Friday Links

The Richmond Times Dispatch reports on a recent Plaintiff dropping his tobacco lawsuit against Phillip Morris in exchange for a mere $1,000 settlement. “Plaintiffs who bring such flawed cases need to consider the risk of having to pay the company’s legal fees and costs if they lose at trial,” said Murray Garnick, the senior vice president and associate general counsel of Altria Group, Inc., the parent company of Phillip Morris, according to the report. “The company is committed to trying to recover the fees and costs it incurs in defending these cases, as Florida law allows,” Garnick went on to say. (1/13/10).

Bad Lawyer NYC editorializes on a January 9 report from The Missoulian which reported that a Montana district judge denied “a motion by attorneys for Louisville Slugger to throw out a verdict that found the baseball bat company liable for the 2003 death of a baseball player during a game in Helena.” According to the news report, after the player died upon being struck by a baseball which was hit by an alumnium bat, “[his] parents sued the company in 2006, alleging that an “unreasonably dangerous” metal bat caused his death and Louisville Slugger failed to warn of the dangers.” Bad Lawyer NYC, who professes to ordinarily be sympathetic to Plaintiff’s claims, expresses his skepticism at the ruling. (1/11/10).

The California Punitive Damages Blog reports that the People’s Republic of China has now authorized punitive damages in products liability lawsuits. (1/11/10).