Stetson University College of Law awarded its prestigious Cornerstone Award to DBJ partner Scott Bethune during its regional Educating Advocates Teaching Advocacy Skills conference on Dec. 7 at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

In a press release issued on February 27, 2019, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced that the probable cause of a fatal 2017 explosion in Millersville, Pennsylvania, was a faulty gas connection that allowed natural gas to leak into a single-family residence.

The United States Supreme Court recently held that payments to an injured employee for lost wages are taxable compensation under the Railroad Retirement Tax Act (RRTA) (High Court Calls Lost Wages Taxable in 7-2 Railway Ruling). The Court ruled 7-2 in favor of the railroad in BNSF Railway Company v. Loos, allowing the withholding of part of the employee’s lost wages to cover RRTA taxes.

Although the NTSB is fulfilling part of its duties by investigating these railroad accidents and issuing safety recommendations, it is long past time to require more proactive measures from the railroads themselves. The railroad industry’s focus on maximizing its own profits should not stop the NTSB from requiring them to install Positive Train Control on all of its trains.

As a result of the settlement, residents can recover compensation for property damage and disruption of their lives, and businesses can be reimbursed for lost income and inventory. NiSource claims to have spent over $1 billion in response to the disaster.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recently updated the list of safety recommendations from its 2019-2020 Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements.

When a person dies from the willful malice or negligence of another, the survivors may bring a wrongful death lawsuit against the perpetrator. The type of claim can be made regardless of whether or not the person is charged with any criminal act.

Along with two accomplices, the landlord has been charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide for setting up an illegal gas line that caused the 2015 explosion that killed two people and injured 13 others.

Only a few attorneys from each state are selected to Super Lawyers designation for any given year, and this year DBJ's own Grant L. Davis has again been selected as a Top Rated Personal Injury Attorney in Kansas City, MO.

A number of court cases have resulted in multimillion-dollar verdicts in favor of plaintiffs who claimed their use of Roundup, a weedkiller sold at hardware and home-improvement stores across the country, gave them cancer. However, a recent New York Times article noted that many Americans, especially farmers, continue to use the product.

Grant L. Davis has been recognized in The Best Lawyers in America since 2001.

The North Carolina Department of Labor (NCDOL) recently levied fines totaling $21,200 against PSNC Energy (PSNC) and two of its subcontractors for their actions resulting in a fatal gas-line explosion in downtown Durham last April. If you have been injured in a natural gas explosion, it is crucial that you hire an experienced attorney to protect your rights.

Blocked railroad crossings present a variety of potential safety hazards, especially in locations where the tracks are frequently obstructed for lengthy time periods. Due to blocked crossings, pedestrians may attempt to squeeze between railcars stopped on the tracks. In addition, blocked crossings create many other inconveniences for people in the surrounding community, including causing roadway congestion and making people late for work, school, and appointments.

A recent article in Bloomberg News suggested that Bayer may be close to settling over 75,000 cancer claims resulting from its sales of Roundup weed-killer after the number of claims nearly doubled since September 2019 (Bayer Roundup Deal Is Close as Claims Surge, Mediator Says). Court-appointed mediator Ken Feinberg said that he is “cautiously optimistic” a comprehensive deal will be reached within the next month.

Circuit Court Judge Elizabeth Hogan recently announced the indefinite postponement of the ongoing Roundup cancer trial in St. Louis. The postponement news has fueled speculation that Bayer may be close to reaching a global settlement of the tens of thousands of similar Roundup cases being pursued around the world.

Davis, Bethune & Jones founding member Grant L. Davis recently received an offer to join the prestigious Inner Circle of Advocates, an invitation-only group of the best plaintiff lawyers in the country. For nearly 50 years, the Inner Circle of Advocates has upheld a mission “to promote the highest standards of courtroom competence and the mutual fellowship and exchange of knowledge among outstanding trial lawyers.” Invitations to the Inner Circle are awarded to plaintiff attorneys who have demonstrated outstanding performance and success in the courtroom.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Bayer AG has tentatively reached an agreement on settlement terms with six law firms that represent tens of thousands of plaintiffs allegedly damaged by the use of Roundup weed killer (Bayer Advances Toward Resolving Roundup Litigation). According to sources familiar with the matter, the litigation is moving closer to a final resolution.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recently issued its final report regarding the 2017 death of a railroad roadway worker who was struck and killed by a train in Queens Village, New York.

The United States government recently announced a plan to send almost 100 million cloth facial coverings for passenger use to the aviation, transit, and passenger rail transportation sectors (Federal Government to Distribute Nearly 100 Million Cloth Facial Coverings for Transportation Passengers). Approximately 86.8 million face coverings will be disbursed to airports, while 9.6 million will be allocated to 458 transit agencies and Amtrak.

German chemical and pharmaceutical giant Bayer recently agreed to pay over $10 billion to settle tens of thousands of claims that its weed killer Roundup caused cancer (Roundup Maker to Pay $10 Billion to Settle Cancer Suits). The deal is one of the largest legal settlements in United States history, involving agreements with 25 different law firms for widely varying amounts. “It’s rare that we see a consensual settlement with that many zeros on it,” said Stanford University Law School professor Nora Freeman Engstrom.