SACRAMENTO - California's lawmakers have passed a bill aimed at combating what supporters claim is misleading advertising by plaintiffs attorneys.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Legal Newsline) – Intentional interference or concealment of evidence does not rise to the level of destruction, the Ohio Supreme Court has ruled, dealing with an issue that has divided appeals courts in the state.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (Legal Newsline) – A court was wrong to issue summary judgment in a case filed by a former college hockey player who claimed he was poisoned by noxious gases at a sports arena, the Rhode Island Supreme Court has found.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (Legal Newsline) – An inmate serving life for murder cannot sue over an alleged behind-bars attack because he is, by almost all legal standards, dead, the Rhode Island Supreme Court has ruled.

GREENVILLE, N.C. (Legal Newsline) – A major chemical company has filed a motion asking a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit claiming it polluted a North Carolina river, causing sickness and property damage to those living near its banks.

CINCINNATI (Legal Newsline) – A pastor and his church will not have to pay hundreds of thousands in back pay to congregants who volunteered to work at a restaurant he operated in Ohio following a federal appeals court ruling.

SAN FRANCISCO (Legal Newsline) – Naruto, a crested macaque monkey, is not entitled to copyright of pictures the animal snapped of himself, a federal appeals court has ruled.

LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) – A dispute among attorneys over fees generated by asbestos litigation can proceed, a federal court has ruled.

WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - Companies named in asbestos lawsuits may employ more aggressive defenses as information emerges that other factors can cause the particular type of cancer that leads to the costliest settlements and verdicts.

LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) – A woman who says she was tricked into thinking lollipops are healthy will be able to continue her lawsuit in a California court, as the defendant that has labeled the case as “nonsensical” attacks the class action lawyers who filed it.

LAS VEGAS (Legal Newsline) – Plaintiff lawyers and those in legal marketing and funding businesses gathered last week in Las Vegas for an annual mass tort conference.

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. (Legal Newsline) – Asbestos lawsuits declined last year, but the number remains high, concentrated in certain jurisdictions, and filed by a small grouping of firms, according to the latest data on litigation across the country.

MADISON, Wis. (Legal Newsline) – Small business leaders are welcoming the passage of a bill in Wisconsin that changes certain civil litigation rules likely to benefit contractors.

MADISON, Wis. (Legal Newsline) - Wisconsin lawmakers could vote Thursday on changes to the state's rules regarding civil litigation.

NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) – New York Mayor Bill de Blasio is unashamedly up-front about what he wants to see happen to the fossil fuel industry.

MADISON, Wis. (Legal Newsline) – As Wisconsin Republicans and their governor push a legal reform agenda that includes a bill that would reform the state’s electronic discovery and class action rules, a lobbying firm seeking to derail it on behalf of the state's trial lawyers may be at odds on this one with other clients it has represented.

DUBLIN, Ga. (Legal Newsline) – Questions over the future of litigation funding remain in Georgia as the state Supreme Court prepares to decide the issue and another case continues to move through a federal court in the state.

FRANKFORT, Ky. (Legal Newsline) – Kentucky's business community has welcomed a bill that may lead to a change in the constitution that would allow the General Assembly to cap damages in personal injury lawsuits.

DES MOINES (Legal Newsline) - Freedom of information advocates remain baffled by the decision from a state Supreme Court justice to bar a newspaper from publishing publicly available information.

JACKSON, Miss. (Legal Newsline) – As the Mississippi Supreme Court decides whether to allow class action lawsuits in state courts, a legal reform group has filed its opposition.