In The News Today – January 22, 2015
“Kentucky is a haven for personal injury lawyers who run settlement-mills that wring millions of dollars from our state’s businesses and caregivers,” writes Michael C. Adams, senior counsel to the Kentucky-based Partnership for Commonsense Justice. In an op-ed pushing for legal reforms in his state, Adams cites Kentucky’s ranking of 38th in ILR’s latest Lawsuit Climate survey, as well as the ILR-commissioned study, “Creating Conditions for Economic Growth.” (Cincinnati Enquirer)
Standard & Poor’s has agreed to pay $77 million and “be barred for one year from rating commercial mortgage-backed securities” as part of a settlement with federal and state regulators who accused the rating agency of “misleading investors.” (Reuters)
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 7-2 opinion, “strengthened legal protections for government whistleblowers” in a case in which an air marshal publicly disclosed “planned cutbacks to air marshals on certain commercial flights.” The court ruled that this disclosure wasn’t specifically prohibited by law, an exception to the Whistleblower Protection Act. (National Law Journal)
