Verdicts & Settlements

$9B in punitives awarded in Actos drug case; jurors deliberated less than two hours

The battle between plaintiffs lawyer Mark Lanier and the makers of the Actos diabetes drug isn’t over yet. Federal jurors in Louisiana awarded $9 billion in punitive damages on Monday in Lanier’s suit claiming Japanese drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical and its American marketing partner Eli Lilly & Co. concealed the cancer…

Apr 8, 2014 5:32 PM CDT

8th Cir. axes $900K verdict because lawyer told personal law school sex-harassment story at closing

A $900,000 jury award in an employment discrimination case, including $600,000 in punitive damages, has been reversed by a federal appeals court because a lawyer for the plaintiff during closing arguments told jurors that as a law student, she was sexually harassed by a professor. The anecdote by attorney Brooke…

Apr 7, 2014 9:10 PM CDT

Defense stunned by $2.88M verdict in med-mal case over injection injury and suicide

Dr. Kimber Eubanks says the injection-site injury that Joel Burnette at first complained of, according to family and friends, wasn’t reflected in medical records and hence didn’t exist. But a Kansas jury apparently saw the situation differently, awarding his parents $2.88 million over what became a paralyzing injury that they…

Apr 7, 2014 5:45 PM CDT

Judge jails in-house lawyer who complained in email about being selected for jury service

An Atlanta in-house lawyer was jailed for 24 hours by a Georgia judge for contempt after she complained to him in an email about being selected for jury service in a personal injury case. Wilma Elizabeth Beaty was also fined $500 by DeKalb State Court Judge Dax Lopez after she…

Apr 7, 2014 3:30 PM CDT

Man duped legal system into taking baby from mom by using imposter, prosecutors say

After a young woman he had allegedy beaten fled the state with their infant daughter, a Washington man tricked the legal system into taking the baby from the mother without giving the 20-year-old woman an opportunity for a single court hearing, authorities say. Eling McCabe Orton, 33, has now been…

Apr 2, 2014 3:30 PM CDT

Lawyer who pointed client in accident case to high-interest loan did nothing wrong, judge rules

Unable to work after a 2001 accident in which the Chicago commuter train she was riding hit a car at a railroad crossing, Debbie Crim eventually asked her lawyer for a loan to help with her medical bills and living expenses. Peter Vrdolyak instead referred her to Client Funding Solutions,…

Apr 1, 2014 9:50 PM CDT

Judge acquits tourist in Macy’s shoplifting case linked to racial profiling claims

A New York City judge has acquitted a Venezuelan tourist who had been accused of shoplifting from Macy’s, in a case that has been linked by her lawyer to claims of racial profiling by a number of major Big Apple retailers. Maria Paez said she had simply put items in…

Apr 1, 2014 5:25 PM CDT

Chevron can sue Patton Boggs over law firm effort to collect $9.5B verdict, federal judge rules

In the latest salvo in a hard-fought international environmental case, a federal judge in New York has OK’d a request by Chevron Corp. to sue a law firm representing the oil company’s opponent in its efforts to collect a $9.5 billion judgment awarded by a court in Ecuador. Although Patton…

Mar 31, 2014 9:24 PM CDT

Judge axes first law firm filing over missing Malaysia Air flight

An Illinois judge on Friday threw out a civil court filing by a Chicago law firm over the Malaysia Air flight that disappeared earlier this month. The Ribbeck Law Chartered petition for discovery, believed to be the first court filing concerning the missing plane, is inappropriate because it isn’t supported…

Mar 31, 2014 7:45 PM CDT

Top Texas court blocks order that state must tell inmate lawyers about supplier of lethal drugs

A ruling Thursday by a state court judge requiring the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to reveal the supplier of lethal execution drugs was temporarily blocked Friday by the state’s top court. Apparently persuaded by arguments by lawyers for two convicted murderers that they could otherwise unconstitutionally be subjected to…

Mar 28, 2014 9:40 PM CDT

Judge loses his job after sex in chambers with witness, texting shirtless photo and lying under oath

A Michigan judge who made headlines by texting a photo of his bare chest to a courtroom bailiff and having sex in his chambers with a complaining witness in a child-support case has been removed from the bench. In a Wednesday ruling, the state supreme court also suspended Judge Wade…

Mar 26, 2014 10:45 PM CDT

In ‘revolutionary’ ruling, NLRB says football players are employees of Northwestern, can unionize

Football players are employees of Northwestern University and can unionize, the National Labor Relations Board said in a ruling released Wednesday that is expected to reverberate throughout the country. Robert McCormick, a professor emeritus at Michigan State University College of Law, describes the decision as “revolutionary for college sports.” If…

Mar 26, 2014 8:25 PM CDT

Jury convicts 5 Madoff staffers; accountant is now last remaining defendant in $17.5B scheme

After the conviction Monday of five employees who helped Bernard L. Madoff perpetrate a massive Ponzi scheme under the guise of a hedge fund, only one defendant still remains to be tried in a criminal case linked to the $17.5 billion swindle. He is Paul Konigsberg, 77, an outside accountant…

Mar 26, 2014 6:55 PM CDT

Judge strikes Oklahoma lethal injection law because source of drugs is secret

An Oklahoma judge struck the state’s lethal injection law as unconstitutional Wednesday, saying that it violated due process because it keeps secret from inmates the sources of drugs used in executions. The ruling by Oklahoma County District Judge Patricia Parrish follows recent adverse reactions by dying inmates during executions in…

Mar 26, 2014 6:10 PM CDT

Federal judge awards $802K in attorney fees and costs in case over jail mail

A federal judge’s ruling last year that an Oregon county had violated the First Amendment by restricting jail mail to postcards resulted in a $15,000 payment to the plaintiff, Prison Legal News. But the payment by Columbia County to the Human Rights Defense Center monthly magazine is dwarfed by a…

Mar 26, 2014 5:10 PM CDT