Tort Law

Asbestos Insurers’ Pre-emptive Strike Strikes Out

A Manhattan judge has refused to limit liability for two asbestos insurers in an unusual pre-emptive class action suit. Continental Casualty Coverage and American Casualty Co. had sought a declaratory judgment that they owed no more than the $8.7 million already paid under liability policies. The judge refused, saying the…

May 10, 2007 1:06 PM CDT

Class Action Curbs Defeated in Calif.

A bill to restrict class action suits has been defeated in the California legislature. The bill would have allowed defendants to appeal decisions to certify a class and to contact each class member to offer a settlement, according to the Recorder. It also would have switched responsibility to pay for…

May 10, 2007 12:40 PM CDT

Lawyer Disappointed in Tobacco Punitives

A $250,000 punitive damages award was something of a victory for two tobacco companies in the retrial of a suit filed by a smoker who later died. Madelyn Chaber, who represented the smoker’s family, was disappointed in the amount, according to the Recorder. “It needed at least another comma and…

May 10, 2007 12:29 PM CDT

350-Plus Seroquel Suits May Be Pressure Tactic

Patients who took the anti-psychotic drug Seroquel filed more than 350 lawsuits last month in Delaware state courts. The filings could be an effort to force drug maker AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals L.P. into an early settlement of cases in the fast-track state, according to the National Law Journal. That could influence…

May 9, 2007 12:14 PM CDT

Subprime Loan Frenzy Spawns Litigation Storm

As Lelon DeWitt was undergoing quadruple bypass heart surgery in Elkhart, Indiana in 2004, a subprime mortgage broker caught up with his wife, in the hospital waiting room. It was now or never if the couple didn’t want to lose their loan, she remembers him saying. She left the hospital…

May 9, 2007 1:25 AM CDT

NY Lawyer, Crushed by 300-Pound Fan, Sues Mets

A Manhattan attorney who says her back was broken when she was crushed by an apparently drunken and unruly 300-pound fan who fell on her at a New York Mets game has reportedly filed suit for unspecified damages. The suit filed by Ellen Massey, 58, names as defendants the baseball…

May 8, 2007 10:01 PM CDT

Trial Lawyers Decry Judge’s $65M Pants Suit

Often a target itself of claims by big business that it promotes frivolous litigation, a well-known American trial lawyer group is now pointing the finger at someone else. A Washington, D.C., judge who reportedly filed a $65 million lawsuit against his local dry cleaner for temporarily misplacing his suit pants…

May 8, 2007 7:43 PM CDT

New Zealand Vets Ask Billions re Agent Orange

New Zealand veterans of the Vietnam War reportedly may sue their government for billions of dollars in compensation for injuries allegedly caused by use of the dioxin-containing defoliant Agent Orange. The suit would focus on allegations that government officials from the time of the war to the present day have…

May 7, 2007 8:09 PM CDT

No Punitive Damages in Wrongful Adoption Case

Even though an adoption agency apparently intentionally withheld information about severe mental illness among the parents and grandparents of a child from his adoptive family decades ago, it cannot be assessed punitive damages, a New York appeals court has decided. The ruling is expected to be persuasive in other such…

May 4, 2007 10:27 PM CDT

Chase Video Speeds Supreme Court Into Internet Age

A video clip posted next to an opinion this week on the U.S. Supreme Court’s Web site has launched the high court into the Internet Age. Hence, the video, which depicts the view from the dashboard during a high-speed police chase in suburban Atlanta, is probably of greater interest to…

May 4, 2007 6:23 PM CDT

While We’re at It ...

Judge Switches Hats to Accommodate Con Who Wants to Get Hitched Before Doing His Hitch

May 1, 2007 11:02 AM CDT

You’re Fired

Those words say the same thing in any language, but their legal meaning may vary drastically from country to country

May 1, 2007 9:26 AM CDT

Tort Refomers, Trial Lawyers Rank States

Trial lawyers and tort reformers issued competing state rankings Wednesday. A survey of general counsel released by a tort reform group found that general counsel perceive West Virginia as the state with the most unfair legal environment. Also in the bottom five were Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Illinois, according to…

Apr 27, 2007 1:08 PM CDT

How Much is that Doggie in the Window Worth?

An advocacy group for animals has drafted an amicus brief that argues pet owners should receive compensation for emotional distress caused by the loss of their animals. Pet owners traditionally receive only the market value of a pet that is killed because of negligence, but change may be afoot, the…

Apr 26, 2007 2:56 PM CDT

Study: Doctors Win Most Med-Mal Suits

Juries in medical malpractice cases find for physicians more often than plaintiffs, a researcher told the New Jersey Law Journal. Around 30 percent of medical malpractice suits result in a verdict for the plaintiff, according to professor Philip Peters Jr. of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law. The rate…

Apr 26, 2007 12:47 PM CDT