MESOTHELIOMA AND ASBESTOS LAWYERS: LEADERS IN THE NATION
Weitz & Luxenberg Wins $22 Million Asbestos Verdict Against Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and Goodyear Canada
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. along with Goodyear Canada lost their bid to avoid liability in an asbestos cancer case. The courtroom victory secured this past June by Weitz & Luxenberg was a huge win for the victims -- and it demonstrated yet again why so many prospective plaintiffs call the firm for a free consultation as they seek compensation for serious harm suffered. Read more here.
Monumental Settlement Reached in 2010 BP Oil Spill Litigation
Update: Plaintiffs Steering Committee has released new official documents regarding the BP Settlement. Click to read the following: Frequently Asked Questions Regarding Deepwater Horizon Economic and Property Damages Settlement; Frequently Asked Questions Regarding Deepwater Horizon Medical Benefits Settlement
NEW YORK, March 2, 2012 -- Robin Greenwald, Esq., head of Weitz & Luxenberg's Environmental and Toxic Torts department, serves on the Plaintiffs' Steering Committee (PSC) pursuing compensation for victims of the 2010 British Petroleum (BP) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The PSC today issued the following announcement: "A settlement in principle has been reached with BP that will fully compensate hundreds of thousands of victims of the tragedy. The settlement is to be fully funded by BP, with no cap on the amount BP will pay. BP is obligated to fully satisfy all eligible claims under the terms of the Court-supervised settlement, irrespective of the funds previously set aside....The settlement will hold BP fully accountable to individuals and businesses harmed by the spill....There will be no delay in the processing of economic loss claims...Court supervision will ensure independence, fairness, transparency of process, and accountability...." The oil spill deprived thousands of income they would have earned from tourism and fishing, and caused them to suffer property damage and medical injuries. The PSC has been fighting for nearly two years to see that these men and women receive compensation to help them move forward with their lives in the spill's wake. You can read the press release here and visit our Gulf Oil Spill Section for more settlement information as it becomes available.
WEITZ & LUXENBERG LITIGATION NEWS:
Confirm findings, urges Weitz & Luxenberg following release of hopeful report that radiation therapy improves mesothelioma survival
April 26, 2012 -- Weitz & Luxenberg said it hopes medical findings presented in Geneva at the European Lung Cancer Conference will prompt further research to confirm the ability of intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) to extend mesothelioma life expectancy. Austin Health Radiation Oncology Center researchers (Melbourne, Australia), said mesothelioma patients treated with this method lived far longer than did those treated with chemotherapy or surgery. IMRT works by damaging the DNA of cancer cells, causing them to die. Until this study, it was generally accepted that mesothelioma cells were virtually immune to radiation death. Read more.
FDA orders Bayer to provide stronger warnings of Yaz blood-clot dangers
April 11, 2012 – The maker of Yaz and Yasmin birth-control pills has been ordered by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to provide packaging labels that more clearly warn unsuspecting consumers of the dangers posed by the contraceptives. According to the FDA, the new labels will include a discussion of studies showing that Yas/Yasmin takers face a threefold greater risk of potentially fatal blood-clotting than do users of others types of birth-control pills. Read more here.
Weitz & Luxenberg continues to accept new hip implant clients as court consolidates lawsuits against maker of faulty joint prostheses
Ellen Relkin, a lawyer with the leading mass tort and personal injury litigation firm Weitz & Luxenberg, P.C., has announced the firm’s readiness to accept new cases involving Wright Conserve hip implant devices. The metal-on-metal products, which can damage joints and release poisonous metals into the body, have spawned numerous lawsuits, which have recently been consolidated into a single multidistrict litigation. Read the full press release.
The announcement comes at a time of increasing public and regulatory scrutiny of metal-on-metal hip replacement systems. Weitz & Luxenberg recently announced the decisions of multiple British groups to increase their precautions regarding metal-on-metal hips. Read about it here and here.
Oklahoma town’s residents claim Halliburton contaminated their water supply, exposed them to radiation; Weitz & Luxenberg files lawsuit on their behalf
Eighty-seven residents of Duncan, Okla., are suing energy giant Halliburton Co., its subsidiary Halliburton Energy Services Inc. and SAIC Energy, Environmental and Infrastructure LLC (formerly The Benham Companies LLC), alleging harm by decades-long consumption of well-water contaminated with toxic wastes from a nearby rocket-motor recycling operation. According to the Oct. 31 complaint filed in an Oklahoma district court, Halliburton is also alleged to have exposed the residents to radioactive contamination. Weitz & Luxenberg is representing the residents. The press release announcing the complaint filing is available here.
