Free Republic

Law: If there was ever such a thing as junk justice, the suit against Wal-Mart now in the Supreme Court is exhibit A. By claiming that evidence is no longer needed to prove discrimination, what's proven is the greed of lawyers. Tuesday was a queasy day at the Supreme Court as lawyers in the largest class-action lawsuit in history made the claim that Wal-Mart discriminated against all 1.6 million of its female employees. Nearly all the justices reportedly were unimpressed with the overreaching premise. It boils down to the idea that if six women could prove discrimination at one company...

FRESNO, California (KFSN) -- Earlier this week ABC30 showed you video of a woman who mistakenly fell into the fountain at a Pennsylvania mall, because she was distracted by text messaging. Well now that woman is suing the mall for not helping her. The video has received more than 1.5 million views since it went viral on YouTube last week. The woman in the video, Cathy Cruz Marrero, doesn't think the video is very funny. She claims she could have gotten seriously hurt and that the security guards should have helped instead of laugh. "I'm just like dumbfounded. And all...

Is anyone else tired of all the elaborate roadside memorials? I believe the whole thing has gotten completely out of hand. Years ago I said we would soon being seeing regulation tombstones in place of homemade crosses, etc. Well, last week it happened. I didn't stop to see if it was engraved (or whatever the process of writing on a tombstone is called), but I'll bet it was. Enough, already. That's what cemetaries are for! Obviously, it has nothing to do with the deceased; it's all about the survivors. I guess the problem with confining such remembrances to a cemetary...

A Cook County jury has delivered the biggest verdict ever in a "popcorn lung" case: $30.4 million. Factory worker Gerardo Solis, 45, of South Elgin, won the award after alleging his lung disease was caused by exposure to diacetyl, a chemical used in the making of butter-flavored microwave popcorn and other foods. It has been linked to health problems by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. » Click to enlarge image Gerardo Solis Solis has bronchiolitis obliterans, which makes it difficult to breathe. He is awaiting a lung transplant, said his lawyer, Ken McClain. Last month's verdict is against BASF...

California’s state legislature approved a $20 million settlement for kidnap victim Jaycee Dugard Thursday, The Sacramento Bee reported. Dugard was kidnapped as an 11-year-old near her home in South Lake Tahoe, Calif., in 1991 and held captive for 18 years by Phillip Garrido and his wife Nancy. She was kept in a secret backyard prison and bore two of Garrido’s children before being discovered in August 2009. Dugard, now 29, and her family filed claims against the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in February alleging it failed to monitor Garrido, a convicted sex offender.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Jurors on Tuesday found the Boy Scouts of America negligent and awarded $1.4 million to a former Portland man who was abused by an assistant Scoutmaster in the early 1980s, following a three-week trial in which secret Scout "perversion files" were used as evidence. The jury also decided the Irving, Texas-based Scouts organization was liable for punitive damages that will be decided in a separate phase of the trial. That would be in addition to the $1.4 million. The Scouts denied allegations of negligence and said the files actually helped them keep child molesters out of...

California's trial bar lobby spent more than $21 million over the past decade to sway public policy in the direction of plaintiffs' attorneys, a state report said.

ANTIOCH, Calif. – Jaycee Dugard and her family have taken the first step to sue the state of California for lapses officials made while she and her daughters were allegedly held captive by a convicted sex offender. Dugard, her two daughters and her mother, Terry Probyn, have each filed claim forms against the Department of Corrections, Rachel Wall, a spokeswoman for the state's Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board, said Friday. Dugard's spokeswoman, Nancy Seltzer, said the family members haven't decided whether they'll file a lawsuit.

Last night during his national press conference, President Barack Obama maligned doctors as doing unnecessary operations based on greed, not the best interest of the patient. He said: “Right now, doctors a lot of times are forced to make decisions based on the fee payment schedule that’s out there. … The doctor may look at the reimbursement system and say to himself, ‘You know what? I make a lot more money if I take this kid’s tonsils out,’” Obama told a prime-time news conference. The president added: “Now, that may be the right thing to do, but I’d rather have...

A Texas man has reportedly settled a class action lawsuit against Hooters for refusing to hire men as food servers. Nikolai Grushevski filed a complaint against Hooters of America in January alleging its Corpus Christi franchisee would not hire him as a waiter because the position was being limited to females by an employer "who merely wishes to exploit female sexuality as a marketing tool to attract customers and insure profitability." Hooters argued a “bona-fide occupational qualification” defense, which applies when the “essence of the business operation would be undermined if the business eliminated its discriminatory policy,” according to Onpointnews.com....

