Daniel Fisher News
Inmate can try again to sue after officers confiscated photographs of himself
INDIANAPOLIS (Legal Newsline) - A judge improperly dismissed an inmate’s lawsuit after jail officials confiscated personal photographs that were sent to him in the mail, an appeals court ruled, finding that Indiana law requires the plaintiff get another chance to amend his complaint.
Judge refuses mistrial in key opioid case despite jury shenanigans
CLEVELAND (Legal Newsline) - The judge overseeing a landmark opioid lawsuit against the nation’s largest pharmacy chains refused to declare a mistrial after a juror performed her own research on a topic plaintiff lawyers raised in cross-examination and shared her results with the rest of the jury.
Oregon court allows 18-year-old to buy gun, rules on anti-age discrimination law
SALEM, Ore. (Legal Newsline) - An 18-year-old woman has the right to buy a rifle from a gun store under Oregon’s anti-age discrimination law, an appeals court ruled, overturning a lower court decision that found public health and safety concerns trumped the broad language of the statute.
Kids not allowed to sue over dad's death if his widow refuses, court rules
ATLANTA (Legal Newsline) - Children don’t have standing to sue over a parent’s death if the surviving spouse refuses, a Georgia appeals court ruled, trimming the so-called equitable powers of judges to provide plaintiffs with a remedy when other legal avenues appear blocked.
Paralyzed patient sues prominent Florida personal injury firm but is sent to arbitration
MIAMI (Legal Newsline) - A Florida man who was paralyzed from the neck down after spinal surgery has sued his lawyers at Morgan & Morgan, blaming them for botching a lawsuit against the company that made an implant that damaged his spinal cord.
Plaintiff experts escape hearsay trap in talc-asbestos lawsuit
SAN FRANCISCO (Legal Newsline) - Plaintiff experts who cited evidence that Johnson & Johnson talcum powder contained asbestos, without actually performing tests themselves, can nevertheless offer their opinions the powder caused a man’s cancer, a California appeals court ruled.
Lawyers could be big winners in long-running J-M Eagle case as plaintiffs told to split $162K
LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) - A long-running whistleblower lawsuit against the nation’s largest plastic pipe manufacturer ended with a whimper – but also with the possibility of millions of dollars in plaintiff legal fees – as a federal judge approved $162,000 in fines on behalf of five municipalities.
Walmart says it told shareholders about opioid probe in 2018 but they sued anyway
WILMINGTON, Del. (Legal Newsline) - Walmart has asked a federal court in Delaware to dismiss a shareholder lawsuit accusing it of failing to disclose a federal investigation over its opioid dispensing practices, saying it informed investors about the probe two years before news of it supposedly caused its stock to fall.
Walmart fights motion for mistrial in key opioid trial
CLEVELAND (Legal Newsline) - Walmart rejected a “ginned up” request for mistrial or sanctions by plaintiff lawyers, who said the retail chain had compromised their case by producing more than 1,000 documents after start of a closely watched trial in federal court in Cleveland.
In opioid trial, lawyers try to make pharmacies prove a negative
Having admitted on the front end that they won’t present any evidence of specific narcotic prescriptions the pharmacies shouldn’t have filled, lawyers led by Houston attorney Mark Lanier are trying to convince jurors it is the job of the pharmacies to prove they didn’t let improper prescriptions slip through.
Ex-DEA official says pharmacists bear equal responsibility for opioid crisis
CLEVELAND (Legal Newsline) - Pharmacists bear equal responsibility with doctors for allowing prescription painkillers to flood communities, triggering the opioid crisis, former Drug Enforcement Administration official Joe Rannazzisi testified in a landmark trial this week.
Farm owners can be sued over fatal accident during truck repair
PIERRE, S.D. (Legal Newsline) - The owners of a South Dakota farm can be sued over an explosion that killed two workers as they attempted to weld a crack in a truck’s diesel fuel tank, the state’s highest court ruled.
Plaintiff expert says pharmacies `coordinated efforts’ with Purdue
CLEVELAND (Legal Newsline) - A $500-an-hour plaintiff expert helped attorney Mark Lanier pull together the strands of a landmark public-nuisance case against big pharmacy chains, telling jurors that CVS, Walgreens and Walmart all “collaborated in the campaign of misinformation” about the safety of narcotic painkillers that triggered the opioid crisis.
Biden's antitrust chief pick may face scrutiny over social justice agenda
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - President Biden’s candidate to run the Justice Department’s antitrust division may face tough questioning at congressional hearings starting today, as business leaders and Republican lawmakers complain the administration is twisting antitrust law into a tool for vague social justice goals and income redistribution.
Cities on a losing streak as courts reject 5% tax on Netflix, Hulu
TEXARKANA, Texas (Legal Newsline) - Cities that signed up with private lawyers who said they could collect a rich new source of tax revenue from streaming video services like Netflix and Hulu are on a losing streak as courts dismissed their arguments in three states over several days.
Obscure nonprofit drives multimillion-dollar coffee litigation, prods judge off key case
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Legal Newsline) - An obscure charity that has little revenue and doesn’t even bother to maintain a website won a major tactical victory last week when it forced a federal judge to recuse herself from a case that could impact dozens of its lawsuits over whether coffee must be sold with a cancer warning in California.
Arkansas Medicaid officials can't second-guess FDA on drug for rare childhood disease
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (Legal Newsline) - Arkansas Medicaid officials overstepped their authority when they refused to authorize prescriptions for a Food and Drug Administration-approved drug for treating a rare childhood disease, an appeals court ruled.
Physician runs hospital but is not qualified to testify as expert, court rules
CANTON, Ohio (Legal Newsline) - A physician who took on the role of chief operating officer of a hospital is no longer qualified to testify as an expert in medical malpractice lawsuits, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled, even though he is directly in charge of patient safety and medical education at the institution.
Vermont court rejects lawsuit over prisoner's suicide
MONTPELIER, Vt. (Legal Newsline) - A woman who sued over the suicide of a man in prison can’t proceed with her lawsuit because she failed to include an expert medical opinion with her initial complaint, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled, in a decision that drew a dissent from the court’s chief justice, who said it represented the “rare instance” when the rules should be bent.
Judge orders deeper probe into where thousands of Boy Scouts sex abuse claims came from
WILMINGTON, Del. (Legal Newsline) - The judge overseeing the bankruptcy of the Boy Scouts of America has expressed increasing skepticism about tens of thousands of sexual abuse claims filed before a critical deadline last year that insurers who are picking up most of the $1.9 billion restructuring tab say are riddled with robosigned and potentially fraudulent allegations.