Steve Korris News
Colossus attorney's group already generated $73 million in fees
TEXARKANA, Ark. - When John C. Goodson stands before Miller County District Judge Kirk Johnson to advance America's biggest lawsuit, Goodson stands where Johnson used to stand and Johnson sits where Goodson's father used to sit.
Blankenship's maid deserves unemployment, Justices rule
Blankenship
CHARLESTON, W. Va. (Legal Newsline) - Deborah May, former housekeeper for Massey Energy owner Don Blankenship, didn't quit her job voluntarily and deserves unemployment compensation, the West Virginia Supreme Court ruled last month.
Justices back judge on dismissal of railroad asbestos suits
Recht CHARLESTON, W. Va. (Legal Newsline) - In a fireworks display two days before America's birthday, the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals launched asbestos suits of more than 1,000 railroad workers into the sky so they can fall where they belong.
Texas SC: No switching to arbitration on eve of trial
Justice Scott Brister AUSTIN, Texas (Legal Newsline) - For the first time, the Texas Supreme Court has cancelled an arbitrator's award because the winners carried a lawsuit too far before switching to arbitration.
Taxpayers or lawyers? Hood must choose sides in $14 million settlement
Hood NEW YORK CITY - U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez chased criminal lawyers Joey Langston and Tim Balducci of Mississippi out of his court April 2, telling them they must return home to battle taxpayers over $14 million in class action proceeds.
Box tightens: Judge in Jones v. Scruggs will hold evidentiary hearing after bribery trial
Scruggs OXFORD, Miss. - Special Judge William Coleman has granted himself authority to enter default judgment against attorney Dickie Scruggs for bribing a judge, but he wants proof before he will exercise his authority.
Breaking: Judge makes rulings in Jones v. Scruggs
Scruggs OXFORD, Miss. - A state judge ruled Tuesday that the actions of indicted trial lawyer Richard "Dickie" Scruggs apply to the rest of the firms that made up the former Scruggs Katrina Group.
Legends of Mississippi tort crumble, one-by-one
Scruggs JACKSON, Miss. - No one in Mississippi knows for sure where all the tobacco money went, except former attorney general Mike Moore and his friend Dickie Scruggs, but people are perched on the edges of their seats to see who it destroyed.
Thornton's right to speak had been denied in federal court
Judge Perry ST. LOUIS - Ten days before Charles Thornton killed five people and lost his own life at Kirkwood city hall, U.S. District Judge Catherine Perry denied his right to speak there.
'Insider' Wigand compensated generously as unpaid tobacco fact witness
Jeff Wigand...Russell Crowe played his role in the movie, "The Insider." WHEELING, W. Va. - In a Disney film, "The Insider," scientist Jeff Wigand and lawyer Dickie Scruggs save America from evil cigarette makers.
Justices aren't on Nationwide's side this time
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company fumbled three times at the state Supreme Court of Appeals in a futile bid to rewrite an order of Kanawha Circuit Judge Tod Kaufman.
Hood in middle of $14 million legal fee fight
Hood NEW YORK CITY - Most politicians would leap at a chance to win back millions of dollars from attorneys under federal investigation, but Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood must pass up the chance because he hired them.
Late Miss. Gov. Fordice could have predicted Scruggs' trouble
Fordice OXFORD, Miss. - Ten years after the Supreme Court of Mississippi turned the Attorney General's office into a mint cranking out easy money for lucky lawyers, the luckiest one of all is dragging down the whole state.
Scruggs' ethical lapses fail to stunt long career
Scruggs OXFORD, Miss. - Dickie Scruggs, acting on behalf of three million Mississippians in the 1990s, smuggled stolen documents to Congress, cheated a professor out of millions, and withheld fees from a lawyer he fired, according to the apparent victims of his actions.
Justices unanimously side with State Farm
Albright CHARLESTON - Justices of the state Supreme Court of Appeals rejected a woman's claim under her auto insurance policy for emotional distress from her mother's death in a crash that happened under someone else's policy.
W. Va. SC OKs first med mal class-action suit
Masters CHARLESTON, W. Va. - Kanawha Circuit Judge Charles King will preside over West Virginia's first medical malpractice class-action lawsuit.
Colleges amass financial records of big-time athletes in NCAA class action
LOS ANGELES -- California class action attorneys seek hundreds of millions in something like back pay for 48,000 college football and men's basketball players.
Illinois Supreme Court drives stake in Tillery tobacco case for third and final time
Illinois Supreme Court SPRINGFIELD -- For the third time the Illinois Supreme Court has knocked down Stephen Tillery's $10.1 billion class action verdict against Philip Morris.
Avandia study piques attorneys' interest at how-to-sue seminar
Mark Lanier CHICAGO - One million American diabetics take Avandia pills, and if more of them would suffer heart attacks attorneys could get rich.
McGraw owes former employee nothing, Supreme Court says
McGraw CHARLESTON, W. Va. - Working for West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw depressed Donald Darling and gave him migraine headaches, but the Supreme Court of Appeals says McGraw owes him nothing.