In the News

“We have seen a number of other lawsuits brought by lawyers, public adjusters, estimators, and others fighting with one another over referral fees, commissions, and estimate charges in these matters,” says Steven Badger, a Zelle LLP attorney who represents the insurance industry in hail- and-wind related litigation. “[T]he underlying lawsuits giving rise to these disputes are about lining the pockets of those who have found a way to inject themselves into the insurance claims process.”

“Then boilerplate lawsuits are drafted by non-lawyer staff and filed,” he continues. “No investigation of the underlying merit of the dispute is ever conducted by a real lawyer. Not surprisingly, a significant number of these lawsuits are entirely without merit and are either dismissed or settled for nuisance value.”

Across the country, the jobs of manufacturing workers are being threatened by trial attorneys and politicians targeting manufacturers with baseless lawsuits based on the legal theory of “public nuisance,” attempting to hold manufacturers responsible for harms that are often far outside of their control. While trial lawyers have pursued such lawsuits for years, there has been a dramatic increase over the past year, as lawyers team up with states, cities and counties to sue manufacturers over climate change.

The Legislature voted last year to end straight-party voting for the 2020 elections. After a tough night for some down-ballot Republicans, some are wishing they’d done it sooner.

New York City appealed a federal judge’s July decision to toss out the city’s global warming suit against five major oil companies.

A looming showdown over evidence could determine the future path of more than 1,000 opioid lawsuits concentrated in federal court in Ohio, as defendants accuse the plaintiffs of refusing to turn over prescription records and other information they say is necessary to defend themselves against claims they caused the nationwide addiction crisis.

With Louisiana’s legal climate having been dubbed a “judicial hellhole” by the American Tort Reform Association, groups and individuals alike are calling for reform of the judicial system that has cost the state $1.1 billion a year.

A law firm that was once king when it came to Texas storm litigation has been sued by a Hidalgo County attorney claiming he is owed money from the wave of lawsuits that were brought after hailstorms devastated the Rio Grande Valley six years ago.

A South Florida couple, Cynthia Kissner and Leonard Werner, filed the suit complaining they had been charged the full price of a Quarter Pounder with Cheese, even though they requested the burger not have cheese.

With the courts and Trump Administration rolling back federal climate regulation, green activists have turned to the states. But there’s a troubling ethical twist: Instead of merely lobbying, activists are placing employees in Attorneys General offices in dubious private-public condominiums.

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday in a case that could end cy pres, the practice of steering money in class action settlements to organizations with absolutely no connection to the underlying lawsuit.