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Asbestos
As J&J's talc trial goes on, Beasley Allen wants the whole thing moved to a different court
HOUSTON - As a Houston federal bankruptcy judge conducts a lengthy trial over whether to approve Johnson & Johnson's plan to effectively settle tens of thousands of ovarian cancer claims, lawyers against that strategy are fighting to move the issue to a different court.
Asbestos
With numbers not on its side, Beasley Allen wants new client vote on J&J's $9B talc fund
HOUSTON - The two law firms opposing Johnson & Johnson's massive talcum powder settlement that would give $9 billion to women blaming their ovarian cancer on Baby Powder wants a new vote.
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Asbestos
J&J bashes Beasley Allen as it seeks approval of $9B talc plan
HOUSTON - Johnson & Johnson takes aim at plaintiffs attorneys opposing its massive settlement of cancer claims related to Baby Powder, basically calling them hypocrites whose lone standard is how much money they will make for themselves.
Asbestos
Canadian companies plead with Carolina high court to stop asbestos judge
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Legal Newsline) - Two portraits of Canadian companies were painted Tuesday as the South Carolina Supreme Court was asked to decide what, if any, limits there are on the controversial measures taken by the state's asbestos judge.
Asbestos
Lawyers supporting J&J's $9B talc settlement seek protection from rival firms
HOUSTON - Law firms that want Johnson & Johnson's massive talc bankruptcy plan approved object to the nature of a probe by lawyers who want it rejected, as the fight for votes continues ahead of a key hearing.
Asbestos
Feds, lawyers and insurers among critics of J&J's massive talc settlement
HOUSTON - Some insurers and personal injury lawyers have found themselves in a rare position - allied in court.
Asbestos
Talc lawyers fighting J&J's $9B plan get to grill lawyer holding 1,500 key votes
HOUSTON - A court-ordered deposition of a lawyer next week should produce plenty of fireworks, as he explains why 1,500 of his clients suing Johnson & Johnson changed their minds on whether to accept the company's massive settlement proposal.
Asbestos
'Nuclear option': Canadian companies ask Carolina Supreme Court to stop asbestos judge
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Legal Newsline) - The South Carolina Supreme Court soon will decide whether a judge’s increasingly aggressive view of her authority extends to foreign companies that never did business in the state.
Asbestos
J&J appeals now-$39M Carolina talc verdict, says trial judge was hostile
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Legal Newsline) - South Carolina's asbestos judge took more than $16 million off of Johnson & Johnson's share of a huge talcum powder verdict, but that isn't stopping the company from seeking total relief from the state's appeals courts.
Asbestos
Diamond company fights being dragged into controversial Carolina asbestos court
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Legal Newsline) - The diamond-trading giant De Beers has filed a scathing motion in South Carolina court accusing a lawyer suing it in the name of another U.K. firm of acting without authority and possibly in collusion with local plaintiff lawyers.
Asbestos
Powerful lawyer in S.C. asbestos court warned to stop, or possibly face jail time
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Legal Newsline) - A U.K. court has threatened South Carolina attorney Peter Protopapas with prison if he continues to claim he is the legal representative of Cape Plc, a U.K. company whose corporate predecessor once mined asbestos in South Africa.
Asbestos
Motley Rice enters the fracas in South Carolina's asbestos court
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Legal Newsline) – South Carolina's foremost plaintiffs firm is jumping into what has become an international fight over whether the state's asbestos judge can hand over control of a foreign company to one lawyer in Richland County.
Asbestos
Overseas, judge criticizes South Carolina's asbestos litigation money-machine
The controversial plan to bring dead companies back to life in South Carolina to raid insurance policies they held decades ago doesn't fly in the United Kingdom.
Asbestos
Hedge-fund money complicates J&J's massive settlement for talc claims
HOUSTON (Legal Newsline) - Johnson & Johnson’s lawyers think they’ve identified the reason the company is having such a hard time settling thousands of lawsuits claiming its talcum powder causes cancer, even though it’s won the vast majority of the cases that have gone to trial.
Asbestos
It's lawyer vs. lawyer in J&J's $9 billion talc bankruptcy plan
HOUSTON (Legal Newsline) - Plaintiff lawyers will face off at a January hearing in Houston to decide whether Johnson & Johnson can move ahead with a $9 billion plan to settle thousands of talc lawsuits in bankruptcy court, with each side accusing the other of manufacturing votes on the plan and possibly acting on the orders of outside investors with a stake in the outcome.
Asbestos
Veil lifted, slightly, on asbestos money flowing through South Carolina court
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Legal Newsline) - The court-appointed receiver for a long-defunct insulation company in South Carolina has paid more than $27 million to settle asbestos cases, according to a new filing that provides limited financial information about one of the secretive funds the receiver uses to hold proceeds of settlements with insurance companies.
Asbestos
Dallas asbestos firm drives defense nuts with stacks of books, microscopes and crying at trial
Before a Connecticut trial this year over whether talcum powder caused a man’s abdominal cancer, lawyers for Johnson & Johnson pleaded with a judge to prevent plaintiff lawyers at Dean Omar Branham Stanley from engaging in what they called “repeated and pervasive misconduct.”
Asbestos
Insurers funding shadowy S.C. asbestos accounts want secrecy to continue
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Legal Newsline) - Nothing to see here, folks. That was the position of lawyers who appeared at an unusual hearing last week called by South Carolina Judge Jean H. Toal to explain how the receivership process in her asbestos court works, and why details about it should remain secret.
Asbestos
Secrecy shrouds asbestos money in South Carolina, but insurer makes play for records
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Legal Newsline) - A South Carolina personal-injury lawyer with a court-ordered commission to keep a third of whatever he recovers has placed tens of millions of dollars in Delaware partnerships that he controls, out of sight of the public and even the judge who allowed them to be established.
Asbestos
'Slammed the door in my face': Key cog in South Carolina's asbestos court not at U.K. showdown
A London judge hearing a U.K. company’s challenge to receivership orders handed down by his judicial counterpart in South Carolina called the procedure “a bit sort of odd,” given the U.K. company has never done business in South Carolina and has no assets there.