Settled: BP and the plaintiffs in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill case have agreed to a settlement that the oil company estimates will be $7.8 billion, The Times-Picayune reports. "This settlement will provide a full measure of compensation to hundreds of thousands – in a transparent and expeditious manner under rigorous judicial oversight," Stephen Herman and James Roy, the lead lawyers for the plaintiffs, said in a statement. "It does the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people."
Romney Win: Presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Saturday won the Washington Republican caucuses, seattlepi.com reports. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Romney secured 38 percent of the vote, Ron Paul had 25 percent and Rick Santorum took in 24 percent.
Car War: Toyota Motor Corp. is lashing out at CNN after the news network reported it had a document that revealed the Japanese car company found an electronics malfunction that brought unintended and sudden acceleration in a preproduction Lexus, Corporate Counsel reports. Toyota said in a statement that CNN “irresponsibly” aired a “grossly inaccurate” story, criticizing the news network's English translation of the Japanese document and understanding of the Lexus testing. The car manufacturer said the test was “intentionally designed to artificially simulate a failed accelerator pedal sensor.” CNN has aired Toyota's response to its report and commissioned two more independent translations that essentially affirmed the first.
Disparities: Sentences for similar crimes given out during the past five years by federal judges are widely disparate, The Associated Press reports. "I think judges try to be bound by the facts, bound by the jury and bound by the law," said Russell Wheeler, a former deputy director of the Federal Judicial Center. "Sentencing is the one area where the law doesn't constrain them very much."
Hourly Rate: The hourly rate is on the rebound among U.S. legal professionals, according to the Daily Report. The Fulton County, Ga., legal news publication has collected more than 37,000 rates from more than 25,000 legal sector workers in 42 states and 40 countries during the past six years. The Daily Report's data can be searched here.
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