Steve Korris News
Scruggs gets hearing in effort to shave sentence
Scruggs ABERDEEN, Miss. (Legal Newsline) - Tort king Dickie Scruggs has won a chance to shorten his prison sentence at a hearing much like the trial he waived.
Judge tells asbestos firm to hand over documents in fraud case
Peirce WHEELING, W.Va. (Legal Newsline) - Pittsburgh asbestos lawyer Robert Peirce must deliver documents about radiologist Ray Harron to CSX Transportation for the railroad's racketeering and fraud suit, a judge has ruled.
U.S. SC issues stay in W.Va. redistricting case
Roberts WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - U.S. Supreme Court justices have plunged West Virginia elections more deeply into uncertainty.
Article: Navy put emphasis on asbestos
Paustenbach BOULDER, Colo. (Legal Newsline) - Businesses that asbestos lawsuits have destroyed, deformed and depleted for decades supplied much of the fiber in obedience to Navy rules for winning a war, a new research article shows.
La. AG lashes back after authority stripped in BP litigation
Caldwell NEW ORLEANS (Legal Newsline) - Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell protests to appellate judges that U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier, Gov. Bobby Jindal and Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange snatched away his authority in Deepwater Horizon litigation.
Ill. court overturns $5.5M asbestos conspiracy verdict
Knecht SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (Legal Newsline) - Five months after Illinois Fourth District appellate judges reversed a McLean County jury's asbestos conspiracy verdict against Honeywell International, another panel of the same court tossed out another conspiracy verdict against Honeywell.
Judge grants 6 percent charge to lawyers for oil spill settlements
Barbier NEW ORLEANS (Legal Newsline) - U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier exiled Louisiana Attorney General Buddy Caldwell from Deepwater Horizon litigation and granted plaintiff lawyers a 6 percent charge on $14 billion in future settlements at BP's Gulf Coast Claims Facility.
Asbestos MDL stops taking tag along cases in Philadelphia federal court
Robreno WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - Asbestos litigation that stacked millions of flimsy claims in a single court and lasted 20 years died quietly on Dec. 13.
BP receives $250M from contractor for oil spill
Barbier NEW ORLEANS (Legal Newsline) Deepwater Horizon blowout prevention contractor Cameron International will pay BP $250 million to settle a dispute over liability for last year's explosion and oil spill.
Barbier rejects state, city government damage claims against BP
Barbier NEW ORLEANS (Legal Newsline) - In a recent ruling, U. S. District Judge Carl Barbier rejected most Deepwater Horizon damage claims of state and local governments and deflected many remaining claims to a BP agency outside his jurisdiction.
Simmons firm gets 185 trial slots on 2013 Madison County asbestos docket
Crowder EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. (Legal Newsline) - Madison County, Ill., Circuit Judge Barbara Crowder has provided Simmons Browder law firm of East Alton with 185 valuable trial slots in her asbestos court for 2013.
Company using recent Ill. SC decision from $43M case
Theis EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. (Legal Newsline) - Georgia trailer maker Cottrell Inc., constantly defending Madison County injury suits, aims to test the strength of an Illinois Supreme Court decision that overturned a $43 million judgment in a car crash.
W.Va. SC rejects claim for medical monitoring
Chief Justice Margaret Workman CHARLESTON, W.Va. (Legal Newsline) - Seven years of searching for witnesses and evidence didn't turn up enough of either to save a suit for medical monitoring of everyone who worked or played at Omar Elementary School in Chauncey, W.Va., since 1964.
Halliburton wants oil spill judge to disqualify engineer for 'switching sides'
Barbier NEW ORLEANS (Legal Newsline) - Halliburton Energy Services Inc. claims an employee who helped develop strategy for litigation over the Deepwater Horizon explosion quit his job and joined a firm that helps rig operator BP develop an opposing strategy.
Keystone auditors can't shift costs to lawyers, W.Va. SC rules
Ketchum CHARLESTON, W.Va. (Legal Newsline) - Accountants who owe Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation about $23 million for failing to detect a big fraud at little Keystone Bank can't shift part of the cost to Keystone's lawyers, the West Virginia Supreme Court has decided.
Pension funds and Fannie Mae battling to recoup meltdown losses
DeWine WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - Federal National Mortgage Association shareholders whose fraud suit anticipated the national financial collapse by four years don't buy the government's claim that "Fannie Mae" can never pay them back.
CSX can contact former Peirce clients for fraud case
Peirce WHEELING, W.Va. (Legal Newsline) - CSX Transportation can contact former clients of Pittsburgh asbestos lawyer Robert Peirce, U.S. District Judge Frederick Stamp has decided.
CSX brings Harron back to forefront in asbestos fraud case
WHEELING, W.Va. (Legal Newsline) - CSX Transportation aims to push radiologist Ray Harron to center stage at a fraud and racketeering trial against Pittsburgh lawyers who swamped West Virginia courts with asbestos suits.
BP, Transocean question U.S. government's role in oil spill
Barbier NEW ORLEANS (Legal Newsline) - Deepwater Horizon operator BP and rig owner Transocean, trading blame for last year's oil spill, aim to drag Uncle Sam into the dispute.
Rig workers who pleaded the Fifth settle with Transocean
Barbier NEW ORLEANS (Legal Newsline) - Deepwater Horizon rig owner Transocean and five workers settled personal injury suits that the workers undercut by pleading Fifth Amendment privilege against self incrimination.