News & Blog 
An article in Bloomberg News highlights a growing issue with merger lawsuits in Delaware fattening the pockets of plaintiffs’ attorneys while leaving their clients empty handed. “A shareholder lawyer told a Delaware judge at a midsummer court hearing two years ago that his team deserved $700,000 for work on a lawsuit in which his clients received nothing”. [...]
The Long Island Business News ran an article this week written by Bernadette Starzee, highlighting the major issues with the only-in-New-York Scaffold Law. In it, LRANY Executive Director, Tom Stebbins, shared the agenda of the Scaffold Law Reform coalition: “‘We’re looking to repeal the scaffold law as part of a larger effort to seek relief from mandates that [...]
By: Tom Stebbins, Executive Director Last week, premium exercise equipment manufacturer Cybex International agreed to pay $19.5m to a Cheektowaga woman, who was injured by a piece of Cybex equipment when she improperly used a leg machine to stretch her shoulder in October 2004. The settlement was reduced from the $66m originally awarded in the [...]
By: Tom Stebbins Court administrators were recently in Albany to discuss how recent budget cuts have forced them to scale back court services. This should serve as a timely reminder to all that New York needs to pass reforms to stop the flow of frivolous, and sometimes ridiculous, lawsuits that are choking our legal system. [...]
CBS News reports the Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota plans to sue 5 international beer manufacturers for $500 million. This amount is to cover the cost of health care, social services, and child rehabilitation caused by chronic alcoholism on the reservation; to which they feel the manufacturers knowingly contributed. The lawsuit also names four beer stores in [...]
A recent opinion piece in the American Medical News written by AMA President Peter W. Carmel, MD. highlights the importance of medical liability reform as a way of decreasing the cost of healthcare and repairing the broken medical liability system: “The economics are irrefutable, and the human evidence is sobering. The present medical liability situation in this [...]
A lawsuit was recently filed by a Staten Island mother, representing herself, for the mind boggling amount of $900 trillion (yes trillion!), reports SI Live. Fausat Ogunbayo claims she is owed this amount in damages resulting from the city removing her two children from her home and placing them in foster care over three years ago. The city [...]
The Wall Street Journal reports today that a New York City judge has thrown out a case brought against a Greenwich pub. The lawsuit was filed by a New Jersey man, Alan Berger, who was struck by a car after playing “beer pong” at the pub for three and a half hours. His suit claims the bar should [...]
By: Scott Hobson The Ohio House has passed HB 380 which would require plaintiffs in asbestos litigation to disclose any additional claims they have pending against asbestos trusts. Said Ohio state representative Lou Blessing, “openness in legal proceedings is good and helps ensure that justice is fairly administered.” We couldn’t agree more. A recent report by the Government [...]
An article in yesterday’s Crain’s New York Business outlined several outdated and costly mandates that should be modified or repealed to help make New York more prosperous. Not surprisingly, the Scaffold Law made the list. From the article: “Gov. Andrew Cuomo has much to do in the current legislative session if he is to live up to his pledge [...]
