Verdicts & Settlements

Who’s Paying? More Women Are Becoming Payors in Alimony, Child Support

According to a recent survey of members of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, 56 percent of members have noticed an increase in the number of mothers who are paying child support. 47 percent of members have noticed an increase in the number of women paying alimony to their former…

Sep 1, 2012 9:19 AM CDT

No Disability Pension for Judge Who Won $2.1M Libel Verdict; Top Mass. Court Says Job Link Not Shown

The top court in Massachusetts has upheld administrative decisions nixing a disability pension for a former superior court judge who won a $2.1 million libel verdict against the Boston Herald over a series of 2002 articles that criticized his handling of a rape case. Although Ernest Murphy said he suffered…

Aug 31, 2012 8:45 PM CDT

Jury Says PI Firm Must Pay Ex-Client $2M for Pressuring Her to Settle Auto Case for Too Little

A jury in Denver this week awarded over $2 million, including $1.5 million in punitive damages, to a former client who said a Colorado personal injury law firm pressured her to settle her case for less than it was worth. Chad Hemmat of Anderson Hemmat & Levine has said he…

Aug 31, 2012 8:18 PM CDT

Citigroup to Settle Investor Suit over CDO Losses for $590M

Citigroup has agreed to pay $590 million to settle an investor lawsuit that claims the bank failed to disclose its holdings in collateralized debt obligations backed by subprime mortgages. Citigroup denied wrongdoing and said it settled because of the uncertainties and expense of litigation, report the Wall Street Journal (sub.…

Aug 30, 2012 2:46 PM CDT

Federal Judge Nixes Most of Widow’s Suit re Hiker Killed By Mountain Goat in National Park

Saying that sovereign immunity prevents a widow from holding the government liable for a mountain goat’s fatal attack on her husband while he was hiking at Olympic National Park, a federal judge in Washington state has dismissed all but one of the claims in the multi-milliondollar suit. Park officials’ decision…

Aug 23, 2012 5:21 PM CDT

Ky. Bar Association Ordered to Pay $191.5K Legal Bill for Lawyer Whose Free Speech Was Chilled

The Kentucky Bar Association has been ordered by a federal judge to pay a little over $190,000 in attorney’s fees to a lawyer whose free speech rights were chilled. The order follows a 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision last month that the KBA should not have warned attorney…

Aug 22, 2012 9:42 PM CDT

Boy Hit By Line Drive From Metal Bat During Little League Game Gets $14.5M Settlement

A $14.5 million settlement has been reached in a tort case over a Little League game that left a young pitcher brain-injured after he was struck by a line drive hit from a metal bat. As a trial was looming in the Passaic County, N.J., case, the defendants, including the…

Aug 22, 2012 5:40 PM CDT

Freed After 12 Years, Aided by Mom’s Paralegal Work, Va. Man Wants Real Murderer ID’d

More than a decade after being wrongly convicted of an elderly woman’s murder, Michael Wayne Hash left the Culpeper County, Va., courthouse Monday a free man, with the case against him finally dismissed. Now 31, Hash has something in common–in addition to a belief that the case against him wasn’t…

Aug 21, 2012 6:17 PM CDT

2 Texas Lawyers Guilty of Contempt re Winning Defense of Client Judge, But Get No Fines or Jail Time

Two Texas lawyers are proclaiming victory, despite being found guilty of criminal contempt, because they were neither jailed nor fined. Following a six-day trial that ended Saturday, visiting Judge Juanita Vasquez-Gardner found Theresa Caballero guilty of at least 9 of 11 counts and Stuart Leeds guilty of 5 out of…

Aug 21, 2012 4:22 PM CDT

Food Company Settles Case After Diverting Pet Food to Federal Prison

An East Texas-based food company specializing in fajita meat has agreed to pay $392,000 to settle a dispute over how its resale of meat intended for pet food ended up on plates in federal prisons. At issue were raw “beef trimmings” that were supposed to be used for cans of…

Aug 20, 2012 7:24 PM CDT

Judge Wants to Know if Facebook Settlement Terms Were ‘Plucked from Thin Air’

A federal judge in San Francisco has refused to approve a settlement that doesn’t award any money to class members in a suit over a Facebook advertising feature that published users’ “likes.” U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg asked litigants to prove some settlement terms weren’t “merely plucked from thin air,”…

Aug 20, 2012 12:31 PM CDT

9th Circuit Cites ‘Egregious’ Ethics Violation, Denies Attorney Fees for McGuireWoods

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that McGuireWoods can’t collect fees for work it did to help secure a $49 million settlement in an antitrust case against the publishers of BAR/BRI. The panel’s ruling Aug. 10 (PDF) upholds a decision by U.S. District…

Aug 14, 2012 2:10 PM CDT

Ex-Lawyer Who Ignored Federal Court Order to Pay Big Bucks to Abandoned Client Is Now Jailed

Two lawyers found to have abandoned a client after his sentencing in a federal criminal case were not only ordered to disgorge all of the $275,000 paid in legal fees but cover the cost of his new defense counsel. However, U.S. Magistrate Judge William Turnoff is still trying to figure…

Aug 10, 2012 6:57 PM CDT

Defendant’s Attack on Own Counsel and Attempted Escape from Court Not Grounds for Mistrial

A criminal defendant’s attack on his own counsel and court officers in front of the jury deciding the case, followed by an unsuccessful attempt to escape from the courtroom, is not grounds for a mistrial, a New Jersey appeals court has for the first time held. Deciding a novel issue,…

Aug 10, 2012 6:23 PM CDT

Federal Judge OKs Mom’s Suit Against Maker of Breastfeeding How-To Film Used in 3rd Party’s Porn

A New Jersey mother who agreed to be featured, without compensation, in a televised breastfeeding instructional film says she was horrified to discover the video had been altered and posted online as part of a pornography film, using her full name. Now a federal judge in New Jersey has given…

Aug 10, 2012 5:56 PM CDT