Verdicts & Settlements

Son to Get $250 K of $28 M Jail Award?

Lawyers for the son of a man who died in 1995 after 28 years in prison, serving a sentence for a murder he didn’t commit, told a federal judge in Boston yesterday that that her $28 million award to Louis Greco’s estate isn’t going to accomplish what she apparently intended.…

Aug 3, 2007 10:53 PM CDT

Judge OKs, Adds to Pedophile Injunction

Two Santa Clarita lawyers who sought an injunction to protect their daughters and other local children from associating with a self-admitted pedophile got everything they sought from a California judge today—and more. They had asked for a temporary restraining order to prevent Jack McClellan, a 45-year-old who admittedly is sexually…

Aug 3, 2007 7:15 PM CDT

Final Likely Loss for ‘Pants’ Judge: His Job

An administrative law judge who became a target of international disapprobation after suing his neighborhood dry cleaners for $54 million over an allegedly botched dry-cleaning job that resulted in the loss of his suit trousers, is now poised to lose more than his pants and the case. It is becoming…

Aug 2, 2007 10:49 PM CDT

Judge in $2 M Libel Case Seeks to Retire

A judge who won a $2 million libel verdict against the Boston Herald is now on sick leave and seeking to retire on a disability pension. Superior Court Judge Ernest B. Murphy says he is suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome as a result of the paper’s coverage criticizing his judicial…

Aug 2, 2007 8:41 PM CDT

Taser Talks Tough, Settles Quietly

Taser International Inc. talks a tough game concerning its litigation strategy in cases brought over its controversial stun guns. “The word has gotten out: Taser doesn’t settle,” said the company’s general counsel, Doug Klint, in an April interview with Bloomberg. “Anyone who sues us is in for a fight.” But…

Aug 2, 2007 8:02 PM CDT

Nike Settles Bias Case

Nike Inc. has agreed to pay $7.6 million and appoint a diversity consultant at its flagship Chicago store to settle a race discrimination lawsuit. A federal judge approved class-action status for the suit last year and expanded the class to include about 400 present and former African-American employees, the Chicago…

Jul 31, 2007 4:17 PM CDT

Dentist Wins Toothy Coverage Case

The joke isn’t on Dr. Robert Woo after all. The Washington state dentist is going to get the last laugh—and $750,000—the Washington Supreme Court has decided, in an insurance coverage case over an office prank. The prank—temporarily implanting an assistant with fake boar tusks and photographing her while she was…

Jul 27, 2007 11:38 PM CDT

Coal Co. Wins Tort Claims Suit

A federal jury in Alabama has sided with a coal company in a civil suit seeking damages for the deaths of three union leaders at its mine in Colombia. The case is the first to go to trial out of several that seek to hold corporations liable under the Alien…

Jul 27, 2007 5:19 PM CDT

$107 Million Award Overturned

Ernst & Young has dodged a $102.7 million bullet. The appellate-level Pennsylvania Superior Court has overturned an award of that amount, imposed because of procedural legal gaffes by the accounting firm, the Legal Intelligencer reports. “The sanction was extremely disproportionate to the noncompliance at issue,” the court ruled in a…

Jul 27, 2007 1:45 PM CDT

Judge Voids Hazleton Immigration Law

In a ruling with national implications, a federal judge in Pennsylvania today struck down a controversial Hazleton municipal ordinance that would have imposed hefty fines on businesses for hiring illegal immigrants and landlords for renting to them. The ordinance was unconstitutional, ruled U.S. District Judge James M. Munley, because it…

Jul 26, 2007 9:38 PM CDT

Judge’s Loafers Lucky Fit for FL Inmate

Wearing the trial judge’s loafers may have been the final sartorial touch that helped a Florida inmate win an acquittal on cocaine trafficking charges. Michael Fernandez, 22, was mistakenly brought from jail to his Fort Lauderdale trial Tuesday in his jail uniform. Although officials sent for—and received—his street clothes before…

Jul 26, 2007 8:57 PM CDT

Record $100 Million for Unjust Conviction

A federal judge in Boston has awarded $100 million to four men unjustly convicted of murder in Massachusetts state court in 1968, reportedly the largest such judgment ever made. Ruling today, U.S. Dist. Judge Nancy Gertner found that the Federal Bureau of Investigation had suppressed evidence that four men convicted…

Jul 26, 2007 8:06 PM CDT

$6.7 Mil Awarded in Infant Car Seat Case

A jury in Livingston, Mont., awarded nearly $6.7 million to the family of a 4-month-old who died when his car seat was ejected from his mother’s vehicle six years ago. Jurors, who also found the car seat manufacturer liable for punitive damages, will now hear evidence about Evenflo’s finances, the…

Jul 26, 2007 3:31 PM CDT

Internal Probe Protects KLA-Tencor

An outside lawyer’s aggressive internal investigation of stock-options backdating has helped a semiconductor equipment company avoid serious penalties. KLA-Tencor agreed to a permanent injunction yesterday against violations of record-keeping laws in a civil settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Recorder reports. The SEC cited the company’s “extraordinary cooperaton”…

Jul 26, 2007 12:44 PM CDT

$21 M for Wrongful Birth Needs Fla. OK

A Florida couple has won a $21 million jury award over a misdiagnosis of their first child’s rare genetic defect that led them, they say, to have another child two years ago with the same debilitating disease. But Daniel and Amara Estrada won’t be able to collect the award unless…

Jul 24, 2007 8:30 PM CDT