Free Republic

SAN ANTONIO — Mikal Watts didn’t have a fighting chance — politics were in his life from the start. As a toddler, he rode in a stroller as his mother marched in a farm workers’ rights march in Austin. Politics made for dinner table conversation and filled the pages of books in the family library. He attended fundraising barbecues with his parents. Before the age of 18, he knocked on doors registering people to vote. In the years since, Watts has risen from law-school whiz kid (he received a degree at 21) to nationally known product liability lawyer and political...

The last victim of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse has been recovered from the water. The long, complex search for the disaster's cause is ramping up in earnest. It's about the time we'd expect the lawyers to descend. But the pinstripes are already out of the gate, setting new records for jumping the gun in a disaster. Just days after the collapse, while recovery crews were still battling treacherous waters, Schwebel, Goetz & Sieben -- one of the state's highest profile personal injury firms -- petitioned for access to the site for three attorneys and two expert witnesses. An immediate...

(Middletown-WTNH, May 23, 2006 6:38 AM) _ An illegal immigrant is hospitalized with life-threatening injuries after plummeting 30 feet while working on the roof of a home. He laid on the ground injured before anyone called 9-1-1, apparently because some of his co-workers are illegals too and were afraid to call for help. "It was the neighbor actually who watched the incident unfold and was very surprised when after 20 or 25 minutes there were no sirens approaching," says Lt. Peggy Liseo, Middletown Police Department. Roof repairs came to a stop at the home on Butternut Street home when the...

ANGLETON, Texas - Merck & Co.'s first wrongful-death verdict over its painkiller Vioxx came in a case that was not seen as especially strong, and is likely to inspire thousands of more suits on top of the 4,200 already filed against the drug maker, analysts say. Analysts have already estimated Merck's liability could be as high as $18 billion and that number could now rise. Merck & Co.'s stock sank $2.35, or 7.7 percent, to close at $28.06. The jury awarded $253.4 million in damages to a widow of a man who died in 2001 of heart arrhythmia, or irregular...

No single person has come to more represent the big questions about drug safety that emerged following the withdrawal of Merck's painkiller Vioxx than the Food and Drug Administration's David Graham. And now that a Texas jury has awarded the widow of one Vioxx patient $253 million, Graham, who works in the FDA's Office of Drug Safety, is more critical than ever. Of the drug, and his employer, for whom he doesn't speak. "If the judgment is that there's blood on Merck's (nyse: MRK - news - people ) hands," Graham says, "there's blood on the FDA's hands as well."...

ANGLETON -- The Brazoria County jury in the nation's first Vioxx-related civil trial has found pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. liable for the death of a man who took the painkiller.Jurors awarded Robert Ernst's widow, Carol, $253.4 million in damages, which is a combination of his lost pay as a Wal-Mart produce manager, mental anguish, loss of companionship and punitive damages. Carol Ernst began to cry when the verdict was read while her attorneys jumped up and shouted, "Amen!" The plaintiffs team huddled and hugged and repeated, "Amen, amen," while plaintiff's lawyer Ben Morelli told Ernst, "It's your jury." "Anyone who said they...

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Merck has been held liable by a Texas jury in the first lawsuit involving its former blockbuster drug Vioxx, in a case that could have a profound effect on thousands of other cases filed against the company. Plaintiff Carol Ernst has won her lawsuit in Texas Superior Court, which blames Vioxx for the 2001 death of her husband, Robert Ernst, a 59-year-old marathon runner and Wal-Mart worker who was taking the arthritis painkiller at the time of his death. Ernst died of a heart attack. The verdict held Merck liable for the death. The jury awarded...

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WASHINGTON – Greedy trial lawyers would have to think twice before filing a frivolous lawsuit if legislation introduced by Congressman Chocola becomes law. The Legal Expense Equity Act of 2004, which is companion legislation to Senator Lindsey Graham’s (R-SC) version, establishes a set of guidelines under which the either party of a civil lawsuit in federal court could be required to pay the opposing side’s attorney fees. “Frivolous lawsuits brought by irresponsible trial lawyers are hurting our nation-driving up healthcare costs, putting doctors out of business, eliminating thousands of jobs, while devastating our economy,” Chocola said. “It is time to...

<p>TULSA, Okla. - A dwindling number of race-riot survivors - some more than 100 years old - will finally have a chance to make their case for reparations, eight decades after a white mob tore into a thriving black neighborhood, leaving as many as 300 people dead.</p>

<p>America's lawsuit culture is transforming our society, but there's been little focus on why litigation spun out of control over the last 30 years. People never used to sue for hot coffee spills, or for getting fat. There was a time, in the 1970s, when a million-dollar verdict for an accident was headline news. Now people sue for billions. What changed?</p>

PALMDALE -- In a judgment against a 17-year-old girl and her father's automobile dealership, a jury has awarded $7.3 million to a seriously injured Los Angeles Police Department patrolman for a traffic accident caused by the teen as she talked on a cellular telephone. A car driven by plaintiff Robert Jewett collided with defendant Kelly Johnson's sport-utility vehicle at 42nd Street West and Avenue N as Johnson made an illegal U-turn while talking on a cellular telephone, according to court testimony. The three-week trial in front of Judge John Doyle in the North District Palmdale Courthouse ended Monday with the...