Technology is one of the fastest growing niches in Alabama's law business. Almost all of the largest firms in the state have aggressively grown divisions catering to the needs of high-tech companies.

Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C. is pleased to announce that Clay Barnett has become an associate with the firm.

The N.C. Supreme Court ruled that families of four of the eight inmates who died in the 2002 Mitchell County jail fire and one survivor can sue the state for negligence.

Families of inmates who died while locked in their cells during a fire at the Mitchell County jail cheered a decision by the state's highest court that lets their lawsuit go forward.

Clay is the newest member of our Consumer Fraud section. His will focus on Average Wholesale Pricing (AWP) litigation brought by the State of Alabama against seventy-three influential pharmaceutical companies.

Testimony is scheduled to continue today in civil proceeds in Dallas County Circuit Court where a Dallas County man is seeking damages against Honda American Motors because of a one-vehicle accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down.

The Autauga County Board of Education and the parents of six children who were touched improperly by a former substitute teacher have reached an agreement in a personal injury lawsuit against the school board.

Plaintiffs' trial attorneys are taking on a new challenge: representing state attorneys general, health insurance plans and consumer groups in complex pharmaceutical pricing class-action suits.

Today's ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court simply says that the state cannot try the cases against all defendants in one trial or a series of trials involving multiple defendants. We will now ask the trial judge to consolidate groups of cases for trial under Rule 42 (a) of the Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure.

Judge Eldon E. Fallon, presiding judge over the federal Vioxx consolidated proceedings, In re Vioxx Products Liability Litigation MDL (No. 1657), ordered a new trial today in Evelyn Irvin Plunkett v. Merck & Co. Judge Fallon, a United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana, found that there was clear and convincing evidence that during the second trial of the Irvin case, Merck's expert cardiologist, Dr. Barry Rayburn, misrepresented his qualifications to the Court and to the jury.