$10.1B verdict against maker of light cigarettes in 2003 is resurrected and appealed

A St. Louis lawyer who succeeded in getting an Illinois appeals court to reinstate a $10.1 billion verdict against a maker of light cigarettes is fighting to preserve the judgment. Lawyer Stephen Tillery’s $10.1 billion verdict against Philip Morris in 2003 was a record amount in Illinois, the Chicago Tribune…

Jun 10, 2014 1:48 PM CDT

GM cites ‘pattern of incompetence,’ fires 15 including legal execs, will pay ignition-switch victims

An internal probe of General Motors found “a pattern of incompetence and neglect” but no intentional cover-up of ignition-switch issues that resulted in a massive vehicle recall this year after a decade of problems including at least 13 fatal accidents. Fifteen employees were fired as a result of the investigation…

Jun 5, 2014 3:30 PM CDT

Banks face a slew of suits over their ADA-violating ATMs

Jun 1, 2014 9:20 AM CDT

Hospital to pay feds $40.9M for unnecessary heart surgeries; more than 500 patient suits are ongoing

A Kentucky hospital has agreed to pay the federal government a record $40.9 million to settle civil claims over what the government describes as unnecessary heart procedures billed to Medicare and Medicaid. The settlement by King’s Daughters Medical Center announced Wednesday does not resolve more than 500 civil suits by…

May 28, 2014 10:30 PM CDT

Son sues dad for identity fraud, seeks over $1M in damages

When DeWayne Keith Long tried to purchase a home and discovered his credit was in the toilet, he at first assumed a credit reporting agency had made a mistake. Then he discovered he was the victim of identity theft by his own father—whose name is also DeWayne Keith Long—he contends…

May 28, 2014 6:55 PM CDT

FTC report calls for Congress to rein in data brokers

Facing a situation in which data brokers may know more about an individual’s life than that person’s family members and friends, the Federal Trade Commission is asking Congress to enact legislation to rein them in. In a 110-page report (PDF) released Tuesday, the FTC calls for laws requiring the companies…

May 28, 2014 4:45 PM CDT

Top state court OKs $1.2B defamation suit over ABC ‘pink slime’ news coverage

A producer of chemically treated cartilage and scrap meat can pursue a $1.2 billion defamation case against ABC and several correspondents for the network, including Diane Sawyer, over a series of 2012 broadcasts, the Supreme Court of South Dakota ruled on Thursday. It declined to hear an interlocutory appeal of…

May 23, 2014 8:25 PM CDT

Woman sues In-N-Out Burger in hot-coffee case, says workers refused to call 911 after she was burned

In a lawsuit reminiscent of a famous case against McDonald’s, a California woman has sued an Oakland fast-food restaurant over second-degree burns she suffered last year when hot coffee spilled on her lap. Hedy Chen, who was then a graduate business student at the University of California-Berkeley, contends she was…

May 23, 2014 6:30 PM CDT

GM’s legal department is reportedly scrutinized in internal probe

General Motors is examining its own legal department in an internal inquiry of how the automaker handled reports of the defective ignition switch, according to a published report. The New York Times has the story, based on two people with knowledge of the inquiry and internal documents. Delays in responding…

May 19, 2014 2:10 PM CDT

GM to pay record $35M civil penalty for delayed action on faulty ignition switches

General Motors has agreed to pay a $35 million civil penalty for delays in responding to defective ignition switches. The amount is the highest civil penalty every paid as a result of an investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration into recall violations, according to the Washington Post and…

May 16, 2014 3:27 PM CDT

‘Lemon law king’ seeks writ of mandamus requiring state to follow old law until new forms are ready

A Wisconsin lawyer who considers himself the “lemon law king” filed a writ of mandamus petition against the state Thursday. It concerns a revised version of the statute limiting the recourse previously offered to consumers who purchase defective motor vehicles. Arguing that the state Department of Transportation is not providing…

May 15, 2014 9:50 PM CDT

Buckyballs creator to fund trust for recall of the magnetic toys

The man who created Buckyballs has reached a settlement with the Consumer Product Safety Commission to fund a recall of the magnetic desk toys. Craig Zucker will put $375,000 into a recall trust controlled by the CPSC that will give refunds to consumers who return Buckyballs and Buckycubes, report the…

May 14, 2014 4:16 PM CDT

Did firecracker or defect cause Hyundai crash? ‘Bombshell’ evidence is suddenly noticed during trial

Lawyers for plaintiffs suing Hyundai complained to a Montana judge last Wednesday that the automaker “clearly tried to drop a bombshell” when its expert noticed an object in a photograph that had apparently been overlooked for 34 months. The families of two teenage cousins who died in a crash of…

May 12, 2014 10:45 AM CDT

Pending bills would require used-car and rental companies to fix recalled vehicles

Used-car dealers and rental car companies don’t have to repair recalled vehicles before they are rented or sold to the public, and they don’t even have to tell buyers that a vehicle is subject to a recall. There are two proposals pending in Congress to change the law, the New…

May 9, 2014 3:16 PM CDT

A risky move? GM heads to bankruptcy court today in effort to head off ignition class actions

Lawyers for General Motors go back to bankruptcy court today in a bid to ban class-action lawsuits over faulty ignition switches. General Motors said in a filing last week with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it is aware of 59 would-be class actions filed on behalf of car owners…

May 2, 2014 2:25 PM CDT