Injury & Accident Law

Pitts: Constitution Protects Pedophile

Jack McClellan is a reprehensible freak, says Leonard Pitts. A self-admitted California pedophile, McClellan puts parents on edge by talking publicly about how he likes to look at little girls. He’s also upset a California judge, who recently issued a temporary injunction ordering him to stay at least 10 yards…

Aug 21, 2007 5:15 PM CDT

Proposed Laws Target Abusive Bosses

Nobody wants to work for a jerk. But unless abusive bosses violate specific prohibitions, such as discriminating against someone because of race or gender, treating employees badly generally isn’t illegal. That could be changing, however. At least four states are considering legislation that would give workers a right to sue…

Aug 21, 2007 4:37 PM CDT

Firms Represent Bridge Victims Pro Bono

High-profile firms in Minnesota are pooling together, offering to represent victims of the Aug. 1 Minneapolis interstate bridge collapse for free. According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Big Tobacco veteran Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi is among a “who’s who” list of plaintiffs firms signed up to represent victims pro bono.…

Aug 20, 2007 6:45 PM CDT

Toy Litigation Legacy: Monitoring Rules?

Updated: As lawsuits mount over a recall of toys that may contain dangerous levels of lead paint, the litigation could lead to new precedent of interest to lawyers in a wide range of tort cases. That is because the lawsuits are likely to ask for a controversial remedy—medical monitoring of…

Aug 20, 2007 5:28 PM CDT

Top Va. Tech Payment: $180k Per Death

Settlement amounts were announced today in a plan to compensate victims of the April massacre at Virginia Tech and their estates. Families of the 32 students and faculty shot to death by a troubled student will each be offered $180,000 under the plan, which is funded by donations, according to…

Aug 15, 2007 9:53 PM CDT

Cost of Biggest Data Breach: $256 Million

It will cost at least $256 million to correct a massive data breach involving the theft of computerized information about 45 million credit and debit cards. Reportedly the biggest such security breach ever to occur in the U.S., the yearlong theft of computer data from TJX Cos., based in Framingham,…

Aug 15, 2007 6:31 PM CDT

FL Fights for Internal State Farm Docs

A battle between Florida regulators and the state’s biggest property insurer is capturing the attention of lawyers there and elsewhere, because of what’s really at issue. Property insurance rate-setting is the official topic. But attorneys on both sides are waiting to see whether State Farm, a Bloomington, Ill.-based insurer, has…

Aug 15, 2007 5:26 PM CDT

Free Advice to Mattel: Use ‘Iron Triangle’

As Mattel Inc. faces its second toy recall in two weeks over lead-paint issues, a lawyer reportedly is offering some free advice—use the “Iron Triangle Defense.” In plain English, those handling Mattel’s litigation, public-relations and government regulatory work need to put their heads together to figure out how best to…

Aug 14, 2007 8:43 PM CDT

First Legal Action in Bridge Collapse

The first litigation has reportedly been filed in the Minneapolis bridge collapse case, by a law firm seeking access in order to investigate before the site is cleaned up. It was filed Monday in federal court because the firm, Schwebel, Goetz & Sieben of Minneapolis, has been told that federal…

Aug 14, 2007 7:41 PM CDT

OJ Simpson Book to be Published

A book by O.J. Simpson that reportedly contains a hypothetical account of how he might have murdered his former wife, Nicole, if he had actually done so, will soon be in bookstores nationwide after all. Withdrawn from publication last year, following a firestorm of criticism, it has been accepted anew…

Aug 13, 2007 8:18 PM CDT

3 Fen-Phen Lawyers Jailed Pending Trial

Updated: Seeking a several-month delay of a criminal fraud trial for allegedly bilking clients of $64 million in diet drug litigation settlement proceeds has cost three lawyers their freedom. Melbourne Mills, 76, William Gallion, 56, and Shirley Cunningham Jr., 52, were jailed after their bond was revoked today by U.S.…

Aug 10, 2007 9:27 PM CDT

Is Possible MN Bridge Design Flaw Nat’l?

Defective construction components known as gusset plates may have helped cause last week’s bridge collapse in Minneapolis, raising concern about other bridges constructed with the same components nationwide. Hundreds of gusset plates, steel parts that connect bridge girders, were used on the Interstate 35 bridge, and they may not have…

Aug 9, 2007 9:34 PM CDT

Company Charged in ‘Big Dig’ Death Case

A grand jury has charged with involuntary manslaughter the Brewster, N.Y.-based company that provided the glue that is being blamed, in part, for the collapse of the “Big Dig” tunnel in Boston last summer. A passenger in a car underneath was crushed to death when the roof of the Interstate…

Aug 8, 2007 8:48 PM CDT

Firm Loses Fee Appeal

A New York judge has ordered a law firm to return legal fees for an appeal and collateral litigation because the original fee agreement never specified additional payment beyond a one-third contingency. Katz & Associates had taken a fee of about $870,000 out of a $1.7 million judgment for its…

Aug 8, 2007 11:51 AM CDT

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