In an important Second Amendment decision that charts a course for evaluating the validity of gun laws now that the Supreme Court has declared the right to be an individual one, the 3rd Circuit has refused to strike down a federal law that bans possession of guns with obliterated serial numbers. Perhaps the most important lesson to be gleaned from the 3rd Circuit opinion is that courts faced with
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The first personal injury lawsuit involving the chemical dispersant Corexit 9500 has surfaced in Alabama federal court, where two Gulf Coast residents and property owners claim BP has dumped millions of gallons of toxic chemicals into the Gulf of Mexico to disperse and sink crude oil. The plaintiffs allege one method of applying Corexit 9500 -- spraying it from airplanes in the middle of the nigh
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When a top-level executive suddenly quits to take a job at a competing firm, the courts may block the start of the new employment if the evidence shows that such an injunction is needed to prevent a likely misappropriation of trade secrets, the 3rd Circuit has ruled. The ruling came in Bimbo Bakeries USA Inc. v. Botticella, in which the court considered whether the manufacturer of Thomas' brand E
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The Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday reached a $23.4 million settlement with General Electric over charges the company violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. GE, along with two subsidiaries and two other companies that have since been acquired by GE, allegedly made illegal kickbacks totaling $3.6 million in the form of cash, computer equipment, medical supplies and services to t
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As lawyer for several major banks, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup, David J. Stern handles 20 percent of all foreclosure cases in the nation's fourth-most-populous state. It's from Stern's law firm that well over 100,000 Floridians have received the dreaded notice to pay up or face losing their homes. While the foreclosure business has been good to Stern, however, controvers
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What should the bench do to help lawyers navigate EDD disputes? Courts need to borrow from a 7th Circuit program, which states that "zealous representation of a client is NOT compromised by conducting discovery in a cooperative manner," says an attorney on the circuit's EDD committee.
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Members of Congress are still looking for a way to authorize a couple of billion-dollar agreements that would settle litigation involving the federal government and minority groups. The House of Representatives had included authority for the settlements in a bill authorizing supplemental war funding. That bill passed the House July 1. But senators rejected that idea Thursday in the latest setback
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A group of plaintiffs attorneys active in oil spill litigation are targeting the administrator of BP's $20 billion compensation fund, calling on him to disclose how much the oil giant is paying him and to stop discouraging victims from seeking legal representation. The attorneys worry that fund administrator Kenneth Feinberg, an iconic figure who managed the 9/11 compensation fund, is a tool of B
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