Legal Headline News 3/10/2010

Toyota owners claiming that massive safety recalls are causing the value of their vehicles to plummet have filed at least 89 class-action lawsuits that could cost the Japanese auto giant $3 billion or more.

A New York construction crane owner who got a bargain-basement repair job on a giant rig, which fell apart and killed two workers when the fix failed has been charged with manslaughter along with a company mechanic.

Legislation extending unemployment insurance for the long-term jobless now faces a key test vote in the Senate.


Lawyers are returning to court in North Carolina in a dispute over a tape purportedly showing two-time presidential candidate John Edwards in a sexual encounter.


Rapper Lil Wayne has been sentenced to a year in prison after pleading guilty to gun possession.
The charges were linked to his arrest in 2007 when a gun was found on his tour bus.

A judge has certified a class action lawsuit against computer software giant Microsoft that alleges anti-competitive wrongdoing and has the potential to be worth more than $1 billion in damages, if the legal action is successful.