Verdicts & Settlements

Oops! Jurors Revise $100M Wyeth Award

Nevada jurors confessed they made a mistake in setting compensatory damages against the maker of Premarin and Prempro, hormone replacement drugs alleged to have caused breast cancer in three women. Jurors originally awarded $134.5 million in what was supposed to have been compensatory damages against the drugmaker, Wyeth. Jurors later…

Oct 15, 2007 1:14 PM CDT

WA, Not Parents to Fund Child Mental Care?

In a ruling that could help struggling families, the Washington Supreme Court says the state must help some children who need mental health services even if their parents aren’t unfit. Ordinarily, parents must care for their children unless they abuse or neglect them. But after “Henry’s” parents paid some $200,000…

Oct 12, 2007 11:17 PM CDT

Court Fines Law Firm Over Partner’s Tax Levy

When the IRS levied a New York personal injury firm to collect $1.2 million that partner A. Sheldon Edelman allegedly owed in unpaid taxes, Edelman—who was responsible for handling firm accounts—reportedly ignored the levies and continued paying himself and a junior partner their usual weekly draws. Because a draw is…

Oct 12, 2007 7:44 PM CDT

FL Boot Camp Guards Acquitted

Updated: A jury has acquitted eight employees of a Florida boot camp of manslaughter in the death of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson. The all-white jury took about 90 minutes to deliberate in the death of the black teen, the Associated Press reports. Anderson died last year after an altercation with…

Oct 12, 2007 5:54 PM CDT

Vatican Publishes Medieval Trial Docs

Documents from controversial trials 700 years ago that still fascinate many today are to be published by the Vatican later this month in a limited, leather-bound edition of 799 numbered copies. It features reproductions of handwritten parchment minutes of trials between 1307 and 1312 of members of the Knights Templar,…

Oct 12, 2007 5:31 PM CDT

IL Chief Justice Settles Libel Case

The chief justice of the Illinois Supreme Court has settled his libel suit against a Chicago suburban newspaper for a reported $3 million. The agreement settles ongoing litigation after a $7 million libel verdict for Justice Robert Thomas against the Kane County Chronicle, the Chicago Tribune reports. The Chronicle also…

Oct 12, 2007 2:35 PM CDT

Menopause Drug Verdict: $134.5 M

Three Nevada women who claimed Prempro and Premarin caused their breast cancer have won a $134.5 verdict against the maker of the hormone-replacement drugs. The Reno jury delivered the verdict late Wednesday and will return to the courtroom today to consider punitive damages, the Associated Press reports. The compensatory damages…

Oct 12, 2007 12:57 PM CDT

Sharper Image Purifier Settlement Nixed

A proposal to settle a class action against Sharper Image with $19 coupons for buyers of its Ionic Breeze purifers has been rejected by a federal judge. U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga rejected the proposal as inadequate, the Daily Business Review reports. The legal publication calls the decision a…

Oct 12, 2007 11:06 AM CDT

Insurer Settles Senior Annuity Suit

Allianz Life Insurance Co. of North America has agreed to settle a lawsuit that contended the company sold annuities to senior citizens that locked up their money for as long as 15 years. The suit by Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson contended the company did not tell seniors they could…

Oct 9, 2007 6:38 PM CDT

DOJ Cuts Billion $$ Emissions Deal

A utility company has reached a pollution agreement that will be one of the largest environmental settlements in the history of the Justice Department. The deal is expected to be announced today. CNN and the Associated Press reported that American Electric Power agreed to install $4.6 billion in equipment to…

Oct 9, 2007 1:25 PM CDT

Sidley ‘Partner’ Payout: Up to $1.8 M

The 32 former partners of Sidley Austin who were demoted in 1999 will receive a payment of between $122,000 and $1.8 million under an age discrimination settlement approved yesterday by a federal judge. “The amount to be paid to each of the 32 former Sidley [partners] was placed under seal,”…

Oct 6, 2007 12:39 AM CDT

Sidley to Pay $27.5 M in EEOC Partner Case

Updated: In a settlement that should send shock waves throughout many of the nation’s major law firms, Sidley Austin has agreed to pay $27.5 million to resolve a landmark federal case alleging that the law firm discriminated against 32 of its own partners. The 1,700-lawyer Chicago-based firm also agreed in…

Oct 5, 2007 5:17 PM CDT

Paintball Suit Seeks Warnings

A man whose wife was killed in a paintball accident says a successor manufacturer has not lived up to a promise to publicize the dangers of older equipment. Mark Contois plans to file a complaint today in a California court seeking to force KEE Action Sports to do more to…

Oct 5, 2007 4:30 PM CDT

NY Admits Strip Searches Violated Settlement

New York’s Department of Corrections has agreed to settle a lawsuit that contended as many as 150,000 inmates at Rikers Island were improperly strip-searched in violation of a 2002 settlement. The inmates were nonviolent and had been charged with misdemeanors, the New York Times reports. The city will stop the…

Oct 5, 2007 3:47 PM CDT

Nuns Evicted, Gagged in Pedophile Priest Settlement

The Catholic Church has obtained a gag order to prevent disgruntled nuns in California from talking about their evictions. The church is ousting nuns from five convents so it can sell the buildings to help fund a $660 million pedophile priest settlement, the Washington Post reports. One of those who…

Oct 5, 2007 3:15 PM CDT