Posts on ‘December 30th, 2008’

Slashing a $6.25 million punitive damages award down to $2 million, the 3rd Circuit has ruled that in most cases where the plaintiff wins a “substantial” compensatory award and the damages were purely economic, a 1-1 ratio should apply. The ruling is the clearest sign to date that large punitive damages awards face an increasingly hostile audience on appeal because of a string of decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court that culminated in this year’s decision in .

For years, environmental and shareholder activists have pushed companies that generate greenhouse gases to disclose how climate change could affect their financial outlook. Now, two operators of coal-burning power plants have agreed to provide this information in their 10-K filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. It was New York’s attorney general, not the SEC, that demanded the information, and experts say the agreements could create a new standard for environmental risk reporting.

Goodyear’s defense against a lawsuit brought by Jeffrey Katzenberg of Dreamworks over defective heating hoses illustrates how trial technology can show jurors the structure and mechanics of a multimillion-dollar home, and the craftsmanship and rare wood that went into it.

Temporary law firm Pastore Osterberg, which was formed earlier this month out of the former Stamford, Conn., office of Dreier LLP, may not be in existence very long if things go according to plan. Co-founder Joseph Pastore III expects soon to have several offers in hand from law firms interested in picking up its group of lawyers, and he wants to get a deal done by January or February. He’s working hard to “create a safe landing” for the displaced and unpaid former Dreier lawyers.