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Personal Injury & Medical Malpractice
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August 23, 2024
The Biggest Texas Trial Rulings Of 2024: Midyear Report
Trial courts in Texas saw a series of high-dollar verdicts for plaintiffs in suits over patent infringement and personal injuries, but appellate courts tempered some plaintiffs' successes, backing a large retail employer in a harassment suit and tossing a verdict based on a lawyer's remarks. Here's a look at some of the biggest trial decisions in Texas in the first half of 2024.
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August 23, 2024
Border Agent Charged With Making Migrants Expose Breasts
An agent from U.S. Customs and Border Protection has been charged with forcing four women to expose their breasts to him during processing, claiming it was a legitimate search related to their admission into the country.
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August 23, 2024
Georgia Cases To Watch In The Last Half Of 2024
The prosecutions of former President Donald Trump and his election interference case codefendants, along with Atlanta rapper Young Thug's bid to have the judge overseeing his racketeering trial removed from the case, will take center stage in Georgia's courts as we enter the second half of 2024.
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August 23, 2024
San Antonio Litigator Killed In Apparent Murder-Suicide
A prominent San Antonio personal injury attorney was apparently killed at his home earlier this week by his wife, who then killed herself.
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August 23, 2024
Chicago White Sox Sued Over Ballpark Shooting
The Chicago White Sox and the owners of Guaranteed Rate Field have been sued in Illinois state court by an unnamed woman who was shot during a baseball game a year ago and claims they acted with "an utter indifference" for her safety and welfare.
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August 23, 2024
Off The Bench: Sunday Ticket Twist, Dartmouth-NLRB Clash
The NFL comes out of the Sunday Ticket trial with a clean slate, Dartmouth is hit with an unfair labor practice charge by its basketball players, and U.S. Tennis doesn't get a do-over on its handling of a sexual assault case. Law360 is here to catch you up on the sports and betting stories that had our readers talking.
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August 23, 2024
Messner Reeves Commercial Litigator Jumps To Gordon Rees
A former Messner Reeves LLP partner has jumped to Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani LLP in San Diego to bolster its services in product and general liability matters, catastrophic brain injury cases and commercial litigation.
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August 23, 2024
Delaware Lets Ventis Move Pacira's False Ad Suit To Calif.
Ventis Pharma Inc., a pharmaceutical company developing nonopioid anesthetics, got a federal court's approval Friday to move a false advertising lawsuit filed by competitor Pacira BioSciences Inc. from Delaware to California, where Ventis is based.
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August 23, 2024
Grocery Chain Wants 'Scandalous' Claims Out Of Allergy Suit
The estate of a professional dancer who died after eating a mislabeled cookie that contained peanuts should revise its Connecticut state court complaint against a grocery chain and several of its employees to remove "scandalous" and "immaterial" allegations, the defendants said in a new filing.
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August 22, 2024
Tatum Avoids Default Loss In Sexual Assault Suit Vs. Celtics
A woman suing three NBA players and the Boston Celtics over claims the athletes sexually assaulted her won't get a default win against one of the players, a Massachusetts federal judge ruled on Thursday.
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August 22, 2024
PBMs Can't Yet Duck Municipalities' Claims In Opioid MDL
The Ohio federal judge overseeing multidistrict opioid litigation on Thursday refused, for now, to throw out claims against pharmacy benefit managers Express Scripts Inc. and OptumRX Inc., finding that the PBMs' arguments were brought too early and a more robust record is needed.
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August 22, 2024
Texas Appeals Knocks $1M Hernia Mesh Fee Ask Down To $135K
A Texas appeals court on Wednesday upheld an arbitration award of $135,000 in attorney's fees in a decadeslong hernia mesh litigation dispute while denying the firm's request for $1 million.
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August 22, 2024
5th Circ. Says No Tolling For COVID, Trims Atty's Conviction
The Fifth Circuit on Thursday knocked a false statement charge off Houston attorney Richard Plezia's conviction for his involvement in a multimillion-dollar ambulance-chasing kickback scheme but upheld the rest of his conviction, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S. by helping another lawyer evade federal income taxes.
