In 1988, in Newark, New Jersey, Rose Cippollone’s family won the first civil suit victory against a tobacco company in United States history.  What the Cippollone family did not realize, however, was that its legal battles were only beginning and that Liggett would fight the verdict to the Supreme Court, and beyond.
The Case
Rose Cippollone was […]

On March 23, 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker ran aground on a reef in the Alaskan Prince William Sound, spilling 11 million gallons of oil and contaminating 1,300 miles of beaches.  It was the worst oil spill in American History and evidence quickly surfaced that the tanker’s captain had been drinking and was absent from […]

Federal FDA Law Does Not Preempt State Failure to Warn Claims
On March 4, 2009, the United States Supreme Court decided the case of Wyeth v. Levine, holding that federal FDA regulations regarding drug warning labels do not preempt state law failure to warn claims.  The court determined that the drug manufacturer had the option to […]

On December 5, 2008 Las Vegas Judge Jackie Glass sentenced O.J. Simpson on his robbery, kidnapping, burglary and assault charges.  The jail time resulted from the September 2007 “raid” during which O.J. and other cohorts barged into a Vegas hotel room with guns to reclaim O.J.’s sports memorabilia and other personal effects.  The complicated sentence […]

“Guilty on all counts” was the verdict of a Las Vegas jury which, ironically, came 13 years to the day after O.J. Simpson was acquitted on double murder charges in California.  Although hardly “the trial of the century,” this Las Vegas verdict may have been the beginning of the final chapter in a long history […]

One of my pet peeves as a trial lawyer is the misconception that people still have, many years later, about the infamous McDonald’s Coffee case.  Based on what I believe was slanted coverage by the media in favor of Big Business and against trial lawyers, the case became the poster child for the “tort reform” […]