In Bloomberg News report, Weitz & Luxenberg attorney Paul J. Pennock crystallizes importance of Actos lawsuits
Warehouse worker Terrence Allen is a 57-year-old diabetic who developed bladder cancer and turned to Weitz & Luxenberg for help suing Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., maker of the diabetes drug Actos. Mr. Allen’s Actos lawsuit is currently underway in U.S. District Court. His is one of as many as 10,000 lawsuits potentially facing Takeda, according to Bloomberg News, which published Dec. 1 a very informative report about Actos litigation. Both Mr. Allen and his Weitz & Luxenberg attorney, Paul J. Pennock, are quoted in the article: for example, Mr. Pennock said the evidence linking Actos to bladder cancer “is unusually strong and clear” and added “[w]e are getting calls every day about Actos,” while Mr. Allen said “If somebody had told me I could get cancer from Actos, I never would have taken it” and “I would like my pound of flesh from the company.” The full article [available here] makes for worthwhile reading by everyone who may have been injured taking Actos.
Weitz & Luxenberg Obtains Substantial Settlement for Asbestos Widow
Withering cross-examination and overwhelmingly persuasive courtroom evidence combined to convince a maker of nautical clutch plates to abandon its legal fight and instead pay a hefty settlement to the widow of a New Jersey man, dead at 52 of peritoneal mesothelioma cancer. Read the widow's story part 1 and part 2. Learn more about her case against the manufacturer part 1 and part 2.
As lawsuits pile up, Yaz/Yasmin birth-control maker comes under scathing fire for questionable study as Weitz & Luxenberg's Paul J. Pennock lays out the case against the company in Bloomberg report
Emails from the maker of Yasmin and Yaz birth-control pills provide evidence that the company “sacrificed women’s health in its rush for profit,” according to Weitz & Luxenberg attorney Paul J. Pennock who was quoted in a Nov. 21 Bloomberg News report. Weitz & Luxenberg is handling the lawsuits of women who developed blood clots after taking Yaz or Yasmine. The emails were written by officials of the defendant manufacturer and, according to Bloomberg, appear to show that the company may have sought to market Yaz/Yasmin in misleading ways for purposes other that those allowed by regulators. Additionally, the article said lawyers contend that an influential study suggesting nothing problematic about the Yaz/Yasmin clotting risk was rigged: said Mr. Pennock, the defendant “bought and paid for allegedly independent, favorable science that was neither independent nor correct.” The complete Bloomberg News article is available here; please read it. Meanwhile, If you believe you were injured by taking Yaz/Yasmin, please contact us right away – the U.S. Food and Drug Administration knows of at least 50 deaths tied to the pills.
Weitz & Luxenberg Helps Devastated Husband Pick Up Broken Pieces of His Life After Deadly Mesothelioma Claims Soul-Mate Wife
A retired mechanic who unwittingly caused his 56-year-old wife’s death in 2008 by decades earlier bringing home deadly asbestos dust on his work clothes received a sizable settlement from several past makers and suppliers of automotive friction brakes. The defendants used every legal trick at their disposal to escape liability, but, in the end, they were brought to justice. Read the widower's story part 1 and part 2.
Weitz & Luxenberg Taking Cases Involving Diabetes Drug Actos and Bladder Cancer
For more information about how we can help you pursue an Actos lawsuit, fill out the form on this page. To learn more about the link between Actos and bladder cancer, visit our Actos section.
Weitz & Luxenberg attorney clears the air about your right to sue over asbestos cancer, mesothelioma, peritoneal mesothelioma
Exposure to asbestos often produces cancer. Scant wonder then that many who develop malignant tumors from asbestos exposure elect to sue asbestos products makers and marketers. With the right legal counsel, asbestos cancer victims are likely to win such a lawsuit – or, alternatively, to walk away with an impressive sum in settlement. In a new press release that you can read here, Weitz & Luxenberg attorney Daniel Patrick Blouin, Esq., puts to rest some of the asbestos lawsuit misconceptions that cause some people to fumble their opportunity to bring a culprit corporation to heel.
WEITZ & LUXENBERG FIRM NEWS:
Judges shared invaluable insights in response to questions from Weitz & Luxenberg co-founder at Asbestos Litigation Conference in Beverly Hills
Perry Weitz, Esq., was afforded the rare chance to ask a handful of distinguished California, New York and Pennsylvania judges questions about trends in asbestos jurisprudence when he co-moderated a roundtable on the topic at a conference for attorneys, held March 1-2 in Beverly Hills, Calif. Jurists included: Sherry Klein Heitler, New York State Supreme Court; Emilie H. Elias, Los Angeles Superior Court; Teri Jackson, San Francisco Superior Court; Jo-Lynne Q. Lee, Alameda, Calif., Superior Court; and Sandra Mazer Moss, Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas. Produced by Perrin Conferences, “Cutting-Edge Issues in Asbestos Litigation” aimed to educate plaintiffs’ and defense attorneys about mesothelioma lawsuits, asbestosis lung-cancer cases and other proceedings addressing harms arising from exposure to asbestos. In a separate session at the conference, Mr. Weitz shared a platform with Judge Heitler of the New York Supreme Court, two other attorneys, and an insurance claims director to discuss where asbestos litigation is headed next. Read more here.
