Protecting the environment has long been an objective in lawsuits filed by activists in Colorado courts, but a recent, ambitious effort from the City of Boulder includes another goal - profit.
A California federal judge has rejected the efforts of municipal officials who teamed with private lawyers to seek to hold the energy industry liable for the alleged future effects of climate change.
It was a surprising opening move, to say the least. Arguing for the City of New York in its climate lawsuit against five major oil companies, attorney Michael Pawa cited AEP v. Connecticut, a 2009 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, as “persuasive authority” in his clients’ favor.
A clearly skeptical federal judge questioned the basic premise behind New York City’s lawsuit against five of the world’s biggest oil companies over climate change on Wednesday
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Legal Newsline) - The latest wave of state lawsuits over the opioid crisis illustrates sharp differences emerging in how governments litigate these cases, both in whom they choose to sue and whether private lawyers stand to get a piece of the action.
SAN FRANCISCO (Legal Newsline) – The Trump administration disapproves of climate change litigation initiated by cities and counties in California and the private attorneys they hired on a contingency fee.
SAN FRANCISCO (Legal Newsline) – California, New Jersey and Washington have filed a brief to support Oakland and San Francisco’s suits claiming big oil companies need to be held responsible for their part in global warming.
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – A Texas judge has decided California officials suing the energy industry over climate change are talking out of both sides of their mouths, and the former top lawyer of the Golden State is disappointed in their actions.
FORT WORTH, Texas (Legal Newsline) – California officials who are suing large energy companies are telling two contradictory stories while taking part in a targeted effort featuring state attorneys general, private lawyers and Rockefeller money, a Texas judge has found.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (Legal Newsline) – Another Republican has officially joined forces with the trial bar to sue the makers of prescription painkillers, as Arkansas’ Leslie Rutledge recently filed her anticipated lawsuit through five different private law firms.
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge was a vocal critic of the aggressive litigation tactics her Democratic colleagues used against the oil industry over climate change. But she’s taken a different approach toward the opioid crisis.
SAN FRANCISCO (Legal Newsline) – A federal judge has big questions regarding global warming for the private lawyers pushing lawsuits on behalf of California cities and counties – and about how President Donald Trump feels about blaming the energy industry for climate change.
FORT WORTH, Texas (Legal Newsline) - Harvard professors who say their analysis proves ExxonMobil misled the public about climate change were obviously biased, a colleague says, and the company says that data shouldn't be used to help a “corrupt enterprise” of private lawyers and California officials suing the energy sector.
CLEVELAND (Legal Newsline) - The judge overseeing hundreds of lawsuits against opioid manufacturers and distributors has ordered defendant companies to pay three-quarters of the costs of special masters who are overseeing settlement negotiations.
SAN FRANCISCO (Legal Newsline) - First they tried suing the utility companies. Then they tried suing the automakers. They even tried suing oil companies on behalf of an Alaskan village in danger of being inundated by oil-fueled rising sea levels.
OAKLAND (Legal Newsline) – The City of Oakland – one of eight California governments going big-game hunting by suing the energy industry over climate change – will pay private lawyers almost one-quarter of any recovery and says it does not have to disclose any communication with the firm it hired.
FORT WORTH, Texas (Legal Newsline) - Some government officials in California are hypocrites pushing a political agenda that involves using private lawyers to sue and demonize ExxonMobil, the company is now arguing in a Texas state court.
