Free Republic

Imagine if an evil business routinely deprived us of products that would help us live longer with less pain and more comfort. We'd be outraged, and lawyers would line up to sue. Yet something similar happens today, thanks to lawsuit abuse. Makers of all kinds of products are afraid to sell them to us because one lawsuit could ruin them. Personal-injury lawyers claim they make America safer, but that's a myth. It's easy to see who benefits from those big damage awards we read about. Less obvious -- but just as real -- are the things we'd all like to...

Ceuta, Spain, Jul 25 (EFE).- A Spaniard held for two years without charge by the United States at its prison camp in Guantanamo denounced terrorism here Tuesday, while saying he was unjustly jailed, that mistreatment harmed his eyesight and that he intends to sue President George W. Bush for millions of dollars. Hamed Abderraman Ahmed, who was absolved by the Spanish judicial system in June of allegedly having links to Al Qaeda, discussed his capture in Afghanistan and his confinement at the U.S. military prison in far eastern Cuba. Ahmed was captured in Afghanistan and transferred to U.S. Army custody...

EL PASO, Texas - A jury awarded $27.5 million in damages to a California woman of Iranian descent who alleged she was racially profiled when Southwest Airlines accused her of assaulting a flight attendant and interfering with a flight crew. Samantha Carrington of Santa Barbara won in the civil case Friday after suing the Dallas-based carrier for false imprisonment and malicious prosecution. Carrington was arrested by federal authorities in 2003 after her Houston-to-Los Angeles flight made a scheduled stop in El Paso. Criminal charges were never filed. According to court records, three flight attendants said Carrington, a naturalized citizen from...

May 30, 2004 Schwarzenegger Sees Money for State in Punitive DamagesBy ADAM LIPTAK ov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's new budget aims to raise almost half a billion dollars by taking 75 percent of the punitive damages that juries in California award to plaintiffs. In the process, he proposes to limit the fees lawyers can charge their clients and to protect defendants from multiple punitive awards for similar conduct.Critics say the proposal is a Trojan horse. Though the governor presented it as a budget measure meant to raise revenue, it is, they say, a comprehensive revision of the rules governing punitive awards in...