Admin Of $600M Derailment Deal Accused Of 'Alarming' Errors

By Chart Riggall

Class counsel who inked a $600 million derailment settlement with Norfolk Southern called on an Ohio federal judge to revoke nearly $10 million in fees paid to the case's prior settlement administrator after an initial audit found "alarming, large-scale errors" in its claims management.

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Meta To Face Sanctions Bid Over Alleged Atty-Advice Fraud

By Dorothy Atkins

Plaintiffs told the California federal judge presiding over social media-addiction multidistrict litigation that Meta should be sanctioned after a D.C. court found Meta likely engaged in "crime, fraud, and/or misconduct" when, on the advice of counsel, it modified its research into Facebook's effects on teens' mental health to limit its liability.

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Abbott Wins Third Bellwether In Cow Milk Baby Formula MDL

By Mike Curley

An Illinois federal judge has given Abbott Laboratories Inc. its third bellwether win in multidistrict litigation alleging that its cow-milk-based baby formula gives infants necrotizing enterocolitis, saying the company successfully demonstrated that the plaintiff's proffered human-milk-based alternative would not be feasible.

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Hagens Berman Wants Judge DQ, Alleges Drug Lawsuit Bias

By Adrian Cruz

Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP asserted Friday that the Pennsylvania federal judge overseeing the long-running thalidomide birth-defect litigation in the state should be recused, alleging over 100 undisclosed private contacts between the court and special discovery master as an indication of bias.

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Edelson Looks To Drop Claims Against Ex-Girardi Keese Attys

By Lauraann Wood

Edelson PC has signaled plans to drop civil claims it lodged against two former Girardi Keese attorneys over Tom Girardi's theft of millions from clients, but the Illinois federal judge handling the case said Friday that he wants to discuss the firm's filing.

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Chicago Firm Accused Of Jailing Fla. Man Over $2.5M Fee

By David Minsky

A Florida man has sued a Chicago firm over false imprisonment, alleging in a Miami-Dade County complaint that its attorneys spied on him remotely through a security camera installed at his Florida Keys home and had him arrested in order to collect $2.5 million in fees

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Groups Ask Justices To Limit Jurisdiction In Audi Defect Fight

By Linda Chiem

A leading automotive industry group asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to tighten the limits on specific personal jurisdiction over foreign defendants, saying a California state appeals court improperly held that personal injury plaintiffs could haul German auto giant Audi AG to court in California.

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Jury Awards $3.65M To Hotel Manager In Sex Harassment Suit

By Patrick Hoff

A former assistant manager at a Howard Johnson in Queens, New York, was awarded $3.65 million in damages after a federal jury found the hotel violated state and city anti-harassment laws by failing to address her complaints about residents' violent behavior and sexual comments.

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Mich. Justices Won't Bar Tort Claims For Nonresident Drivers

By Carolyn Muyskens

Michigan's highest court on Friday refused to review a decision finding nonresidents who split their time between Michigan and another state may sue other drivers for pain and suffering damages even if they lack in-state auto insurance. 

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Paramedics Can't Use Mich. Law To Escape Negligence Suit

By Danielle Ferguson

Evidence suggesting paramedics may have forged a patient's signature declining hospital transport for COVID-19 care and purported statements that responders didn't bring him in because hospitals were full are enough to overcome a state law that gives immunity to emergency responders, a Michigan appellate panel has determined.

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Buyer Sues Target, Says Heated Blanket Burned Her

By Mike Curley

A Washington woman is suing Target Corp. and Berkshire Blanket & Home Co. Inc. in federal court, alleging she suffered severe burns to her toes when a heated blanket she bought overheated.

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Michigan Appellate Court Clears Up Landlord Liability Dispute

By Grace Dixon

A Michigan appellate court ruled that tenants do not need to prove that their landlords were notified of unfit conditions at their units in order to bring claims under a state law requiring property owners to keep premises in reasonable repair.

