Daniel Fisher News
Unhappy client can sue lawyers over punitive damages award, court rules
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (Legal Newsline) - Clients who are ordered to pay punitive damages can sue to recover the money from their lawyers, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled, rejecting arguments state law and public policy protect lawyers from being subject to punitive damages awards.
Latest opioid ruling puts MDL judge further out of step on public nuisance
A federal judge soundly rejected the “public nuisance” theory behind most opioid litigation, further isolating the judge in charge of thousands of similar lawsuits who has consistently ruled in favor of plaintiffs on this very question.
Biden and DEA could clash on crime, marijuana, open borders
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - President Joe Biden hasn’t identified a candidate for permanent director of the Drug Enforcement Administration and it may be a long time before he does. The agency responsible for prosecuting the nation’s war on drugs is trapped on its own political battlefield as it faces criticism over its failure to contain the spread of deadly opioids while continuing to enforce a federal ban on marijuana that is opposed by White House officials and politicians on the left and right.
Attorneys general take $15M from McKinsey opioid settlement for their professional association
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - A $574 million settlement between the McKinsey & Co. consulting firm and state attorneys general includes a $15 million payment to their professional group, the National Association of Attorneys General.
New alliance between gov't and private lawyers: Suing Netflix and Hulu
A handful of law firms, some of whom are also deeply involved in opioid litigation, are convincing local government officials to sue Netflix, Hulu and other video streaming services over taxes they claim the companies should pay under laws originally aimed at cable television operators.
Study: Class action lawyers often take more money from settlements than class members
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - A detailed examination of eight years of consumer class actions in federal court found that consumers received only a tiny fraction of the money awarded in those cases while plaintiff lawyers frequently claimed a bigger share of the settlement than their clients.
Even homeowners could be in danger of lawyers trying to cash in on coronavirus
They’ve already sued cruise ship operators, soap manufacturers and insurance companies, but COVID-19 will give entrepreneurial lawyers plenty more opportunities to make money by targeting nursing homes, hospitals, pharmaceutical manufacturers, retailers and possibly even homeowners over the disease.
An Ohio county pays $500K of its opioid settlement to a pharma lobbyist not listed on court records
AKRON, Ohio (Legal Newsline) - An Ohio county that settled opioid lawsuits last year for $105 million paid more than $1 million in legal fees to two law firms that never appeared on any of the court filings, including one associated with a prominent Washington lobbyist whose firm represented multiple companies being sued by the county.
Politically generous lawyers poised to take billions from opioid settlement
CLEVELAND (Legal Newsline) - Their request for some $3 billion in fees has generated fierce resistance from state attorneys general and defendants, but don’t worry about the financial states of private lawyers who represent thousands of municipal plaintiffs in opioid litigation.
DEA again cuts opioid production as companies facing addiction lawsuits put blame on feds
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - The Drug Enforcement Administration has slashed oxycodone production quotas by almost 60% from the peak in 2013, including a 9% cut for this year, demonstrating the government’s firm control over narcotics distribution even as plaintiffs in opioid litigation blame pharmacies and drug distributors for causing addiction and overdose deaths by selling too many pills.
Judge: Talc lawyers harassed Johnson & Johnson by leaking info to Reuters
NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) - The prominent asbestos law firm Simmons Hanly Conroy has been sanctioned by a New York judge for violating a protective order after it leaked the deposition of Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky to reporters at the Reuters news service.
Opioid settlement hints at massive windfall for private lawyers who snagged government clients
CLEVELAND (Legal Newsline) - It was a stroke of good luck for Cuyahoga and Summit counties in Ohio that U.S. District Judge Dan Polster selected them for the first bellwether trial out of thousands of other cities and counties that are blaming the opioid industry for the nation's addiction crisis.
Ohio AG to colleagues: Let's limit fees to private lawyers in opioid settlement
COLUMBUS, Ohio (Legal Newsline) - Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has warned his fellow AGs that a reported $50 billion settlement of opioid claims will fall apart unless the states demand tight controls on fees to private lawyers and make sure the rest of the money is directed toward programs designed to address the opioid crisis, instead of state general funds.
Opioid judge approves `negotiation class’ over objections of state AGs and defendants
In a move that appeared preordained after his comments at an August hearing, U.S. District Judge Dan Aaron Polster approved an unprecedented “negotiation class” of every city and county nationwide to try and reach a global settlement with opioid manufacturers and distributors.
Oklahoma judge feeds the 'monster' with $572M opioid ruling against Johnson & Johnson
Sixteen years ago in a case involving gunmaker Sturm, Ruger & Co., a New York appeals court refused to apply public nuisance law against the manufacturer of a legal product, saying that doing so would transform nuisance law “into a monster that would devour in one gulp the entire law of tort.”
Private lawyers stand to make $90 million as judge hits Johnson & Johnson with $572M opioid ruling
NORMAN, Okla. (Legal Newsline) - A state judge in Oklahoma has blamed Johnson & Johnson for the state's opioid crisis and ordered it to pay $572 million in damages, extending public nuisance law beyond its traditional boundaries into what may become an all-purpose tool for government lawsuits against product manufacturers.
Ohio AG slams 'power grab' of private lawyers pushing the opioid litigation
CLEVELAND (Legal Newsline) - Stepping forcefully into a debate that has been brewing since private lawyers first started recruiting local governments to sue the opioid industry, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and the National Association of Attorneys General have urged the federal judge overseeing multidistrict litigation to reject a proposed “negotiation class” consisting of every city and county in the country.
Opioid lawyers propose a global settlement team; Pa. attorney critical, says it's likely a ploy to boost their fees
CLEVELAND (Legal Newsline) - Acknowledging it is “likely impossible” to negotiate individual settlements on behalf the nearly 2,000 cities and counties suing the opioid industry, plus thousands more watching from the sidelines, plaintiff lawyers have proposed a unique solution: A “negotiation class” designed to strike a global bargain on behalf of every municipality in the country.
'This doesn't help': Law profs say influential group's take on Internet agreements is based on faulty analysis
PHILADELPHIA - One of the latest projects from a legal group that influences judges relies upon a faulty analysis of case law to support its conclusion that courts have developed new ways to interpret “clickwrap,” “browsewrap” and other standardized consumer agreements, some law professors say in a pair of recent articles.
Talc supplier's bankruptcy could be what Johnson & Johnson needs to bring order to costly asbestos litigation
WILMINGTON, Del. (Legal Newsline) - Johnson & Johnson has borrowed a page from the legal playbook pioneered by breast-implant manufacturer Dow Corning to try to consolidate thousands of talc lawsuits in a single federal court for resolution.