Daniel Fisher News
Court says narcotics agent fired over incompetence, not discrimination
PHILADELPHIA - An undercover narcotics agent was fired after failing to master basic skills including using her firearm, not because she was female and of Puerto Rican descent, a federal court ruled.
Attorneys could get booted off case after calling other side's expert
PHILADELPHIA - A lawyer suing Avco Corp. and the Blank Rome law firm for allegedly defaming her now wants Avco’s lawyers disqualified for improperly calling her psychology expert. The ex parte contacts may have scared off the expert, complained Veronica Turner in a filing seeking sanctions against the defense lawyers.
Bucks County cut corners to file climate change lawsuit, oil industry says
DOYLESTOWN, Pa. (Legal Newsline) - Picturesque Bucks County, Pa., decided to do something about climate change itself earlier this year when it hired private lawyers on a contingency-fee basis to sue 14 of the world’s largest oil companies.
Court trims the federal government's opioid lawsuit against Amerisource Bergen
PHILADELPHIA (Legal Newsline) - A federal judge allowed the government’s lawsuit against drug distributor Amerisource Bergen to proceed, but cut down the potential size of the government’s claims by ruling Amerisource could only be ordered to pay fines over opioids it shipped after Congress amended the Controlled Substances Act in 2018.
Amerisource Bergen attacks 'profoundly flawed' DOJ opioid lawsuit
PHILADELPHIA (Legal Newsline) - Amerisource Bergen asked a federal judge to dismiss a Justice Department lawsuit accusing it of filling hundreds of thousands of suspicious opioid orders, saying the government is seeking billions of dollars in fines for violating “hopelessly vague” rules it refuses to identify with any specificity.
Settlement ends Honeywell's 'ill-fated' funding of asbestos trust; Company claimed lawyers were bleeding it dry
ERIE, Pa. (Legal Newsline) - Likening the two sides to exhausted boxers or a quarreling couple, a bankruptcy judge approved a settlement between Honeywell and trustees overseeing a fund for paying asbestos claimants under which Honeywell will end its involvement for a lump-sum payment of $1.3 billion.
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.
More clients sue Hagens Berman over failed birth defect lawsuits
PHILADELPHIA (Legal Newsline) - Prominent plaintiff law firm Hagens Berman has been sued by more of its clients who claim they were shoved aside by their lawyers after serious ethical concerns emerged in how the firm handled lawsuits over the banned drug thalidomide.
Lawyer fights lender who advanced cash against NFL concussion fees
PHILADELPHIA (Legal Newsline) - A lawyer who represented hundreds of players in a $1 billion concussion settlement with the National Football League is fighting an arbitrator’s order to repay some $2.3 million in high-interest loans from a litigation funder.
Major plaintiffs firm will have to disclose ethics info in failed thalidomide litigation
PHILADELPHIA (Legal Newsline) - Prominent plaintiffs’ law firm Hagens Berman can’t use the attorney-client privilege to shield information it gave to an outside ethics expert hired to defend the firm against claims it improperly pursued thalidomide claims despite strong evidence they were barred by the statute of limitations.
Mashup of federal and state laws impossible to obey, Johnson & Johnson tells U.S. Supreme Court
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - Johnson & Johnson has asked the U.S. Supreme Court hear its appeal of a $70 million jury verdict over its antipsychotic drug Risperdal, saying it is impossible to comply with state and federal law at the same time in such cases.
Plaintiffs lawyer rips colleagues over multidistrict litigation fees, pressure tactics
PHILADELPHIA (Legal Newsline) - Federal multidistrict litigation, a procedure intended to resolve mass-tort lawsuits fairly and efficiently, has mutated into an unethical moneymaking machine for lawyers that is badly in need of reform, a prominent plaintiff attorney says as he prepares to lobby for changes.
Pa. opioid lawsuits plod along as companies demand 'critical information to defend themselves'
MEDIA (Legal Newsline) - Drug distributors facing about 50 opioid lawsuits in Pennsylvania have asked the judge overseeing the litigation to order sanctions against plaintiffs for repeatedly refusing to honor deadlines to turn over evidence including information about how state and local governments have handled the opioid crisis they blame on the drug industry.
Lawsuit: Eckert Seamans helped criminal scam investors
MIAMI (Legal Newsline) - A large regional law firm has been sued for allegedly facilitating a multimillion-dollar fraud by Par Funding, a company that extended high-interest loans to retail businesses but failed amid claims its principals squandered money and hid a founder’s criminal past.
Judge rejects Hagens Berman’s `emergency’ request to halt lawsuit by Thalidomide client
PHILADELPHIA (Legal Newsline) - Saying a claimed “emergency” might be more of a delaying tactic, the judge overseeing a lawsuit by a disgruntled former client of the law firm Hagens Berman rejected a request to halt the proceedings while the firm appeals his ruling denying a venue change out of his court.“The sky has not fallen,” wrote U.S.
Vets elbow smaller firm out of class action despite being late to the party
PITTSBURGH (Legal Newsline) - A federal magistrate has sided with plaintiffs firm Berger Montague over a relative newcomer to consumer class actions, handing the Philadelphia law firm control of a case that has produced allegations of collusion, conspiracy and misleading advertising.
Hagens Berman redacts entire ethics report in failed thalidomide litigation
A special master investigating how the prominent class action firm Hagens Berman handled failed lawsuits over the banned morning sickness drug thalidomide has chastised the firm in unusually strong terms for redacting the entire report it commissioned from an ethics expert, down to the letterhead and page numbers.
Lawyer's sting-op on classaction.org ad leads to vicious fight for control of InventHelp lawsuit
PITTSBURGH (Legal Newsline) - A fight for control over a proposed class action has descended into nasty attacks and counterattacks, as the lawyer who filed the first case accuses the prominent Philadelphia law firm Berger Montague of colluding with the defense and Berger Montague accuses her of being a “silly” and unqualified conspiracy theorist.
As thalidomide lawsuits collapse, major plaintiffs firm is sued by its own client
PHILADELPHIA (Legal Newsline) - A long-simmering fight between the prominent plaintiffs’ law firm Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro and several unhappy clients has escalated into open war as one of them sued her former lawyers for allegedly misleading her about the chances of winning a lawsuit based on decades-old claims of being exposed to the dangerous morning-sickness drug thalidomide.
Judge: PFAS chemicals aren't 'hazardous' under Pennsylvania law
PHILADELPHIA (Legal Newsline) - The U.S. Navy has won a key victory in Pennsylvania as a judge recently dismissed a lawsuit over the ubiquitous chemicals known as PFAS after finding they weren’t defined as “hazardous” under the state’s toxic waste statute.