Recent attempts to settle a 2015 lawsuit alleging woefully inadequate inmate medical care at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola haven’t produced a resolution, but a federal magistrate says both sides will continue to talk. U.S. Magistrate Judge Richard Bourgeois Jr. held a settlement conference last week with attorneys for Angola inmates and the state corrections department. At the …
A lawsuit filed today in federal court in Louisiana challenges the state’s “critical infrastructure” law, used to press felony charges against fossil fuel pipeline construction opponents, as unconstitutional. The Louisiana law went into effect in August 2018 and was immediately used against opponents of Energy Transfer’s Bayou Bridge oil pipeline. Missouri, Indiana, and Illinois are among the …
A collection of civil rights attorneys and a New York City law firm filed a class action lawsuit in February, hoping to change the racist and unconstitutional legal system in Louisiana. The Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution and Section 13 of the Louisiana Constitution of 1974 guarantee the right to meaningful and effective assistance of counsel to every person …
Cox Communications won dismissal of a class-action lawsuit filed in Louisiana by an employee of an installation contractor who said he wasn’t compensated for overtime work. According to Law360, Eastern District of Louisiana Court Judge Janis van Meerveld granted the dismissal based on the fact that plaintiff Scott Gremillion is an employee of installation contractor Grayco Communications LP, …
A recent, sudden surge in Taxotere lawsuit filings in the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Louisiana has caught Louisiana Lawsuit Abuse Watch’s attention. According to a news release from Schmidt National Law Group, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation’s Feb. 15 docket report shows 755 pending actions in the Taxotere litigation, up 50 from the panel’s …
The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana on March 13 will hear a Terrebonne Parish NAACP lawsuit seeking to create a majority-minority judicial district system to better represent the blacks and minorities in the parish. Multiple attempts at creating legislation to break up the parish failed before the lawsuit was filed in 2014, according to a reportby the …
NEW ORLEANS — A Florida businessman’s litigation blocking World Trade Center development appears to be headed to the Louisiana Supreme Court, but the winning bidder’s spokesman has claimed validation in a recent appeals-court decision. “Today’s unanimous and strongly worded 4th Circuit ruling validates our contention that the plaintiff has no legitimate legal case and that this transformational …
A class-action lawsuit filed against Louisiana’s public-defense department this week alleges officials continue to systematically deny indigent citizens proper access to public defenders, according to a news release. The state’s most at-risk communities are incapacitated in the criminal-justice system, civil-rights organizations allege, as officials fail to establish a practical …
A lawsuit filed Monday in Louisiana alleges the state is negligent in guaranteeing Constitutional rights of poor people by not properly funding or maintaining the public defender system. The Southern Poverty Law Center, the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and two other law firms filed a class action suit Monday in Baton Rouge against Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards …
A federal judge in Baton Rouge this week expressed sympathy for the funding plight of New Orleans’ public defenders, but dismissed a lawsuit brought against the office by the American Civil Liberties Union that hoped to force the state to rectify budget inadequacies for indigent defense under court order. U.S. District Judge James J. Brady of the Middle District of Louisiana ruled Tuesday (Jan. …