Juror at center of SCOTUS case contests plaintiff’s version of events

A pending Supreme Court case seeking a new trial based on a juror’s alleged statements is apparently a surprise to the juror at the center of the case. The issue in Warger v. Schauers is whether a motorcycle rider who lost his leg in an accident with a truck can…

Sep 15, 2014 11:54 AM CDT

Record $1.4B fine levied against gas company in fatal explosion and fire

A record $1.4 billion safety fine has been imposed by the California Public Utilities Commission concerning a 2010 gas pipeline rupture, explosion and fire that killed eight people, injured dozens of others and destroyed 38 homes in a San Bruno neighborhood. The penalty against Pacific Gas & Electric follows determinations…

Sep 3, 2014 11:05 AM CDT

Over 100 died from GM ignition-switch issues, survivors claim

When General Motors announced a compensation plan for those injured and killed because of ignition-switch issues in vehicles manufactured by the automaker, the company confirmed 13 deaths. However, claims have now been made concerning more than 100 deaths in the first month of a compensation program administered by disaster master…

Aug 27, 2014 5:04 PM CDT

As leaders blame GM lawyers for ignition woes, lawmaker asks: Why wasn’t general counsel fired?

During a Thursday hearing before a U.S. Senate commerce subcommittee, top General Motors Co. officials blamed in-house lawyers for the company’s delay in dealing effectively with a deadly ignition-switch issue that caused 54 accidents and at least 13 deaths over the course of a decade. But that led the subcommittee’s…

Jul 17, 2014 8:55 PM CDT

Jury says Dodgers must pay $13.9M in Giants fan’s beating case

Although a jury found the Los Angeles Dodgers to be only partially responsible for a Giants fan’s 2011 beating in a stadium parking lot, that means the team must pay nearly $14 million. Team attorney Dana Fox said a Los Angeles jury’s determination Wednesday that the team was 25 percent…

Jul 10, 2014 3:55 PM CDT

Prove GM fraud on court, if you can, bankruptcy judge tells lawyers in ignition-switch cases

Plaintiffs lawyers in dozens of cases filed against General Motors Co. over the diminished value of vehicles because of ignition-switch recalls have been arguing that a bankruptcy-court bar to such liability prior to 2009 should not apply. That’s because GM allegedly knew about the defect and didn’t disclose it to…

Jul 3, 2014 5:50 PM CDT

Judge rejects ‘absurd’ claim by ex-clients, awards $500K in legal fees, blasts new counsel

A Pennsylvania law firm was, by contract, entitled to a $500,000 legal fee for representing the parents of a therapist killed in a 2012 shooting rampage, in a lawsuit against a psychiatric hospital. But Farrell & Reisinger agreed to take $350,000, after the case settled the same year for $1.5…

Jun 24, 2014 2:45 PM CDT

Woman sues GM over criminal conviction resulting from car crash

General Motors is facing a number of lawsuits as a result of its now-admitted problem with vehicle ignition switches. But one may be unique. A Texas woman who was convicted of negligent homicide as a result of a 2004 crash now says in a federal lawsuit filed in Tyler on…

Jun 9, 2014 10:50 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

Extreme sports are more popular than ever, prompting questions about legal liability

Jun 1, 2014 10:30 AM 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

Jury awards $248.6M in fatal crash case; Hyundai will appeal

After an award of $248.6 million late Tuesday to the survivors of two cousins killed in a July 2011 head-on crash, Hyundai Motor America vowed to appeal in a Wednesday statement. The company called the Montana award, which included $8.6 million in compensatory damages and $240 million in punitive damages,…

May 14, 2014 10:30 PM CDT

Final settlements reached in Bonfire accident at Texas A&M that killed 12 and injured 27

Dominic Braus was a freshman at Texas A&M University in 1999 when a 60-foot-high stack of some 6,000 logs came apart in a horrific Nov. 18 accident, killing 12, injuring 27 others and ending the school’s 90-year-old Bonfire tradition. Braus, who almost lost his right arm—which was partly severed when…

May 12, 2014 8:15 PM CDT

Judge sanctions insurer $50K because its lawyer couldn’t settle dog-bite case for $750K

A Nevada judge imposed a $50,000 contempt sanction on an insurer because the company sent a representative to a settlement conference who lacked authority to settle a dog-bite case for $750,000. The plaintiff in the case, landscaper James Moberly, fell backward after being bitten several times by a German shorthaired…

May 12, 2014 7:00 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