Hotel Operator Hit With $164M Verdict In Trafficking Suit

By David Aaro

A federal jury in Georgia said the operator of a Super 8 hotel should pay $164 million to a woman who claimed she was sexually trafficked there as a teenager, an amount her attorneys said is the largest sex trafficking verdict in U.S. history.

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Litigation Spending To Keep Climbing While Biz Risks Mount

By Ryan Boysen

Big companies will increase their litigation budgets yet again next year, as navigating legal risk is now an essential element of achieving strategic business goals, according to a new report.

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Ill. Justices Say Uber Can't Arbitrate Wrongful Death Suit

By Y. Peter Kang

The Illinois Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Uber can't compel arbitration of wrongful death claims arising from a fatal crash, finding that a widow's separate user agreement with the company did not apply to the estate's wrongful death claims.

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Plaintiffs Bar Says $243M Tesla Verdict Doesn't Hurt Innovation

By Mike Curley

An association of plaintiffs attorneys is urging the Eleventh Circuit to reject Tesla Inc.'s appeal of a $243 million verdict against it in a fatal crash suit, saying products liability law and punitive damages don't hinder or put a "tax" on innovation, but rather encourage it by creating an incentive to create better, safer products.

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RICO Suit Claims CH Robinson, TQL Are Using Illegal Carriers

By Linda Chiem

Family-owned trucking companies have accused two of North America's largest freight brokers, C.H. Robinson Worldwide Inc. and Total Quality Logistics LLC, of steering long-haul shipments to illegal "fly-by-night" or "chameleon" carriers, muscling out legitimate trucking firms, according to a suit filed in Texas federal court.

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Analysis

5 Circuit Splits To Watch At The High Court

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court has been deciding fewer and fewer cases over the past three decades, with its caseload reaching a historic low just last term. While attorneys believe several factors have contributed to that trend, they say one of the most consequential is the court's apparent declining interest in resolving circuit splits. 

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Ex-Google CEO's Rape Accuser Can't Undo $12M Arb. Loss

By Craig Clough

A California judge on Thursday told a woman who accused former Google CEO Eric Schmidt of sexual assault that he will not vacate a $12 million arbitration award in Schmidt's favor, saying she appeared to have ignored the arbitrator's orders just like she disregarded his own, and asking, "Why did you do that?"

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Fla. Surgeon Found Guilty Of Killing Atty Who Went Missing

By David Minsky

A Florida state court judge convicted a plastic surgeon for the murder of an attorney who disappeared after walking into the restroom at his law offices and was then killed, although a body was never recovered. 

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Bid For Conn. High Court Help Turned Down By PFAS Judge

By Jonathan Capriel

A Connecticut federal judge has, for now, declined a request seeking to ask the state's high court to determine whether state law allows for a medical monitoring remedy for firefighters who suffered forever-chemicals exposure from their protective gear that was manufactured with chemicals provided by 3M, DuPont and others.

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RICO, Antitrust Suit Over Pa. Sen's Ph.D. Scholarship Culled

By Bryan Koenig

A Pennsylvania politician's lawsuit against the University of New Brunswick, its officers and a former Ph.D. candidate is down to a single claim, against the doctoral candidate, after an Oklahoma federal judge rejected the other allegations focused on suggestions of academic fraud in the politician's own Ph.D. scholarship.

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Parents Say Hospital Forced Them To Drive Home Dead Infant

By Rachel Riley

A Washington couple claims staff at Salem Hospital in Oregon left them with no choice but to drive their 8-month-old son's body back home to Seattle after he suddenly died during a medical emergency, according to a $10 million negligence lawsuit the family filed in Oregon state court.

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Ga. Appeals Court Backs State Ports Authority In Injury Suit

By David Aaro

The Georgia Court of Appeals on Thursday upheld a trial court's order granting judgment to the Georgia Ports Authority in a personal injury lawsuit from a longshoreman struck by a falling object from a crane, saying he abandoned his claims by not including credible evidence or logical reasoning in his appeal brief.

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SC Judge Wants Clarity On Opioid 'Bodily Injury' Coverage

By Danielle Ferguson

A South Carolina federal judge said Thursday she is likely to ask the state supreme court to weigh in on whether certain language in a pharmaceutical company's insurance policies applies only to identified individuals in underlying opioid epidemic-related lawsuits.

