Verdicts & Settlements

New Orleans mayor apologizes as city settles police brutality cases from time of Hurricane Katrina

Three police brutality cases that stemmed from incidents shortly before and after Hurricane Katrina settled for $13.3 million on Monday. Plaintiffs include the family of Raymond Robair, 48, a handyman who was beaten to death by police in New Orleans’ Treme neighborhood, the New York Times reports. That attack occurred…

Dec 21, 2016 10:40 AM CST

$2.5B verdict is largest patent infringement award in US history; will award be tripled?

Jurors awarded $2.54 billion to a unit of Merck & Co. last week in a suit alleging its patented compound was used by Gilead Sciences Inc. to make the hepatitis C drugs Sovaldi and Harvoni. Jurors upheld the patent on behalf of Merck’s Idenix unit and found the infringement was…

Dec 19, 2016 10:36 AM CST

DeVry agrees to $100M settlement in FTC suit alleging misleading ads touted graduate success

DeVry University has agreed to pay $100 million to settle claims by the Federal Trade Commission that its ads misled prospective students about its graduates’ job success. DeVry did not admit or deny the allegations, report the New York Times, CNN Money and Bloomberg’s Technology, Telecom and Internet Blog. The…

Dec 16, 2016 10:08 AM CST

Dylann Roof is convicted in church shooting; jurors deliberated less than two hours

Federal jurors in Charleston, South Carolina, have convicted white supremacist Dylann Roof in the June 2015 shooting deaths of nine black church members attending a Bible study. Jurors deliberated for less than two hours before convicting Roof on Thursday on all 33 charges, the Washington Post reports. The charges included…

Dec 15, 2016 3:09 PM CST

Ashley Madison agrees to pay $1.6M in connection with hacking of its network

The Ashley Madison dating website has agreed to pay $1.6 million to resolve allegations by the Federal Trade Commission and more than a dozen states that it failed to protect user data and misled consumers. The Federal Trade Commission announced the settlement on Wednesday, report the Washington Post, USA Today…

Dec 15, 2016 2:37 PM CST

SCOTUS overturns Apple’s $399M award against Samsung for smartphone infringement

The U.S. Supreme Court has overturned a $399 million award to Apple for Samsung’s infringement of three smartphone design components because of an error in interpreting the damages statute. In a unanimous decision (PDF) for Samsung by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the Supreme Court said the U.S. Court of Appeals for…

Dec 6, 2016 11:11 AM CST

Jurors award more than $1B in hip implant case

Federal jurors in Dallas on Thursday awarded $1.041 billion to six California plaintiffs who sued Johnson & Johnson for a hip implant device with alleged design defects. The awarded included more than $1 billion in punitive damages, report the National Law Journal (sub. req.), Reuters and Bloomberg. Jurors found that…

Dec 2, 2016 9:33 AM CST

SiriusXM agrees to pay up to $99M in copyright class action brought by Turtles members

SiriusXM has agreed to pay up to $99 million to settle three class action suits claiming the satellite radio service infringed musicians’ copyrights for music recorded before 1972, when federal copyright law began to offer protection. The suits claimed the artists were entitled to payments for older music because of…

Dec 2, 2016 7:45 AM CST

Lawyer agrees to 30-day suspension for publicity threats during settlement talks

A Phoenix lawyer has agreed to a 30-day suspension for using a publicity and criminal-justice threat to gain advantage in settlement talks. The suspension for lawyer Peter Strojnik begins Dec. 16, according to the Arizona Republic and the Arizona Daily Independent. The Legal Profession Blog summarizes the allegations and links…

Nov 21, 2016 9:42 AM CST

Trump University settles fraud suits for $25M; New York AG calls deal ‘a stunning reversal’

Trump University has agreed to pay $25 million to settle lawsuits claiming its real estate investment seminars defrauded students who paid $1,500 to $35,000 for classes. New York Attorney General announced the settlement Friday. Schneiderman called the deal “a stunning reversal by Donald Trump and a major victory for the…

Nov 18, 2016 2:57 PM CST

Judge upholds verdict though juror said she didn’t remember deliberations had ended

A Connecticut judge has upheld a verdict for a fired truck driver even though a juror said she didn’t recall deliberations or the announcement of a verdict. Judge William Rush upheld the $225,000 verdict for Dwight Daley last Friday, the Connecticut Post reports. Daley had sued Arkansas trucking company J.B.…

Nov 15, 2016 7:00 AM CST

Jurors award $3M in defamation suit against Rolling Stone

Federal jurors on Monday awarded $3 million in damages to a former University of Virginia administrator who claimed she was defamed by a Rolling Stone article about a gang rape that was later retracted. Jurors in Charlottesville, Virginia, found that reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely was liable for $2 million and…

Nov 8, 2016 12:24 PM CST

Jurors find Rolling Stone defamed UVa associate dean in later-retracted article about gang rape

Federal jurors in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Friday found Rolling Stone magazine was liable for defamation in a story about an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia, which was later retracted. Jurors ruled for former school administrator Nicole Eramo, who had alleged she was portrayed as the “chief villain”…

Nov 4, 2016 2:23 PM CDT

After $140M jury award, Hulk Hogan settles Gawker lawsuit for at least $31M

Corrected: Gawker Media has agreed to pay at least $31 million to settle a privacy invasion case filed by Hulk Hogan over publication of a sex video. The monetary amount was revealed in documents filed in Gawker’s bankruptcy, report the New York Times DealBook blog, LawNewz and the Hollywood Reporter.…

Nov 2, 2016 12:55 PM CDT

Law firms file and settle dozens of ADA suits claiming websites aren’t accessible to the blind

Since the beginning of 2015, more than 240 businesses have faced federal lawsuits claiming their websites are inaccessible to the blind in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act. The suits often settle quickly for between $10,000 and $75,000, with most of the money being used to cover attorney fees…

Nov 1, 2016 3:21 PM CDT