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Doctor charged in Jackson's death due in court
Headline Legal News |
2010/08/23 08:54
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pThe doctor charged in Michael Jackson's death is due back in court for a scheduling hearing that will determine when prosecutors will publicly present some of their evidence./ppDr. Conrad Murray is required to attend Monday's hearing, during which a Los Angeles judge is expected to schedule a preliminary hearing for later this year./ppThe judge will decide at that hearing whether there is enough evidence for the involuntary manslaughter case against the cardiologist to continue. Murray, who maintains offices in Las Vegas and Houston, was charged in February for administering a lethal dose of anesthetic propofol to Jackson./ppMurray has pleaded not guilty and his attorneys have said the physician did not give Jackson anything that should have killed him.
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BP Class Action Lawsuit Filed Over Release of Benzene
Headline Legal News |
2010/08/09 08:47
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pA $10 billion toxic tort class action lawsuit has been filed against BP over alleged emissions from its troubled Texas City oil refinery, alleging that workers and residents in the area were exposed to benzene and other chemicals. nbsp;
More than 2,200 workers at the refinery and residents from the surrounding area filed the BP class action lawsuit on August 3 in the Galveston Division of the Southern District of Texas. The complaint alleges that for 40 days earlier this year, the company illegally released the chemical benzene into the atmosphere./ppThe benzene lawsuit comes just as BP, formerly known as British Petroleum, was finally able to stop the flow of oil from a well a mile under the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, which has caused a massive oil spill that is expected to cost the company tens of billions of dollars in oil spill lawsuits and clean up costs. /ppPlaintiffs in the BP Texas City refinery class action lawsuit say the company has been releasing benzene into the atmosphere at the plant due to a hydrogen compressor that broke down on April 6. The 2,212 plaintiffs allege that they suffered serious injuries and illnesses from benzene exposure./ppBenzene is an industrial chemical that has been linked to the development of cancer, leukemia and other life-threatening health problems. It is a known carcinogen used as an industrial solvent in the production of plastic and synthetic rubber, as well as drugs and dyes./ppBP’s Texas City Refinery is the third-largest oil refinery in the United States, and has been the subject of several major safety incidents. As recently as September, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration hit BP with an $87.4 million fine for not complying with a safety agreement made after a March 23, 2005 explosion and fire that killed 15 workers and injured more than 170 others./ppIn February 2009, BP Products North America agreed to pay $180 million to resolve a separate environmental lawsuit over benzene emissions at the oil refinery. That case involved violations of a 2001 consent decree and Clean Air regulations which were identified during inspections by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) following the March 2005 blast./p |
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Calif. high court upholds affirmative action ban
Headline Legal News |
2010/08/03 01:57
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pCalifornia's high court on Monday upheld the state's 14-year-old law barring preferential treatment of women and minorities in public school admissions, government hiring and contracting./ppIn a 6-1 ruling, the state Supreme Court rejected arguments from the city of San Francisco and Attorney General Jerry Brown that the law, known as Proposition 209, violates federal equality protections./ppOpponents of the ban say it creates barriers for minorities and women that don't exist for other groups, such as veterans seeking preference./ppThe ruling written by Justice Kathryn Werdegar came in response to lawsuits filed by white contractors challenging San Francisco's affirmative action program, which was suspended in 2003./ppAs the court recognized, Proposition 209 is a civil rights measure that protects everyone, regardless of background, said Sharon Browne, a lawyer for the Pacific Legal Foundation, which represented the contractors. Under Proposition 209, no one can be victimized by unfair government policies that discriminate or grant preferences based on sex or skin color./ppIf San Francisco wants to resurrect the program, the Supreme Court said it must show compelling evidence the city purposefully or intentionally discriminated against minority and women contractors and that such a law was the only way to fix the problem.
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BP spill cases head to court as Shell counts cost
Headline Legal News |
2010/07/29 08:57
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| pThe tide of lawsuits unleashed by BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico breaks into an Idaho courtroom on Thursday, just as the company's rivals are counting the cost of a ban on offshore drilling./ppAttorneys hoping to lead the legal fight against BP are set to descend on Boise, Idaho, to address a special judicial panel considering how to bring order to the hundreds of civil lawsuits spawned by the spill after a rig explosion on April 20./ppThere will be more lawyers in that courtroom than exist in the entire city of Boise put together, Mark Lanier, a Houston-based lawyer who plans to attend the hearing, joked this week. It's going to be a circus./ppSeven U.S. federal judges will convene more than 2,000 miles from the Gulf's oil-smudged shores to consider which U.S. court, or courts, should oversee hundreds of spill-related suits by injured rig workers, fishermen, investors and property owners./ppPotentially adding its name to the line of claimants, Royal Dutch Shell Plc idled seven rigs and took a $56 million charge related to the drilling ban on Thursday. Saying the ban would reduce its production by almost 3 million barrels this year, the company did not rule out reclaiming the cash from BP./ppShell, one of the biggest oil producers in the Gulf of Mexico, said it had idled rigs rather than move them elsewhere because the ban's six-month duration meant it was not profitable to redeploy them to other areas. /p |
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N.J. gay-marriage case must begin in lower court
Headline Legal News |
2010/07/27 09:03
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pThe push for gay marriage in New Jersey suffered a setback Monday when the state Supreme Court said six gay couples who claim New Jersey has denied them the rights granted to married heterosexual couples must argue their case through the lower courts.
The court was split, 3-3, in the decision; four affirmative votes are needed for a motion to be granted. /ppChief Justice Stuart Rabner and Justices Roberto Rivera-Soto and Helen Hoens said in an order that the issue cannot be decided without the development of an appropriate trial-like record, and denied the plaintiffs' motion without prejudice. /ppThey added that they reached no conclusion on the merits of the plaintiffs' allegations that the Civil Union Act violates their constitutional rights./p |
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