Bob Van Voris

September 21, 2001 | Law.com

As the nation grapples with the effect of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the victims, from financial executives to restaurant workers, have left families who will need to feed children and pay mortgages. Lawyers predict the disaster could result in incredibly complex litigation, but at press time the U.S. House of Representatives was thrashing out a bill to offer a streamlined compensation system for victims of the disaster.

By Bob Van Voris

9 minute read

June 07, 1999 | Law.com

The initial buzz that followed the news that General Motors Corp. is introducing "black box" technology into its cars centered on the improvements in safety and crash data that such technology will bring. Some plaintiffs' and defense lawyers involved in auto crash litigation echo this positive message. But others, concerned about how the devices' information will be used in court, fear that these black boxes may turn out to be Pandora's boxes.

By Bob Van Voris

6 minute read

February 11, 2000 | Law.com

The effort of self-proclaimed white racist Matthew Hale to become an Illinois lawyer seemed to raise a clear issue: Can someone's views make him unfit to practice law? Now, however, the issues aren't so clear. Hale didn't just deride blacks and Jews as subhumans and "mud people." He also had a string of run-ins with law enforcement and the courts, some of which he didn't disclose on his bar application -- grounds for bar membership rejection. Still, his case might be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.

By Bob Van Voris

6 minute read

November 30, 2001 | Law.com

Washington, D.C., attorney Kenneth Feinberg, appointed to run the federal Sept. 11 victim compensation fund, says one of his goals is to avoid huge disparities in payouts between poor and rich victims. Working against a statutory deadline of Dec. 21, Feinberg is preparing regulations that will resolve the many issues left open by Congress on how the compensation fund, passed less than two weeks after the attacks, will operate.

By Bob Van Voris

5 minute read

February 16, 2001 | Law.com

"The truth is out there." The "X-Files" catch phrase could well be the motto for Mark Zaid's legal practice. Zaid has turned an interest in history into a practice consisting of quirky, quixotic and, increasingly, successful battles against government secrecy. Sometimes Zaid finds himself in the middle of the stories he studied, such as the civil cases stemming from Pan Am flight 103.

By Bob Van Voris

8 minute read

November 13, 2001 | Law.com

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, with "serious doubts as to the legitimacy" of a settlement between Sulzer Orthopedics Inc. and a group of plaintiffs' lawyers, has temporarily reversed a ruling that would have prevented trials in dozens of hip implant suits against the company. The settlement is designed to push all plaintiffs nationwide into the deal by delaying payments to those who pursue their own cases.

By Bob Van Voris

8 minute read

April 26, 1999 | Law.com

According to court files, Wal-Mart has been fined by judges for discovery violations in at least 15 cases during the past three years. This includes a recent $18 million discovery sanction against Wal-Mart in a Beaumont, Texas, case after the judge concluded that Wal-Mart and its Texas attorneys had withheld evidence.

By Bob Van Voris

9 minute read

July 06, 1999 | Law.com

Two down, one to go for Dallas' Fred Baron in U.S. Supreme Court challenges. He won Amchem in 1997 and Ortiz on June 23. "We were just tickled," Baron says of the court's decision in Ortiz to overturn a $1.5 billion asbestos class action settlement on Seventh Amendment grounds, among others. Now, he's hoping the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will reject the class action settlement in Lillian Hayden v. Atochem North America, a groundwater contamination case.

By Bob Van Voris and Angela Ward

7 minute read

June 28, 1999 | Law.com

The june 23 U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning a $1.5 billion asbestos class action settlement squeezed the already-narrow ground for companies hoping to use federal class action rules to resolve overwhelming tort liabilities and go on with business. The unwelcome future for many companies, according to a number of class action experts, may be bankruptcy court.

By Bob Van Voris

5 minute read

October 02, 2001 | Law.com

Of all the lawsuits delayed by the World Trade Center destruction, it is hard to find one more sadly ironic than In re World Trade Center Litigation. The legal fallout from the 1993 truck bomb that rocked the World Trade Center hasn't even gone to trial. Plaintiffs' lawyers claim that the Port Authority knew the towers were an attractive terrorist target and that a truck bomb was the most likely weapon.

By Bob Van Voris

4 minute read