Verdicts & Settlements

Appeals court rules for Abercrombie in headscarf case

A federal appeals court has vacated a lower court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on its claim that Abercrombie & Fitch failed to provide a reasonable religious accommodation for a prospective employee who wears a hijab, or headscarf, for religious reasons. The…

Oct 4, 2013 9:57 PM CDT

In a victory for BP, 5th Circuit tells judge to re-evaluate oil-spill payout formula

BP’s complaints that undeserving claimants were winning oil-spill payouts will get a new look as a result of a federal appeals court ruling. The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday ordered a lower court judge to reconsider the formula used to measure potential economic loss suffered…

Oct 4, 2013 11:20 AM CDT

Despite defense verdict in Michael Jackson case, entertainment execs ponder potential liability

Despite a defense verdict Wednesday in the Michael Jackson wrongful death case, entertainment industry executives aren’t breathing a sigh of relief. The case—in which a concert promoter would have found itself facing a potential verdict of $1 billion or more if had the jury sided with the plaintiffs—is prompting soul-searching…

Oct 3, 2013 9:15 PM CDT

Defense verdict reached in Michael Jackson wrongful death case: No award to singer’s survivors

Updated: A Los Angeles jury has reached a verdict in the wrongful death case filed by Michael Jackson’s family against the concert promoter that paid the salary of the personal physician convicted of involuntary manslaughter for giving him a potent intravenous anesthetic. Announced at approximately 3:35 p.m., California time, on…

Oct 2, 2013 10:25 PM CDT

Young lawyer takes plea in lender-looting case as trial looms for 4 other defendant attorneys

Cory A. Leshner said he was still a law student when he became part of a claimed scheme to take over and loot a Texas-based mortgage company. Now Leshner, a 30-year-old Pennsylvania personal injury lawyer, has pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy in federal court in Camden, N.J., according to…

Oct 2, 2013 8:25 PM CDT

Salvage company that lost $600M sunken ship case must pay $1M to Spain for ‘abusive litigation’

First, a Florida-based marine salvage company lost a lawsuit over $600 million of sunken treasure it found in 2007 in a Spanish vessel that was shipwrecked more than 200 years earlier. Now Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. has been ordered by a federal judge to pay $1 million to the Kingdom…

Sep 30, 2013 10:45 PM CDT

Cooley Law defamation suit against law firm and bloggers critical of its job stats is nixed by judge

A federal judge has nixed a defamation suit filed by Thomas M. Cooley Law School against a law firm and bloggers who criticized the institution’s portrayal of its graduates’ employment statistics. Finding that the law school is, at minimum, a limited-purpose public figure, U.S. District Judge Robert J. Jonker on…

Sep 30, 2013 10:33 PM CDT

9 unusual legal settlements (gallery)

Depending on what kind of law an attorney practices, he or she has probably encountered a legal settlement that they considered a head-scratcher. We ourselves frequently come across settlements we consider unusual. Whether it’s the terms of a wrongful-death settlement, the property distribution in a divorce, or the labeling allowed…

Sep 26, 2013 5:56 PM CDT

Debt collector accused of posing as law firm will pay $1M in first FTC case over texts

A California-based debt collector has agreed to pay $1 million to settle a Federal Trade Commission case. The collection company allegedly falsely portrayed itself as a law firm and sent text messages to debtors which didn’t include a validation notice with information required by law to be provided in an…

Sep 26, 2013 5:55 PM CDT

Bank and accountants to pay $40M settlement in city embezzlement case

An Illinois bank and two accounting firms have agreed to settle for $40 million a lawsuit over a massive, nearly two-decade-long embezzlement by the then-treasurer of the city of Dixon, its mayor says. The bulk of the settlement, around $36 million, will come from accounting firm CliftonLarsonAllen, Northern Public Radio…

Sep 25, 2013 9:20 PM CDT

Duane Morris settles malpractice suit filed by clients who never paid any fees

Duane Morris has settled a malpractice suit filed by former clients who never paid any legal fees. The law firm had cited a 1993 decision limiting malpractice damages to fees paid to a lawyer, but a Pennsylvania court ruled in November 2012 that the precedent applied only in the criminal…

Sep 25, 2013 12:56 PM CDT

5th Circuit: Feds applied law that didn’t exist when deporting US citizen and others for decades

For nearly 35 years, federal immigration authorities have been applying a U.S. law that cites the Mexican Constitution when determining whether to deport individuals who assert American citizenship. But the cited constitutional provision doesn’t exist, as far as the claimed language concerning out-of-wedlock births was concerned, the Associated Press reports.…

Sep 24, 2013 10:56 PM CDT

TD Bank to pay $52.5M to settle regulatory complaints related to ex-attorney Rothstein’s $1.2B fraud

Without admitting wrongdoing, Canada’s second-largest bank has agreed to pay $52.5 million to settle complaints by U.S. regulators that it failed to put the brakes on a Florida lawyer who used his accounts at Toronto-Dominion Bank in a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme for which he is now serving a 50-year…

Sep 24, 2013 7:45 PM CDT

City to pay owner of euthanized dog $41K, is sued by ousted animal control official

To avert a possible lawsuit by the owner of a dog that was put down by animal control this summer because its owner couldn’t come up with a $100 payment within 72 hours, a Nevada city has agreed to pay a $41,500 settlement. Key to the case was a new…

Sep 23, 2013 5:15 PM CDT

Judge holds reporter in contempt, imposes $300-a-day fine during 180-day compliance period

An Illinois judge on Friday held a suburban Chicago reporter in contempt for refusing to comply with a court order to disclose how he got hold of confidential police reports about a double murder in Joliet in January. Will County Circuit Court Judge Gerald Kinney also imposed a $1,000 fine,…

Sep 20, 2013 9:35 PM CDT