Colorado News

A Colorado jury recently determined that helmet manufacturer Riddell failed to adequately warn a former football player about the dangers of concussions, with the verdict coming mere days after company lawyers sought to have Riddell severed from a nationwide class action suit against the NFL playing out in Philadelphia.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services could face a much higher legal bill than the $5 billion sought by the federal government as more and more states join the battle against the credit-ratings firm. A raft of lawsuits this week from attorneys general from several states, including California and Iowa, is compounding S&P's legal woes over its role during the financial crisis of 2008-2009.

It's not exactly an epidemic, but a federal judge in Colorado appears to have caught Rakoff fever.

A bill that has been introduced in the legislature — Senate Bill 153, the so-called Sunshine in Litigation Act — carries the danger of severely damaging the state's business climate should it become law.

At a time when state legislators should be doing everything possible to encourage job creation, a bill working its way through the Colorado Senate unfairly paints employers as unreasonable and untrustworthy.

Gary Chodes is an investor, but it is difficult to say in what.  Chodes, who founded a Chicago-based company called Oasis Legal Finance, uses the courts like a venture capital market, advancing money to plaintiffs in lawsuits. When those lawsuits succeed with lucrative settlements or jury awards, Chodes makes his money back and then some. When they lose, he gets nothing.

Two nurses at Colorado's Aurora Medical Center say it takes enough time to get in and out of their hospital scrubs that they deserve to get paid for it. They're suing to be able to get dressed "on the clock."

Companies that advance money to plaintiffs involved in personal injury lawsuits are campaigning in state capitals for legislation making clear that their growing industry is not subject to usury limits on interest rates or other state laws that protect borrowers.