1696<\b>
Insurance companies are the litigation champions confronting an average of 1,696 lawsuits, spanning from product liability and environmental class actions to directors and officers claims, and even coverage fights over hurricanes and terrorist attacks, according to a new survey of corporate litigation trends from international law firm Fulbright Jaworski LLP. In its third annual survey of corporate litigation trends — pulling data from 422 in-house law departments worldwide — Fulbright found that U.S. companies face an average of 305 pending lawsuits internationally. For large U.S. companies — those with $1 billion or more in annual gross revenue — the number of lawsuits soared to 556 cases, with an average of 50 new disputes emerging each year for close to half of them.
25 years
A skate park in North Platte, Neb., is closed until further notice because of a state Supreme Court decision about liability and insurance coverage. The Nebraska Supreme Court ruled in late September that cities could be held liable for any injuries or damages sustained in places like parks, pools, and athletic fields. The decision overturned 25 years of case law. Now cities owe the public the same level of care at recreational sites as they do at any other site owned by the city.
$217 million
The amount a Florida jury increased damages awarded to a Tampa man who was left brain-damaged and disabled after hospital emergency room doctors misdiagnosed stroke symptoms. The Hillsborough County jury added $100.1 million in punitive damages for Allan Navarro and his family after returning a verdict of nearly $116.7 million for compensatory damages a few days earlier, following testimony in a three-week civil trial. The family and their attorneys said the entire amount of punitive damages will be donated to charities to help people with spinal cord and brain injuries.
$7.3 million<\b>
The amount the American Bar Endowment, a non-profit sponsor of group insurance and charitable giving programs for the 413,000 members of the American Bar Association, has donated “improve the justice system and foster the highest ideals of the legal profession.”
1992
A court in eastern France threw out a lawsuit by families of victims of a 1992 plane crash that accused the government of dragging out prosecution of the case. After a 14-year investigation, defense aviation officials and an Airbus executive went on trial in May for manslaughter in the crash, which killed 87 people. Families say 14 years is too long to wait for justice.
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