Mealey's Personal Injury
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July 12, 2023
New York Care Homes Respond To $83M Medicare Fraud Suit Seeking Injunction, Order
NEW YORK — After New York Attorney General Letitia James sued multiple nursing homes and their owners and operators in New York state court alleging fraud and illegal misuse of more than $83 million in Medicare and Medicaid funds, the respondents urged the court to reject the her request for a preliminary injunction requiring them to pay for two monitors to control the nursing homes’ operations, which they claim does not meet the “heightened standard” for injunctive relief.
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July 12, 2023
Lowe’s Avoids Sanctions Over Deposition, Deadlines In Personal Injury Suit
EL PASO, Texas — A customer of Lowe’s Home Centers LLC failed to establish that he was entitled to sanctions for the home supply chain’s purported failure to comply with a discovery order or to provide a corporate officer for deposition, a Texas federal magistrate judge ruled, finding that the personal injury plaintiff did not meet its burden to show that sanctions were warranted.
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July 10, 2023
California Jury Awards $8.8M In Asbestos Cement Pipe Case
LOS ANGELES — A California jury found for plaintiffs on a variety of asbestos-related claims and awarded in excess of $8.5 million for exposure stemming from cement pipe used by the city of Newport Beach.
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July 10, 2023
Georgia Panel Reinstates $10.1M Default Judgment In Exploding Vape Case
ATLANTA — A Georgia appellate court vacated a ruling setting aside a $10.1 million default judgment against an electronics company that had failed to respond to a lawsuit accusing it of manufacturing and selling a battery that burned an e-cigarette user when his vape exploded in his pocket, finding that the trial court judge improperly shifted the burden of proof to the plaintiff in evaluating the company’s motion to set aside.
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July 10, 2023
Jury Awards Dead Smoker’s Daughter $132,000 For Lung Cancer Death After Engle Trial
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Florida jury awarded a dead smoker’s daughter $132,000 in compensatory damages against a tobacco company for causing the smoker’s addiction to cigarettes, which led to her death from lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.
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July 06, 2023
Missouri Federal Judge Allows Treating Doctors’ Testimony In Defective Design Case
ST. LOUIS — A Missouri federal judge denied a company’s motion to exclude testimony from a man’s three treating physicians who opine that his injuries were caused by repeated use of a defectively designed chain and ratchet system after finding that the testimony is reliable under Federal Rule of Evidence 702 and will be helpful to a jury.
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July 06, 2023
Massachusetts High Court Rejects Smokers’ Wrongful Death Suits As Untimely
BOSTON — The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court today affirmed the dismissal of two wrongful death actions brought by the estates of deceased smokers against tobacco companies as time-barred, writing that because wrongful death suits are “derivative” actions, the statute of limitations begins to accrue based on the date of injury, not the smoker’s death.
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July 03, 2023
Asbestos Jurisdiction Case Resolved; Supreme Court Denies Petition In Georgia Case
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 30 denied certiorari for a case involving whether an automobile tire defect claim belonged in Georgia after recently issuing an opinion on jurisdiction in an asbestos case the parties cited in briefing.
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June 30, 2023
Federal Magistrate OKs Testimony On Reasonableness Of Medical Rates After Crash
AUSTIN, Texas — Physicians can testify on the reasonableness of medical charges a man incurred for neurological and neck issues after a car accident, a Texas federal magistrate judge said in ruling on two motions to exclude in separate orders.
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June 30, 2023
JP Morgan $290M Pact In Epstein Sex Crimes Case OK’d In Amended Order
NEW YORK — An amended order preliminarily approving a $290 million settlement to be paid by JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. (JPMC) was filed by a federal judge in New York on June 29 in a lawsuit by a class of women allegedly abused or trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein who accuse JPMC of being liable for facilitating those crimes by maintaining Epstein’s accounts.
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June 30, 2023
Split Iowa Supreme Court Says Chemical Injury Plaintiff Failed To Show Causation
DES MOINES, Iowa — A split Iowa Supreme Court has affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of a woman’s lawsuit alleging permanent lung injury from exposure to chemical vapors from drain cleaner used in the building where she worked, ruling that she failed to offer evidence to establish causation.
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June 28, 2023
Missouri Federal Judge Limits Engineer’s Testimony In Defective Design Case
ST. LOUIS — A licensed engineered retained as an expert in a product liability case can testify on the ergonomics and biomechanics of a chain and ratchet system, but he is unqualified to offer medical causation opinions, a federal judge in Missouri ruled.
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June 28, 2023
Talc Company Fights Successor Liability After $20M Asbestos Verdict
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — While a jury may draw inferences from evidence, nothing a jury in an asbestos-talc case heard could allow it to impose liability on one talc company for the actions of a company it purchased, Vanderbilt Minerals LLC told a Connecticut judge on June 27.
