August 2011
5 posts
10 tags
Medical Malpractice Cap
Maybe the Florida Supreme Court will get it right and overrule this unconstitutional cap on damages.
Eight years after lawmakers overhauled the state’s medical-malpractice laws, groups are preparing for a possible showdown in the Florida Supreme Court about the constitutionality of a cap on legal damages.
Groups such as the Florida Justice Association, AARP, and the American Bar...
8 tags
NEGLIGENT SECURITY PITFALLS: USING DISCOVERY TO...
By Michael J. Brevda, Esq.
$40.5 million verdict against a negligently secured hotel in Key West. $2,000,000 to a Broward county teen who was beaten in a nightclub. $26 million against an Orlando bank for failing to install silent alarms, resulting in a teller getting shot. The take home message is this; negligent security cases in Florida hit big… if they hit at all. For every...
7 tags
$28 million dollar verdict against big tobacco...
In the first case of the so-called Engle progeny to reach the Florida Supreme Court, the court has declined to review a lower court’s decision upholding $3.3 million in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages for the widow of a smoker. [R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. v. Martin, No. SC11-483 (Fla. July 19, 2011).]
In Engle v. Liggett Group in 2006, the Florida Supreme Court threw...
7 tags
As if cigarettes weren't toxic enough...
GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP)—
Cigarette maker Lorillard Inc. is recalling some packs of the non-menthol version of its Newport brand because the tobacco inside may contain small pieces of plastic. The nation’s third-largest tobacco company announced the recall late Tuesday upon discovering the foreign substance and receiving guidance from the Food and Drug Administration.
The Greensboro,...
6 tags
Big Tobacco's War of Attrition
The Florida Supreme Court yesterday upheld a $28 million verdict against R.J. Reynolds, affirming the first of thousands of cases that will be tried following the dismantling of a statewide class action.Reynolds said it will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, but it doesn’t have much to entice the SCOTUS justices into taking the case.
The problem is fundamental to U.S. law: Appeals...