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Roundup

Conn. High Court Snapshot: Discipline Powers Top Docket

By Brian Steele

When the Connecticut Supreme Court reconvenes Monday, it will consider two appeals with ramifications for the way attorneys are disciplined in the state and take up a wage case against Amazon that it previously punted due to a lawyer's family emergency.

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Fla. Court Says Freight Broker Must Face Fatal Crash Suit

By Carolina Bolado

A Florida appeals court has revived a suit seeking to hold a trucking broker liable for a fatal crash involving a big rig hauling beer for Anheuser-Busch, saying the safety exception of the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act applies, so the negligence claim is not preempted by federal law.

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USAA Defends Medical Reimbursement Cuts In Coverage Row

By Ganesh Setty

Two USAA units sought to toss two insureds' proposed class action accusing the companies of under-reimbursing their medical providers via claim handling software, telling a Washington federal court "there is no admissible evidence that plaintiffs' treatments were medically necessary and related to their auto accidents."

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NFL Players' Race Bias Claims Tossed In Concussion Case

By Mike Curley

A Pennsylvania federal judge on Friday denied a motion by a group of 16 former football players who claimed that they were wrongly denied benefits under the National Football League's 2015 concussion injury settlement.

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Identifying The Sources And Impacts Of Juror Contamination

Jury contamination can be pervasive, so it is important that trial teams be able to spot its sources and take specific mitigation steps, says consultant Clint Townson.

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Girardi Keese Trustees Sue Over $3.2M Settlement Transfers

By Rae Ann Varona

Bankruptcy trustees for disgraced California attorney Tom Girardi's defunct law firm and New York attorney Joseph DiNardo have filed suit to recover more than $3.1 million they allege should have been paid to a gas explosion settlement victim, but instead went to help finance food and beverage businesses.

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8th Circ. Jurist To Take Senior Status, Giving Trump Open Seat

By Dorothy Atkins

U.S. Circuit Judge William Duane Benton of the Eighth Circuit notified the judiciary on Friday that he plans to step back from active service, opening up another seat on the court for President Donald Trump to fill, according to the federal judiciary's online list of future judiciary vacancies.

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Former Mintz Client Files Negligence Suit Over Patent Work

By Adam Lidgett

A former Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC client has hit the firm with a professional negligence suit in Texas federal court, saying the firm's allegedly "shoddy, substandard" legal work led to one of the company's patents being almost completely wiped out.

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Trump Taps Ex-Willkie Atty For 2nd Shot At Filling CFTC Chair

By Jessica Corso

President Donald Trump has chosen a former Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP partner and top attorney on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's cryptocurrency task force to head the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, tapping the crypto industry advocate to lead an agency struggling with a leadership void.

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Senate Confirms 7th Circ., Alabama Judicial Picks

By Courtney Bublé

The U.S. Senate voted on Monday to confirm Rebecca Taibleson, a federal prosecutor in Wisconsin, to the Seventh Circuit, and Justice Bill Lewis of the Alabama Supreme Court to the Middle District of Alabama.

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Analysis

PTAB Judges Alarmed By Squires' Moves To Limit Their Power

By Theresa Schliep

With U.S. Patent and Trademark Office leadership limiting the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's oversight of patent validity disputes, current judges for the tribunal say they are distressed by the recent moves to curb their authority and are looking for work elsewhere amid the instability.

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Brief

DOJ Hires 36 New Immigration Judges After Dozens Of Firings

By Britain Eakin

The Executive Office for Immigration Review has hired 11 new permanent immigration judges and 25 temporary ones after more than 100 judges were terminated, reassigned or retired early.

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Who Watches The Watchers? Conn. Justices Mull Court Bias

By Brian Steele

A Connecticut Supreme Court justice said Monday that if the state's human rights watchdog cannot address claims of racial discrimination in attorney licensing, then there is "no oversight" when bias infects the process.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court and Delaware Supreme Court saw another busy week of disputes spanning biotech milestones, reincorporation showdowns, shareholder voting schemes and cryptocurrency fiduciary rights.

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