Commercial Litigation | InjuryBoard Richmond

For generations, the hourly billing business model for law firms has forced plaintiffs involved in commercial litigation to pay attorneys by the hour regardless of the outcome of the litigation. A better business model for plaintiffs seeking to hire counsel to initiate business litigation may involve contingency fees, fixed legal fee pricing or a combination of a diminished hourly rate and a...

Continue article

A Florida jury found that Merrill Lynch took advantage of New Jersey philanthropist George Rothman and his wife. Both Rothmans were declared mentally incompetent in 1999. According to a lawyer for the Rothman family, Merrill Lynch took advantage of the couple's deteriorating mental condition to shift their money into investments that would pay higher commissions. The lawsuit alleged that a...

Continue article

Richmond's own Johnny Johnson won a $16 million verdict against grocery giant, Supervalue, Inc., the nation's third largest grocery chain. The jury awarded $15.5 million for negligent misrepresentation and $500,000 for intentional infliction of emotional distress. Johnson started in the grocery business as a bag boy and worked his way up to manager. In the early 1990's, Richfood, Inc....

Continue article

There is a potential nationwide settlement involving Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America and the sale of deferred annuities to persons over the age of 65. The allegations asserted against Allianz are that they conspired with a network of insurance sales agents to fraudulently induce people 65 years of age or older to purchase deferred annuities by means of misleading...

Continue article

A new court in Tampa, Florida seeks to resolve commercial litigation matters between businesses. The Complex Business Litigation Division is a new court established to resolve business-related cases such as contract disputes, non-compete agreements, trade secrets claims, and other business matters. The Tampa court is part of a trend in various parts of the United States to establish business...

Continue article

The SEC and the Sun-Times Media Group Inc concluded a civil settlement of $28.7 million with ithe company's former President and Publisher David Radler relating to claims of backdated stock options and other transgressions in a commercial litigation matter. The SEC settlement includes a $5 million civil penalty, one of the largest on record against an individual. Radler has already plead...

Continue article

In a complex commercial litigation matter involving employee pension rights, jurors in Butte, Montana ordered Northwestern Corporation to pay $17.4 million in compensatory damages and $4 million in punitive damages to 15 retired executives who sued after the company terminated their supplemental pensions. This case affirms the rights of executives and employees to the continuation of pension...

Continue article

Two of seven business executives prosecuted for stock option backdating pled guilty last week in prosecutions initiated by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission. There appears to be enhanced momentum for the prosecutions initiated last year in these criminal matters that may transform into substantial business litigation by shareholders.Stock options allow the...

Continue article

How soon they forget! Just five years after the huge accounting fraud scandal at WorldCom and the collapse of Enron decimated tens of thousands of retirement and investment accounts, the lobbyists for the accounting industry, Chamber of Commerce, and big, publicly held companies have succeeded in convincing the Securities and Exchange Commision to abandon some of the investor protections...

Continue article

My partner, Aubrey Ford, prevailed last week in a significant commercial litigation trial. Aubrey represented the plaintiffs in the case of G.C.R., Inc., et al. v. James Clayton, pending in the Circuit Court of the County of Chesterfield, Virginia. After a two- day trial, the Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in this dispute between the two major shareholders in a real estate development...

Continue article

A business lawsuit in which record companies claimed that XM Satellite Radio Holdings, Inc. was depriving them of revenue by allowing consumers to store songs can proceed to trial, a New York judge ruled last week. The case is another in recent highly publicized actions relating to the recording industry.The case was brought by Atlantic Recording Corporation, BMG Music, Capitol Records, Inc.,...

Continue article

To the horror of many of the victims of Hurricane Katrina who lost their homes in the storm, the insurance industry uniformly denied these folks' property damage claims. Insurers contended that damage to houses in Louisiana and Mississippi was caused by surging flood waters and not by high winds. The insurers said their policies covered only wind damage. The New York Times reports today that...

Continue article