At first glance, “tort” may sound like a strange word, but it is an essential term to understand in the legal space. In the legal realm, a “tort” refers to any wrong or injury imposed by one person or entity onto another. A tort is classified as a civil wrong…
On August 10, 2022, a comprehensive bipartisan bill was signed into law, allowing veterans, family members, and others who lived or worked at Camp Lejeune (North Carolina) between August 1, 1953 and December 31, 1987, to recover for illnesses caused by water contamination. This includes those who have already gone…
As is well known, Louisiana is losing approximately a football field of marsh every ninety minutes. The marsh not only affords us the opportunity to hunt and fish, but it also provides the invaluable service of buffering in-land property during a hurricane. Many landowners entered into right-of-way agreements with various…
February 28, 2021, 14-year old Zalee Gail Day-Smith was killed near her home after an oil field tank battery exploded while she was hanging out with friends. Oil field tank batteries are storage sites for oil wells that are not connected to major pipelines. These large metal tanks can hold…
While thousands of cancer patients are currently involved in lawsuits against the agrochemical corporation Monsanto Company, only three have gone to trial, all of which have resulted in verdicts favoring the plaintiff. Most recently, a California jury awarded the plaintiff the eighth-largest personal injury verdict in United States history—$2.055 billion—claiming,…
The plaintiffs in an air pollution lawsuit are requesting immediate access to a landfill in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana in order to conduct environmental testing. The lawsuit is one of roughly eighty that have been filed against the parish landfill, claiming that an abundance of strong odors is making living conditions…
The Louisiana Sportsmen Coalition is in a battle with the Louisiana oil industry over rights to use coastal marshwaters for their respective enterprises. Representatives of local fisherman argue that oil companies who own nearby lands have unjustly also claimed ownership of adjacent waters that flow in and out of manmade…
A lawsuit has been filed against the St. John the Baptist Parish School Board as a result of potentially carcinogenic emissions from a nearby neoprene manufacturing plant. The plant, located in Laplace, Louisiana, is one of only a few in the country that produces polychloroprene, a solid substance used to…
On December 6, the 16th Judicial District Court in St. Mary Parish Louisiana ruled in favor of the Bayou Bridge pipeline, issuing a mere $450 punishment for trespassing in an eminent domain suit filed by three local residents. The lawsuit, filed in late July of 2018, argued that Energy Transfer,…
A neoprene-producing chemical plant is facing multiple lawsuits as a result of potential carcinogens released into the air. The Denka Performance Elastomer plant located in Laplace, Louisiana, is said to be one of the only chemical plants in the country that releases the chemical chloroprene into the air. According to…