Hoosier students freed from school debt in multistate settlement
More than 195,000 students will not have to pay their school debt after a national settlement agreement between Career Education Corporation and 49 states, including Indiana.
Settlement
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Indiana gets share of $575 million Wells Fargo settlement
Indiana is set to receive $5.2 million of a $575 million nationwide legal settlement with one of the country’s largest banks. All 50 states and the District of Columbia signed on to the settlement.
Portage to pay $10K in police dog’s killing of dog
The city of Portage has agreed to pay $10,000 to the owners of a dog killed by a police dog that escaped from its handler. The dog, Bandit, was killed after a Portage police officer lost her grip on her Belgian Malinois police dog, Nyx's, leash during Portage’s Sept. 15 Bacon Fest.
Records: $50K settled officer racial discrimination lawsuit
Records show a former West Terre Haute police officer who appealed his firing has accepted $50,000 to settle a 2015 federal lawsuit alleging racial discrimination. Jonathan Stevens, who is black, signed an agreement in January 2017 to resolve the complaint he’d filed alleging the West Terre Haute Town Council and police chief conspired not to hire him because they allegedly said they didn’t want “his kind” working for the town.
Indiana man gets $47K in excessive force lawsuit
A man who alleged that a Gary police officer attacked him during a traffic stop because he was having an affair with the officer's wife has reached a settlement with the city.
Indy firm leads team winning $25M Missouri telecom settlement
A seven-year court battle between Missouri landowners and a telecom company that strung fiber-optic cable across 796 miles of private property without permission or compensation has concluded with a $25 million settlement negotiated by a legal team led by an Indianapolis law firm.
AG’s office secures $5.1 million dental clinic settlement
The Indiana Attorney General’s Office has helped secure a $5.1 million settlement with two dental firms accused of improperly billing Indiana Medicaid for unperformed or unnecessary dental services. The settlement, reached in conjunction with U.S. Attorney Russell M. Coleman in the Western District of Kentucky, resolves claims that ImmediaDent of Indiana LLC improperly billed Indiana Medicaid for dental services in its nine dental practices in Indiana.
Southern District ruling makes declawing big cats illegal
A first-of-its-kind federal order has officially held that the process of declawing large exotic cats is illegal and in a violation of the Endangered Species Act and has prohibited a Charlestown veterinarian from providing any care to such exotic cats.
Justices weigh $8.5M settlement with $0 to 129M Google users
The Supreme Court struggled Wednesday over what to do about an $8.5 million class-action settlement involving Google and privacy concerns in which all the money went to lawyers and nonprofit groups, but nothing was paid to 129 million people who used Google to perform internet searches.
Splenda maker settles trademark lawsuit against IHOP, Applebee’s franchisor
The Carmel-based maker of Splenda sweetener has settled a legal dispute with the franchisor of International House of Pancakes and Applebee’s, which it sued last year for trademark infringement.
Anthem to pay record settlement after 2015 data breach
The nation's second-largest health insurer has agreed to pay the government a record $16 million to settle potential privacy violations in the biggest known health care hack in U.S. history, officials said Monday. The personal information of nearly 79 million people was exposed in the cyberattack, discovered by Anthem Inc. in 2015.
Firms cite 1851 law in Missouri boat accident, seek mediation
Two companies facing multiple lawsuits over a summer tourist boat accident in Missouri that killed 17 people have invoked an 1851 law that allows vessel owners to try to avoid or limit legal damages as they also seek settlement negotiations with victims’ family members. But Tia Coleman, an Indianapolis woman who survived the accident, and lawyers for others whose family members died denounced the filing as callous and insulting.
Lake County paying $185K to settle sexual harassment lawsuit
Lake County has agreed to pay $185,000 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against the northwestern Indiana county’s recorder. Taxpayers will finance the payment to Estela Montalvo, the former part-time recorder’s office employee who sued recorder Michael B. Brown and the county in federal court last year, alleging sexual harassment.
Indiana Uber drivers to receive $100 each from settlement
Attorney General Curtis Hill said Indiana will receive nearly $1.5 million of the $148 million Uber has agreed to pay to states after the ride-hailing company failed for a year to notify drivers that hackers had stolen their personal information.
Attorney: Settlement reached in Indiana van crash lawsuits
A settlement has been reached in lawsuits filed after a rollover crash on a southwestern Indiana freeway killed two Haitian immigrants and injured 20 others. The suits were filed after a van carrying Christela Georges, 60-year-old Gena Moise and other workers crashed in 2015 on Interstate 69 near Evansville.
FedEx drivers get tentative $13.3M ERISA settlement
A proposed workplace-benefits settlement of more than $13.3 million for Federal Express drivers who were wrongly classified as contractors rather than employees has been approved by an Indiana federal judge overseeing a nationwide docket of employment suits against the delivery service.
Ball State settles free speech suit with campus pro-life group
Ball State University has agreed to pay more than $12,000 and to revise its student activity fund allocation guidelines as part of a settlement with a pro-life student organization that sued the school earlier this summer for alleged free speech and equal protection violations.
Anthem data breach judge OKs huge fee award, but not as much as attorneys wanted
A federal judge late last week awarded plaintiffs’ lawyers $31.05 million in legal feels in the Anthem Inc. data breach case, ending a months-long dispute over how much they deserved for striking the $115 million settlement last year. The fees were less than the $38 million the attorneys originally had requested.
Fort Wayne settles suit challenging amplified-noise statute
Indiana’s second-largest city has settled a federal lawsuit that challenged a portion of its ordinance regulating amplified noises. Court documents filed Tuesday show the city of Fort Wayne has agreed to an injunction permanently barring it from enforcing a provision that “prohibits amplified sound, including speech, that can be heard more than 50 feet from the source.”
Settlement reached in state police handcuffing of black teen
Louisiana State Police and a black Indiana man who was handcuffed and detained in New Orleans' French Quarter when he was a teenager in 2015 have settled a federal lawsuit. Terms of the settlement with the son of a Ball State University professor were not immediately disclosed.