Latest environmental toxic torts litigation strategies, tactics discussed at webinar featuring Julia LeMense of Weitz & Luxenberg
Julia LeMense – a Weitz & Luxenberg plaintiffs’ attorney focused on environmental toxic torts – spoke Feb. 16 at a live phone/web seminar exploring environmental toxic injury claims. “Recent court rulings have made it imperative that lawyers representing victims of environmental toxic torts better understand how to satisfy the requirements of a Daubert motion for expert testimony, how to anticipate and prepare for consolidated actions or multi-district litigations, and how to make the most of bellwether cases and other mass-tort case-management tools,” Ms. LeMense said in explaining the importance of the webinar, presented by Strafford Publications. Topics covered included liability theories, causation issues, defenses, preemption rules and jurisdictional considerations. "This is all vital to know because damage awards in these types of cases can run into the millions of dollars," she offered. Read more here.
Risks, rewards of bellwether trials weighed by Weitz & Luxenberg’s Ellen Relkin at ABA Florida event
Ellen Relkin, Esq., was among the panelists at a Jan. 21 discussion concerning the latest legal strategies lawyers can adopt to make bellwether trials work to the advantage of their clients. The Hollywood, Fla., event was presented by the American Bar Assn. and its Section of Litigation’s Environmental, Mass Torts and Products Liability Litigation Committees. As Ms. Relkin told the audience, "bellwether cases are an increasingly important tool to manage and resolve mass-tort lawsuits.” Ms. Relkin -- co-lead attorney of the multidistrict litigation now proceeding in Toledo, Ohio, against DePuy Orthopaedics Inc. over its recalled ASR metal-on-metal hip-implant product -- is a recognized authority on this subject. Read more here.
Nat’l Trial Lawyers Assn. honors Weitz & Luxenberg’s Mary Grabish Gaffney
Mary Grabish Gaffney, Esq., of Weitz & Luxenberg’s Cherry Hill, N.J., office, is a rising-star attorney in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey whose talents at law recently attracted notice from the National Trial Lawyers Assn. The organization named her to its elite list of “Top 40 under 40" New Jersey attorneys. As a New Jersey asbestos lawyer, Ms. Gaffney concentrates on representing clients suffering asbestos-related illnesses as well as those alleging other forms of personal-injury harm. In the course of her career, she has served as lead attorney on over 300 bench and jury trials, and has successfully negotiated multi-million-dollar settlements on behalf of her clients. Read more here.
2 women attorneys ‘make the cut’ in BP litigation preliminaries, and Weitz & Luxenberg’s Robin Greenwald is one of them, reports American Bar Assn. magazine
Weitz & Luxenberg attorney Robin Greenwald was one of 17 attorneys selected from among a field of more than 100 lawyers vying for a place on the New Orleans multidistrict litigation plaintiffs' steering committee that will – among other things – determine the lines of courtroom attack against British Petroleum (BP), which became subject to litigation after one of its offshore deepwater drilling rigs exploded and for months spewed millions of barrels of crude from a ruptured wellhead on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. Ms. Greenwald holds the added distinction of being just one of two women on the committee – a fact noted by the American Bar Association’s Perspectives magazine in its Spring, 2011, edition. As the article by Stephanie B. Goldberg explains, Ms. Greenwald is a toxic tort specialist “who had already served as lead lawyer and plaintiff’s counsel for the methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) multidistrict litigation....” According to the magazine, BP potentially could be on the hook for billions in damages. The April, 2010, rig explosion killed 11 and injured 17, but other injuries flowing from that disaster included despoiled ecosystems, disrupted industries, damaged waterfront properties and a range of physical health troubles. Read the full article here.
Weitz & Luxenberg Announces Ellen Relkin's Selection to the Martindale-Hubbell List of Preeminent Women Lawyers
Relkin, a lead attorney in Weitz & Luxenberg's Defective Drugs and Medical Devices Litigation group, was selected by the legal information services group for inclusion into the 2012 edition of the Martindale-Hubbell Bar Register of Preeminent Women Lawyers.
Perry Weitz Co-Chaired Conclave of Judges, Attorneys Offering Views of Future Mesothelioma Lawsuit Issues
One of the two founders of Weitz & Luxenberg was a featured speaker at an important Dec. 1 New York City conference geared to helping asbestos lawyers from across the U.S. better understand the intricate landscape of mesothelioma cancer litigation. Perry Weitz – who also acted as co-chair of the day-long event – is a coveted voice at educational gatherings such as this because of his intimate familiarity with mesothelioma proceedings.
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