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June 28, 2023
JP Morgan’s $290M Settlement Preliminarily Approved In Epstein Sex Crimes Case
NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York on June 27 preliminarily approved a $290 million settlement to be paid by JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. (JPMC) to end a lawsuit by a class of women allegedly abused or trafficked by Jeffrey Epstein who accuse JPMC of being liable for facilitating those crimes by maintaining Epstein’s accounts.
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June 27, 2023
Supreme Court Permits Consent-By-Registration In Employee’s Asbestos Suit
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Pennsylvania law requiring that companies consent to jurisdiction when registering to do business permits a Virginia resident’s asbestos suit against the Virginia-based railroad that formerly employed him in Ohio and Virginia, a divided U.S. Supreme Court said June 27.
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June 27, 2023
Judge: Calif. Attorney Allowed To Act As Counsel In Montana Case If AI Not Used
MISSOULA, Mont. — A California attorney may appear as co-counsel in a personal injury case in a federal court in Montana against a dude ranch as long as the attorney does her own writing and signing, appears in person and does not use artificial intelligence (AI) automated drafting programs, a federal judge in Montana ruled, admitting the attorney pro hac vice on those conditions.
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June 27, 2023
Magistrate: Expert Can Offer Inconclusive Opinions On Causation Of Eye Injury
DENVER — A federal magistrate judge in Colorado refused to exclude an expert who said he could not definitively say injuries a man says he sustained when police officers fired pepper-filled projectiles at his eye were caused by the projectiles, finding that the testimony passed muster under Federal Rule of Evidence 702.
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June 26, 2023
Judge Issues Ruling On Care Home’s Motion For Judgment In Wrongful Death Suit
PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania federal judge in an opinion filed June 23 denied in part a nursing home’s motion for summary judgment in a wrongful death, negligence and civil rights violations suit filed against it by the estate of a former resident, finding that genuine issues of material fact remain regarding whether inadequate staffing and training existed and contributed to the decedent’s injuries.
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June 26, 2023
Attorneys Sanctioned For Filing Brief With Fake Lawsuits Generated By ChatGPT
NEW YORK — Before determining that an injured airline passenger’s complaint against an airline is time-barred and must be dismissed, a New York federal judge sanctioned the passenger’s attorneys, ordering them to pay a $5,000 penalty to the court and write letters to a number of judges, for including fake citations and fake lawsuits produced by ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot application, in a response brief filed in New York federal court.
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June 26, 2023
High Court Denies Review Of Title IX Statute Of Limitations In Sexual Assault Cases
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 26 denied petitions for writs of certiorari by Ohio State University (OSU) seeking review of Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rulings in separate cases that sexual assault suits brought based on the conduct of a university employee that occurred more than 20 years before the victims filed suit were not barred by the statute of limitations.
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June 26, 2023
$6M Wrongful Death Verdict For Estate Reversed Due To Improperly Admitted Evidence
DES MOINES, Iowa — An Iowa appellate court reversed and remanded a $6 million jury verdict for an estate in its wrongful death and negligence suit against a nursing home, finding that the trial court improperly admitted hearsay evidence, including rumors of a certified nursing assistant’s (CNA) prior bad acts without “clear proof” of the alleged misconduct.
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June 23, 2023
Split California Panel Affirms: Wrongful Death Claim Is Not Subject To Arbitration
LOS ANGELES — A divided California appellate court affirmed a lower court’s decision denying a rehabilitation center’s motion to compel arbitration in a wrongful death suit against it, finding that the California Code of Civil Procedure binds heirs to arbitration only for wrongful death claims related to professional negligence, rather than elder abuse as alleged in the case.
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June 21, 2023
Appeals Court: Governmental Immunity In Dispute After Expert Properly Admitted
DETROIT — A Michigan trial court did not err in denying a motion for summary disposition based on governmental immunity after finding that a causation expert’s testimony was admissible, a state appellate panel ruled in affirming.
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June 20, 2023
High Court Justices Decline To Review Veteran’s Plutonium Exposure Class Dispute
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 20 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari by a veteran who alleges that his leukopenia was caused by exposure to radioactive plutonium while he was serving in the Air Force in the mid-1960s and argued that the Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals erred when it held that the Veterans Court lacked the jurisdiction to certify in a single class veterans with both exhausted and unexhausted claims.
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June 20, 2023
Jury Finds Dead Smoker Failed To Prove Addiction In Engle Trial
TAMPA, Fla. — A Florida jury returned a defense verdict in an Engle trial on claims brought by the three adult children of a smoker who died at 46 from lung cancer, rejecting the children’s claim that their mother was deceived into smoking filtered cigarettes. VIDEO FROM THE TRIAL IS AVAILABLE.