In the News Today – December 30, 2013
The gulf oil spill settlement does not require claimants to prove that their losses were caused by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill, a judge ruled last week. BP, which says the settlement process has been racked with fraudulent and inflated claims, plans to appeal the ruling. American Lawyer ($)
The Justice Department announced that it recovered $3.8 billion in False Claims Act settlements during the fiscal year that ended on September 30, 2013, the second largest amount in history. Eighty-six percent of the recovery came from cases under the law’s qui tam provisions. American Lawyer ($)
The Chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery lambasted a group of plaintiffs lawyers who negotiated a settlement to an investor lawsuit, saying the lawyers benefited more than the shareholders they represented. “The social utility of cases like this continuing to be resolved in this way is dubious,” he said. Wall Street Journal ($)
An Alien Tort Statute suit against two German companies has been dismissed in a U.S. court. The suit sought to hold the companies liable for aiding and abetting South Africa’s apartheid government. Reuters
