Bob Van Voris

January 04, 2000 | Law.com

After one of his clients gave him information that implicated a lawyer soon to become a Superior Court judge in a dishonest business deal, attorney Doug Schafer blew the whistle -- against his client's wishes. The Washington state Supreme Court eventually threw the judge off the bench. Now Shafer is in trouble. Washington is one of almost 40 states where it is an ethics violation to disclose a client's confidential communications, even to help provide a remedy to the victim of a client's crime.

By Bob Van Voris

14 minute read

October 06, 2000 | Law.com

Nearly all lawsuits involving Wal-Mart in northwest Arkansas are assigned to judges who own stock in the company, and they don't always tell the opposing party. Some lawyers question whether anyone can get fair rulings against the company in the area. And throughout the state, they wonder if many judges are biased, even if only unconsciously, in favor of the state's biggest economic player.

By Bob Van Voris

12 minute read

August 14, 2000 | Law.com

In Joseph Lieberman, Al Gore has picked a man notorious for his support of tort reform, a crusade that offends plaintiffs' lawyers. Yet lawyers have donated more money to Gore than Green party candidate Ralph Nader, a man revered among personal injury lawyers. The reason? George W. Bush's tort reform record doesn't shine and a vote for Nader is "tantamount to a vote for Bush," says trial attorney Fred Baron.

By Bob Van Voris

3 minute read

January 10, 2002 | New York Law Journal

THE REGULATIONS covering the compensation of those who lost family members in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are getting a thumbs-down review from many lawyers and victims` families.

By Bob Van Voris

7 minute read

July 31, 2000 | Law.com

The European Commission plans to sue U.S. tobacco companies for billions of tax dollars that it believes European Union member states have lost to illicit cigarette smuggling. But an obscure tax rule may make cigarette exporting litigation much harder than exporting cars or chocolates.

By Bob Van Voris

3 minute read

December 11, 2001 | Law.com

Seventeen years after a class action settlement intended to end lawsuits over Agent Orange, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that two Vietnam veterans may sue companies that made the herbicide. The decision allows the vets, who developed cancer after the Agent Orange settlement wound down at the end of 1994, to pursue cases against more than a dozen chemical companies, including Dow Chemical Co.

By Bob Van Voris

4 minute read

April 01, 2002 | The Legal Intelligencer

With all the legal and public relations problems the Catholic Church has had in the last few weeks, the last thing church leaders need is to be called gangsters. But that`s what St. Paul, Minn., lawyer Jeffrey Anderson has done, suing a group of Catholic bishops for allegedly violating federal anti-racketeering laws.

By Bob Van Voris

8 minute read

May 15, 2000 | Law.com

Few computer users knew what to do when a computer virus appeared on their screens with the irresistible come-on "ILOVEYOU." The so-called Love Bug virus showed that criminal, tort and insurance law are one step behind online computer vandals. But lawyers and experts hope the attack, and others in the past year, will spur the development of laws to punish virus makers and to help compensate victims.

By Bob Van Voris and David E. Rovella

3 minute read

June 12, 2000 | Law.com

The paintings of Norman Rockwell evoke golden summers past. But to personal injury lawyers, they look like portraits of potential clients. Boys swim in a pond that is clearly posted "No Swimming." Children lean out of a moving car. And how long have those picnic sandwiches gone unrefrigerated? Plaintiffs' lawyers have taken on carnivals, bicycles, swimming pools, and hot dogs. It is hard to find a summer activity that has not been the subject of litigation.

By Bob Van Voris

6 minute read

April 28, 2000 | Law.com

Despite the dramatic reunion of Elian Gonzalez with his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, the U.S. judicial system is not yet done with them. Who speaks for Elian? Will he be granted asylum? What about custody issues? Will Elian be a precedent? Several legal questions remain to be answered before father and son return to Cuba.

By Bob Van Voris

5 minute read