Category Archives: Settlements

A top-down view of wine bottles stored in a honeycomb-style wine rack, with each bottle placed in a separate hexagonal compartment. The rack is made of reddish-brown material, and the bottles vary in color and label.

Not-So-Vintage Wines

Racking up value

Oenophiles have long appreciated the finest of wines under the assumption that the wines were indeed the rarest among vintage collections. However, the distribution of counterfeit bottles has become increasingly common among wine auction houses. One particularly famous oenophile is now attempting to bring more awareness to these fraudulent practices. William Koch – a wealthy wine connoisseur and member of the well-known Koch family – has spent approximately “$25 million of his own money to shine a light on frauds in the business” (CBS, 2013).

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Unusual Chemical Weapons Case Heard By Supreme Court

Poisonous situation

Earlier this month the Supreme Court heard arguments in an unusual case arising from a criminal prosecution concerning a woman who tried to poison her best friend and was later convicted of a federal crime for her actions. The case is a test of whether the federal government can use treaties as a basis to prosecute Americans, something that the justices appeared to be skeptical of. The origins of this case go back to 1998 when the government passed a law that banned the use of chemical weapons for anything other than a “peaceful purpose.” The law was derived from a treaty signed in 1993, which represented an international agreement on the subject. The goal of the accord was to prevent terrorist groups from getting their hands on weapons of mass destruction, arguably not to target spurned microbiologists. Read more

Lawsuit Filed on Behalf of Four NYC Chimpanzees

Quit monkeying around

An activist group in New York recently filed a lawsuit on behalf of four chimpanzees currently living in captivity in various locations around the state. The suit is asking the courts to realize that these complex animals deserve “the right to bodily liberty” as any human has. Steven M. Wise, founder and president of the Nonhuman Rights Project states, “When we go to court on behalf of the first chimpanzee plaintiffs, we’ll be asking judges to recognize, for the first time, that these cognitively complex, autonomous beings have the basic legal right to not be imprisoned”. The group will be taking the stand in court for chimps Tommy, Kiko, Hercules, and Leo who are being wrongfully caged by their owners. They state that this will be the first of many lawsuits across the country fighting for the rights of captive creatures.

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Record Medical Device Settlement

Johnson & Johnson’s Fourth Quarter Earnings May Need a Resuscitation.

November has been a month to forget for global pharmaceutical medical device giant Johnson & Johnson. The giant has agreed to settle the ongoing lawsuits centered on their recalled hip implants.

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MRI Machines Find Themselves Playing Prominent Role In Some Criminal Cases

Caution

In a strange development in the criminal defense world, experts say that brain scans and other scientific data is increasingly being used in criminal trials, with defense attorneys citing MRIs as proof that their clients ought to be set free or at the least receive special considerations.

Experts familiar with the matter say that lawyers have begun turning to scientific studies, as a criminal defense strategy, to minimize the extent to which their clients ought to be held responsible or punished for certain crimes. Some estimate that as many as five percent of all murder cases now include neuroscience evidence, a surprising development that has exploded in the last few years. Read more