A Maryland appellate court has overturned a verdict awarding $64,000 to a woman who suffered an injury on a Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (“Metro”) platform. The court found that Metro is entitled to sovereign immunity as a joint agency of the governments of Maryland, Virginia, and the District of…
Families of the victims killed in a tragic helicopter crash near Las Vegas, Nevada have filed two lawsuits against the company that operated the sightseeing craft. The crash occurred the afternoon of December 7, 2011 in the Lake Mead Recreational Area near the Hoover Dam, about twelve miles east of…
A task force appointed to investigate an infamous case at the University of California at Davis, when a campus police officer evidently used pepper spray on a group of seated, allegedly non-violent student protesters in November 2011, has decided not to release the findings of their investigation yet. The task…
A judge awarded $17.845 million to a family in a negligence lawsuit against the federal government over a military jet crash that killed four people. A series of mechanical failures and human errors caused the U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18D Hornet jet to crash into the family’s University City home in…
An investigation into a car crash caused by distracted driving has led the nation’s leading governmental traffic safety advocate to urge state governments to ban all use of portable communications devices by drivers. This would include cell phones, meaning a total ban on non-emergency talking and texting while operating a…
A Washington, DC-area dentist recently warned about the importance of protecting children’s teeth and jaws from injury as they participate in fall and winter sports, noting the potential for serious damage and complications from fairly common sports injuries. The dentist, of course, recommends obtaining a custom-made mouth guard with the…
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recently released its report on a deadly gas pipeline explosion that ravaged a neighborhood outside San Francisco and killed eight people last year. The NTSB, after reviewing data and testimony presented at a meeting in August and over a year-long investigation, concluded unanimously that…
The federal government has agreed to pay $2.5 million to Maureen Stevens, a resident of Lantana, Florida, to settle her lawsuit arising from the 2001 death of her husband, Bob Stevens, in the anthrax attacks that occurred in various cities that fall. The $50 million lawsuit claimed negligence by the…
A jury in a federal lawsuit in Cheyenne, Wyoming has awarded $9 million to Louis and Rebecca Prager. The suit against Campbell County Memorial Hospital in Gillette, Wyoming and Dr. Brian Cullison alleged medical negligence during treatment of Mr. Prager in 2008, leading to permanent disabilities. The award may be…
The parents of Michelle Fournier, a woman killed in a hair salon shooting that left eight people dead and one wounded, have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the alleged shooter. The alleged gunman, Scott Dekraai, is Fournier’s ex-husband. The lawsuit asks the court to freeze Dekraai’s assets. According to…