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August 22, 2024
3rd Circ. Denies Liberian Bank Whistleblower's Asylum Bid
The Third Circuit ruled Thursday that a Liberian man can't claim asylum despite having "suffered horrors" after unearthing a fraud scheme involving Liberian government officials' relatives and refusing a politician's bribe, saying he did not show evidence that his alleged perpetrators targeted him for having an anti-corruption political opinion.
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August 22, 2024
Zantac Cases Must Remain In State Court, Conn. Judge Rules
Two groups of patients can continue their lawsuits in Connecticut state court against GlaxoSmithKline LLC, Pfizer Inc. and Sanofi-Aventis US LLC, a judge has ruled, refusing to immediately truncate novel tort claims that seek to connect generic versions of Zantac with cancer.
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August 22, 2024
Ga. Appeals Court Tosses Nearly $1M Slip-And-Fall Fee Award
The Georgia Court of Appeals on Wednesday affirmed a trial court's decision to revoke nearly $1 million in attorney fees from a man who was allegedly injured after falling into a city of Atlanta water meter box while also affirming the trial court's imposition of spoliation sanctions against the city.
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August 22, 2024
Ohio Justices Won't Upend Precedent On Service Rules
The Ohio Supreme Court on Thursday declined to overturn its precedent holding that participation in a case does not mean a defendant has waived a lack of service defense, though one justice urged reform to address the "gamesmanship" that the prior ruling allows.
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August 22, 2024
Takata Airbag Victim's Family Sues Dealer, Victims' Trust Fund
The family of a woman killed by an exploding airbag made by the now-defunct Takata Corp. is suing the Honda dealership that sold the car and a trust fund formed to compensate people injured or killed by the defective airbags.
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August 22, 2024
Philly Hospital Fights $45M Verdict For Teen Gunshot Patient
Temple University Hospital Inc. wants to undo a $45 million jury verdict, arguing in a posttrial brief that the jury made contradictory findings — that the hospital was responsible for a plaintiff's injuries, and that he'd been eating pieces of chicken against medical advice.
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August 22, 2024
HVAC Co. Can't Upend $3.4M Verdict In Tire Crash Suit
A New Jersey appeals court on Thursday upheld a $3.4 million verdict for a driver who was injured when a tire came loose from an HVAC company's truck and struck his car, saying the trial court wasn't wrong to instruct the jury that the company had the burden of showing the driver's injuries stemmed from another, later accident.
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August 22, 2024
Smuggling Suspect Arrested Over '22 Migrant Deaths In Texas
A Guatemalan national was arrested Wednesday in his home country at U.S. officials' request for his alleged role in a human smuggling operation blamed for the deaths of 53 migrants who were found in a tractor-trailer in Texas in 2022, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.
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August 22, 2024
Calif. Atty Can't Beat Sanctions In Geragos Malpractice Suit
A California state appeals court on Wednesday affirmed $23,000 in sanctions for discovery violations on the part of a lawyer representing clients in a malpractice case against Hollywood litigator Mark Geragos.
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August 22, 2024
Missouri Gov. Clashes With Secretary Of State Over Hemp Ban
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson on Thursday blasted the state's secretary of state for declining to implement an emergency rulemaking that would have banned psychoactive consumable cannabis products manufactured outside the state's regulated adult-use marijuana market.
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August 22, 2024
Ga. Mineral Co., Insurer Strike Deal In Talc Coverage Suit
Phoenix Insurance Co. reached a contingent settlement with a Georgia-based mineral products company in litigation seeking to force the insurer to defend the company against an underlying suit claiming it supplied asbestos-containing talc products.
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August 22, 2024
Morgan & Morgan Wants Malpractice Claims In Arbitration
Morgan & Morgan PA's Jacksonville, Florida, office is pushing back against a former client's claim that the arbitration agreement between them was "unconscionable," saying he failed to produce any evidence proving as much.
Expert Analysis
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3 Litigation Strategies To Combat 'Safetyism'
Amid the rise of safetyism — the idea that every person should be free from the risk of harm or discomfort — among jurors and even judges, defense counsel can mount several tactics from the very start of litigation to counteract these views and blunt the potential for jackpot damages, says Ann Marie Duffy at Hollingsworth.
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Risks Of Nonmutual Offensive Collateral Estoppel In MDLs
After the Supreme Court declined to review the Sixth Circuit's ruling in the E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. personal injury litigation, nonmutual offensive collateral estoppel could show up in more MDLs, and transform the loss of a single MDL bellwether trial into a de facto classwide decision that binds thousands of other MDL cases, say Chantale Fiebig and Luke Sullivan at Weil Gotshal.
