Maryland News

Two sets of plaintiffs in the District of Columbia and Maryland filed complaints this week in federal court against Internet juggernaut Google Inc., accusing the company of unlawfully tracking the activity of users through the Safari Web browser.

After Ada George's thyroid treatment went wrong last summer, leaving the 57-year-old mother of three brain-damaged and comatose, officials from Good Samaritan Hospital approached her family twice to apologize and offer compensation, which the Georges refused, according to court records.

As the objection notes, the class notice indicated that the attorneys would ask for 25% of the settlement fund - but their actual request would give the attorneys $2.142 million and the class $2.27 million. Why is it that class action attorneys suing for fraud are allowed to give class notice far more misleading than what they claim they should be allowed to sue for?

Exxon Mobil Corp. said it hopes to overturn on appeal a verdict that included $1.5 billion in damages handed up by a Maryland jury this week for an underground gasoline leak that contaminated local drinking water. Lawyers who handle similar cases were stunned by the size of the verdict and said it likely will be reduced on appeal.