Daniel Fisher News
$1.7B Georgia verdict reversed; Ford can now present proper defense
ATLANTA (Legal Newslne) - Trial judges went too far when they stripped Ford Motor Co. of nearly all its defenses in a truck-rollover lawsuit that ended with a $1.7 billion jury verdict, a Georgia appeals court ruled.
Hedge-fund money complicates J&J's massive settlement for talc claims
HOUSTON (Legal Newsline) - Johnson & Johnson’s lawyers think they’ve identified the reason the company is having such a hard time settling thousands of lawsuits claiming its talcum powder causes cancer, even though it’s won the vast majority of the cases that have gone to trial.
'Direct defiance' leads to big penalty for big asbestos firm
RICHMOND, Va. (Legal Newsline) - A federal appeals court ordered the Napoli law firm to pay more than $1 million in sanctions, saying the prominent asbestos lawyers tried to interfere with a contract dispute by filing competing lawsuits in New York.
It's lawyer vs. lawyer in J&J's $9 billion talc bankruptcy plan
HOUSTON (Legal Newsline) - Plaintiff lawyers will face off at a January hearing in Houston to decide whether Johnson & Johnson can move ahead with a $9 billion plan to settle thousands of talc lawsuits in bankruptcy court, with each side accusing the other of manufacturing votes on the plan and possibly acting on the orders of outside investors with a stake in the outcome.
Veil lifted, slightly, on asbestos money flowing through South Carolina court
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Legal Newsline) - The court-appointed receiver for a long-defunct insulation company in South Carolina has paid more than $27 million to settle asbestos cases, according to a new filing that provides limited financial information about one of the secretive funds the receiver uses to hold proceeds of settlements with insurance companies.
Mass. Supreme Court blocks class action lawyers' wiretap claims against hospital
BOSTON (Legal Newsline) - A pair of Massachusetts hospitals didn’t violate a wiretapping law by monitoring the browsing habits of website users although they may be liable under other statutes, the state’s highest court ruled.
Dallas asbestos firm drives defense nuts with stacks of books, microscopes and crying at trial
Before a Connecticut trial this year over whether talcum powder caused a man’s abdominal cancer, lawyers for Johnson & Johnson pleaded with a judge to prevent plaintiff lawyers at Dean Omar Branham Stanley from engaging in what they called “repeated and pervasive misconduct.”
Insurers funding shadowy S.C. asbestos accounts want secrecy to continue
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Legal Newsline) - Nothing to see here, folks. That was the position of lawyers who appeared at an unusual hearing last week called by South Carolina Judge Jean H. Toal to explain how the receivership process in her asbestos court works, and why details about it should remain secret.
Oil companies say Md. judge keeps climate suit alive for wrong reason
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (Legal Newsline) - Oil companies say a Maryland judge is keeping a climate lawsuit by Annapolis and Anne Arundel County alive for the wrong reason while ignoring a fellow judge’s dismissal of a nearly identical case by the City of Baltimore.
Secrecy shrouds asbestos money in South Carolina, but insurer makes play for records
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Legal Newsline) - A South Carolina personal-injury lawyer with a court-ordered commission to keep a third of whatever he recovers has placed tens of millions of dollars in Delaware partnerships that he controls, out of sight of the public and even the judge who allowed them to be established.
Climate change may be 'accident,' but CO2 is 'pollutant,' Hawaii court rules
HONOLULU (Legal Newsline) - Recklessly emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere qualifies as an “accident” but CO2 is also a “pollutant” excluded from insurance coverage, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled, answering questions central to a closely watched climate lawsuit.
'Slammed the door in my face': Key cog in South Carolina's asbestos court not at U.K. showdown
A London judge hearing a U.K. company’s challenge to receivership orders handed down by his judicial counterpart in South Carolina called the procedure “a bit sort of odd,” given the U.K. company has never done business in South Carolina and has no assets there.
Expert pushing talc-causes-cancer theory must ID patients in her disputed study
NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) - A New York appeals court ordered an expert to turn over the names of patients she cited in a paper that provided crucial support to disputed claims talcum powder can cause cancer.
Huge payday for lab behind Zantac cancer lawsuits
PHILADELPHIA (Legal Newsline) - The laboratory that claimed the heartburn drug Zantac can cause cancer could earn more than $20 million under a $2.2 billion settlement with drugmaker GSK ending 80,000 lawsuits in state courts around the country.
Let's talc about the personal-injury lawyers controlling South Carolina's legislature
South Carolina’s asbestos-litigation industry is aiming at Johnson & Johnson, adding supposedly deadly talcum powder to the long list of products plaintiffs claim made them sick. And if history is any guide, J&J is in for a rough time in the Palmetto State.
Foreign mining company caught in South Carolina's asbestos machine must go to trial in February
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Legal Newsline) - The judge in charge of South Carolina’s swelling asbestos docket agreed to delay a trial against Anglo American and its De Beers diamond unit over whether they participated in a decades-long scheme to hide assets from U.S. plaintiffs but rejected Anglo American’s central argument, which is that the U.K. mining giants shouldn’t be in her courtroom at in the first place.
After $63M loss, Johnson & Johnson preps for another trial in unfriendly South Carolina
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Legal Newsline) - Johnson & Johnson is scheduled to begin trial next month in a South Carolina court where it lost a $63 million verdict last month and the presiding judge has a reputation for pro-plaintiff rulings and stiff sanctions against companies that dare to oppose her.
Ala. court tosses $3 million verdict over worker's death; Woman was sucked into machine
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (Legal Newsline) - There was no evidence to support a judge’s $3 million verdict against a manufacturing executive accused of removing a safety gate from a plastics-extruding machine, leading to the death of a worker, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled.
Schools in New Hampshire can hide child's gender identity from parents
CONCORD, N.H. (Legal Newsline) - Childrearing is a fundamental right under the New Hampshire Constitution, but that doesn’t mean parents can make a constitutional case out of school regulations requiring teachers to hide a child’s gender identity from parents if the child so wishes, the state’s highest court ruled.
J&J's $9 billion talc bankruptcy: Good for plaintiffs, if not their lawyers
Johnson & Johnson has proposed, for the third time, a simple deal for plaintiffs claiming its cosmetic talcum powder gave them cancer: File a claim in bankruptcy court, and get a check for up to $200,000.