Arbitration and Mediation

  • HP-EDS deal price at issue in court hearing
    AP ( 22, 2008)
    PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) - A shareholder group is trying to pressure Electronic Data Systems Corp. into demanding more than the $13.2 billion that Hewlett-Packard Co. has offered for the technology services company.
     
  • Court tosses FCC 'wardrobe malfunction' fine
    AP ( 22, 2008)
    PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Among the most notorious on-screen gaffes ever, Janet Jackson's breast-baring "wardrobe malfunction" on CBS during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show drew a $550,000 indecency fine from the Federal Communications Commission. Now a federal appeals court has thrown it out.
     
  • Merck to fund Vioxx settlement in August
    AP ( 17, 2008)
    TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - Drugmaker Merck & Co. will start cutting checks for former users of its withdrawn painkiller Vioxx next month, after announcing Thursday that it will fund a $4.85 billion settlement expected to resolve roughly 50,000 lawsuits alleging harm from Vioxx.
     
  • Boy band promoter ordered to repay victims $300M
    AP ( 16, 2008)
    ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Lou Pearlman and federal authorities have finally agreed on how much the former boy band promoter swindled from banks and investors in a decades-long scam: a staggering $300 million.
     
  • SC judge OKs James Brown auction
    AP ( 15, 2008)
    COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - A South Carolina judge says an auction of James Brown's belongings in New York can go forward as planned this week.
     
  • Court finds Mitsubishi executives guilty
    AP ( 15, 2008)
    TOKYO (AP) - A Japanese court found Mitsubishi Motors and its three former executives guilty Tuesday of falsifying a report to the government in a fatal accident suspected of being linked to a wheel defect.
     
  • Court rejects Bush's signature air pollution rule
    AP ( 11, 2008)
    WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal appeals court unanimously struck down a signature component of President Bush's clean air policies Friday, dealing a blow to environmental groups and likely delaying further action until the next administration.
     
  • EU court: Rehear Sony BMG case
    AP ( 10, 2008)
    BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - The European Union's highest court ruled Thursday that a lower court made several mistakes when it overturned regulatory approval for Sony Corp. and Bertelsmann AG to combine their music units to form the world's second-largest record label.
     
  • Delta dismissed from fatal 2006 Ky. crash lawsuits
    AP ( 009, 2008)
    LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - A federal judge has dismissed Delta Air Lines Inc. from more than 19 pending lawsuits involving a plane crash that killed 49 people two years ago.
     
  • Judge won't hear fen-phen settlement fraud retrial
    AP ( 007, 2008)
    LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - A federal judge who declared a mistrial in the case of two lawyers accused of conspiring to defraud clients in a diet-drug settlement won't handle the retrial.
     
  • Florida Supreme Court nixes Indian casino pact
    AP ( 003, 2008)
    TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - The Florida Supreme Court is overturning the agreement Gov. Charlie Crist signed with the Seminole Tribe to expand gambling at its casinos.
     
  • Continental ordered to trial in Concorde explosion
    AP ( 003, 2008)
    PARIS (AP) - A French judge ordered Continental Airlines and five people to stand trial for manslaughter in connection with the 2000 crash of a Concorde jet that killed 113 people, a prosecutor said Thursday.
     
  • Judge in Ky. gives panel 1 day in fen-phen trial
    AP ( 003, 2008)
    COVINGTON, Ky. (AP) - Jurors in northern Kentucky are expected to continue deliberations Thursday in the federal case of two lawyers charged with defrauding their clients out of $65 million in a diet-drug settlement.
     
  • Astra shares up 6 pct on Seroquel court ruling
    AP ( 002, 2008)
    LONDON (AP) - Shares in AstraZeneca PLC jumped 6 percent Wednesday after the drug maker won a key patent battle in the United States over Seroquel, its anti-psychotic drug and second-best seller.
     
  • Judge tells jury to deliberate in fen-phen trial
    AP ( 002, 2008)
    COVINGTON, Ky. (AP) - A federal judge told deadlocked jurors to go back and deliberate again for the seventh day Wednesday as the possibility of a mistrial loomed in the case of two lawyers charged with defrauding their clients out of $65 million in a diet-drug settlement.
     
  • Anti-tobacco lawyer's son sentenced in bribe plan
    AP ( 002, 2008)
    OXFORD, Miss. (AP) - The son of anti-tobacco lawyer Richard "Dickie" Scruggs has been sentenced to 14 months in prison for knowing about a judicial bribery scandal and not reporting it to authorities.
     
  • Minn. judge rules against Wal-Mart on work breaks
    AP ( 001, 2008)
    MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - A judge has ruled against Wal-Mart in a class-action lawsuit, saying the discount retailer violated state labor laws 2 million times by cutting worker break time and forcing employees to work off the clock.
     
