The U.S. Justice Department has formally appealed a federal judge’s approval of class action status for a lawsuit blaming the Army Corps of Engineers for declining lost property values caused in St. Bernard Parish and New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward by floodwaters during Hurricane Katrina and later storms. That status would make thousands of residents and businesses eligible for damage awards that …
After investigating the closing of Climax Packaging in Lowville, the state Labor Department is suing the company. That’s according to the United Steelworkers Union. “They agreed with us.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is going after one of its contractors in court, claiming the utility was bilked for money that helped pay for escorts and parties in Las Vegas. According to the lawsuit, PricewaterhouseCoopers billed the DWP for services that were never performed, and some of the money was spent on prostitutes, luxury hotels and liquor in …
A Muslim police officer is suing the New York Police Department (NYPD) to stop enforcement of what he says is an unconstitutional policy banning officers from having beards. Masood Syed, who works as a law clerk for the NYPD’s Deputy Commissioner of Trials, said he’s had a half-inch to one-inch beard throughout his 10-year police career, according to a class-action lawsuit filed Wednesday in …
Parties in a class-action lawsuit alleging discrimination against gay, bisexual and transgender (GBT) inmates at West Valley Detention Center appear open to resolving the case independently or through formal mediation, yet first must wrap up a weighty discovery effort. The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California, along with a Los Angeles-based law firm, filed the …
The U.S. Justice Department has joined a whistle-blower’s lawsuit against Prime Healthcare Services alleging the hospital chain fraudulently billed Medicare for beneficiaries admitted as inpatients when they should have been treated as outpatients. The government filed notice in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Monday saying it would partly intervene in the case. Whistle-blower cases often …
Texas and 10 other states are suing the Obama administration over its directive to U.S. public schools to let transgender students use the bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity. (AP) Eleven states and state officials filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging the Obama administration over federal guidance directing schools to allow transgender students to use restrooms and …
A Massachusetts judge has ruled that a lawsuit filed against the state over concerns regarding treatment at Bridgewater State Hospital may move forward. The suit alleges that state officials discriminate against the most severely mentally ill men by sending them to a facility run by the Department of Correction, not the Department of Mental Health. Attorney General Maura Healy argued that the …
Oregon’s former prisons watchdog has filed a $3 million suit against the state Department of Corrections and its director, saying he was fired in retaliation for raising ethical concerns. As …
A circuit court judge ruled in favor of the state Department of Natural Resources in a lawsuit over the expansion of railroads in La Crosse. Citizens activists filed the lawsuit in March 2015 claiming DNR officials didn’t fully evaluate the environmental impacts of adding a second railroad track through the La Crosse River marsh. But La Crosse Circuit Judge Scott Horne found that DNR officials …