SAN ANTONIO — Mikal Watts didn’t have a fighting chance — politics were in his life from the start. As a toddler, he rode in a stroller as his mother marched in a farm workers’ rights march in Austin. Politics made for dinner table conversation and filled the pages of books in the family library. He attended fundraising barbecues with his parents. Before the age of 18, he knocked on doors registering people to vote. In the years since, Watts has risen from law-school whiz kid (he received a degree at 21) to nationally known product liability lawyer and political...

The last victim of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse has been recovered from the water. The long, complex search for the disaster's cause is ramping up in earnest. It's about the time we'd expect the lawyers to descend. But the pinstripes are already out of the gate, setting new records for jumping the gun in a disaster. Just days after the collapse, while recovery crews were still battling treacherous waters, Schwebel, Goetz & Sieben -- one of the state's highest profile personal injury firms -- petitioned for access to the site for three attorneys and two expert witnesses. An immediate...

(Middletown-WTNH, May 23, 2006 6:38 AM) _ An illegal immigrant is hospitalized with life-threatening injuries after plummeting 30 feet while working on the roof of a home. He laid on the ground injured before anyone called 9-1-1, apparently because some of his co-workers are illegals too and were afraid to call for help. "It was the neighbor actually who watched the incident unfold and was very surprised when after 20 or 25 minutes there were no sirens approaching," says Lt. Peggy Liseo, Middletown Police Department. Roof repairs came to a stop at the home on Butternut Street home when the...

ANGLETON, Texas - Merck & Co.'s first wrongful-death verdict over its painkiller Vioxx came in a case that was not seen as especially strong, and is likely to inspire thousands of more suits on top of the 4,200 already filed against the drug maker, analysts say. Analysts have already estimated Merck's liability could be as high as $18 billion and that number could now rise. Merck & Co.'s stock sank $2.35, or 7.7 percent, to close at $28.06. The jury awarded $253.4 million in damages to a widow of a man who died in 2001 of heart arrhythmia, or irregular...

No single person has come to more represent the big questions about drug safety that emerged following the withdrawal of Merck's painkiller Vioxx than the Food and Drug Administration's David Graham. And now that a Texas jury has awarded the widow of one Vioxx patient $253 million, Graham, who works in the FDA's Office of Drug Safety, is more critical than ever. Of the drug, and his employer, for whom he doesn't speak. "If the judgment is that there's blood on Merck's (nyse: MRK - news - people ) hands," Graham says, "there's blood on the FDA's hands as well."...

ANGLETON -- The Brazoria County jury in the nation's first Vioxx-related civil trial has found pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. liable for the death of a man who took the painkiller.Jurors awarded Robert Ernst's widow, Carol, $253.4 million in damages, which is a combination of his lost pay as a Wal-Mart produce manager, mental anguish, loss of companionship and punitive damages. Carol Ernst began to cry when the verdict was read while her attorneys jumped up and shouted, "Amen!" The plaintiffs team huddled and hugged and repeated, "Amen, amen," while plaintiff's lawyer Ben Morelli told Ernst, "It's your jury." "Anyone who said they...

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Merck has been held liable by a Texas jury in the first lawsuit involving its former blockbuster drug Vioxx, in a case that could have a profound effect on thousands of other cases filed against the company. Plaintiff Carol Ernst has won her lawsuit in Texas Superior Court, which blames Vioxx for the 2001 death of her husband, Robert Ernst, a 59-year-old marathon runner and Wal-Mart worker who was taking the arthritis painkiller at the time of his death. Ernst died of a heart attack. The verdict held Merck liable for the death. The jury awarded...

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WASHINGTON – Greedy trial lawyers would have to think twice before filing a frivolous lawsuit if legislation introduced by Congressman Chocola becomes law. The Legal Expense Equity Act of 2004, which is companion legislation to Senator Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) version, establishes a set of guidelines under which the either party of a civil lawsuit in federal court could be required to pay the opposing side’s attorney fees. “Frivolous lawsuits brought by irresponsible trial lawyers are hurting our nation-driving up healthcare costs, putting doctors out of business, eliminating thousands of jobs, while devastating our economy,” Chocola said. “It is time to...

<p>TULSA, Okla. - A dwindling number of race-riot survivors - some more than 100 years old - will finally have a chance to make their case for reparations, eight decades after a white mob tore into a thriving black neighborhood, leaving as many as 300 people dead.</p>