News from 2021
WATCH YOUR STEP: Court says plaintiff was to blame for fall at restaurant
INDIANAPOLIS (Legal Newsline) – Verbal and large written warnings about an allegedly dangerous step at an Indiana restaurant is enough for it to avoid liability for the fall of one of its customers.
Smokers, plaintiffs lawyers get bad news from Florida Supreme Court
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Legal Newsline) – A 1999 tort reform measure applies to tobacco wrongful death cases of smokers who died after, even though a class action on their behalf had been filed years before.
Louisiana court grants injunction to group seeking to stop additional federal vaccine mandates
CHARLESTON – A federal court in Louisiana has granted a preliminary injunction to a 12-state coalition that was seeking to stop additional vaccine mandates proposed by the Biden Administration.
Washington State opioid trial: Defense says companies showed good faith, state says small group is big harm
SEATTLE (Legal Newsline) - Defense attorneys on Tuesday sought to portray their clients, three of the biggest distributors of opioid drugs in the U.S., as taking appropriate steps in the early 2000s through 2014 to safeguard the public by establishing in-house systems to check suspicious drug orders.
Skateboarder loses $6.5M verdict on evidence he was stoned
TACOMA, Wash. (Legal Newsline) - A skateboarder who won a $6.5 million jury verdict after being hit by a car in a pedestrian crosswalk must go back to court after a Washington appeals court reversed the decision, saying the defense should have been able to present evidence the skateboarder was stoned at the time of the accident.
Lawsuit group 'burdening the court,' CalChamber says in case over coffee-causes-cancer labels
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Legal Newsline) – Having successfully removed the previous judge from the case, a group in the business of suing companies that sell coffee without a cancer warning now wants the replacement to ignore her previous rulings.
Lawsuit alleges Rust-Oleum's RockSolid fails to live up to advertising
CHICAGO (Legal Newsline) - Neil Stevens filed a federal class action complaint on November 5 in the Northern District of Illinois against Rust-Oleum Corporation over acrylic coating products.
Fight for transparency in AG's climate litigation awaits hearing at Minn. Supreme Court
ST. PAUL, Minn. (Legal Newsline) - A nonprofit government watchdog organization has filed an amicus brief against Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison for his refusal to release records pertaining to communications between his office and other states.
Sheppard Mullin Appoints Lois Durant Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer
Sheppard Mullin Appoints Lois Durant Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer.
King steps back from moving to senior status, might have been unhappy with replacement plan
CHARLESTON – A federal 4th Circuit appeals court judge and West Virginia native has rescinded his plan to become a senior status judge and will remain on the bench.
Multi-million dollar GEO verdict creates path for inmates to be paid minimum wage while detained
TACOMA, Wash. (Legal Newsline) - The Department of Justice (DOJ) told Washington state that the doctrine of intergovernmental immunity barred it from mandating the payment of minimum wage to detainees who reside in privately operated federal detention facilities, according to a statement of interest the U.S. filed during the previous administration.
Washington State attorneys pound on 'irresponsible' theme in suit against opioid distributors
SEATTLE (Legal Newsline) - Attorneys for the Washington State Attorney General’s Office in their lawsuit against three major opioid drug distributors continued to hammer down on the theme the companies irresponsibly flooded the market with pills, causing an overdose epidemic.
Jesus would be 'digitally crucified' today, Babylon Bee says in support of Texas social media law
AUSTIN, Texas (Legal Newsline) – A Christian satire website is supporting a Texas law that prohibits social media platforms from banning users without reason, arguing that Jesus Christ himself would have been cancelled by the internet in 2021.
Judge stiff-arms challenge to Kaiser Permanente's vaccine mandate
OAKLAND, Calif. (Legal Newsline) – Kaiser Permanente workers who sued over the company’s COVID vaccine mandate have no chance at success, a federal judge ruled.
Class action over pain reliever settles after judge tossed it
LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) – A troubled proposed class action has come to an end in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
American and JetBlue defend choice to do business together
BOSTON (Legal Newsline) – American Airlines and JetBlue Airways say their alliance, which is now the subject of an antitrust lawsuit by the Department of Justice and six states, has already received the blessing of the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Four lawsuits blame feds, drug companies for babies being born addicted to opioids
CHARLESTON — Four lawsuits have been filed against the federal government and several pharmaceutical companies alleging they are at fault for children born addicted to opioids.
Federal grants boost public safety efforts in Central Illinois
The Department of Justice has announced that several agencies and communities in Central Illinois have received Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) grants.
Constitutional questions remain in sexual abuse cases against North Carolina YMCA
RALEIGH, N.C. (Legal Newsline) - A North Carolina YMCA chapter will get another chance to challenge the application of a law extending the statute of limitations for sexual abuse lawsuits after a court of appeals rejected an attempt to put the question before a three-judge panel the legislature created to decide the constitutionality of state laws.
Ruling reached in dispute over Law & Order cast trailers
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Legal Newsline) - A company that provided trucks and cast trailers to production crews filming “Law and Order” and other shows must pay the firm that owned the vehicles more than $100,000 after breaking a revenue-sharing agreement, a Tennessee appeals court ruled.