On July 24, 2013, the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East (Authority) filed suit against 97 oil, gas, and pipeline companies for their alleged contribution to the continuing diminution of Louisiana’s wetlands. This historic lawsuit demands that these companies immediately restore damage to the wetlands, arguing that the Authority’s flood protection…
Picture this unlikely scenario: An intoxicated motorist is driving his vehicle at speeds well in excess of the speed limit (let’s say, he’s traveling at 100 mph in a 35 mph zone). As the unsafe motorist approaches a downtown intersection, a jay-walking pedestrian begins to cross the street when it…
Almost two weeks have passed since Judge Carl Barbier handed down his blistering opinion apportioning a majority of the fault to BP for the 2010 Gulf oil spill. As a follow-up to last week’s article, which detailed Judge Barbier’s ruling, we aim to dig deeper: Judge Barbier found that BP’s…
In a recent ruling handed down in Federal District Court in New Orleans, Federal District Judge Carl Barbier assigned the majority of the responsibility to BP for the 2010 explosion of Deepwater Horizon. Judge Barbier found the discharge of oil to be the result of BP’s “gross negligence” and “willful…
A jury in Lafayette has awarded $1.5 million in compensatory damages and $9 billion in punitive damages to a former user of the Actos diabetes medication after the jury determined that the drug was linked to the plaintiff’s bladder cancer. Both defendants, Takeda Pharmaceuticals Co. and Eli Lilly & Co.,…
A class action suit seeking over $2 million in damages alleges that Henderson police officers were paid to ticket motorists along I-10 under an illegal ticket quote system. The suit alleges that these police officers were paid $15 for every ticket issued to drivers on I-10 and that some of…
A Vermillion Parish jury awarded $5.1 million to Cow Island residents to help pay for the cleanup of soil and groundwater heavily contaminated with arsenic. The case arose after a Cow Island resident was diagnosed with cancer, making him the second in his rectory to be diagnosed with the deadly…
Toyota will pay $1.1 billion to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by millions of car owners. In the suit, car owners alleged they suffered economic loss from negative publicity associated with reports of sudden unintended acceleration in their Toyota and Lexus vehicles. This lawsuit is one of the first class…
A federal judge gave final approval to a $37.5 million settlement between the manufacturers of FEMA trailers and storm victims who used the trailers following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. This class of 55,000 plaintiffs claimed they were exposed to formaldehyde, a known carcinogen, while living in the trailers. In a…
GlaxoSmithKline will pay $3 billion dollars, the biggest single settlement of health fraud in U.S. history, for the unlawful marketing of two drugs and failing to provide necessary information to the Food and Drug Administration. The drug company admitted to falsely representing that certain drugs, such as Paxil and Wellbutrin,…