Free Republic

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A jury has awarded $485 million in damages in a civil case brought on behalf of an 8-year-old girl who was repeatedly sexually assaulted in a New Mexico foster care program. The verdict came late Friday after Rio Arriba County jurors heard nearly two weeks of testimony that focused in part on allegations of corporate negligence. The program allegedly placed the girl in the home of a foster parent despite knowing that he had been accused of sexual assault, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in 2019. It was one of more than a half-dozen...

In 2001, a drunken Darwin Ray Ellison took a Terrible Herbst truck and went cruising through downtown Las Vegas. Rosa Delegado, a 58-year-old grandmother, was stepping into her car on Fremont Street, her back turned to the careening vehicle, when the truck ran her over and killed her. Mrs. Delegado's family suffered a tremendous, tragic loss as a result of the accident, and thankfully, they received some modicum of justice. Ellison pleaded guilty to felony drunken driving causing death and was sentenced to between 5 1/2 and 20 years in prison. In exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to...

<p>We've all heard of race bias, gender bias, class bias, sexual orientation bias, et cetera. But maybe only a psychotherapist turned trial lawyer could come up with something called "personal responsibility bias." Apparently this affliction is especially pronounced among strange people with "traditional family values" and "strong religious beliefs."</p>

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - Alabama's financially strapped government won an $11.9-billion verdict against Exxon Mobil Corp. on Friday in a suit that accused the oil giant of cheating the state out of natural gas royalties. The circuit court verdict included $11.8-billion in punitive damages, a record for Alabama and more than the state's attorneys had sought. The jury had to find Exxon Mobil committed fraud to return the multibillion-dollar verdict. "We felt Exxon thought they were going to get away with this," said jury foreman Joe King, a teacher. "We wanted to send a message that they were not, and that...

Los Angeles County is among a baker's dozen of "judicial hellholes" across the nation that attract lawsuits because it is seen as a plaintiff-friendly area where the law is not applied fairly, a legal reform group charged in a new report Thursday. The 13 locations are sometimes referred to as "magic jurisdictions" because lawyers seemingly pull million- or billion-dollar verdicts out of a hat, the authors wrote. The report by the American Tort Reform Association, whose members include companies and business groups, said attorneys and plaintiffs shop around for locations where they can get large verdicts or settlements. "Personal...