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YMCA Gets No Coverage In Child Sex Abuse Suit, Insurer Says

By Gina Kim

Great American Insurance sued YMCA of Pierce and Kitsap Counties in Washington federal court Wednesday, arguing it has no duty to defend it in an underlying child sexual abuse lawsuit and that the defendant exhausted one of the applicable policy limits for payment of other abuse claims against it.

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Match Group Hit With Del. Suit Over Dating App Safety

By Jarek Rutz

A Match Group Inc. stockholder has sued the dating app company in the Delaware Chancery Court for access to board records, saying it wants to investigate whether directors adequately monitored reports of sexual assault and other violence involving users of Tinder, Hinge and other Match-owned platforms.

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Ritz, Other Hotels Can't Avoid All Sex Trafficking Claims

By Mike Curley

A Georgia federal judge won't let Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. and other hotel companies escape a woman's allegations that they aided a human trafficking scheme, saying she's alleged enough for her Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act claims to survive.

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Expedia Hit With Smoke Detector Suit Over Deadly VRBO Fire

By Rachel Riley

A Massachusetts family has accused Expedia of negligently listing VRBO vacation rental properties without smoke detectors after an apartment they booked in the Dominican Republic caught fire, leading to the deaths of four family members, according to a Washington state court lawsuit.

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4 Tips On Expert Gatekeeping From J&J Talc Deal

Johnson & Johnson's successful campaign to exclude plaintiff-side oncologist testimony about whether its talcum powder caused ovarian cancer, which prompted the recent resolution of 70,000 claims, offers lessons on how product liability defendants can reshape risk calculation by rigorously applying expert admissibility rules, say attorneys at Hollingsworth.

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Series

Playing Bid Whist Makes Me A Better Lawyer

As a child, I viewed bid whist as a family tradition and a source of friendly card game competition, but as a lawyer, I see it as a tool that has helped me cultivate skills like communication, teamwork, risk assessment and composure, says Keyonn Pope at Riley Safer.

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Seyfarth Failed To Guard Client Data From Hack, Suit Alleges

By Lauren Berg

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on Thursday was hit with a proposed class action in Illinois federal court accusing it of failing to protect its current and former clients' personal information after the Chicago-based law firm this month disclosed a recent data breach.

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PACER Experiences Outages Of Some Court Dockets

By Matt Perez

PACER, the online public repository of federal court documents, experienced technical errors on Wednesday and Thursday preventing some users from accessing certain court dockets.

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New Eastern La. Judge's 5th Circ. Bid Goes To Full Senate

By Courtney Bublé

U.S. District Judge Anna St. John of the Eastern District of Louisiana, who was confirmed to her current post in March, is one step closer to being elevated to the federal appeals bench.

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Fla. Judge To Get Reprimand For Remark On Shooting Attys

By Madison Arnold

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a public reprimand of a state district court judge for "intemperate and caustic" comments about shooting attorneys during a hearing.

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Congressional Probes Raise Legal, 'Reputational' Risks

By Phillip Bantz

An array of companies and executives may face investigations over their dealings with the Trump administration if Democrats take control of Congress, raising the possibility that some may refuse to comply. But experts say holding out hope for a mass pardon or expecting the Justice Department not to pursue contempt charges is a risky bet.

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Trump's Antitrust Pick Advances Amid Independence Worries

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump's pick to lead the antitrust division at the U.S. Department of Justice advanced to the Senate floor on Thursday, despite Democratic concerns about agency independence.

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Sen. Hyde-Smith's Opponent Seeks Blue-Slip Transparency

By Courtney Bublé

Four years ago, Scott Colom — the son of the first African American elected to the chancery bench in her region of Mississippi — was nominated for a federal judgeship. Now he's running for Senate against the senator who blocked his confirmation.

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Ed. Dept. Committee Sidesteps ABA Accreditation Issue

By Ryan Boysen

A key U.S. Department of Education committee on Thursday declined to weigh in on whether an American Bar Association council should remain a federally recognized accreditor of law schools, a day after the panel deadlocked on different proposals over the hot-button issue.

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