Verdicts & Settlements

Girl wins $300K settlement over seizure and slaughter of pet goat

By the time Jessica Long learned where her 9-year-old daughter’s beloved pet goat was, it was too late to save him. Sheriff’s deputies had seized the goat, named Cedar, while he was staying at a Northern California farm. They delivered him to Shasta County fair officials, who claimed the county owned the goat, court documents say. Cedar was later slaughtered, and the family sued county officials.

Nov 5, 2024 3:30 PM CST

Google fined $20 decillion by Russian court

U.S. tech giant Google has closed up shop in Russia, but that hasn’t stopped a court there from leveling it with a fine greater than all the wealth in the world.

Nov 1, 2024 11:05 AM CDT

DOJ reaches $100 million settlement in Baltimore bridge collapse

The owner of the Dali container ship that crashed into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge earlier this year, collapsing the span and killing six people, has agreed to pay more than $100 million in damages to resolve a Justice Department lawsuit, authorities said Thursday.

Oct 25, 2024 9:00 AM CDT

Will diversity policy affect hiring of independent monitor in Boeing case? Federal judge wants to know

A federal judge considering a proposed plea agreement between Boeing and the U.S. Department of Justice wants to know how diversity, equity and inclusion policies will influence the selection of a monitor to assess compliance.

Oct 17, 2024 11:11 AM CDT

DOJ announces $3B in fines for landmark money-laundering case

TD Bank pleaded guilty to federal money laundering charges Thursday, agreeing to pay more than $3 billion in fines for enabling drug traffickers and other criminals to open accounts and transfer money through the bank. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the agreement and said the bank is the first in American history to plead guilty to conspiring to laundering money.

Oct 11, 2024 9:56 AM CDT

Client’s employees seek approval of data breach settlement after BigLaw firm hack

Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner and its client Mondelez Global have agreed to pay $750,000 to settle claims by Mondelez employees whose private information may have been compromised in a hack of the law firm’s network.

Oct 11, 2024 9:20 AM CDT

9 years of solitary confinement violates Eighth Amendment, jurors find; case later settles

New York has agreed to pay $100,000 to settle a punitive damages claim in a case in which jurors found that nine years of solitary confinement violated the Eighth Amendment rights of an inmate.

Oct 8, 2024 9:00 AM CDT

Lawyer accused of exploiting elderly client is found liable for $26M in malpractice case

Trials & Litigation

Oct 7, 2024 2:51 PM CDT

Opioid litigation was grueling, but a chance to make change

The opioid epidemic is a tragedy of immense proportions that touches almost every individual in the United States. There is no “winning” this lawsuit in the usual sense. But we did forge a path to legal accountability and the payment of billions of dollars dedicated to the abatement of the epidemic and stronger safeguards regarding opioids.

Oct 1, 2024 1:50 AM CDT

‘Robot lawyer’ website DoNotPay settles FTC claims it couldn’t deliver on promises

A website that billed itself as the “world’s first robot lawyer” has agreed to pay $193,000 to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations that it did not live up to its claims.

Sep 30, 2024 10:28 AM CDT

Lawyer awarded $3.3M after crashing snowmobile into negligently parked Army helicopter

A federal judge in Massachusetts has awarded $3.3 million in damages to a lawyer for injuries suffered when he crashed his snowmobile into a camouflaged U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter parked on a snowmobile trail at dusk.

Sep 26, 2024 2:28 PM CDT

Client convicted for murdering Tiananmen Square ‘hero’ lawyer who refused to continue representation

A New York woman was convicted of murder Friday for fatally stabbing her immigration lawyer in March 2022, three days after police escorted her from the law office for a choking attack.

Sep 24, 2024 11:19 AM CDT

Dechert, 2 ex-partners settle RICO suit alleging scheme to steal data from client’s opponent

An airline executive who alleged that a former Dechert partner conspired to hack and release his emails in a campaign to silence him has settled his civil RICO lawsuit against the law firm defendants.

Sep 23, 2024 9:33 AM CDT

Lawyer must face ethics charge alleging he tried to hire Israeli hackers to access judge’s emails

A California bar court judge has rejected a lawyer’s bid to dismiss an ethics charge alleging that he plotted to hire Israeli hackers to hack in to the email and phone accounts of a judge and a lawyer.

Sep 19, 2024 11:52 AM CDT

Pro se litigant and lawyer ordered to pay $1.5M for using Lewis Brisbois name

Updated: A federal judge in Houston has ordered a lawyer and a pro se litigant in a rental-fee and eviction dispute to pay $1.5 million for registering a Texas business using the name of Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith, the law firm representing their litigation opponent in the rental litigation.

Sep 17, 2024 3:05 PM CDT