Tort Law

Crime Victim’s Suit Dismissed; Clock Ticked While Teen Was Captive

A runaway at age 14, a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit who is now 26 says she was held captive for a decade by a security guard at her middle school. But, by the time she was 16, she should have known she was sitting on a civil rights lawsuit,…

Sep 15, 2008 6:57 PM CDT

Tobacco Makers Sift Through Thousands of Documents in $1B Hospital Suit

A 10-year-old lawsuit filed by Missouri hospitals against cigarette makers seeking $1 billion for the cost of treating tobacco-related illnesses has been stalled in discovery. The tobacco companies are sifting through tens of thousands of records for indigent patients provided by more than 30 hospitals under a court order, the…

Sep 15, 2008 5:54 PM CDT

LA Train Crash Kills 25, Cause Unclear

Amidst conflicting accounts of what may have caused a head-on train collision in suburban Los Angeles that killed 25 and injured more than 130 others on Friday, two teens told a local television station that they had been text-messaging with one of the train engineers just before the crash. Although…

Sep 15, 2008 4:03 PM CDT

Pinkberry Suits Seek to Put Freeze on Yogurt Competitors

What do Yoberry, Yogiberry, Peachberry and Monkee’s Teriyaki, among others, all have in common? Allegedly, they are copycat frozen yogurt shops seeking to take something of a free ride on the “highly distinctive branding” of three-year-old Pinkberry Inc., reports the Los Angeles Times. The Los Angeles-based chain has 65 outlets…

Sep 12, 2008 7:58 PM CDT

Companies Face Blogging Lawsuits

Many companies are facing lawsuits for comments posted on the growing number of corporate blogs or for actions taken against blogging employees. Several companies have been sued in the last five years on a variety of grounds, including defamation, retaliation and discrimination, the National Law Journal reports. The legal newspaper…

Sep 11, 2008 6:03 PM CDT

‘Suspicious’ Death of Ex-Lawyer Accused of Embezzling $1M from Calif. Clients

A once-prominent California lawyer who resigned his bar membership earlier this year rather than face disciplinary charges for allegedly embezzling $1 million from clients has been shot and killed in what a police official described as a “suspicious” death. Franklin Cibula, whose age is given as 66 or 67, was…

Sep 10, 2008 7:12 PM CDT

‘Borat’ Filmmakers Win Legal Battle

The makers of Borat didn’t deceive a driving instructor and two etiquette teachers into appearing in the goofy comedy, a federal judge in New York has ruled. Because the three signed a release agreeing to appear in a “documentary-style” film and accepted compensation, they have no cause for complaint about…

Sep 10, 2008 6:01 PM CDT

Litigation Too Costly, E-Discovery a ‘Morass,’ Trial Lawyers Say

Updated: The civil justice system in the United States is so bogged down in a “morass” of e-discovery that it is often too expensive for litigants to take their cases to trial, according to a survey of trial lawyers. Now the next step is to fix this increasingly dysfunctional system,…

Sep 9, 2008 3:00 PM CDT

‘Harry Potter’ Author Wins Case Over Fan’s Harry Potter Encyclopedia

The author of the best-selling Harry Potter books has won her lawsuit over a fan’s effort to publish a Harry Potter encyclopedia. Author J.K. Rowling has persuaded a federal judge in the Southern District of New York that Steven Vander Ark’s Harry Potter Lexicon would cause her irreparable harm, reports…

Sep 8, 2008 5:53 PM CDT

New Indictment of Fen-phen Lawyers Adds Charges, Seeks $50M More

A new indictment against two lawyers accused of defrauding their fen-phen clients adds new charges and seeks $50 million more in forfeiture. The lawyers, William Gallion and Shirley Cunningham Jr., were tried in Kentucky this summer on a single charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. A mistrial was declared…

Sep 5, 2008 3:53 PM CDT

Legal Malpractice Payouts Above $2M Increasing, ABA Study Finds

Legal malpractice insurers participating in an ABA study report a significant increase in multimillion-dollar payouts. Claims leading to payouts of more than $2 million have more than doubled, from 44 in a study spanning the years 2004 to 2007, from 19 in a study for the years 2000 to 2003,…

Sep 5, 2008 11:33 AM CDT

Buyer of Bassinet Maker’s Assets Says it Didn’t Take on Liabilities

A hedge fund affiliate claims that it did not assume the legal liabilities of a troubled baby furniture maker, Simplicity for Children, when it purchased its assets in an April deal. SFCA, an affiliate of Blackstreet Capital Management, bought the assets before last week’s recall of Simplicity bassinets but after…

Sep 4, 2008 1:14 PM CDT

E-Mail Puts N.Y. Times Publisher in Deposition Seat

Add another well-known name to the list of those unhappy about e-mail communications. Arthur Sulzberger Jr., publisher of the New York Times, is going to have to testify in a defamation suit filed in New Jersey against one of the newspaper’s reporters by Donald Trump, over a book the reporter…

Sep 3, 2008 10:31 PM CDT

Why the Happy Sumo Is Happier Now

A Utah sushi restaurant is undergoing a remodeling after a federal judge ruled its décor copied that of a competitor. The Yapona restaurant located in American Fork, Utah, is undergoing the $15,000 renovation as a result of an early ruling in a lawsuit brought by The Happy Sumo, with locations…

Sep 3, 2008 2:37 PM CDT

Sudden Deaths in Police Custody May Be Biological, Study Says

A study by Spanish researchers of sudden deaths of young men who died soon after being arrested says a biological fear factor may be at least part of the answer to the unsolved mystery. Just like wild animals, which can die suddenly when captured, humans taken into custody are stressed.…

Sep 2, 2008 6:18 PM CDT