Daniel Fisher News
Keller Postman says Tubi's lawyers should be DQ'd; Case says firm files frivolous claims
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - The law firm Keller Postman, accused of filing frivolous arbitration claims against Fox Broadcasting’s Tubi unit, has fired back with a demand that Tubi’s lawyers at Jenner & Block be disqualified for contacting some its clients.
Powerful lawyer in S.C. asbestos court warned to stop, or possibly face jail time
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Legal Newsline) - A U.K. court has threatened South Carolina attorney Peter Protopapas with prison if he continues to claim he is the legal representative of Cape Plc, a U.K. company whose corporate predecessor once mined asbestos in South Africa.
Split Ohio SC: Plaintiff wins nothing, lawyers should get nothing
COLUMBUS, Ohio (Legal Newsline) - A plaintiff who won a lawsuit but was awarded zero damages isn’t entitled to attorney fees under Ohio’s consumer protection statute, the state’s highest court ruled.
Alabama Workers' Comp law survives a Sonic attack
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (Legal Newsline) - Alabama’s workers’ compensation regime survived a constitutional challenge by a man who wanted to sue over his daughter’s injuries while working at a Sonic Drive In, with the Alabama Supreme Court ruling legislators had the power to take away the right to sue and replace it with a scheme providing guaranteed compensation.
Nasdaq's diversity requirement, called 'identity politics,' struck down by Fifth Circuit
NEW ORLEANS (Legal Newsline) - A closely divided federal appeals court has struck down a rule requiring companies on the Nasdaq stock exchange to recruit women and minority board members, saying the regulation wasn’t authorized under federal securities law and didn’t promote the core goals of eliminating fraud and sharp trading practices.
After $80B in settlements, Ohio's top court just rejected the central premise of opioid lawsuits
COLUMBUS, Ohio (Legal Newsline) - The Ohio Supreme Court rejected the central premise of lawsuits that have produced some $80 billion in settlements -- and billions of dollars in fees for private attorneys -- ruling the state’s product-liability law bars allegations that legal products created a public nuisance.
Doctors in Nevada can be liable for suicides
LAS VEGAS (Legal Newsline) - There is no “suicide rule” in Nevada protecting doctors against malpractice suits by survivors of patients who killed themselves, the state’s highest court ruled.
Miss. court split on slander: Surgeon used the C-word to describe woman
JACKSON, Miss. (Legal Newsline) - A surgeon who assailed a nurse administrator out of her hearing with foul expletives didn’t commit slander even though earlier he had loudly criticized her over how she did her job, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled.
Flying mattresses aren't a 'dangerous condition,' court rules in casino case
JACKSON, Miss. (Legal Newsline) - A jury doesn’t need to decide whether day-bed cushions that took to the air during a squall and “popped” a casino customer in the back of the head represented a dangerous condition, a Mississippi appeals court ruled, upholding a trial court’s dismissal.
Brothel customers must appear at public hearing, in case allegedly involving powerful figures
BOSTON (Legal Newsine) - Men accused of frequenting a high-end brothel in Massachusetts must appear at a public hearing, the state’s highest court ruled, saying their right to privacy was trumped by public interest in a case that allegedly involves “government officials, corporate executives” and other powerful figures.
Overseas, judge criticizes South Carolina's asbestos litigation money-machine
The controversial plan to bring dead companies back to life in South Carolina to raid insurance policies they held decades ago doesn't fly in the United Kingdom.
Arizona's 'dark money' law doesn't threaten speech, court rules
PHOENIX (Legal Newsline) - An Arizona law requiring organizations that support political campaigns to report the ultimate source of donations over $5,000 doesn’t violate freedom of speech, an appeals court ruled, rejecting arguments the measure was unconstitutional and threatened donors with violence.
$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.