John O'Brien News
Lawsuit says Texas' anti-gun signs are a burden on businesses
HOUSTON (Legal Newsline) – A Texas church and a coffee shop are suing Attorney General Ken Paxton over legislation that requires them to post signs asking visitors to keep guns off of their property.
Hundreds of Texans sue Gov. Abbott, say they're being spied on
BEAUMONT, Texas (Legal Newsline) – Republican delegates and lawmakers, pastors and bars are suing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other state officials over the use of contact tracing to monitor the daily movements of Texans.
Texas Supreme Court lets Houston out of GOP Convention contract; Dissenting justice left shaking his head
Texas Supreme Court lets Houston out of GOP Convention contract; Dissenting justice left shaking his head
Texas court says it can't derail 'ugly' climate change lawsuits though it would like to
FORT WORTH, Texas (Legal Newsline) – A conflicted Texas appellate court thinks climate change litigation pursued by private lawyers is “ugly” but ruled it is powerless to help ExxonMobil fight it.
Texas law doesn't protect ranch from wrongful death lawsuit after bull tramples worker
AUSTIN, Texas (Legal Newsline) – A Texas law protecting defendants does not apply to the wrongful death lawsuit filed after a ranch hand was apparently killed by the livestock he was tasked with herding.
Fifteen states to California: Don't tell our farmers how to treat animals
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Legal Newsline) – California is trying to impose its own animal-confinement agenda on farmers in the rest of the country, say the Republican attorneys general of 15 states.
Trial lawyers start search for next big mass tort, increase Zantac ads by more than 1,000%
Recent advertising figures indicate the makers of the heartburn drug Zantac and its generic equivalents will soon be facing an onslaught of lawsuits, as personal injury lawyers have begun the process of rounding up clients.
ACLU concerned opioid judge is risking patients' privacy with recent order
CINCINNATI (Legal Newsline) – The ACLU is telling a federal appeals court that the judge overseeing thousands of opioid cases created a serious privacy issue when he ordered pharmacies to turn over 13 years’ worth of patient records.
A rundown of the cabal of lawyers, activists and public officials with an anti-Exxon agenda
NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) – The ongoing trial in New York City is giving ExxonMobil another chance to show that nonprofits, private lawyers and elected officials have for years targeted the company as a scapegoat for climate change.
Here are the names of lawyers whose TV ads are scaring and lying to viewers, according to the FTC
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – The Federal Trade Commission says lawyers and legal advertisers looking for plaintiffs to sue drug companies are making false claims in their TV ads, as well as possibly scaring viewers into stopping taking their medications.
Millions are spent on ads targeting diabetes medications, but FTC worried lawyers are lying in them
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – As a federal agency considers whether lawyers are illegally frightening potential clients who see their television commercials, research shows drugs like Invokana and Truvada are among the most popular subjects of lawyer spending.
Jurors won't get confused during huge opioid trial, judge rules; He'll set penalties after
CLEVELAND (Legal Newsline) – A jury will determine who, if anyone, is liable for the nation’s addiction crisis, but the judge overseeing a historic trial will decide how much they would pay.
‘Business decision’: Former DEA official works for opioid lawyers but set standards for how many pills were made
Now, Rannazzisi is helping private lawyers pin the blame squarely on manufacturers and distributors of opioids, as well as pharmacies. A post-DEA alliance with trial lawyers has been worth six figures for Rannazzisi, who has been hailed as a whistleblower by those cheering attempts to prosecute the opioid industry for the nation’s addiction crisis.
Same day, different verdicts: Why do some juries think there is asbestos in talcum powder and others don't?
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (Legal Newsline) – Judges continue to play a crucial role in the sprawling, possibly multibillion-dollar talcum powder litigation facing Johnson & Johnson by choosing how jurors will view the plaintiffs’ key expert.
'Easy grandstanding': Congress backs trial lawyers' effort to condemn chemicals, win lawsuits while science debated
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – As Congress vilifies chemicals known as PFAS, some question whether the research upon which lawmakers – and trial lawyers – are relying shows that anyone has actually been harmed by them.
A dissident emerges in Pennsylvania's opioid litigation: Lehigh Co. claims its case has been highjacked
The fight for control of Pennsylvania’s opioid litigation is not over, as Lehigh County is not happy that its case has been grouped in with more than 30 others and that lawyers it previously rejected have been tasked with overseeing the proceedings.
Blame the criminals, pharmacies facing opioid lawsuits say
CLEVELAND (Legal Newsline) – Large pharmacy chains are asking why they are being sued by hundreds of cities and counties over the opioid crisis instead of the criminals who pushed drugs to addicts.
States against climate change lawsuits ask for dismissal of NYC's
NEW YORK (Legal Newsline) – The top lawyers of 15 states are again asking a federal judge to reject the legal strategy used by public officials and the private attorneys with whom they’ve teamed to sue the energy industry over alleged effects of climate change.
Plaintiffs firm represented whistleblower in secret to avoid paying referral fee from multimillion-dollar case, lawsuit claims
PHILADELPHIA – A Texas personal injury law firm claims it is owed part of $16 million awarded to a corporate whistleblower because colleagues effectively poached the client and represented him in secret.
As Boulder sues, 15 states - including Colorado - oppose global warming lawsuits
SAN FRANCISCO (Legal Newsline) – Two days after local officials in the Boulder, Colo., area filed a lawsuit that attempts to hold large energy companies liable for the alleged effects of global warming, the state’s top lawyer showed that she disagrees with their legal argument by voicing her opposition to similar lawsuits in California.