Daniel Fisher News
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.
Jury of one: Asbestos judge fattens verdicts when she wants
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Legal Newsline) - A South Carolina judge criticized as overly generous to plaintiffs in asbestos cases is making defendants pay whatever she feels, despite what juries and federal courts say, and was just given approval to do so by the state Supreme Court.
Winner of $63M talc verdict worked in asbestos-filled building but jurors never knew
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Legal Newsline) - A man who won a $63 million verdict against Johnson & Johnson over what he claims was asbestos-contaminated talcum powder worked in a building later condemned for being “full of asbestos” and told his doctor about his suspected exposure to the deadly fibers.
Zantac lawyers bought the evidence, now they're spending big on ads for lawsuits
Plaintiff lawyers massively increased spending on ads soliciting clients to sue over Zantac after a Delaware judge ruled there was enough evidence to proceed with more than 70,000 suits claiming the once-popular heartburn medicine causes cancer.
Bucks County cut corners to file climate change lawsuit, oil industry says
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (Legal Newsline) - Picturesque Bucks County, Pa., decided to do something about climate change itself earlier this year when it hired private lawyers on a contingency-fee basis to sue 14 of the world’s largest oil companies.
Fla. trial lawyers want GOP lawmaker to FAFO, spending millions on a Trump-approved primary opponent as payback for reforms
A Florida state Senate election is "Ground Zero" for a revenge plot by Florida trial lawyers furious at a GOP lawmaker who cost them money by pushing reform measures - and their campaign of spending millions of dollars on one of 40 Senate seats got a boost from the country's most popular Republican, Donald Trump.
Norfolk Southern bondholders one step closer to big ruling on East Palestine train derailment
NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) - Investors who bought some $3 billion in senior notes from Norfolk Southern can sue over claims the railroad failed to disclose the risks behind a job-cutting performance improvement plan they say led to a disastrous 2023 derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
Ruling on bone in boneless wing hard to swallow for some Ohio SC justices
COLUMBUS, Ohio (Legal Newsline) - A diner who suffered complications from swallowing a chicken bone that was hiding in a supposed “boneless wing” has no case against the food supplier, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled, because chicken bones aren’t foreign to chicken meat.
COVID order saves Georgia med-mal case from being filed too late
ATLANTA (Legal Newsline) - A judicial order handed down during the early days of the COVID pandemic suspended all deadlines in civil lawsuits including the statute of repose, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled, reviving a medical malpractice suit by a woman who claims a hospital misdiagnosed sepsis that cost her parts of her fingers and toes.