked defamation suit…

Aug 24, 2009 7:00 PM CDT

Microsoft Gets Expedited Appeal of Judge’s Ban on Some Word Product Sales

Attorneys for Microsoft are presumably busy this weekend, following a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to grant the computer goliath’s request for an expedited schedule of a federal trial court judge’s order that will potentially ban sales of some Word products in less than…

Aug 21, 2009 11:23 PM CDT

Splashing Dolphins Blamed in Slip-and-Fall Suit

A Chicago woman is blaming splashing by dolphins for the slippery floor that caused her fall and injuries at Brookfield Zoo in suburban Chicago last August. The suit by Allecyn Edwards says zookeepers “recklessly and willfully trained and encouraged the dolphins to throw water at the spectators in the stands,…

Aug 20, 2009 3:55 PM CDT

Va. Tech Gunman Never Treated Despite Court Order, Mental Health Records Show

Mental health records released today for the gunman who massacred 32 people at Virginia Tech in April 2007 before killing himself show that he was never treated by the school’s counseling center despite multiple “triage” evaluations and a court order requiring that Seung-Hui Cho receive treatment. The records had been…

Aug 19, 2009 11:21 PM CDT

Accused of Discrimination, Football Coach Sues for Libel, Is Accused of Retaliation

After an attorney for a longtime worker at the University of New Mexico spoke to a local newspaper about her client’s discrimination lawsuit against a well-known football coach and the university, he sued the lawyer and her client for defamation. Now attorney Whitney Warner is threatening to pursue a retaliation…

Aug 19, 2009 10:25 PM CDT