Headlines

Twenty years ago today, June 20, 1997, the announcement of the historic Master Settlement Agreement reached between more than two dozen State Attorneys General and the nation’s largest tobacco producers was announced. Death and disease by tobacco was running out of control in our country in the 1990s. It was considered to be the largest public health issue of that time.

Firefighters are some of the bravest among us and uphold a vow to protect the public. They don’t think twice about stepping into harm’s way to save a life, whether by extinguishing a fire or intervening in other instances of distress. They are the first responders and our heroes.

A class of U.S. tax return preparers, represented by Motley Rice LLC and co-counsel, received a favorable and precedent-setting decision on June 1, 2017, when U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth struck down a Preparer Tax Identification Numbers (PTIN) fee that the Treasury Department and IRS had for years required tax preparers to pay, finding that the plaintiffs should be issued a full refund.

The Institutional Shareholder Services has released its 2016 Securities Class Action Services Top 50 Report for 2016. For being lead or co-lead in securities class action settlements, Motley Rice ranked 13 out of 50 related to “settlement total.”

The U.S. Department of Labor has alleged in a lawsuit that a popcorn manufacturer retaliated against one of its workers after she raised concerns about the safety of her work environment. She also demanded that she be allowed to take home information on how to protect herself from potentially harmful flavoring chemicals.

Shareholder activism is one important way in which shareholders can influence a corporation’s behavior by exercising their rights as owners. Shareholder activism refers to shareholders who are engaged in holding companies accountable through securities litigation.

Final approval was granted of a $1.2 billion (potentially up to $4.4 billion) settlement to resolve claims brought by owners and lessees of 3.0-liter TDI Audi, Porsche, and Volkswagen vehicles.

Mary Schiavo was featured on the cover of a recent issue of APITLA’s magazine The Lawyer’s LogBook in which she discussed the correlation between cellphone usage and an increasing number of traffic deaths recorded in recent years.

We are honored to announce that multiple Motley Rice attorneys in our South Carolina and West Virginia offices were honored as 2017 Super Lawyers® and Rising Stars.

The husband of Nida Fatin Binti Mat Asis filed a wrongful death suit, one year after metal shrapnel from a defective Takata airbag allegedly struck her during a one car accident. The accident tragically claimed her life in what otherwise should have been a minor collision with minimal injuries.