  • Court tosses $785,000 award over cancer death
    AP ( 001, 2008)
    NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A federal appeals court has thrown out a $785,000 award to a woman who blamed her mother's cancer death on contamination from a wood treatment plant in Mississippi, one of hundreds of such cases against the facility's owner.
     
  • Judge OKs Sago mine settlement with 2 suppliers
    AP ( 001, 2008)
    CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - A judge has approved a settlement between families of coal miners involved in the deadly Sago Mine explosion and companies that made and distributed concrete foam blocks used at the mine.
     
  • Zach Scruggs to be sentenced Wednesday
    AP ( 001, 2008)
    JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - There was a time when Zach Scruggs seemed to have it all, graduating cum laude in his law class before joining the successful firm started by his father, legendary attorney Richard "Dickie" Scruggs.
     
  • R.I. high court overturns lead paint verdict
    AP ( 001, 2008)
    PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - Rhode Island's Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned a first-in-the-nation jury verdict against three former lead paint producers, a closely watched case that has been seen as bellwether for potential suits across the country.
     
  • Jury clears 1 of 3 lawyers in fen-phen trial
    AP ( 001, 2008)
    COVINGTON, Ky. (AP) - A federal jury acquitted one attorney Tuesday of defrauding clients in a diet-drug settlement, but was sent back to deliberate on two others.
     
  • Fed judge temporarily blocks new Cuban travel law
    AP ( 001, 2008)
    MIAMI (AP) - A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked a new Florida law that would have imposed a stiff bond and other restrictions on travel agencies and charter companies booking trips to Cuba.
     
  • Group sues over crop subsidies on US forest land
    AP ( 001, 2008)
    GOLDEN POND, Ky. (AP) - Environmentalists are suing the U.S. Forest Service over what they say is an illegal dole: The agency's long-standing practice of subsidizing corn and soybean farming on a nature preserve in western Kentucky and Tennessee.
     
  • Appeals court upholds FCC on cable rules
    AP ( 27, 2008)
    CINCINNATI (AP) - A federal appeals court has upheld the Federal Communications Commission's authority to make rules intended to increase cable television competition.
     
  • Judge sentences Scruggs to 5 years in prison
    AP ( 27, 2008)
    OXFORD, Miss. (AP) - Famed anti-tobacco lawyer Richard "Dickie" Scruggs is headed to prison for five years for conspiring to bribe a judge.
     
  • Justices agree to consider Alaskan mining case
    AP ( 27, 2008)
    WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to step into an environmental dispute over a gold mining operation near Juneau, Alaska.
     
  • Oil spill ruling leaves Alaska victims stunned
    AP ( 26, 2008)
    ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Mike Lytle, a third-generation fisherman from the coastal village of Cordova, said many residents there were walking around stunned, shaking their heads.
     
  • Court makes electric rate challenge difficult
    AP ( 26, 2008)
    WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court on Thursday made it difficult for utility companies to successfully challenge costly, long-term energy supply contracts negotiated during the West Coast energy crisis seven years ago.
     
  • Airlines pay $504M to settle price-fixing scam
    AP ( 26, 2008)
    WASHINGTON (AP) - Four international airlines have agreed to pay $504 million in fines to settle charges they conspired to fleece consumers by driving up cargo shipping prices.
     
  • Mass. regulators file fraud charges against UBS
    AP ( 26, 2008)
    BOSTON (AP) - Massachusetts regulators filed civil fraud charges Thursday against UBS Financial Services for allegedly selling investments it knew were extremely risky, but portrayed as safe.
     
  • Illinois AG sues Countrywide over lending practices
    AP ( 25, 2008)
    CHICAGO (AP) - Illinois' attorney general is suing the nation's biggest mortgage lender.
     
  • Calif. attorney general sues Countrywide Financial
    AP ( 25, 2008)
    LOS ANGELES (AP) - Countrywide Financial Corp. is accused of using misleading advertising and other unfair business practices to trick borrowers into taking on risky home loans they didn't fully understand, in a lawsuit filed Wednesday by the California attorney general's office.
     
  • MasterCard to pay $1.8 billion to settle AmEx suit
    AP ( 25, 2008)
    NEW YORK (AP) - American Express said Wednesday MasterCard will pay it as much as $1.8 billion to settle an antitrust lawsuit, as it warned credit losses may increase as business conditions deteriorate.
     
  • Court slashes judgment in Exxon Valdez disaster
    AP ( 25, 2008)
    WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court on Wednesday slashed the $2.5 billion punitive damages award in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster to $500 million.
     
  • NY's top court affirms dropping 4 claims against Grasso
    AP ( 25, 2008)
    ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - New York's top court backed a lower court in throwing out four of the state's six claims against former New York Stock Exchange Chairman Richard Grasso's $187.5 million compensation package, saying the attorney general at the time had exceeded his authority.