Daniel Fisher News
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.
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.
Consumer advocates, business interests form rare alliance to block American Law Institute project
WASHINGTON - An unusual coalition of consumer advocates and business interests joined to delay and possibly defeat a controversial “restatement” of consumer contract law that critics said presents a misleading picture of how courts are actually deciding cases in the rapidly evolving area of “clickwrap” and “browsewrap” agreements.
'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.
Beware of even the fine print, attorneys warn of ALI's insurance law Restatement
Beware of even the fine print, attorneys warn of ALI's insurance law Restatement
Multidistrict litigation swamps courts as rules struggle to catch up; Is reform on the way?
Multidistrict litigation – sprawling cases sometimes involving thousands of plaintiffs from all over the country – now represents more than half of the civil caseload in federal courts, according to a new survey, yet defendants complain the rules governing them are largely judge-made and haphazardly enforced.
Trump DOJ acts on threat to trial lawyers who sue on behalf of the government
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - The Department of Justice's recent effort to toss lawsuits it says it wasted hundreds of hours investigating is emblematic of a strategy under President Donald Trump to rein in trial lawyers who are using a federal whistleblower law to seek millions of dollars.
Trial lawyers find unusual allies in fight against arbitration: Conservative state treasurers
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - Class action lawyers who see arbitration as a mortal threat to their business have found unlikely allies among some of the nation’s most conservative state officials.
Pennsylvania opioid litigation in chaos as plaintiff lawyers fight over control
MEDIA – Opioid litigation in Pennsylvania appears to be in chaos as a prominent law firm has withdrawn from a leadership position on the plaintiff side and unions and the county surrounding the city of Allentown fight efforts to consolidate all lawsuits in a single court.
Trump admin makes use of Medicare law in blunt warning to asbestos lawyers
In the Trump administration, at least, the government will no longer look the other way as asbestos lawyers negotiate lenient terms that make it easy for their current clients to get money at the expense of future claimants and federal entitlement programs.
Insurers to feel brunt of New Jersey asbestos ruling, while Delaware hits employers on same day
A decision by the New Jersey Supreme Court forces Honeywell’s insurers to pay for thousands of asbestos claims even though the company, through its Bendix unit, continued to make asbestos-containing brake products for more than a decade after it could no longer obtain insurance coverage for such products.
'They're always wrong': NYC's hired guns cite overturned case as authority for climate change lawsuit
It was a surprising opening move, to say the least. Arguing for the City of New York in its climate lawsuit against five major oil companies, attorney Michael Pawa cited AEP v. Connecticut, a 2009 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, as “persuasive authority” in his clients’ favor.
Self-driving cars, thinking machines will test limits of tort law
SEATTLE (Legal Newsline) - Self-driving cars, machines that teach themselves how to operate and home digital assistants that can enter into legally binding contracts are all either on the market now or soon will be. So the next question is: Whom do you sue when they run amok?
Study on consumer lawsuit loans finds high rates, confusing terms
AUSTIN, Texas (Legal Newsline) - The broadest study yet of consumer litigation finance – money forwarded to lawsuit plaintiffs in anticipation of a victory in court or a legal settlement – found a “very complicated and circuitous” system in which some borrowers appear to subsidize others and the median interest rate exceeds 40%.
Plaintiff lawyers see nationwide settlement as only end for opioid lawsuits
SAN FRANCISCO (Legal Newsline) - Plaintiff lawyers meeting in San Francisco last week for a conference on opioid litigation acknowledged that the hundreds of lawsuits they have filed in state and federal court will be difficult to resolve without an unprecedented national settlement whose mechanics are still difficult to predict.
Opioid judge doesn't want media to know details of settlement talks
CLEVELAND (Legal Newsline) - The judge overseeing multidistrict litigation against opioid manufacturers and distributors has named the teams of lawyers who will try to negotiate a settlement of hundreds of federal lawsuits - a complex task given parallel investigations and litigation by state attorneys general and potentially conflicting goals of private attorneys and their government counterparts.
Usual Suspects: Lawyers used to getting their way in MDL process to lead opioid litigation
CLEVELAND (Legal Newsline) - There will be a lot of familiar faces in U.S. District Judge Dan Polster’s courtroom in Cleveland on Jan. 31, when lawyers gather for a hearing on multidistrict litigation against the nation’s opioid manufacturers and distributors.