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What Recent Study Shows About AI's Promise For Legal Tasks
Amid both skepticism and excitement about the promise of generative artificial intelligence in legal contexts, the first randomized controlled trial studying its impact on basic lawyering tasks shows mixed but promising results, and underscores the need for attorneys to proactively engage with AI, says Daniel Schwarcz at University of Minnesota Law School.
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5 Things Trial Attorneys Can Learn From Good Teachers
Jennifer Cuculich at IMS Legal Strategies recounts lessons she learned during her time as a math teacher that can help trial attorneys connect with jurors, from the importance of framing core issues to the incorporation of different learning styles.
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Opinion
Insurance Industry Asbestos Reserve Estimates Are Unreliable
Insurance regulators rely on industry self-reporting in approving insurance company reorganizations, but AM Best data reveals that actuarial and audit estimates have been setting perniciously low levels of loss reserves for asbestos liabilities and thus should be treated with deep skepticism, says Jonathan Terrell at KCIC.
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Employers Should Take Surgeon's Sex Bias Suit As A Warning
A Philadelphia federal jury's recent verdict in a sex bias suit over Thomas Jefferson University's inaction on a male plaintiff's sexual harassment complaint is a reminder to employers of all stripes about the importance of consistently applied protocols for handling complaints, say attorneys at Williams & Connolly.
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Wildfire Challenges For Utility Investors: Regs And Financing
For investors in public utilities, wildfire liability considerations include not only regulatory complexities, but also bankruptcy claims resolution, financing judgments and settlements, and how to leverage organizational structures to maximize investment protections, say David Botter and Lisa Schweitzer at Cleary.
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Litigation Inspiration: A Source Of Untapped Fulfillment
As increasing numbers of attorneys struggle with stress and mental health issues, business litigators can find protection against burnout by remembering their important role in society — because fulfillment in one’s work isn’t just reserved for public interest lawyers, say Bennett Rawicki and Peter Bigelow at Hilgers Graben.
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Wildfire Challenges For Utility Investors: Liability Theories
The greater frequency and scale of wildfires in the last several years have created operational and fiscal challenges for electric utility companies, including new theories of liability and unique operational and risk management considerations — all of which must be carefully considered by utility investors, say David Botter and Lisa Schweitzer at Cleary.
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5 Ways To Hone Deposition Skills And Improve Results
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
Depositions must never be taken for granted in the preparations needed to win a dispositive motion or a trial, and five best practices, including knowing when to hire a videographer, can significantly improve outcomes, says James Argionis at Cozen O'Connor.
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Series
Skiing Makes Me A Better Lawyer
A lifetime of skiing has helped me develop important professional skills, and taught me that embracing challenges with a spirit of adventure can allow lawyers to push boundaries, expand their capabilities and ultimately excel in their careers, says Andrea Przybysz at Tucker Ellis.
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Opinion
High Court Should Endorse Insurer Standing In Bankruptcy
In Truck Insurance Exchange v. Kaiser Gypsum, the U.S. Supreme Court will examine bankruptcy standing doctrine as applied to insurers in mass tort cases, and should use the opportunity to eliminate spurious standing roadblocks to resolving insurer objections on their merits, says Frank Perch at White and Williams.
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Assessing CDC's Revised Guideline On Opioid Prescriptions
Kenneth Weinstein, Nicholas Van Niel and Kate Uthe at Analysis Group look at newly available data to evaluate the impact that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's revised opioid monitoring guideline have had on prescription trends in recent years, highlighting both specific and overall decreases.
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Think Like A Lawyer: Forget Everything You Know About IRAC
The mode of legal reasoning most students learn in law school, often called “Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion,” or IRAC, erroneously frames analysis as a separate, discrete step, resulting in disorganized briefs and untold obfuscation — but the fix is pretty simple, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.
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How Firms Can Ensure Associate Gender Parity Lasts
Among associates, women now outnumber men for the first time, but progress toward gender equality at the top of the legal profession remains glacially slow, and firms must implement time-tested solutions to ensure associates’ gender parity lasts throughout their careers, say Kelly Culhane and Nicole Joseph at Culhane Meadows.