Plaintiffs

The former leadership team of the U.S. business of Madrid-based technology company GMV has bought out the U.S. institutional unit of the company and renamed it MetiSpace Technologies. As part of the restructuring, GMV has set up a Rockville-based company called GMV Innovating Solutions to serve as its U.S. headquarters and focus on the commercial space market. Rockville-based MetiSpace will operate under an exclusive agreement to resell GMV satellite control and mission planning software to U.S. institutional...

CACI International has won some early legal skirmishes in advance of a trial based on allegations that employees of one of its units were part of a group that abused detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Last month, the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia granted CACI's motion to dismiss conspiracy claims associated with the case. The plaintiffs had argued that CACI interrogators conspired with soldiers to abuse detainees. The court also granted CACI's request to remove parent company CACI...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A jury has found that plaintiffs in a West Virginia mass litigation tobacco trial proved only one of six claims. The Charleston Gazette (http://bit.ly/181W44U ) says a Kanawha County jury on Wednesday found that the plaintiffs proved their claim that all ventilated filter cigarettes manufactured and sold between 1964 and 1969 were defective because of a failure to instruct. Lead plaintiffs' attorney Kenneth McClain told the newspaper that the verdict is a victory because juries in...

Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of lawyer James Parkerson "Jim" Roy. One of the biggest legal circuses on Earth — the trial of BP over the extent of its responsibility for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill — is scheduled to open in New Orleans on Monday, featuring 34 leading lawyers in the jam-packed federal court and hundreds of others listening to video feeds in rooms nearby. There will be 400 minutes of opening...

He was at the heart of the landmark Supreme Court case that took down the District's handgun ban. But before arriving at the range, he warns in a text message: "You will find I'm not the best shot. " Once he fires a few rounds, however, it's clear that Tom G. Palmer is no novice, either. He lands a couple right in the torso of his human-shaped target. Then he aims at the target's head, misses once by a few inches, then hits twice. But what good is such a skill, Palmer asks, if you're not free to protect...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A jury has found that plaintiffs in a West Virginia mass litigation tobacco trial proved only one of six claims. The Charleston Gazette (http://bit.ly/181W44U ) says a Kanawha County jury on Wednesday found that the plaintiffs proved their claim that all ventilated filter cigarettes manufactured and sold between 1964 and 1969 were defective because of a failure to instruct. Lead plaintiffs' attorney Kenneth McClain told the newspaper that the verdict is a victory...

We get a lot wrong in our media-transfixed culture, where a wry quip and populist outrage almost always trump any understanding of complicated facts. But rarely do we get someone as wrong as we got Stella Liebeck. You already know her without knowing you know her. She's the 79-year-old woman who horribly scalded her upper legs and groin when she spilled a 49-cent cup of coffee purchased at a McDonald's drive-through in Albuquerque 19 years ago. She sued only to cover her medical...

Largely overlooked amid the coverage of the Supreme Court's historic health-care law ruling on Thursday was another case that the court dismissed altogether — one that could have long-term implications for corporations facing class-action lawsuits. On the final day of its term, the court was expected to issue a ruling in First American Financial Corp. v. Edwards , a real estate case in which the central issue was whether a company could be sued for violating a statute even if...

CHICAGO — A scowling Donald Trump raised his voice on the witness stand Wednesday while an attorney grilled him and then rolled his eyes at the "Apprentice" star's answers, prompting a federal judge to scold both men in open court and order them to behave. The admonition came during Trump's second and final day on the stand at a civil trial where he is accused of making false promises to an investor to lure her into purchasing condos at his glitzy Trump International Hotel & Tower...

LAS VEGAS — Nine years of litigation between a Hong Kong businessman and casino mogul Sheldon Adelson is drawing to a close. Attorneys began delivering closing arguments in a Las Vegas courtroom Thursday in the dispute between Las Vegas Sands Corp. and a fixer who says he helped the casino giant win a license in the Chinese gambling enclave of Macau. The lead attorney for Richard Suen argued that Sands owes Suen $328 million for setting up key meetings in the...

WASHINGTON — The District of Columbia attorney general traded barbs with a lawyer Wednesday as he testified in defense of his office's handling of a lawsuit arising from the mass arrests of anti-globalization demonstrators. Irvin Nathan testified in U.S. District Court in Washington, where a federal magistrate has been investigating allegations of potential evidence tampering in a case that's now spanned more than a decade. The suit stems from the arrests of...

The former leadership team of the U.S. business of Madrid-based technology company GMV has bought out the U.S. institutional unit of the company and renamed it MetiSpace Technologies. As part of the restructuring, GMV has set up a Rockville-based company called GMV Innovating Solutions to serve as its U.S. headquarters and focus on the commercial space market. Rockville-based MetiSpace will operate under an exclusive agreement to resell GMV satellite control and mission planning software to U.S....

CACI International has won some early legal skirmishes in advance of a trial based on allegations that employees of one of its units were part of a group that abused detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Last month, the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia granted CACI's motion to dismiss conspiracy claims associated with the case. The plaintiffs had argued that CACI interrogators conspired with soldiers to abuse detainees. The court also granted CACI's request to remove...

The odds are daunting: Last term, 8,952 cases were filed at the Supreme Court. The justices agreed to schedule a mere 79 for oral argument. That's a 0.88 percent chance of having your case reviewed. Getting two to the high court is less likely than averaging a triple-double for an entire season in the NBA. So how did Edward Blum do it? How did he guide not one — but two — cases to the Supreme Court in one term? Blum is a 61-year-old former stockbroker with a gentle demeanor and a waify...

CLASS ACTIONS have been and should remain important tools to combat employment discrimination. These legal vehicles allow a small number of often brave individuals to step forward to assert grievances against their employer. These "named plaintiffs" act as proxies for a multitude of others who may have experienced similar harm. This strength-in-numbers approach can give workers the needed leverage to stop discriminatory practices or demand wages they were unfairly denied. A class action against Wal-Mart Stores ,...

Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of lawyer James Parkerson "Jim" Roy. One of the biggest legal circuses on Earth — the trial of BP over the extent of its responsibility for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill — is scheduled to open in New Orleans on Monday, featuring 34 leading lawyers in the jam-packed federal court and hundreds of others listening to video feeds in rooms nearby. There will be 400 minutes of opening...