New York’s surprising decision to drop half its case against ExxonMobil in the closing arguments of a closely watched trial over climate-fraud claims was unusual and probably indicates the state never had the evidence it needed, said an experienced litigator who has handled environmental lawsuits for government clients.
NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) – Closing arguments were made Thursday in a historic civil trial in New York Supreme Court in which the state’s attorney general alleges the oil giant Exxon Mobil deceived investors by minimizing the future cost impacts of climate change to paint a rosier fiscal picture.
BOSTON (Legal Newsline) - The sweeping lawsuit Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey has filed against ExxonMobil represents a serious attack on the First Amendment by accusing the company of expressing views about science the state disagrees with, said a law professor prominent in the field of freedom of expression and corporate speech.
NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) - New York taxpayers might want a refund on their $500,000 investment in a $1,050-an-hour expert after the judge hearing the state’s closely watched climate lawsuit against ExxonMobil repeatedly interrupted his testimony with skeptical questions about his methodology and assumptions.
Compounding the state’s problems is a series of courtroom miscues by its lawyers that have led Supreme Court Judge Barry Ostrager to criticize and belittle them multiple times since trial began Oct. 22.
NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) – The ongoing trial in New York City is giving ExxonMobil another chance to show that nonprofits, private lawyers and elected officials have for years targeted the company as a scapegoat for climate change.
NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) – A historic civil trial in New York Supreme Court opened Tuesday to decide if oil conglomerate Exxon allegedly deceived its own stockholders – understating the future risks of stricter government regulation and increasing costs to develop fossil fuels – in order to prop up market shares and maintain economic viability.
NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) - It's not only opioid week, as a high-stakes trial scheduled to begin Tuesday afternoon in New York pits ExxonMobil against New York Attorney General Letitia James over claims the international oil giant downplayed the expected costs of global warming, not to investors, but to itself.
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – Government officials in two more areas are believed to be considering suing fossil fuel companies in a bid to force them to pay towards the cost of mitigating the effects of climate change - even though the two biggest rulings in this litigation have been in favor of Big Oil.
NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) - The New York Attorney General has compared Matt Pawa, the private attorney suing ExxonMobil and other oil companies over climate change, to a whistleblower in filings seeking to seal the record of private emails between Pawa and former New York AG Eric Schneiderman.
The first prominent company to take legal action against the Cubans is Exxon. In a suit filed May 2 in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, Exxon is seeking damages in the amount of $71,611,002.90 plus interest of 6 percent since July 1,1960.
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – Democratic U.S. Senators are complaining that Big Oil’s lobbying efforts have stifled climate change measures and are supporting lawsuits against it – but they have also accepted more than $30,000 in donations from the private lawyers who would benefit financially.
FORT WORTH – Texas justices will soon decide whether California municipalities took aim at Texas-based free speech by bringing climate change lawsuits against ExxonMobil, a Texas company, in California courts.
SAN FRANCISCO (Legal Newsline) - The cities of Oakland and San Francisco have replaced the private lawyers representing them in climate change litigation as a series of lawsuits against ExxonMobil, Shell and other oil companies head toward what could be their final challenges in appeals courts on either coast.
FORT LAUDERDALE (Legal Newsline) – The Fort Lauderdale City Commission is considering suing oil companies over the climate change activists say could raise sea coastal levels to catastrophic proportions.
NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) – Years in the making, the New York Attorney General’s Office on Wednesday sued ExxonMobil, alleging the company misled investors regarding climate change.
NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) - A program placing environmental advocates in state offices - while paying their salaries - has drawn criticism, though the New York law center running it defends it as legal and transparent.
In August, lawyers arguing for a group of oil companies submitted a motion to Judge Robert S. Lasnik of the U.S. District Court of the Western District of Washington asking that King County’s climate change lawsuit be dismissed.
Democrat challengers aspiring to become the top lawyers in their states have received financial boosts from Tom Steyer, a billionaire investor and environmental activist who some feel is a driving force behind the recent string of climate change lawsuits struggling to persuade judges to punish the energy industry.
