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Limits on class-action lawsuits at Supreme Court
Court Watch |
2012/11/06 18:25
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The Supreme Court appeared divided Monday in two cases in which businesses are trying to make it harder for customers or investors to band together to sue them.
The justices heard arguments in appeals from biotech company Amgen Inc. and cable provider Comcast Corp. that seek to shut down class-action lawsuits against the businesses.
Amgen is fighting securities fraud claims that misstatements about two of its drugs used to treat anemia artificially inflated its stock price. Comcast is facing a lawsuit from customers who say the company's monopoly in parts of the Philadelphia area allowed it to raise prices unfairly.
Last year, the Supreme Court raised the bar for some class-action suits when it sided with Wal-Mart against up to 1.6 million of its female employees who complained of sex discrimination. In the Wal-Mart case, the court said there were too many women in too many jobs at the nation's largest private employer to wrap into one lawsuit.
Class actions increase pressure on businesses to settle suits because of the cost of defending them and the potential for very large judgments. |
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Italian court convicts 7 for no quake warning
Court Line |
2012/10/26 23:44
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Defying assertions that earthquakes cannot be predicted, an Italian court convicted seven scientists and experts of manslaughter Monday for failing to adequately warn residents before a temblor struck central Italy in 2009 and killed more than 300 people.
The court in L'Aquila also sentenced the defendants to six years each in prison. All are members of the national Great Risks Commission, and several are prominent scientists or geological and disaster experts.
Scientists had decried the trial as ridiculous, contending that science has no reliable way of predicting earthquakes. So news of the verdict shook the tightknit community of earthquake experts worldwide.
"It's a sad day for science," said seismologist Susan Hough, of the U.S. Geological Survey in Pasadena, Calif. "It's unsettling." That fellow seismic experts in Italy were singled out in the case "hits you in the gut," Hough added.
In Italy, convictions aren't definitive until after at least one level of appeals, so it is unlikely any of the defendants would face jail immediately.
Other Italian public officials and experts have been put on trial for earthquake-triggered damage, such as the case in southern Italy for the collapse of a school in a 2002 quake in which 27 children and a teacher were killed. But that case centered on allegations of shoddy construction of buildings in quake-prone areas. |
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Court blocks Ind. defunding of Planned Parenthood
Legal News |
2012/10/24 23:44
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Indiana stepped between women and their physicians when it enacted a law that blocked Medicaid funds for Planned Parenthood just because the organization provides abortions, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.
The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago upheld a lower court's finding that Indiana violated federal regulations when it enacted a law that denied Planned Parenthood Medicaid funds for general health services including cancer screenings.
The ruling is the latest setback in conservative efforts in several states to cut off funding for abortion providers that judges say go too far, intruding on women's right to choose their own medical care.
On Friday, a federal judge blocked Arizona from applying a similar law to Planned Parenthood. Also last week, Texas released new rules for a state women's health program requiring officials to shut down the program entirely if a court asks the state to include providers tied to groups like Planned Parenthood. The state broke the program off from Medicaid funding after federal officials determined it violated women's right to choose their own doctor.
And earlier this month, Oklahoma withdrew federal funding to three Planned Parenthood clinics in Tulsa that for 18 years has allowed them to provide food and nutritional counseling to low-income mothers.
Ken Falk, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana that handled the case, said that while people often associate Planned Parenthood with abortion, it also is a critical provider of non-abortion-related health services to both women and men. |
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UK court sides with Samsung in Apple suit
Court Watch |
2012/10/20 23:58
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Britain's Court of Appeal has backed a judgment that Samsung's Galaxy
tablet computer is "not as cool" as Apple's iPad — and therefore
doesn't infringe Apple's rights.
The panel's upholding of the findings of by a lower court endorses the
U.K. judgment which made headlines around the world when it was handed
down in July. Judge Colin Birss had then gushed over Apple's design,
while knocking back the company's case against its rival.
"The extreme simplicity of the Apple design is striking," Birss wrote
at the time, enthusing over its "undecorated flat surfaces," its "very
thin rim" and "crisp edge."
"It is an understated, smooth and simple product," Birss wrote, saying
that Samsung's products "are not as cool."
On Thursday, the Court of Appeal agreed unanimously with Birss, with
Judge Robin Jacob ordering Apple to publicize the court rulings to
make sure consumers knew that Samsung wasn't a copycat.
"The acknowledgement must come from the horse's mouth," Jacob said.
"Nothing short of that will be sure to do the job completely."
Kim Walker, a partner with English law firm Thomas Eggar LLP, said
that the ruling was an endorsement of Samsung's originality — if not
its design.
"It appears that you don't have to be cool to be original when it
comes to intellectual property rights," she wrote in an email. "You
just have to be different!"
The British case is just one of several in Apple and Samsung's
international copyright battle, which has raged across Europe and the
United States. |
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Iowa court official accused of gay marriage fraud
Court Line |
2012/10/18 23:58
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An Iowa court official is accused of helping a same-sex couple from
Florida to get a marriage certificate without stepping foot in the
state.
The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation says Grundy County Deputy
Clerk of Court Brigitte Van Nice was arrested Wednesday and charged
with two counts of forgery and one count of perjury.
A complaint says Van Nice received an online ordination last year
allowing her to perform weddings. She started talking with two Florida
men who were interested in getting married in Iowa, one of six states
that allow same-sex marriage.
The complaint says Van Nice filed a false document in February
claiming that she officiated their marriage and that two people
witnessed it.
A message left for Van Nice wasn't returned early Thursday. |
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